And king and people hearkened to the voice of God through His prophet. Again and more energetically than
before, the religious reformation was taken in hand. The idol "abominations" were removed, not only from
Judah and Benjamin, but from the conquered cities of the north, and the great altar of burnt-offering in the
Temple was repaired. The earnestness of this moveme nt attracted the pious laity from the neighboring
tribes, and even led those of Simeon (in the far south) who, apparently, had hitherto sympathized with the
northern kingdom, as they shared their idolatry (comp. Amos 4:4; 5:5; 8:14), to join the ranks of Judah. At a
great sacrificial feast, which the king held in Jerusalem, the solemn covenant into which Israel had originally
entered with Jehovah (Exodus 24:3-8) was renewed, in repentant acknowledgment that it had been broken,
and in believing choice of Jehovah as henceforth their God - just as it was afterwards renewed on two
analogous occasions: in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 23:3; 2 Chronicles 34:31), and in that of Nehemiah
(Nehemiah 10:28-39). The movement was the outcome of heart -conviction and earnest purpose, and
consisted, on the one hand, in an undertaking that any introduction of idolatry should be punished by
death260 (according to Deuteronomy 13:9), and, on the other, in an act of solemn national consecration to
Jehovah.
To Asa, at least, all this was a reality, although, as regarded his subjects, the religious revival does not seem
to have been equally deep or permanent (2 Chronicles 15:17). But the king kept his part of the solemn
engagement. However diffic ult it might be, he removed "the Queen-mother" from her exalted position, and
thus showed an example of sincerity and earnestness in his own household. And, in token of his
consecration to Jehovah, he brought into His House alike those war-spoils which his father had, after the
victory over Jeroboam, set apart as the portion for God, and what he himself now consecrated from the spoil
taken in the war with Egypt. These measures were followed by a period of happy rest for the land - even to
the twenty-fifth261 year of King Asa's reign.