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ASA
1. Third king of the southern kingdom of Judah (910–869 BC) after the split of Solomon’s Empire into independent kingdoms. Solomon’s son Rehoboam, Asa’s grandfather, had neither Solomon’s wisdom nor his tact. Rehoboam failed to use diplomacy to avoid an approaching explosion of popular resentment against Solomon’s oppressive policies; in fact, Rehoboam actively precipitated the explosion. Asa came to the throne just after his father, Abijam (or Abijah), who reigned only briefly (913–910 BC). Asa thus inherited a shrunken, vulnerable kingdom. Moreover, he was thrust into a suddenly unstable political arena shaken by collapse of the great world empires of old Babylonia to the north and east in Mesopotamia, and of Egypt to the southwest. Hence until the emerging might of Assyria was firmly established (mid-ninth century BC), the small Palestinian states (Israel, Judah, Syria, the Arameans, and Phoenicians, and to some degree the peoples of Moab and Edom) were free to push and shove among themselves.
The rival states had superficial similarities, especially Judah and Israel, but were divided by deep differences and intense self-interest. Borders were in perpetual dispute—never fully settled but seldom contested in all-out bloody conflict. Threats, expedience, bribes, payment of tribute, marriages purchased for power, and other cunning arts in the catalog of political kingcraft were employed to shift alliances. Since all were playing the same game, a kind of fluid balance resulted.
At the beginning of King Asa’s reign there was an initial decade of peace and prosperity. Then, however, he was called upon to face enemy threats and invasion. In those crises he trusted God and forced out or defeated all who attempted to conquer, divide, or destroy Judah (2 Chr 14:1-8). Further, he cleansed the land of pagan shrines and places of worship and even took away the royal prerogatives and standing of Maacah, his mother. She had erected an image of the fertility goddess Asherah (1 Kgs 15:10; 2 Chr 15:16).
Nonetheless, later in his reign Asa abruptly abandoned his trust in God. By means of a huge gift that stripped the temple treasures, he entered an alliance with Ben-hadad, king of Damascus (Syria) in order to force Baasha, ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel, to withdraw from newly conquered territory in Judah. Asa had become heedless of God’s faithful protection when Israel, Judah’s mortal enemy, stood triumphant and strategically poised to strike, only five miles (8 kilometers) from Jerusalem. Asa’s power play worked. Israel had to retire from the field in the south to meet Ben-hadad’s threat from the north. When Hanani spoke plainly to Asa about his disbelief in God, Asa was infuriated and had Hanani thrown into prison (2 Chr 16:7-10).
For the last years of his long 41-year reign, Asa was ill: “Even when the disease became life threatening, he did not seek the Lord’s help but sought help only from his physicians” (2 Chr 16:12, NLT). He died and was buried with honor in the royal tombs (1 Kgs 15:24; 2 Chr 16:14).
See also Israel, History of; Chronicles, Books of First and Second; Chronology of the Bible (Old Testament); King.
2. A Levite and Berechiah’s father. Berechiah lived in one of the villages of the Netophathites after the exile (1 Chr 9:16).