2 Chronicles 14

¹So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

²Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord

³for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.

⁴He commanded Judah to seek the Lord

⁵He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.

⁶And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord

⁷Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord

⁸And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor.

⁹Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.

¹⁰So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹And Asa cried out to the Lord

¹²So the Lord

¹³And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord

¹⁴Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord

¹⁵They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.