3
For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;
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but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
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And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.
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So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.
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But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!"
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And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.
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Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
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So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
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And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought.
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Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
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and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.