2 Chronicles 16
Baasha, the king of Israel, attacked Judah and built a wall around Ramah, but Asa, the king of Judah, bribed Benhadad, the king of Syria, to break his pact with Baasha and attack Israel. Benhadad complied, forcing Baasha to withdraw from Ramah, and Asa used the materials Baasha had prepared to build up Gibeah and Mizpah. The prophet Hanani rebuked Asa for trusting in the king of Syria instead of God, warning him that this would lead to future wars. Asa became angry and imprisoned Hanani, and later, when Asa became ill, he trusted in physicians rather than seeking God, and eventually died.
1Then, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Baasha, the king of Israel, ascended against Judah. And he encircled Ramah with a wall, so that no one could safely depart or enter from the kingdom of Asa2Therefore, Asa brought forth silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and from the treasuries of the king. And he sent to Benhadad, the king of Syria, who was living in Damascus, saying3"There is a pact between me and you. Also, my father and your father had an agreement. For this reason, I have sent silver and gold to you, so that you may break the pact that you have with Baasha, the king of Israel, and so that you may cause him to withdraw from me.4And when he verified this, Benhadad sent the leaders of his armies to the cities of Israel. And they struck Ahion, and Dan, and Abelmaim, and all the walled cities of Naphtali5And when Baasha had heard of it, he ceased to build around Ramah, and he interrupted his work6Then king Asa took all of Judah, and they carried away from Ramah the stones and the wood that Baasha had prepared for the things to be built. And he built up Gibeah and Mizpah with them7In that time, the prophet Hanani went to Asa, the king of Judah, and he said to him: "Because you have faith in the king of Syria, and not in the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand8Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans much more numerous in chariots, and horsemen, and an exceedingly great multitude? Yet when you believed in the Lord, he delivered them into your hand9For the eyes of the Lord contemplate the entire earth, and offer fortitude to those who believe in him with a perfect heart. And so, you acted foolishly. And so, because of this, from the present time wars shall rise up against you.10And Asa was angry against the seer, and he ordered him to be sent into prison. For indeed, he had been very indignant over this. And in that time, he put to death very many of the people11But the works of Asa, the first and the last, have been written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel12And now Asa became ill, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, with a very severe pain in his feet. And yet, in his infirmity, he did not seek the Lord. Instead, he trusted more in the skill of physicians13And he slept with his fathers. And he died in the forty-first year of his reign14And they buried him in his own sepulcher, which he had made for himself in the City of David. And they placed him upon his bed, full of the aromatics and ointments of courtesans, which were composed with the skill of the perfumers. And they burned these over him with very great ostentation
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