1God’s Spirit came to Azariah, son of Oded. 2Azariah went to Asa and said: »Listen to me Asa and all you men from Judah and Benjamin. Jehovah is with you when you are with him. If you will dedicate your lives to serve him, he will accept you. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. 3»Israel was without the true God for a long time. They were without a priest who taught correctly, and without law. 4»When they were in trouble they turned to Jehovah the God of Israel. When they searched for him, he let them find him. 5»No one could come and go in peace at that time. This is because everyone living in the land had a lot of turmoil. 6»One nation crushed another nation. One city crushed another. God tormented them with every kind of trouble. 7»But you must remain strong and not become discouraged. Your actions will be rewarded.« 8Asa heard the prophet Oded’s words of prophecy. He was encouraged and put away the detestable idols from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the cities he had captured in the mountains of Ephraim. He also repaired Jehovah’s altar in front of Jehovah’s entrance hall. 9Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and the foreigners who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. Many of them had come to him from Israel when they saw that Asa’s God, Jehovah, was with him. 10In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, they gathered in Jerusalem. 11They sacrificed to Jehovah a part of the loot they brought with them: seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep. 12They made an agreement with one another to dedicate their lives to serve the true God Jehovah, the God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their being. 13All people, young and old, male and female, who refused to dedicate their lives to the true God Jehovah the God of Israel were to be killed. 14Asa and the people swore their oath to Jehovah with shouts, singing, and the blowing of trumpets and rams’ horns. 15All the people of Judah were overjoyed because of the oath. They took the oath wholeheartedly. They took great pleasure in looking for Jehovah. And he let them find him. So Jehovah surrounded them with rest and peace. 16King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from the position of queen mother. She made a statue of the repulsive goddess Asherah. Asa immediately cut the statue down, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17Although the illegal worship sites in Israel were not taken down, Asa remained committed to Jehovah his entire life. 18He brought into God’s Temple the silver, the gold, and the utensils he and his father had set apart as holy. 19There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.