2 Chronicles 15:8 (ASV)

Passage

And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Jehovah, that was before the porch of Jehovah.

Nearby Context

2 Chronicles 15:6 And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity.

2 Chronicles 15:7 But be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded.

2 Chronicles 15:8 And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Jehovah, that was before the porch of Jehovah.

2 Chronicles 15:9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned 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 Jehovah his God was with him.

2 Chronicles 15:10 So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "heard", "words", "prophecy", "oded", "prophet", "took", "courage", and "away". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "heard" and "words", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "But be ye strong and let not..." into verse 9's "And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin...", so "heard" and "words" belong inside that flow. In 2 Chronicles context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "heard" and "words" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.