¹And the spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded. ²And he went out to see Asa, and he said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him, and if you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ³Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a priestly teacher, and without the law, ⁴but when they were in straits, they returned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought him, and he was found by them. ⁵But in those times there was no peace to anyone going about their business because there was much turmoil over all the inhabitants of the various countries. ⁶And nation was routed by nation, and city by city, for God so motivated them with all adversity. ⁷So you be strong, and do not let your hands droop, because there is a reward for your labour.” ⁸And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy – Oded being the prophet – he took courage and removed the abominations from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities which he had taken in the mountainous country of Ephraim, and he renewed the altar of the Lord which was in front of the Lord's portico. ⁹And he gathered the whole of Judah and Benjamin and those temporarily resident with them from Ephraim and Manasseh, and from Simeon, for they flocked to him from Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. ¹⁰And they gathered in Jerusalem in the third month in the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. ¹¹And they sacrificed to the Lord on that day – they brought from the spoil seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. ¹²And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. ¹³And everyone who would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. ¹⁴And they swore to the Lord in a loud voice, and with a shout, and with trumpets and with ramshorns. ¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, because they swore wholeheartedly, and they sought him with all their will, and he was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all round. ¹⁶And as for Maachah too, King Asa's mother, he excluded her from being queen mother, because she had made a monstrosity for the phallic park. And Asa cut her monstrosity down and pulverized it and burnt it at the Kidron Brook. ¹⁷But the idolatrous raised sites were not removed from Israel, yet Asa's heart was sincere all his days. ¹⁸And he brought his father's holy articles, and his own holy articles, to the house of God – silver and gold and equipment. ¹⁹And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.