17 At that time my anger will blaze against them,+ and I will forsake them+ and hide my face from them+ until they are devoured. Then after many calamities and distresses have come upon them,+ they will say, ‘Is it not because our God is not in our midst that these calamities have come upon us?’+

2 So he went out to meet Aʹsa and said to him: “Hear me, O Aʹsa and all Judah and Benjamin! Jehovah is with you as long as you remain with him;+ and if you search for him, he will let himself be found by you,+ but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.+