Asa’s Agreement with Syria

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s rule, King Baasha of Israel came to fight against Judah. He began building a wall around Ramah to stop anyone from going out or coming in to King Asa of Judah. ² Then Asa took silver and gold from the store-rooms of the house of the Lord and the king’s house. He sent them to King Ben-hadad of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³ “Let there be an agreement between you and me, as between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold. Go and break your agreement with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me.” ⁴ Ben-hadad listened to King Asa. He sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abelmaim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard about it, he stopped building the wall around Ramah. ⁶ Then King Asa brought all the people of Judah. And they carried away the stones and wood of the wall which Baasha had been building around Ramah. Asa used them to build Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Words to Asa

⁷ At that time Hanani the man of God came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “You have put your trust in the king of Syria and not in the Lord your God. So the army of the king of Syria got away from you. ⁸ Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a very large army with war-wagons? But because you trusted in the Lord, He gave them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord move over all the earth so that He may give strength to those whose whole heart is given to Him. You have done a foolish thing. So from now on you will have wars.” ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the man of God. He put him in prison because he was angry at him for this. And Asa made it hard for some of the people at the same time.

The End of Asa’s Rule

¹¹ Now the acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² A disease came into Asa’s feet in the thirty-ninth year of his rule. His disease was bad. But even in his disease, he did not trust in the Lord, but in the doctors. ¹³ So Asa slept with his fathers. He died in the forty-first year of his rule. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own grave which he had cut out for himself in the city of David. They laid him in the place of rest which he had filled with different kinds of spices mixed by those who work with perfumes. And they made a very big fire in his honor.