Read the Bible

¹ AND the Spirit of the LORD came upon Azariah the son of Azor;² And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you for ever and ever; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.³ Now for a long time Israel has not served their God in truth and has not accepted the teaching of their priests and would not obey their laws; therefore they were delivered into the hand of their enemies.⁴ But when in their distress they prayed to the LORD God of Israel and sought him, he was found by them.⁵ And in those early times when we did not worship our God, there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in. because of great misfortune that came upon all the inhabitants of the land.⁶ And we were scattered in every nation and people, and in towns and cities,⁷ Because we had forsaken our God and would not listen to the voice of his servants, the prophets; so he rewarded us according to our works.

⁸ And when Asa heard these words of Azariah the son of Azor the prophet, he took courage and removed the idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the land of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in the front of the porch of the LORD.⁹ And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the proselytes with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh and out of Simeon; for they gathered together and came to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.¹⁰ So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.¹¹ And the same day they offered to the LORD of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and six thousand sheep.¹² And they entered into a covenant to pray to the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;¹³ And that whosoever would not pray to the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.¹⁴ And they swore to the LORD with a loud voice, and with sounding of curved and straight trumpets.¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced at this report which they heard; for they sought him with all their heart and prayed to him with all their soul; and he was found by them, and he delivered them from all their enemies round about.¹⁶ And also Maachah the mother of Asa he removed from being queen mother, because she had a feast to her idols; and Asa cut down her idols and burned them at the brook Kidron.¹⁷ But the altars on the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect in the worship of the LORD his God all the days of his life.¹⁸ And he brought into the house of the LORD the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels.¹⁹ And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.