6. One nation would destroy another nation, and one city would destroy another city, because God troubled them with all kinds of distress.
7. But you should be strong. Don’t give up, because you will get a reward for your good work.”
8. Asa felt brave when he heard these words and the message from Azariah son of Oded the prophet. So he removed the hateful idols from all of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the Lord’s altar that was in front of the porch of the Temple of the Lord.
9. Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were living in Judah. Many people came to Asa even from Israel, because they saw that the Lord, Asa’s God, was with him.
10. Asa and these people gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s rule.