2 Chronicles 15

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

And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded;

2 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;

And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him, he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you up.

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

Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law;

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

But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded.

5 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,

In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people of the lands.

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

And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them.

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

But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for your work will be rewarded.

8 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,

And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house.

9 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.

And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

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

So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa.

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

And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.

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

And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul;

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

And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death.

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

And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice, sounding wind-instruments and horns.

15 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.

And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on every side.

16 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:

And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by the stream Kidron.

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

But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

18 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.

He took into the house of God all the things which his father had made holy and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels.

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

And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of the rule of Asa.