17 At that my anger will indeed blaze against them in that day,+ and I shall certainly forsake them+ and conceal my face from them,+ and they must become something to be consumed; and many calamities and distresses must come upon them,+ and they will be bound to say in that day, ‘Is it not because our* God is not in our midst that these calamities have come upon us?’*+

2 Consequently he went out before Aʹsa and said to him: “Hear me, O Aʹsa and all Judah and Benjamin! Jehovah is with YOU as long as YOU prove to be with him;+ and if YOU search+ for him, he will let himself be found by YOU, but if YOU leave him he will leave YOU.+