“If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy ¹  because they sinned against you, then if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, ²  and pray for your help ³  before you in this temple,

Micaiah said, “If you really do return safely, then the Lord has not spoken through me!” Then he added, “Take note, ¹  all you people.”

They said to him, “If you are fair to these people, grant their request, and are cordial to them, they will be your servants from this time forward.” ¹ 

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.

For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and sons will be shown mercy by their captors and return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate; he will not reject you ¹  if you return to him.”

“But if you people ¹  ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, ²  and decide to serve and worship other gods, ³ 

Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will defeat you ¹  before the enemy. God is capable of helping or defeating.” ² 

if my people, who belong to me, ¹  humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, ²  and repudiate their sinful practices, ³  then I will respond ⁴  from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ⁵ 

everyone who has determined to follow God, ¹  the Lord God of his ancestors, even if he is not ceremonially clean according to the standards of the temple.” ² 

They talked about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the man-made gods of the nations of the earth.

“Your father made us work too hard! ¹  Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.” ² 

‘If disaster comes on us in the form of military attack, ¹  judgment, plague, or famine, we will stand in front of this temple before you, for you are present in this temple. ²  We will cry out to you for help in our distress, so that you will ³  hear and deliver us.’

Whenever your countrymen who live in the cities bring a case before you ¹  (whether it involves a violent crime ²  or other matters related to the law, commandments, rules, and regulations), warn them that they must not sin against the Lord. If you fail to do so, God will be angry with you and your colleagues; but if you obey, you will be free of guilt. ³ 

“God does not really live with humankind on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

“The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust ¹  invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, ²  or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

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,

You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

“When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple, ¹ 

“When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies, ¹  and they direct their prayers to you toward this chosen city and this temple I built for your honor, ² 

When your people ¹  come to their senses ²  in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray ³ , we have done evil!’