Study Desk

Now behold, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed."

Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and 500,000 choice men of Israel fell slain.

Jeroboam did not again recover his power during the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him down and he died.

Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, along with his ways and his sayings, are written in the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo.

Then Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Asa became king in his place. During his reign the land was at peace for ten years.

And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God: "O LORD, there is no one besides You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal prevail against You."

Then Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell and could not recover, for they were crushed before the LORD and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great amount of plunder

And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, along with those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for great numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah as the queen mother, because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

The high places were not removed from Israel, but Asa's heart was fully devoted all his days.

And he brought into the house of God the silver and gold articles that he and his father had dedicated.

And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned his work.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady became increasingly severe. Yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians.

So in the forty-first year of his reign, Asa died and rested with his fathers.

And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor.

Asa's son Jehoshaphat became king in his place, and he strengthened himself against Israel.

He stationed troops in every fortified city of Judah and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.

Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek out the Baals,