2 Chronicles
Summary
In the thirty-sixth year of his reign, King Asa faces a threat from Baasha of Israel and responds by relying on a military alliance with Ben-Hadad of Syria rather than on the LORD. This lack of faith prompts Hanani the seer to rebuke Asa, reminding him that God's eyes search the earth to support those whose hearts are loyal. Angered by the message, Asa imprisons the prophet and later suffers from a severe disease in his feet, ultimately dying after forty-one years on the throne, having failed to seek the LORD in his final illness.
In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent them to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying,
"Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me."
So Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They struck Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
And it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work.
Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been building Ramah; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.
And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: "Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand.
Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars."
Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that same time.
Note that the acts of Asa, first and last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was very severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.
So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
They buried him in his own tomb, which he had made for himself in the City of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled with spices and various ingredients prepared by the perfumer’s are. They made a very great bonfire for him.