1
And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded;
2
and he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD
is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
3
For many days Israel
has been without the true God, and without a priest and without a teacher and without law,
4
but when they in their trouble turned unto the LORD God of Israel and sought him, he was found of them.
5
And in those times
there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great destruction upon all the inhabitants of the lands.
6
And one Gentile destroyed the other, and one city the other; for God discomforted them with all adversity.
7
Be ye strong, therefore, and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.
8
And when Asa heard the words and prophecy of Oded, the prophet, he was comforted and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin and out of the cities which he had taken in Mount Ephraim and repaired the altar of the LORD, that
was before the porch of the LORD.
9
And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon, for many of Israel had gone over to him, when they saw that the LORD his God
was with him.