¹ Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the word of the Lord came to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' helper, saying,

² Moses my servant is dead; so now get up! Go over Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel.

³ Every place on which you put your foot I have given to you, as I said to Moses.

⁴ From the waste land and this mountain Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea, in the west, will be your country.

⁵ While you are living, all will give way before you: as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not take away my help from you or give you up.

⁶ Take heart and be strong; for you will give to this people for their heritage the land which I gave by an oath to their fathers.

⁷ Only take heart and be very strong; take care to do all the law which Moses my servant gave you, not turning from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may do well in all your undertakings.

⁸ Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and you will do well.

⁹ Have I not given you your orders? Take heart and be strong; have no fear and do not be troubled; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,

¹⁰ Then Joshua gave their orders to those who were in authority over the people, saying,

¹¹ Go through the tents and give orders to the people, saying, Get ready a store of food; for in three days you are to Go over this river Jordan and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹² And to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said,

¹³ Keep in mind what Moses, the servant of the Lord, said to you, the Lord your God is sending you rest and will give you this land.

¹⁴ Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle will be kept here in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan; but you, the fighting-men, are to go over before your brothers, armed, to give them help;

¹⁵ Till the Lord has given your brothers rest, as he has given it to you, and they have taken their heritage in the land which the Lord your God is giving them: then you will go back to the land of your heritage which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the east side of Jordan.

¹⁶ Then they said to Joshua in answer, Whatever you say to us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

¹⁷ As we gave attention to Moses in all things, so we will give attention to you: and may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses.

¹⁸ Whoever goes against your orders, and does not give attention to all your words, will be put to death: only take heart and be strong.

¹ And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded;

² And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him, he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you up.

³ Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law;

⁴ But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded.

⁵ In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people of the lands.

⁶ And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them.

⁷ But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for your work will be rewarded.

⁸ And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house.

⁹ And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰ So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa.

¹¹ And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.

¹² And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul;

¹³ And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death.

¹⁴ And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice, sounding wind-instruments and horns.

¹⁵ And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶ And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by the stream Kidron.

¹⁷ But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.

¹⁸ He took into the house of God all the things which his father had made holy and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels.

¹⁹ And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of the rule of Asa.