1 Kings 15

Revised Geneva Translation

15 And Abijam reigned over Judah in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

² He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

³ And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

⁴ But for David’s sake, the LORD his God gave him a light in Jerusalem, and set up his son after him, and established Jerusalem,

⁵ because David did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and turned from nothing that He Commanded him, all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶ And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam as long as he lived.

⁷ Also, the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? There was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ And Abijam slept with his fathers. And they buried him in the City of David. And Asa, his son, reigned in his place.

⁹ And during the twenty years of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa reigned over Judah.

¹⁰ He reigned in Jerusalem for forty-one years. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ And Asa did right in the Eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

¹² And he took away the Sodomites from the land and put away all the idols that his fathers had made.

¹³ And he also put down Maachah, his mother, from her estate, because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa destroyed her idols and burnt them by the brook Kidron.

¹⁴ But they did not pull down the high places. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was upright with the LORD, all his days.

¹⁵ Also, he brought in the holy vessels of his father, and the things that he had dedicated to the House of the LORD, silver and gold and vessels.

¹⁶ And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.

¹⁷ Then Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and built Ramah, so that he could let no one go out or in to Asa, king of Judah.

¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasures of the House of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram, who dwelt in Damascus, saying,

¹⁹ “A covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father! Behold, I have sent a present of silver and gold to you. Come. Break your covenant with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may depart from me.”

²⁰ So, Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of the armies which he had against the cities of Israel and struck Ijon and Dan and Abel Beth Maachah and all Chinneroth, along with all the land of Naphtali.

²¹ And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and dwelt in Tirzah.

²² Then, King Asa assembled all Judah. No exceptions. And they took the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built. And King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them.

²³ And the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age, he was diseased in his feet.

²⁴ And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, his father. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place.

²⁵ And Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for two years.

²⁶ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin.

²⁷ And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the House of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at Gibbethon (which belonged to the Philistines). For Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.

²⁸ In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha killed him and reigned in his place.

²⁹ And when he was king, he struck all the House of Jeroboam. He left no one alive for Jeroboam until he had destroyed him according to the Word of the LORD which he spoke by his servant, Ahijah the Shilonite,

³⁰ because of the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and with which he made Israel sin by his provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel.

³¹ And the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

³² And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.

³³ In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah and reigned for twenty-four years.

³⁴ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin.