Asa was so angry at the prophet, he put him in jail.<n id="1" /> Asa also oppressed some of the people at that time.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext"><v id="(14:1)" /> Asa did what the <sc>Lordsc> his God desired and approved.<n id="1" />

and Asa went out to oppose him. They deployed for battle in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.p>

The <sc>Lordsc> struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,

They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa&#8217;s reign.

The high places were not eliminated from Israel, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the <sc>Lordsc> throughout his lifetime.<n id="1" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa&#8217;s reign.

<t /><p class="bodytext">The events of Asa&#8217;s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel.<n id="1" />

Asa passed away<n id="1" /> in the forty-first year of his reign.

He followed in his father Asa&#8217;s footsteps and was careful to do what the <sc>Lordsc> approved.<n id="1" />

He met<n id="1" /> Asa and told him, &#8220;Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The <sc>Lordsc> is with you when you are loyal to him.<n id="2" /> If you seek him, he will respond to you,<n id="3" /> but if you reject him, he will reject you.

<p class="bodytext">King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother<n id="1" /> from her position as queen mother<n id="2" /> because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa&#8217;s reign, King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah, and he established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah.<n id="1" />

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and of the royal palace and sent it to King Ben Hadad of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a foot disease.<n id="1" /> Though his disease was severe, he did not seek the <sc>Lordsc>, but only the doctors.<n id="2" />

He placed troops in all of Judah&#8217;s fortified cities and posted garrisons<n id="1" /> throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.p>

<p class="bodytext"><v id="(13:23)" /><n id="1" /> Abijah passed away<n id="2" /> and was buried in the City of David.<n id="3" /> His son Asa replaced him as king. During his reign<n id="4" /> the land had rest for ten years.p>

<p class="bodytext">Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, equipped with large shields and spears. He also had 280,000 men from Benjamin who carried small shields and were adept archers; they were all skilled warriors.

and Asa and his army chased them as far as Gerar. The Cushites were wiped out;<n id="1" /> they were shattered before the <sc>Lordsc> and his army. The men of Judah<n id="2" /> carried off a huge amount of plunder.

<p class="bodytext">When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged.<n id="1" /> 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 <sc>Lordsc> in front of the porch of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.<n id="2" />p>