Study Desk

Now look, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with sounding trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!"

Then Abijah and his people struck them with a great slaughter; so five hundred thousand choice men of Israel fell slain.

Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways, and his sayings are written in the annals of the prophet Iddo.

So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

1 Kings 15:9-15">[xr] Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God,

And Asa cried out to the LORD his God, and said, "LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!"

And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil.

Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.

So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work.

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

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

They buried him in his own tomb, which he had made for himself in the City of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled with spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments. They made a very great burning for him.

Then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place, and strengthened himself against Israel.

And he placed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which Asa his father had taken.

Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals,

but sought the God [fn] of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel.

Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance.