Now Azariah the son of Oded—the Spirit of God came upon him. And he went out before Asa and said to him, "Hear me, O Asa and all of Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you while you are with him. And if you will seek him he will be found by you. But if you forsake him he will forsake you. Now Israel has been without the true God many days, and without a teaching priest, and without law, but at its trouble he returned to Yahweh, the God of Israel. They sought him, and he was found by them. And in those times there was no peace for the one going out and the one coming in, for great tumults were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. Nation was crushed by nation, and city was against city, for God threw them into confusion by all sorts of trouble. But as for you, be strong and let not your hands be weak, for there is reward for your labor."

And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the vile idols from all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was in front of the portico of Yahweh.

And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those sojourning with them, from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for many had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him. And they were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. And they sacrificed to Yahweh on that day from the war booty they brought back: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their inmost being, but all who will not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be killed, from young to old, from men to women. And they took an oath to Yahweh with a great voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they swore with all their heart. And they sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and Yahweh gave rest to them all around.

And also Maacah, the mother of Asa, the king removed her from being queen, because she had made a repulsive image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her repulsive image, and he crushed and burned it at the Wadi Kidron. But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was fully devoted all his days. And he brought the holy objects of his father and his own holy objects into the house of God—silver and gold and vessels. And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah. And he built Ramah in order not to allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the storehouses of the house of Yahweh and the house of the king, and he sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, "There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I am sending you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, king of Israel, that he might withdraw from me."

And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent commanders of his troops that were with him against the cities of Israel. And they struck Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. And it happened that when Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. Then King Asa took all of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and he built Geba and Mizpah with them.

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "On account of your reliance upon the king of Aram, and since you did not rely on Yahweh your God, therefore the troops of the king of Aram escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with very abundant chariots and horsemen? And because of your reliance on Yahweh he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of Yahweh roam throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is fully devoted to him. You have been foolish in this, for from now on you will have wars."

Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the prison, for he was enraged with him concerning this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Now behold, the words of Asa from the first to the last, behold, they are written in the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel. And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, he fell severely ill in his feet. But even in his illness he did not seek Yahweh, but only among the healers. And Asa slept with his ancestors. And he died in the forty-first year of his reign. And they buried him in his burial site, which had been cut out for him in the city of David. And they laid him on the bier which they had filled with all kinds of spices made by the perfumers as a fragment ointment. And they made a great fire in his honor.

The word of Yahweh came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, "Because I exalted you from the dust and I made you a leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and you caused my people Israel to sin, to provoke me with their sins, I am now about to consume Baasha and his house. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Those who die for Baasha in the city, the dogs will eat; those who die for him in the field, the birds of the heavens will eat."

The remainder of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his powerful deeds, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel? Baasha slept with his ancestors and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah his son became king in his place. Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to Baasha and to his house by the hand of Jehu the son of Hanani the prophet, because of all the evil that he did in the eyes of Yahweh by provoking him with the work of his hands, by being like the house of Jeroboam; and he destroyed him.

In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel for two years. His servant Zimri the commander of half of the chariots conspired against him. Now he had been in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza who was over the palace in Tirzah. Zimri came and struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah and became king in his place. It happened that as soon as he became king, at the moment he sat on his throne, he killed all of the house of Baasha. He left no males among his kindred or any of his friends.

So Zimri destroyed all of the house of Baasha according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke against Baasha by the hand of Jehu the prophet because of all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son which they committed and which they caused Israel to sin by provoking Yahweh the God of Israel with their idols. The remainder of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?

In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the army was encamping against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines. The encamping army heard that Zimri had conspired and moreover had killed the king, so they made Omri the commander of the army of Israel king over all Israel in the camp on that day. Then Omri went up and all Israel with him from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. It happened that when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went to the citadel fortress of the house of the king, and he burnt the house of the king over him with fire so that he died. This happened because of his sin which he committed by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh, by going the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did by causing Israel to sin. The remainder of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy which he made, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?

At that time, the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people went after Tibni the son of Ginath to make him king, and the other half went after Omri. The people who went after Omri overcame the people who went after Tibni the son of Ginath, so that he died and Omri became king.

In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel for twelve years. He reigned in Tirzah six years, then bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, fortified the hill, and called the name of the city Samaria that he built after Shemer, the owner of the hill. But Omri did evil in the eyes of Yahweh more than all who were before him. He went in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins that he caused Israel to sin by provoking Yahweh the God of Israel with their idols. The remainder of the acts of Omri that he did and his powerful deeds, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel? Omri slept with his ancestors, and he was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son became king in his place.

Now Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah. Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. But Ahab son of Omri did evil in the eyes of Yahweh more than all who were before him. If it wasn’t enough that he went after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he also took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians. He went and served Baal and bowed down to him. And he built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria. Ahab also made the sacred pole, and he continued to provoke Yahweh the God of Israel more than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho; at the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his younger sibling, he set up its gates, according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God, always making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear about your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the knowledge of every good thing that is in us for Christ. For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Therefore, although I have great confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, instead I appeal to you because of love, since I am such a one as Paul, now an old man and also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you concerning my child whom I became the father of during my imprisonment, Onesimus. Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful to you and to me, whom I have sent back to you himself, that is, my heart, whom I wanted to keep with me, in order that he might serve me on behalf of you during my imprisonment for the gospel. But apart from your consent, I wanted to do nothing, in order that your good deed might be not as according to necessity, but according to your own free will. For perhaps because of this, he was separated from you for a time, in order that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

If therefore you consider me a partner, receive him as you would me. But if in anything he has caused you loss or owes you anything, charge this to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will pay it back, lest I mention to you that you owe me even your very self besides. Yes, brother, I ought to have some benefit of you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.

Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you because I know that you will do even beyond what I say. At the same time also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.