7
But you should be strong. Don't give up, because you will get a reward for your good work."
8
Asa felt brave when he heard these words and the message from Azariah son of Oded the prophet. So he removed the hateful idols from all of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the Lord's altar that was in front of the porch of the Temple of the Lord.
9
Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many people came to Asa even from Israel, because they saw that the Lord, Asa's God, was with him.
10
Asa and these people gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's rule.
11
At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep and goats from the valuable things Asa's army had taken from their enemies.
12
Then they made an agreement to obey the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with their whole being.
13
Anyone who refused to obey the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be killed. It did not matter if that person was important or unimportant, a man or woman.
14
Then Asa and the people made a promise before the Lord, shouting with a loud voice and blowing trumpets and sheep's horns.
15
All the people of Judah were happy about the promise, because they had promised 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 grandmother, from being queen mother, because she had made a terrible Asherah idol. Asa cut down that idol, smashed it into pieces, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
17
But the places of worship to gods were not removed from Judah. Even so, Asa was faithful all his life.