Study Desk

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

And Asa cried to the LORD his God, "O LORD, there is none like thee to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on thee, and in thy name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee."

Asa and the people that were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive; for they were broken before the LORD and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much booty.

And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from E'phraim, Manas'seh, and Simeon who were sojourning with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

Even Ma'acah, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Ashe'rah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.

But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was blameless all his days.

And he brought into the house of God the votive gifts of his father and his own votive gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

And Ben-ha'dad hearkened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered I'jon, Dan, A'bel-ma'im, and all the store-cities of Naph'tali.

And when Ba'asha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah, and let his work cease.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars."

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe; yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.

And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

They buried him in the tomb which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier which had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art; and they made a very great fire in his honor.

Jehosh'aphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel.

He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of E'phraim which Asa his father had taken.

The LORD was with Jehosh'aphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father; he did not seek the Ba'als,

but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the ways of Israel.

Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought tribute to Jehosh'aphat; and he had great riches and honor.

His heart was courageous in the ways of the LORD; and furthermore he took the high places and the Ashe'rim out of Judah.

In the third year of his reign he sent his princes, Ben-hail, Obadi'ah, Zechari'ah, Nethan'el, and Micai'ah, to teach in the cities of Judah;