2 Chronicles 16

Revised Geneva Translation

16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah, to keep anyone from passing through to or out from Asa, king of Judah.

² Then, Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasures of the House of the LORD, and from the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,

³ “There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Come. Break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may depart from me.”

⁴ And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of the army which he had against the cities of Israel. And they struck Ijon and Dan and Abel Maim and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

⁵ And when Baasha heard it, he stopped the building of Ramah, and let his work cease.

⁶ Then, Asa the king took all Judah and carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber (with which Baasha built) and he built Geba and Mizpah with it.

⁷ And at that same time, Hanani the Seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, “Because you have rested upon the king of Aram and not rested in the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand.

⁸ “The Ethiopians and the Lubim, were they not a great army with a large number of chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you rested upon the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.

⁹ “For the Eyes of the LORD behold all the Earth, to show Himself strong with those who are of a perfect heart toward Him. You, then, have done foolishly in this. Therefore, henceforth you shall have wars.”

¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the Seer and put him into a prison, for he was displeased with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed the people at that time.

¹¹ And behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

¹² And Asa, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, became diseased in his feet. His disease was extreme, yet he did not seek the LORD in his disease, but the physicians.

¹³ So, Asa slept with his fathers and died in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴ And they buried him in one of his sepulchers which he had made for himself in the City of David and laid him in the bed which they had filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices made by the art of the apothecary. And they burnt odors for him with an exceedingly great fire.