Abijah, King of Judah

13 Abijah became the new king of Judah. This was during the 18th year that Jeroboam son of Nebat ruled Israel. ² Abijah ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah. She was the daughter of Uriel, from the town of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah’s army had 400,000 brave soldiers. Abijah led that army into battle. Jeroboam’s army had 800,000 brave soldiers. Jeroboam got ready to have a war with Abijah.

⁴ Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! ⁵ You should know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave David and his sons the right to be king over Israel forever. God gave this right to David with an agreement of salt.^{[a] 6} But Jeroboam turned against his master. Jeroboam son of Nebat was one of the servants of David’s son Solomon. ⁷ Then worthless, evil men became friends with Jeroboam. Then Jeroboam and the bad men turned against Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Rehoboam was young and did not have experience. So he could not stop Jeroboam and his bad friends.

⁸ “Now, you people have decided to defeat the Lord’s kingdom—the kingdom that is ruled by David’s sons. You have so many people with you and you have the golden calves—the ‘gods’ that Jeroboam made for you. ⁹ You threw out the Lord’s priests, the descendants of Aaron. And you threw out the Levites. Then you chose your own priests, as every other nation on earth does. And now, anyone who will bring a young bull and seven rams can become a priest to serve these ‘no-gods.’

¹⁰ “But as for us, the Lord is our God. We people of Judah have not refused to obey God. We have not left him. The priests who serve the Lord are Aaron’s sons, and the Levites help the priests in their work. ¹¹ They offer burnt offerings and burn incense of spices to the Lord every morning and every evening. They put the bread in rows on the special table in the Temple. And they take care of the lamps on the golden lampstand so that it shines bright each and every evening. We very carefully serve the Lord our God, but you people have abandoned him. ¹² God himself is with us. He is our ruler, and his priests are with us. God’s priests blow his trumpets to wake you up and make you excited about coming to him. Men of Israel, don’t fight against the Lord, God of your ancestors, because you will not succeed!”

¹³ But Jeroboam sent a group of soldiers to sneak behind Abijah’s army. Jeroboam’s army was in front of Abijah’s army. The hidden soldiers from Jeroboam’s army were behind Abijah’s army. ¹⁴ When the soldiers in Abijah’s army from Judah looked around, they saw Jeroboam’s army attacking both in front and in back.^[b] The men of Judah shouted out to the Lord and the priests blew the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men in Abijah’s army shouted. When the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam’s army. Jeroboam’s whole army from Israel was defeated by Abijah’s army from Judah. ¹⁶ The men of Israel ran away from the men of Judah. God let the army from Judah defeat the army from Israel. ¹⁷ Abijah’s army greatly defeated the army of Israel, and 500,000 of the best men of Israel were killed. ¹⁸ So at that time the Israelites were defeated, and the people of Judah won. The army from Judah won because they depended on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ Abijah’s army chased Jeroboam’s army, and they captured the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron from Jeroboam. They captured the towns and the small villages near them.

²⁰ Jeroboam never became strong again while Abijah lived. The Lord killed Jeroboam, ²¹ but Abijah became strong. He married 14 women and was the father of 22 sons and 16 daughters. ²² Everything else Abijah did is written in the books of the prophet Iddo.

14 When Abijah died, they buried him in the City of David. Abijah’s son Asa became the new king after him. There was peace in the country for ten years in Asa’s time.

Asa, King of Judah

² Asa did what the Lord his God said was good and right. ³ He took away the altars of the foreigners and the high places. He also smashed the memorial stones and cut down the Asherah poles. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to follow the Lord, the God their ancestors had worshiped, and to obey his laws and commands. ⁵ He also removed all the high places and incense altars from all the towns in Judah. So the kingdom had peace when Asa was king. ⁶ Asa built strong cities in Judah while there was peace in Judah. He had no war in these years because the Lord gave him peace.

⁷ Asa said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these towns and make walls around them. Let’s make towers, gates, and bars in the gates. Let’s do this while we still live in this country. This country is ours because we have followed the Lord our God. He has given us peace all around us.” So they built and had success.

⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from the tribe of Judah and 280,000 men from the tribe of Benjamin. The men from Judah carried large shields and spears. The men from Benjamin carried small shields and shot arrows from bows. All of them were strong and brave soldiers.

⁹ Then Zerah from Ethiopia^[c] came out against Asa’s army. He had 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots in his army. His army went as far as the town of Mareshah. ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight against Zerah. Asa’s army got ready for battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹ Asa called out to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, only you can help weak people against those who are strong! Help us, Lord our God! We depend on you. We fight against this large army in your name. Lord, you are our God! Don’t let anyone defeat you!”

