2 Chronicles 16

2 Chronicles 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah.

2 Chronicles 16:2 So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of Yahveh’s house and the royal house and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying,

2 Chronicles 16:3 “There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Notice, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.”

2 Chronicles 16:4 Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of his powerful ones to the cities of Israel. They struck down Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

2 Chronicles 16:5 When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped[1] his work.

2 Chronicles 16:6 Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.

2 Chronicles 16:7 At that time, the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on Yahveh your God, the powerful ones of the king of Aram have escaped from you.

2 Chronicles 16:8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast, powerful army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on Yahveh, he handed them over to you.

2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of Yahveh roam throughout the land to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.”

2 Chronicles 16:10 Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in the confinement house because of his anger over this. Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.

2 Chronicles 16:11 Notice that the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

2 Chronicles 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease, he didn’t seek Yahveh but only the physicians.

2 Chronicles 16:13 Asa lied down with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

2 Chronicles 16:14 He was buried in his own tomb, which he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him down in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments, and then they made a great fire in his honor.

[1] שָׁבַת = stop. 2 Chronicles 16:5.