And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:
and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.
Now for a long season Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law:
but when in their distress they turned unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.
And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in; but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the lands.
And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity.
But be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded.
And when Asa heard these words, {Or, even}and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Jehovah, that was before the porch of Jehovah.
And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him.
So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
And they sacrificed unto Jehovah in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
And they entered into the covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;
and that whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
And they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.
And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about.
And also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being {Or, queen mother}queen, because she had made an abominable image {Or, for Asherah}for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and made dust of it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.
But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.
And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.
And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.
Querverweise zu 2. Chronika 15,8 2Chr 15,8
And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of Jehovah; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be officers before you. {Hebrew: Be strong and do.}Deal courageously, and Jehovah be with the good.
Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that ye practise not any of these abominable customs, which were practised before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am Jehovah your God.
And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Beth-el with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and {Another reading is, Ephrain.}Ephron with the towns thereof.
Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the holm-tree and the oak, and strengtheneth for himself one among the trees of the forest: he planteth {Or, an ash}a fir-tree, and the rain doth nourish it.
Cursed be the man that maketh a graven or molten image, an abomination unto Jehovah, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and setteth it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings unto Jehovah on the altar of Jehovah, which he had built before the porch,
And from thence the brethren, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah, and the altar of burnt-offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the table of showbread, with all the vessels thereof.
Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
And the brazen altar, which was before Jehovah, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it on the north side of his altar.
And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of {Or, destruction}corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
But if ye say unto me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
that {Or, dwell}sit among the graves, and lodge in the {Or, vaults}secret places; that eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, {Or, because they have polluted my land: they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable things and their abominations}because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.
So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.
For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, winebibbings, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatries:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and {Greek: gilded.}decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, {Or, and of the unclean things}even the unclean things of her fornication,
and upon her forehead a name written, {Or, a mystery, Babylon the Great}MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.