2 Chronicles 15 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The Breath of God came on Azariah son of Oded.

He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all of Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you when you are with him. If you look for him, he'll let you find him. But if you abandon him, he'll abandon you.

For a long time Israel had no true God, no priest to teach them, and no instruction.

But when they were in distress they turned back to Yahweh, the God of Israel. They looked for him, and he let them find him.

In those times there was no safety for anyone coming or going, because everyone in all the lands was in terrible turmoil.

Nation was being crushed by nation, and city by city, because God was throwing them into chaos with every kind of trouble.

But you — be strong! Don't let your hands go limp, because your work will be rewarded."

When Asa heard these words — the prophecy of Oded the prophet — he took courage. He removed the disgusting idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He restored Yahweh's altar that stood in front of Yahweh's entrance hall.

Then he gathered all of Judah and Benjamin, along with people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them — because large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

They gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign.

That day they sacrificed to Yahweh seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back.

They entered into a covenant to look for Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and all their being.

Anyone who would not look for Yahweh, the God of Israel, would be put to death — whether small or great, man or woman.

They swore an oath to Yahweh with a loud shout, with trumpets blaring and rams' horns blasting.

Everyone in Judah celebrated the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They had looked for him with total desire, and he let them find him. So Yahweh gave them rest on every side.

King Asa also removed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a revolting pole for the goddess Asherah. Asa cut down her pole, smashed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

The high places were not removed from Israel. But Asa's heart was fully committed his whole life.

He brought into God's house the things his father had set apart and the things he himself had set apart — silver, gold, and various objects.

There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.