²Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the storehouses of the house of Yahweh and the house of the king, and he sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram,^a who lived in Damascus, saying, ³“There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I am sending you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, king of Israel, that he might withdraw from me.”

⁴And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent commanders of his troops that were with him against the cities of Israel. And they struck Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵And it happened that when Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. ⁶Then King Asa took all of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and he built Geba and Mizpah with them.

⁷And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “On account of your reliance upon the king of Aram,^b and since you did not rely on Yahweh your God, therefore the troops of the king of Aram^c escaped from your hand. ⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with very abundant chariots and horsemen? And because of your reliance on Yahweh he gave them into your hand. ⁹For the eyes of Yahweh roam throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is fully devoted to him. You have been foolish in this, for from now on you will have wars.”

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Footnotes

aOr “Syria”
bOr “Syria”
cOr “Syria”