1 Kings 15

¹Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.

²Three years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

³And he walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him, and his heart was not whole with the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father.

⁴Nevertheless for David's sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by raising up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem;

⁵because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from all that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

⁷Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸And Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son became king in his place.

⁹And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa reigned as king of Judah.

¹⁰And forty-one years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father.

¹²And he put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

¹³And also Maacah his mother, he removed her from being queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for Asherah; and Asa cut down her repulsive image and burned it in the Wadi Kidron.

¹⁴But the high places were not removed; yet the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days.

¹⁵And he brought the holy things of his father and his own holy things into the house of the Lord: silver and gold and vessels.

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

¹⁷And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah, so as to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.

¹⁸And Asa took all the silver and the gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the house of the king, and gave them into the hand of his servants; and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion, king of Aram, who dwelt in Damascus, saying,

¹⁹Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.

²⁰And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent the commanders of the armies that he had against the cities of Israel, and he struck down Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

²¹And it came about, when Baasha heard of it, that he ceased building Ramah, and he dwelt in Tirzah.

²²Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, none being exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built; and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written on the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Only in the time of his old age he became diseased in his feet.

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

²⁵And Nadab son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

²⁶And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD, and he walked in the way of his father and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.

²⁷And Baasha son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon.

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

²⁹And it came about, as soon as he became king, that he struck down all the house of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam no one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Shilonite,

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

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

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

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

³⁴And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel commit.