War between Asa and Baasha
In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah; and he built Ramah, so as to allow no one going out or coming in to Asa, king of Judah.
And Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the house of the king, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, who lived at Damascus, saying:
“There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Look — I am sending you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he will go up away from me.”
And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his forces against the cities of Israel; and they struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
And it was, when Baasha heard, that he stopped building Ramah, and let his work cease.
And Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried off the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building; and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.
Hanani’s Message to Asa
And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you leaned on the king of Aram, and did not lean on the LORD your God — therefore the force of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.
Were not the Cushites and the Libyans a vast force, with chariots and horsemen in great abundance? Yet because you leaned on the LORD, he gave them into your hand.
For the LORD — his eyes rove through all the earth, to hold strong with those whose heart is whole toward him. You have acted foolishly in this; for from now on there will be wars with you.”
And Asa was angry at the seer, and put him in the house of the stocks — for he was in a rage with him over this. And Asa crushed some of the people at that time.
The Death and Burial of Asa
And look — the acts of Asa, the first and the last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
And Asa became diseased, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, in his feet, until his disease was exceedingly severe; yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.
And Asa lay down with his fathers; and he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
And they buried him in his own tomb, which he had cut for himself in the city of David; and they laid him on a bier filled with spices and blended ointments, blended by the perfumer’s work; and they burned for him a very great burning.