[1] In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel,
went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no one was able to go out or
in to Asa, king of Judah. [2] Then Asa took silver and gold out of the
stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to
Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, [3] Let there be an agreement
between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I
have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with
Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. [4] And
Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against
the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the
store-towns of Naphtali. [5] Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the
building of Ramah, and let his work come to an end. [6] Then King Asa, with
all Judah, took away the stones and wood with which Baasha was building
Ramah, and he made use of them for building Geba and Mizpah. [7] At that
time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because
you have put your faith in the king of Aram and not in the Lord your God,
the army of the king of Aram has got away out of your hands. [8] Were not
the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army, with war-carriages and
horsemen more than might be numbered? but because your faith was in the
Lord, he gave them up into your hands. [9] For the eyes of the Lord go this
way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the
strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done
foolishly, for from now you will have wars. [10] Then Asa was angry with
the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of
this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people. [11]
Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings
of Judah and Israel. [12] In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a
very bad disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in his
disease, but to medical men. [13] So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and
death came to him in the forty-first year of his rule. [14] And they put
him into the resting-place which he had made for himself in the town of
David, in a bed full of sweet perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the
perfumer's art, and they made a great burning for him.
