2 Chronicles 15

1 Now Azariah, the son of Oded, had the Spirit of God within him.

And the Spirit of God has been on Azariah son of Oded,

2 And he went out to meet Asa, and he said to him: “Listen to me, Asa and all of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you, because you have been with him. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

and he goes out before Asa and says to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; YHWH [is] with you—in your being with Him, and if you seek Him, He is found by you, and if you forsake Him, He forsakes you;

3 Then many days will pass in Israel, apart from the true God, and apart from a learned priest, and apart from the law.

and many days [are] to Israel without [the] true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law,

4 And when, in their anguish, they will have returned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and will have sought him, they shall find him.

and it turns back in its distress to YHWH, God of Israel, and they seek Him, and He is found by them,

5 In that time, there will be no peace for those who depart and those who enter. Instead, there will be terror on every side, among all the inhabitants of the lands.

and in those times there is no peace for him who is going out, and for him who is coming in, for many troubles [are] on all the inhabitants of the lands,

6 For nation will fight against nation, and city against city. For the Lord will disturb them with every anguish.

and they have been beaten down, nation by nation, and city by city, for God has troubled them with every adversity;

7 But as for you, be strengthened, and do not let your hands be weakened. For there will be a reward for your work.”

and you, be strong, and do not let your hands be feeble, for there is a reward for your work.”

8 And when Asa had heard these particular words, and the prophecy of the prophet Azariah, the son of Oded, he was strengthened, and he took away the idols from the entire land of Judah, and from Benjamin, and from the cities that he had seized of mount Ephraim, and he dedicated the altar of the Lord, which was before the portico of the Lord.

And at Asa’s hearing these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he has strengthened himself, and causes the abominations to pass away out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities that he has captured from the hill-country of Ephraim, and renews the altar of YHWH that [is] before the porch of YHWH,

9 And he gathered together all of Judah and Benjamin, and with them the new arrivals from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon. For many had fled to him from Israel, seeing that the Lord his God was with him.

and gathers all Judah and Benjamin, and the sojourners with them out of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and out of Simeon—for they have defected to him from Israel in abundance, in their seeing that his God YHWH [is] with him.

10 And when they had arrived in Jerusalem, in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa,

And they are gathered to Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa,

11 they immolated to the Lord on that day, from the best of the spoils and from the plunder that they had brought: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand rams.

and sacrifice to YHWH on that day from the spoil they have brought in—seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep,

12 And he entered, according to custom, in order to confirm the covenant, so that they would seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with their whole heart and with their whole soul.

and they enter into a covenant to seek YHWH, God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul,

13 “But if anyone,” he said, “will not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, let him die, from the least even to the greatest, from man even to woman.”

and everyone who does not seek for YHWH, God of Israel, is put to death, from small to great, from man to woman.

14 And they swore to the Lord, with a great voice, in jubilation, and with the blare of trumpets, and with the sound of horns,

And they swear to YHWH with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with horns,

15 all who were in Judah swore with a curse. For with all their heart they swore, and with all their will they sought and found him. And the Lord granted rest on all sides to them.

and all Judah rejoices concerning the oath, for they have sworn with all their heart, and they have sought Him with all their goodwill, and He is found by them, and YHWH gives rest to them all around.

16 Then too, Maacah, the mother of king Asa, he deposed from the august authority, because she had made an idol of Priapus within a sacred grove. And he entirely crushed it, breaking it into pieces, and he burned it at the torrent Kidron.

And also Maachah, mother of Asa the king—he has removed her from [being] mistress, in that she has made for an Asherah a horrible thing, and Asa cuts down her horrible thing, and beats [it] small, and burns [it] by the Brook of Kidron:

17 But some high places were left in Israel. Even so, the heart of Asa was perfect during all his days.

yet the high places have not been removed from Israel; only, the heart of Asa has been perfect all his days.

18 And whatever his father or he himself had vowed, he brought into the house of the Lord: silver and gold, and vessels for various uses.

And he brings in the sanctified things of his father, and his own sanctified things, to the house of God: silver, and gold, and vessels.

19 Truly, there was no war, until the thirty-fifth year of the kingdom of Asa.

And war has not been until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.