2 Chronicles 15

KJV · Chapter 15/36

¹And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:

²And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

³Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

⁴But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.

⁵And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.

⁶And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.

⁷Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.

⁸And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord.

⁹And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.

¹¹And they offered unto the Lord the same time, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.

¹²And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;

¹³That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

¹⁴And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.

¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.

¹⁶And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁷But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.

¹⁸And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁹And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

The prophet Azariah encourages Asa and the people to commit themselves even more deeply to God. Asa removes still more idols, including deposing his own grandmother because of an idol she had made, and the people make a solemn covenant to seek God with all their heart.

Explanation

Azariah's prophetic message contains a fundamental spiritual principle repeated throughout the whole Bible: 'the Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.' This message spurs Asa to act with even greater courage, including the difficult decision to depose his own grandmother, the queen mother Maacah, because of a repugnant idol she had made — showing that genuine spiritual reforms sometimes require confronting even close family relationships. The public, solemn covenant made by the people, with an oath sworn aloud, rejoicing, and the sound of trumpets, demonstrates a communal commitment that goes beyond isolated individual decisions.

Fun facts

Asa's willingness to depose his own grandmother because of idolatry is an extreme example of how, from a biblical perspective, faithfulness to God was expected to outweigh even family loyalties whenever there was a direct conflict with spiritual truth.
The text notes that, despite all these positive reforms, 'the high places were not taken away out of Israel' — acknowledging that even the most faithful kings generally could not completely eliminate all the problematic religious practices of their time.

Verse-by-verse explanation

2 Chronicles 15:1The Spirit of God comes upon Azariah, son of Oded, setting off the prophetic message that dominates the rest of the chapter.
2 Chronicles 15:2Azariah confronts Asa with a simple principle that sums up much of the book’s theology: as long as Judah seeks the Lord, He will be with them; if they abandon Him, they will be abandoned.
2 Chronicles 15:3Azariah recalls a period in the past when Israel went a long time without true worship of God, without a priest to teach, and without law being kept.
2 Chronicles 15:4Even in that period of spiritual abandonment, whenever the people turned to God in their distress and truly sought Him, they were able to find Him.
2 Chronicles 15:5Azariah describes that time of estrangement as an age with no peace at all, full of turmoil for everyone living in those lands.
2 Chronicles 15:6The instability reached the point of nation fighting against nation and city against city, because God Himself allowed that widespread distress.
2 Chronicles 15:7After describing this bleak scenario, Azariah encourages Asa and the people: be strong, do not lose heart, because their effort will be rewarded.
2 Chronicles 15:8On hearing this prophecy, Asa takes courage and removes the idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities conquered in Ephraim, and also restores the temple’s altar.
2 Chronicles 15:9Asa gathers all the people of Judah and Benjamin, along with Israelites from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had migrated south on seeing that God was with him.
2 Chronicles 15:10This great assembly takes place in Jerusalem in the third month of the tenth year of Asa’s reign.
2 Chronicles 15:11That same day, the people sacrifice to the Lord six hundred oxen and six thousand sheep, part of the plunder brought back from the victory over the Ethiopians.
2 Chronicles 15:12Right there, everyone makes a solemn covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and all their soul.
2 Chronicles 15:13This covenant carried an extreme penalty: whoever did not seek the Lord was to die, with no exception for age or gender — a way of showing how serious the commitment was.
2 Chronicles 15:14The people confirm this oath out loud, with shouts of joy and to the sound of trumpets and cornets.
2 Chronicles 15:15All Judah rejoices over this oath, made with a sincere heart and a genuine desire to seek God — and the Lord responds by giving the kingdom rest.
2 Chronicles 15:16Asa removes his own mother, or grandmother — the text uses the same term for both — from the position of queen mother because she had made an idol. That position carried real political weight at court, which is why the removal had to be formal and on the record, not just a family gesture.
2 Chronicles 15:17Even with Asa described as faithful his whole life, the high places — local shrines outside the temple in Jerusalem — remain standing. It’s a caveat that comes up again with several kings considered good throughout the book: religious reform was rarely complete.
2 Chronicles 15:18Asa brings back to the temple the sacred objects that he himself and his father had consecrated earlier — silver, gold, and other vessels.
2 Chronicles 15:19The chapter closes with a time marker: there was no war at all until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

Chapters

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