2 Chronicles 16

¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, so as not to allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

²And Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the house of the king, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who was dwelling in Damascus, saying,

³There is a covenant between me and you, as between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.

⁴And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they struck Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

⁵And when Baasha heard it, he stopped building Ramah and brought his work to a halt.

⁶Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built; and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: Because you relied on the king of Aram and did not rely on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

⁸Were not the Cushites and the Libyans a vast army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand.

⁹For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is wholly devoted to him. You have acted foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.

¹⁰Then Asa was angry at the seer and put him in the house of stocks, for he was in a rage with him over this; and Asa crushed some of the people at that time.

¹¹Now the acts of Asa, from first to last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

¹²And Asa became ill in his feet in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, and his illness was very severe; yet even in his illness he did not seek the Lord, but only the physicians.

¹³And Asa lay down with his fathers and died in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴They buried him in the tombs that he had cut for himself in the City of David, and they laid him on a bier filled with spices and various kinds of blended perfumes, and they burned a very great fire in his honor.