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📚So Abijah slept 📖 with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city of David; and his son Asa reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years. King Asa
2 📚And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God; 3 📚for he took away the altars of the foreign gods, and the high places, and broke down the images and cut down the idolatrous groves, 4 📚and commanded Judah to seek 📖 the LORD God of their fathers, and to obey the law and the commandments. 5 📚Also he took away the high places 📖 and the images out of all the cities of Judah; and the kingdom was peaceful under him. 6 📚And he built fortified cities in Judah; for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest 📖.
7 📚Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities, and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is still before us; because we have sought the LORD our God. We have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side”. So they built and prospered.
8 📚And Asa had an army of men who carried shields and spears, three hundred thousand from Judah, two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin who carried shields and drew bows. All these were strong and brave men.
9 📚Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million 📖, and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah 📖. 10 📚Then Asa went out against him, and they drew up the battle lines in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
11 📚And Asa cried out to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with the powerless. 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. Let not man prevail against you”.
12 📚So the LORD struck down the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 📚And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. And the Ethiopians were overthrown, so that they could not recover; for they were destroyed before the LORD and before his army. And Judah carried away a very large amount of plunder. 14 📚And they struck all the cities around Gerar, for the fear 📖 of the LORD came on them. And they plundered all the cities, for there was a very large amount of plunder in them. 15 📚They also struck the livestock camps, and carried away large quantities of sheep and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.