^16 (A)Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ^17 (B)Baasha king of Israel marched against Judah and ^[a](C)fortified Ramah ^(D)in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ Then ^(E)Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house, and handed it over to his servants. And ^(F)King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in ^(G)Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let’s make a ^(H)treaty between ^[b]you and me, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.” ²⁰ So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and ^[c]conquered ^(I)Ijon, ^(J)Dan, ^(K)Abel-beth-maacah, and all ^(L)Chinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about it, ^(M)he stopped ^[d]fortifying Ramah and remained in ^(N)Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—no one was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built fortifications. And King Asa built with them ^(O)Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

Asa Wars against Baasha

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, ^(A)Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and ^[a]fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ² Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and sent it to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³ “A treaty must be made between ^[b]you and me, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.” ⁴ And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they ^[c]conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all ^(B)the ^[d]storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard about it, he stopped ^[e]fortifying Ramah and put an end to his work. ⁶ Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with it he ^[f]fortified Geba and Mizpah.

Asa Imprisons the Prophet

⁷ At that time ^(C)Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “^(D)Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, for that reason the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not ^(E)the Ethiopians and the Lubim ^(F)an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet ^(G)because you relied on the Lord, He handed them over to you. ⁹ For ^(H)the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those ^(I)whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will have wars.” ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in ^[g]prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at the same time.

Prophecy against Baasha

16 Now the word of the Lord came to ^(A)Jehu the son of ^(B)Hanani against Baasha, saying, ² “Since I ^(C)exalted you from the dust and made you leader over My people Israel, and ^(D)you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have misled My people Israel into sin, provoking Me to anger with their sins, ³ behold, ^(E)I am going to ^[a]burn ^(F)Baasha and his house, and ^(G)I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ^4 (H)Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and anyone belonging to him who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat.”

^5 (I)Now as for the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

The Israelite Kings

⁶ And Baasha ^[b]lay down with his fathers and was buried in ^(J)Tirzah, and his son Elah became king in his place. ⁷ Moreover, the word of the Lord through ^(K)the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came against Baasha and his household, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger with ^(L)the work of his hands, by being like the house of Jeroboam, and because ^(M)he struck ^[c]it.

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel at Tirzah, and reigned for two years. ⁹ And his servant ^(N)Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now ^[d]Elah was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ^(O)who was in charge of the household in Tirzah. ¹⁰ Then Zimri came in and struck him and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and he became king in his place. ¹¹ And when he became king, as soon as he sat on his throne, ^(P)he ^[e]killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave ^[f]a single male alive, either of his ^[g]relatives or of his friends.

¹² So Zimri eliminated all the household of Baasha, ^(Q)in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke against Baasha through ^(R)Jehu the prophet, ¹³ for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of his son Elah, which they ^[h]committed and into which they misled Israel, ^(S)provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their ^[i]idols. ^14 (T)Now as for the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were camped against ^(U)Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. ¹⁶ And the people who were camped heard ^[j]it being said, “Zimri has conspired and has also struck and killed the king!” Therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷ Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over himself with fire, and ^(V)died, ¹⁹ because of his sins which he ^[k]committed, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(W)walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he committed, misleading Israel into sin. ^20 (X)Now as for the rest of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy which he ^[l]carried out, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

²¹ Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; the other half followed Omri. ²² But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. And Tibni died and Omri became king. ²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel and reigned for twelve years; he reigned for six years at ^(Y)Tirzah. ²⁴ And he purchased the hill ^[m]Samaria from Shemer for ^[n]two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and named the city which he built ^[o](Z)Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

²⁵ Now ^(AA)Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, and ^(AB)acted more wickedly than all who were before him. ²⁶ For he ^(AC)walked ^[p]entirely in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins into which he misled Israel, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their ^[q]idols. ²⁷ Now as for the rest of the acts of Omri which he did and his might which he ^[r]displayed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁸ And Omri ^[s]lay down with his fathers and was buried in Samaria; and his son Ahab became king in his place.

²⁹ Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰ Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord ^(AD)more than all who were before him.

³¹ And as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(AE)he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the ^(AF)Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. ³² So he erected an altar for Baal at ^(AG)the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. ³³ Ahab also made ^(AH)the ^[t]Asherah. So ^(AI)Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ^34 (AJ)In his days Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa

^23 (A)Now as for the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might, and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴ And Asa ^[a]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David; and his son ^(B)Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

^11 (A)Now, the acts of Asa from the first to the last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he ^(B)did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. ¹³ So Asa ^[a]lay down with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own tomb which he had cut out for himself in the city of David, and they laid him in the resting place which he had filled ^(C)with spices of various kinds blended by the perfumers’ art; and ^(D)they made a very great fire for him.

Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa

17 His son ^(E)Jehoshaphat then became king in his place, and he proved himself strong over Israel. ² He placed troops in all ^(F)the fortified cities of Judah, and placed garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim ^(G)which his father Asa had captured.

His Good Reign

³ And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he ^[b]followed the example of his father David’s earlier days and did not seek the Baals, ⁴ but sought the God of his father, ^[c]followed His commandments, ^(H)and did not act as Israel did. ⁵ So the Lord established the kingdom in his ^[d]control, and all Judah gave tribute to Jehoshaphat, and ^(I)he had great riches and honor. ^6 [e]He took great pride in the ways of the Lord, and again ^(J)removed the high places and the ^[f]Asherim from Judah.

⁷ Then in the third year of his reign he sent his officials, Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah, ^(K)to teach in the cities of Judah; ⁸ and with them ^(L)the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, the Levites; and with them the priests Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They taught in Judah, having ^(M)the Book of the Law of the Lord with them; and they went throughout the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

¹⁰ Now ^(N)the dread of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of the lands which were around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some of the Philistines ^(O)brought gifts and silver as tribute to Jehoshaphat; the Arabians also brought him flocks, 7,700 rams and 7,700 male goats. ¹² So Jehoshaphat grew greater and greater, and he built fortresses and storage cities in Judah. ¹³ He had large supplies in the cities of Judah, and warriors, valiant mighty men, in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ This was their muster according to their fathers’ households: of Judah, commanders of thousands, Adnah was the commander, and with him three hundred thousand valiant warriors; ¹⁵ and next to him was Johanan the commander, and with him 280,000; ¹⁶ and next to him Amasiah the son of Zichri, ^(P)who volunteered for the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand valiant warriors; ¹⁷ and of Benjamin, Eliada, a valiant warrior, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and shield; ¹⁸ and next to him Jehozabad, and with him 180,000 equipped for war. ¹⁹ These are the ones who served the king, apart from ^(Q)those whom the king put in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

Elijah Predicts Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of ^[a](A)the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “^(B)As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, ^(C)there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.” ² Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³ “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is ^[b]east of the Jordan. ⁴ And it shall be that you will drink from the brook, and ^(D)I have commanded the ravens to provide food for you there.” ⁵ So he went and did everything according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is ^[c]east of the Jordan. ⁶ And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. ⁷ But it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.