1And the Spirit of Elohim came upon Azaryahu son of Oḏĕḏ.

2And he went out to face Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Yehuḏah and Binyamin. יהוה is with you while you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He is found by you, but if you forsake Him, He forsakes you.

3“And for many days Yisra’ĕl has been without the true Elohim, and without a Torah priest, and without Torah.

4“But in their distress they turned to יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, and they sought Him, and He was found by them.

5“And in those days there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, for great disturbances were on all the inhabitants of the lands,

6and they were beaten down, nation by nation, and city by city, for Elohim troubled them with every distress.

7“But you, be strong and do not let your hands be feeble, for there is a reward for your work!”

8And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oḏĕḏ the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominations from all the land of Yehuḏah and Binyamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephrayim, and restored the altar of יהוה that was before the porch of יהוה,

9and gathered all Yehuḏah and Binyamin, and those who sojourned with them from Ephrayim, and Menashsheh, and Shim‛on, for they came over to him in great numbers from Yisra’ĕl when they saw that יהוה his Elohim was with him.

10And they gathered together at Yerushalayim in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa,

11and offered to יהוה on that day seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil which they had brought.

12And they entered into a covenant to seek יהוה Elohim of their fathers with all their heart and with all their being;

13and whoever would not seek יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl would be put to death, from small to great, from man to woman.

14And they swore to יהוה with a loud voice, with shouting and with trumpets and with rams’ horns.

15And all Yehuḏah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their being. And He was found by them, and יהוה gave them rest all around.

16And he also removed Ma‛aḵah, the mother of Asa the sovereign, from being sovereigness mother, because she had made an abominable image of Ashĕrah. And Asa cut down her abominable image, and crushed it, and burned it by the wadi Qiḏron.

17Yet the high places were not removed from Yisra’ĕl. However, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.

18And he brought into the House of Elohim the set-apart items of his father and his own set-apart items: silver and gold and utensils.

19And there was no more fighting until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.