2 Chronicles 14-15

Contemporary English Version

King Asa of Judah

14 Abijah died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became king, and Judah had ten years of peace.

² Asa obeyed the Lord his God and did right. ³ He destroyed the local shrines^[a] and the altars to foreign gods. He smashed the stone images of gods and cut down the sacred poles^[b] used in worshiping the goddess Asherah. ⁴ Then he told everyone in Judah to worship the Lord God, just as their ancestors had done, and to obey his laws and teachings. ⁵ He destroyed every local shrine and incense altar in Judah.

⁶ The Lord blessed Judah with peace while Asa was king, and so during that time, Asa fortified many of the towns. ⁷ He said to the people, “Let's build walls and defense towers for these towns, and put in gates that can be locked with bars. This land still belongs to us, because we have obeyed the Lord our God. He has given us peace from all our enemies.” The people did everything Asa had suggested.

⁸ Asa had a large army of brave soldiers: 300,000 of them were from the tribe of Judah and were armed with shields and spears; 280,000 were from Benjamin and were armed with shields and bows.

Judah Defeats Ethiopia's Army

⁹ Zerah from Ethiopia^[c] led an army of 1,000,000 soldiers and 300 chariots to the town of Mareshah^[d] in Judah. ¹⁰ Asa met him there, and the two armies prepared for battle in Zephathah Valley.

¹¹ Asa prayed:

Lord God, only you can help a powerless army defeat a stronger one. So we depend on you to help us. We will fight against this powerful army to honor your name, and we know that you won't be defeated. You are the Lord our God.

¹² The Lord helped Asa and his army defeat the Ethiopians. The enemy soldiers ran away, ¹³ but Asa and his troops chased them as far as Gerar. It was a total defeat—the Ethiopians could not even fight back!^[e]

The soldiers from Judah took everything that had belonged to the Ethiopians. ¹⁴ The people who lived in the villages around Gerar learned what had happened and were afraid of the Lord. So Judah's army easily defeated them and carried off everything of value that they wanted from these towns. ¹⁵ They also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took a lot of sheep, goats, and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Asa Destroys the Idols in Judah

15 Some time later, God spoke to Azariah son of Oded. ² At once, Azariah went to Asa and said:

Listen to me, King Asa and you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will be with you and help you, as long as you obey and worship him. But if you disobey him, he will desert you.

³ For a long time, the people of Israel did not worship the true God or listen to priests who could teach them about God. They refused to obey God's Law. ⁴ But whenever trouble came, Israel turned back to the Lord their God and worshiped him.

⁵ There was so much confusion in those days that it wasn't safe to go anywhere in Israel. ⁶ Nations were destroying each other, and cities were wiping out other cities, because God was causing trouble and unrest everywhere.

⁷ So you must be brave. Don't give up! God will honor you for obeying him.

⁸ As soon as Asa heard what Azariah the prophet said, he gave orders for all the idols in Judah and Benjamin to be destroyed, including those in the towns he had captured in the territory of Ephraim. He also repaired the Lord's altar that was in front of the temple porch.

⁹ Asa called together the people from Judah and Benjamin, as well as the people from the territories of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many of these people were now loyal to Asa, because they had seen that the Lord was with him.

¹⁰ In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's rule, they all met in Jerusalem. ¹¹ That same day, they took 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep and goats from what they had brought back from Gerar and sacrificed them as offerings to the Lord. ¹² They made a solemn promise to faithfully worship the Lord God their ancestors had worshiped, ¹³ and to put to death anyone who refused to obey him. ¹⁴ The crowd solemnly agreed to keep their promise to the Lord, then they celebrated by shouting and blowing trumpets and horns. ¹⁵ Everyone was happy because they had made this solemn promise, and in return, the Lord blessed them with peace from all their enemies.

¹⁶ Asa's grandmother Maacah had made a disgusting idol of the goddess Asherah, so he cut it down, crushed it, and burned it in Kidron Valley. Then he removed Maacah from her position as queen mother.^{[f] 17} As long as Asa lived, he was faithful to the Lord, even though he did not destroy the local shrines^[g] in Israel. ¹⁸ He placed in the temple all the silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated to God.

¹⁹ There was peace in Judah until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's rule.