2 *Chronicles 16

₁In the 36th year after Asa had become king_of_Judah, Baasha, king_of_Israel, came and he attacked Judah. Baasha took the town of Rama and he made the walls of the town stronger because he did not want the people of Israel to go to King Asa and to come back again. ₂Then Asa took all the gold and silver from the store rooms of the temple and in the palace and he gave it to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, and he sent a message to him. King Ben-Hadad lived in Damascus. Asa said to Ben-Hadad:

₃‘We have made an agreement, and my father and your father also had an agreement. I am sending you silver and gold. Please stop your agreement with King Baasha of Israel, and then he will leave my land and go back home.’

₄Ben-Hadad did what King Asa asked him to do. He sent the leaders of his army to attack the towns of Israel. They defeated the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim and all the towns in the land of Naphtali where the store rooms of the king were. ₅When they told this to Baasha, he stopped building the walls of the town of Ramah. He did not do any more work there. ₆King Asa called all the people of Judah to come with him and they took all the stones and wood that Baasha wanted to use to build the walls. Then Asa built the towns of Geba and Mizpah with those stones and wood.

₇At that time Hanani, the prophet, came to Asa, the king_of_Judah, and said to him: ‘Why did you ask the king of Aram to help you? Why did you not ask the Lord your God to help you? Now you will not defeat the army of the king of Aram. ₈When the soldiers of Cush and Libya came to attack you, they had very big armies with a lot of war-chariots and men on horses, and you asked the Lord to help you. And He helped you defeat them all. ₉The Lord sees everything on earth and He makes the people who believe in Him strong. But you have done something foolish now, and from now on you will always have to make war.’

₁₀Asa was angry with the prophet. He was so angry that he put him into jail. Then Asa also started doing bad things to some of his people.

₁₁Everything that Asa did, from the time that he became king to the end, is written in the book of kings_of_Judah and Israel. ₁₂In the 39th year after he had become king, Asa became very sick. He had a disease in his feet. He suffered a lot and he asked doctors to heal him, but he did not ask the Lord to help him. ₁₃Asa died in the 41st year after he had become king. ₁₄They buried him in the grave that he had told the people to cut out for him in the City of David. They put his body in the tomb with a lot of spices and sweet-smelling oils. Then they made a big fire to honour him.