2 *Chronicles 14

₁Abijah died and they buried him in the City of David. His son, Asa, became king after him.

In the time when Asa was king, there was peace in the land for 10 years. ₂Asa did what was right and he did what the Lord God wanted. ₃He broke down and destroyed the altars of the other gods and their places_of_sacrifice. He cut down the stone pillars and the sacred trees. ₄He told the people of Judah that they must serve the Lord, the God of their forefathers. They had to serve Him and do what He wanted and what He told them. ₅Asa destroyed the places_of_sacrifice and the incense-altars in all the towns of Judah. There was peace in the land at the time when he was king. ₆He built towns and cities in Judah that had strong walls. There was peace in the land. He did not have to make war because the Lord gave him peace. ₇He said to the people of Judah: ‘Let us build these towns and build walls around the towns, and towers and strong gates with locks. The land belongs to us because we have listened to the Lord our God. We have served Him and He has given us peace. There are no enemies around us that want to fight against us.’

They then built the towns and they did everything well. ₈Asa had an army of 300 000 good soldiers. Asa's men had big shields and spears. The army of Benjamin had 280 000 men. They had shields and bows_and_arrows. All of these men were good soldiers who knew how to make war. ₉Zerah, the man from Cush, and his army came to attack Judah and Benjamin with 1 000 000 men and 300 war-chariots. When they came to the town of Mareshah, ₁₀Asa went to fight against them and he prepared to go to war in the Zephathah Valley near the town of Mareshah. ₁₁Asa prayed to the Lord, his God, and he said: ‘Lord, only You can help when a lot of people want to make war_against people who are not strong. Lord our God, please help us. We believe that You can do it. We belong to You and we believe that You will help us when we make war_against all of these men. Lord, You are our God. Do not let people think that they can stop You.’

₁₂The Lord helped Asa and the soldiers of Judah and they defeated the people of Cush. The people of Cush ran away ₁₃and Asa and his men followed them and chased them to as far as the town of Gerar. The Lord and his army defeated all the people of Cush, and almost all of them died in the war. The men of Judah took a lot of plunder from the people of Cush. ₁₄Then they defeated all the towns around Gerar because everyone was afraid of the Lord. They took everything in the towns for themselves. They took a lot of plunder. ₁₅The men of Judah also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and they took all their sheep, goats and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.