¹² Then the Lord used Asa’s army from Judah to defeat the Ethiopian army. And the army ran away. ¹³ Asa’s army chased the Ethiopian army all the way to the town of Gerar. So many Ethiopians were killed that they could not get together as an army to fight again. They were crushed by the Lord and his army. Asa and his army carried many valuable things away from the enemy. ¹⁴ Asa and his army defeated all the towns near Gerar. The people living in those towns were afraid of the Lord. Those towns had very many valuable things. Asa’s army took those valuable things away from those towns. ¹⁵ His army also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took many sheep and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Asa’s Changes

15 The Spirit of God came on Azariah, who was Obed’s son. ² Azariah went to meet Asa and said, “Listen to me, Asa and all you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you look for him, you will find him. But if you leave him, he will leave you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God. And they were without a teaching priest, and without the law. ⁴ But when the Israelites had trouble, they turned again to the Lord, the God of Israel. They looked for him and found him. ⁵ In those times of trouble, no one could travel safely. There was great trouble in all the nations. ⁶ One nation would destroy another nation and one city would destroy another city. This was happening because God gave them all kinds of trouble. ⁷ But Asa, you and the people of Judah and Benjamin, be strong. Don’t be weak and don’t give up, because you will get a reward for your good work!”

⁸ Asa felt encouraged when he heard these words and the message from Obed the prophet. Then he removed the hated idols from the whole area of Judah and Benjamin. He also removed the hated idols from the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. And he repaired the Lord’s altar that was in front of the porch of the Lord’s Temple.

⁹ Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and the people from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had moved from the country of Israel to live in the country of Judah. A great many of these people came to Judah because they saw that the Lord, Asa’s God, was with him.

¹⁰ Asa and these people gathered together in Jerusalem on the third month in the 15th year of Asa’s rule. ¹¹ At that time they sacrificed 700 bulls and 7000 sheep and goats to the Lord. Asa’s army had taken the animals and other valuable things from their enemies. ¹² Then they made an agreement to serve the Lord God with all their heart and with all their soul. He is the God their ancestors served. ¹³ Anyone who refused to serve the Lord God was to be killed. It did not matter if that person was important or not or if that person was a man or woman. ¹⁴ Then Asa and the people made an oath to the Lord. They shouted it out loudly and blew their trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵ All the people of Judah were happy about the oath, because they had promised with all their heart. They followed God with all their heart. They looked for God and found him, so the Lord gave them peace in all the country.

¹⁶ King Asa also removed Maacah, his mother, from being queen mother. He did this because she had set up one of those awful poles to honor the goddess Asherah. Asa cut down that Asherah pole, smashed it into small pieces, and burned the pieces in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Asa did not destroy the high places, even though he was faithful to God all his life.

¹⁸ Asa and his father had given some special gifts to God. Asa put these gifts of gold, silver, and other things into the Temple. ¹⁹ There was no more war until the 35th year of Asa’s rule.^[d]

Asa’s Last Years

16 In Asa’s 36th year as king,^[e] Baasha attacked Judah and then built up the city of Ramah to keep Asa from leaving Judah on any kind of military campaign. ² So Asa took gold and silver from the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple and the king’s palace. He gave it to his officials and sent them to King Ben-Hadad of Aram. Ben-Hadad was the son of Tabrimmon. Tabrimmon was the son of Hezion. Damascus was Ben-Hadad’s capital city. ³ Asa sent this message: “My father and your father had a peace agreement. Now I want to make a peace agreement with you. I am sending you this gift of gold and silver. Please break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel and make him leave us alone.”

⁴ King Ben-Hadad made that agreement with King Asa and sent his army to fight against the Israelite towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and the storage cities in the area of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard about these attacks, he stopped building up Ramah and went back to Tirzah. He stopped all the work he was doing. ⁶ Then King Asa gave an order for all the men in Judah, with no exceptions. They had to go to Ramah and carry out all the stone and wood that Baasha was using to build up the city. They carried the material to Geba in Benjamin and to Mizpah and used it to strengthen those two cities.

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Asa, you depended on the king of Aram to help you and not the Lord your God. That’s why the king’s army has escaped from you. ⁸ Did you forget what happened with the Ethiopians and the Libyans who also had a powerful army with many chariots and horse soldiers? That time you depended on the Lord to help you, and he let you defeat them. ⁹ The eyes of the Lord go around looking in all the earth for people who are faithful to him so that he can make them strong. Asa, you did a foolish thing. So from now on you will have wars.”

¹⁰ Asa was angry with Hanani because of what he said. He was so mad that he put Hanani in prison. He was also very rough and cruel to some of the people then.

¹¹ Everything Asa did, from the beginning to the end, is written in the book, The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² Asa’s feet became infected in his 39th year as king.^[f] Even though the infection was very serious, Asa did not go to the Lord for help. He went to the doctors instead. ¹³ Asa died in the 41st year as king^[g] and rested with his ancestors. ¹⁴ The people buried Asa in his own tomb that he made for himself in the City of David. They laid him in a bed that was filled with spices and different kinds of mixed perfumes, and they burned a large fire for him.^[h]