3
For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law;
4
but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.
5
In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.
6
They were broken in pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.
7
But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded."
8
When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azari'ah the son of Oded, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the hill country of E'phraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD.
9
And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from E'phraim, Manas'seh, and Simeon who were sojourning with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
10
They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
11
They sacrificed to the LORD on that day, from the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
12
And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;
13
and that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.