Abijah passed away and was buried in the City of David. His son Asa replaced him as king. During his reign the land had rest for ten years.

Asa did what the Lord his God desired and approved.

Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, equipped with large shields and spears. He also had 280,000 men from Benjamin who carried small shields and were adept archers; they were all skilled warriors.

and Asa went out to oppose him. They deployed for battle in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

Asa prayed to the Lord his God: "O Lord, there is no one but you who can help the weak when they are vastly outnumbered. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you and have marched on your behalf against this huge army. O Lord our God, don't let men prevail against you!"

The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,

and Asa and his army chased them as far as Gerar. The Cushites were wiped out; they were shattered before the Lord and his army. The men of Judah carried off a huge amount of plunder.

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

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord's temple.

They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign.

King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother from her position as queen mother because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

The high places were not eliminated from Israel, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime.

There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah, and he established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah.

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord's temple and of the royal palace and sent it to King Ben Hadad of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

Ben Hadad accepted King Asa's offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

King Asa ordered all the men of Judah to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. He used the materials to build up Geba and Mizpah.

At that time Hanani the prophet visited King Asa of Judah and said to him: "Because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand.

Asa was so angry at the prophet, he put him in jail. Asa also oppressed some of the people at that time.

The events of Asa's reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a foot disease. Though his disease was severe, he did not seek the Lord, but only the doctors.

Asa passed away in the forty-first year of his reign.

He placed troops in all of Judah's fortified cities and posted garrisons throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.

He followed in his father Asa's footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved.

Jehoram received this letter from Elijah the prophet: "This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: 'You have not followed in the footsteps of your father Jehoshaphat and of King Asa of Judah,