Chapter 15

Abijam’s Reign. ¹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became the king of Judah. ² He reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah, and she was the daughter of Abishalom.

³ He committed all of the sins that his father had committed before him. His heart was not at peace with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had been. ⁴ In spite of this, the Lord, his God, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem for the sake of David, raising up his son to succeed him and making Jerusalem strong.^{[a] 5} He did this because of David who had done what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he had not turned away from anything that he had been commanded throughout his entire life with the exception of what happened with Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reign.

⁷ The rest of the deeds of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa, his son then reigned in his stead.

Asa’s Reign. ⁹ In the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam as the king of Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. ¹⁰ He reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had. ¹² He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his father had made. ¹³ He also deposed his mother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an image of an Asherah. Asa cut down her idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ But he did not do away with the high places. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was at peace with the Lord all of his life. ¹⁵ He brought those things that his father had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels, into the temple of the Lord.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns. ¹⁷ Baasha, the king of Israel, attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to the king of Judah.

¹⁸ Asa took all of the silver and all of the gold that remained in the treasury of the Lord’s temple and the treasury of the royal palace. He gave them to his servants and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let there be a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that he might pull back from attacking me.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his army to attack the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, as well as all of the Chinnereth and the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about this, he stopped building Ramah and he dwelt in Tirzah.

²² King Asa then issued a proclamation to all of Judah from which no one was exempt that they should carry away the stones and the timber that Baasha was using for the construction of Ramah. King Asa used them to build up Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³ As for the rest of the deeds of Asa, all of his achievements, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his old age, he suffered from difficulties with his feet.

²⁴ King Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David, his father, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his stead.

²⁵ Nadab’s Reign. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became the king of Israel in the second year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ²⁶ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of his father, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.

²⁷ Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, plotted against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine city, while Nadab and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ Baasha killed him in the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead.

²⁹ As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Jeroboam’s household. He did not leave Jeroboam a single person who was still breathing; he wiped them out. This fulfilled what the Lord had said when he spoke through Ahijah, the Shilonite ³⁰ because of the sins that Jeroboam committed and because he caused Israel to sin, provoking the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.^[b]

³¹ As for the other deeds of Nadab and all the other things that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³² There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns.^[c]

³³ Baasha’s Reign. In the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became the king over all of Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.