3. Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law.
4. But when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.
5. In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the lands.
6. They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God troubled them with all adversity.
7. But you be strong, and don’t let your hands be slack; for your work will be rewarded.”
8. When Asa heard these words, 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 Lord’s altar that was before the Lord’s porch.
9. He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon; for they came to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.