^15:9In the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. ^15:10He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem.¹⁷ His grandmother¹⁸ was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. ^15:11Asa did what the Lord approved¹⁹ like his ancestor²⁰ David had done. ^15:12He removed the male cultic prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the disgusting idols²¹ his ancestors²² had made. ^15:13He also removed Maacah his grandmother²³ from her position as queen because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ^15:14The high places were not eliminated, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime.²⁴^15:15He brought the holy items that he and his father had made into the Lord’s temple, including the silver, gold, and other articles.²⁵

^15:16Now Asa and King Baasha of Israel were continually at war with each other.²⁶^15:17King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah and established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah.²⁷^15:18Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it²⁸ to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message: ^15:19“I want to make a treaty with you, like the one our fathers made.²⁹ See, I have sent you silver and gold as a present. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he will retreat from my land.”³⁰^15:20Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel.³¹ They conquered³² Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth.³³^15:21When Baasha heard the news, he stopped fortifying³⁴ Ramah and settled down in Tirzah. ^15:22King Asa ordered all the men of Judah (no exemptions were granted) to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah.³⁵ King Asa used the materials to build up³⁶ Geba (in Benjamin) and Mizpah.

^15:23The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, including all his successes and accomplishments, as well as a record of the cities he built, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.³⁷ Yet when he was very old he developed a foot disease.³⁸^15:24Asa passed away³⁹ and was buried with his ancestors in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoshaphat replaced him as king.

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Footnotes

17 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
18 Heb “mother,” but Hebrew often uses the terms “father” and “mother” for grandparents and more remote ancestors.
19 Heb “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”
20 Heb “father,” but Hebrew often uses the terms “father” and “mother” for grandparents and more remote ancestors.
21 The word used here, גִלּוּלִים [gillulim], is always used as a disdainful reference to idols. It is generally thought to have originally referred to “dung pellets” (cf. 183 גִלּוּלִים). It is only one of several terms used in this way, such as “worthless things” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), “vanities” or “empty winds” (הֲבָלִים, havalim).
22 Heb “fathers” (also in v. 24).
23 Heb “mother,” but Hebrew often uses the terms “father” and “mother” for grandparents and more remote ancestors.
24 Heb “yet the heart of Asa was complete with the Lord all his days.”
25 Heb “and he brought the holy things of his father and his holy things (into) the house of the Lord, silver, gold, and items.” Instead of “his holy things,” a marginal reading (Qere) in the Hebrew text has “the holy things of [the house of the Lord].”
26 Heb “There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.”
27 Heb “and he built up Ramah so as to not permit going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.”
28 Heb “King Asa sent it.”
29 Heb “[May there be] a covenant between me and you [as there was] between my father and your father.”
30 Heb “so he will go up from upon me.”
31 Heb “and Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of the armies which belonged to him against the cities of Israel.”
32 Heb “he struck down.”
33 Heb “and all Kinnereth together with all the land of Naphtali.”
34 Heb “building.”
35 Heb “and King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, there was no one exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its wood which Baasha had built.”
36 Heb “and King Asa built with them.”
37 Heb “As for the rest of all the events of Asa, and all his strength and all which he did and the cities which he built, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
38 Heb “Yet in the time of his old age he became sick in his feet.”
39 Heb “lay down with his fathers.”