Judah’s King Asa

⁹ In the twentieth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam,^(A) Asa became king of Judah, ¹⁰ and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s^[a] name was Maacah^(B) daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the Lord’s sight, as his ancestor David had done.^{(C) 12} He banished the male cult prostitutes^(D) from the land and removed all of the idols that his ancestors had made.^{(E) 13} He also^(F) removed his grandmother^[b] Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it^(G) in the Kidron Valley.^{(H) 14} The high places were not taken away,^(I) but Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his entire life.^{(J) 15} He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into the Lord’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.^(K)

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and King Baasha of Israel throughout their reigns.^{(L) 17} Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah.^(M) He built Ramah^(N) in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah. ¹⁸ So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple^(O) and the treasuries of the royal palace and gave it to his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad^(P) son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion king of Aram who lived in Damascus,^(Q) saying, ¹⁹ “There is a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father.^(R) Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go and break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel^(S) so that he will withdraw from me.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked Ijon,^(T) Dan,^(U) Abel-beth-maacah,^(V) all Chinnereth,^(W) and the whole land of Naphtali.^{(X) 21} When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stayed in Tirzah.^{(Y) 22} Then King Asa gave a command to everyone without exception in Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then King Asa built Geba^(Z) of Benjamin and Mizpah^(AA) with them.

²³ The rest of all the events of Asa’s reign,^(AB) along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.^(AC) But in his old age he developed a disease in his feet.^{(AD) 24} Then Asa rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his ancestor David.^(AE) His son Jehoshaphat^(AF) became king in his place.