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 Yahweh’s altar that was before Yahweh’s porch.
2 Chronicles 15:6 They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God troubled them with all adversity.
2 Chronicles 15:7 But you be strong, and don’t let your hands be slack; for your work will be rewarded.”
2 Chronicles 15:8 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 Yahweh’s altar that was before Yahweh’s porch.
2 Chronicles 15:9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon; for they came to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that Yahweh 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 Asa’s reign.
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 you be strong and don t..." into verse 9's "He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and...", 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.