He met ¹  Asa and told him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you when you are loyal to him. ²  If you seek him, he will respond to you, ³  but if you reject him, he will reject you.

Early the next morning they marched out to the Desert of Tekoa. When they were ready to march, Jehoshaphat stood up and said: “Listen to me, you people of Judah ¹  and residents of Jerusalem! Trust in the Lord your God and you will be safe! ²  Trust in the message of his prophets and you will win.”

Uzziah, who had an incense censer in his hand, became angry. While he was ranting and raving ¹  at the priests, a skin disease ²  appeared on his forehead right there in front of the priests in the Lord’s temple near the incense altar.

He brought against them the king of the Babylonians, who slaughtered ¹  their young men in their temple. ²  He did not spare ³  young men or women, or even the old and aging. God ⁴  handed everyone over to him.

Solomon accumulated ¹  chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. ² 

The king made silver and gold as plentiful ¹  in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was ²  as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands. ³ 

King Huram ¹  of Tyre sent this letter to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.”

When ¹  I close up the sky ²  so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, ³  or send a plague among my people,

Rehoboam married ¹  Mahalath the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of ²  Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

So when Rehoboam ¹  humbled himself, the Lord relented from his anger and did not annihilate him; ²  Judah experienced some good things. ³ 

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

When the men of Judah ¹  arrived at the observation post overlooking the desert and looked at ²  the huge army, they saw dead bodies on the ground; there were no survivors!

They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance. ¹  There they executed her.

So Amaziah dismissed the troops that had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. ¹  They were very angry at Judah and returned home incensed.

The rest of the events of Amaziah’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹ 

They commanded an army of 307,500 skilled and able warriors who were ready to defend ¹  the king against his enemies.

In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors.

The priests and Levites got up and pronounced blessings on the people. The Lord responded favorably to them ¹  as their prayers reached his holy dwelling place in heaven.

He appointed military officers over the army ¹  and assembled them in the square at the city gate. He encouraged them, ²  saying,

In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ¹  He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a sign confirming that he would be healed. ²