3For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood pillars cut down;
4And he made Judah go after the Lord, the God of their fathers, and keep his laws and his orders.
5And he took away the high places and the sun-images from all the towns of Judah; and the kingdom was quiet under his rule.
6He made walled towns in Judah, for the land was quiet and there were no wars in those years, because the Lord had given him rest.
7He said to Judah, Let us make these towns, building walls round them with towers and doors and locks. The land is still ours, because we have been true to the Lord our God; we have been true to him and he has given us rest on every side. So they went on building and all went well for them.
8And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men of Judah armed with body-covers and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand of Benjamin armed with body-covers and bows; all these were men of war.
9And Zerah the Ethiopian, with an army of a million, and three hundred war-carriages, came out against them to Mareshah.
