14:2 (14:1) Asa did what the Lord his God desired and approved. 1 14:3 He removed the pagan altars 2 and the high places, smashed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. 3 14:4 He ordered Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors 4 and to observe his law and commands. 5 14:5 He removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. The kingdom had rest under his rule. 6
14:11 Asa prayed 7 to the Lord his God: “O Lord, there is no one but you who can help the weak when they are vastly outnumbered. 8 Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you and have marched on your behalf against this huge army. 9 O Lord our God, don’t let men prevail against you!” 10
15:8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. 11 He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. 12
15:9 He assembled all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the settlers 13 from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live with them. Many people from Israel had come there to live 14 when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 15:10 They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 15:11 At that time 15 they sacrificed to the Lord some of the plunder they had brought back, including 700 head of cattle and 7,000 sheep. 16 15:12 They solemnly agreed 17 to seek the Lord God of their ancestors 18 with their whole heart and being. 15:13 Anyone who would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be executed, whether they were young or old, 19 male or female.
1 tn Heb “and Asa did the good and the right in the eyes of the
2 tn Heb “the altars of the foreigner.”
3 sn Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
4 tn Heb “fathers.”
5 tn Heb “the law and the command.”
6 tn Heb “before him.”
7 tn Heb “called out.”
8 tn Heb “there is not with you to help between many with regard to [the one] without strength.”
9 tn Heb “and in your name we have come against this multitude.”
10 tn Heb “let not man retain [strength] with you.”
11 tn Heb “strengthened himself.”
12 tn Heb “the porch of the
13 tn Or “resident aliens.”
14 tn Heb “had fallen upon him.”
15 tn Or “In that day.”
16 tn The Hebrew term צֹאן (tso’n) denotes smaller livestock in general; depending on context it can refer to sheep only or goats only, but their is nothing in the immediate context here to specify one or the other.
17 tn Heb “entered into a covenant.”
18 tn Heb “fathers.”
19 tn Heb “whether small or great.”