16 In the thirty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign, Yisrael’s king Baasha invaded Yehudah and built Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of Yehudah’s King Asa. 2 Asa took gold and silver from the temple treasuries and the king’s palace, and he sent it to King Ben-Hadad of Aram (modern Syria), who lived in Damascus, requesting, 3 “I want a peace treaty between you and me, and between your family and mine. Listen, I’ve sent gold and silver to you. Go and break your agreement with Yisrael’s King Baasha, so he’ll give up on his attack against me.”

4 Ben-Hadad accepted King Asa’s suggestion and sent his army captains to fight against Yisrael’s cities. They struck Iyyon, Dan, and Abel-Mayim, and all the storehouses in the Naftali cities. 5 When King Baasha heard about that, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned the project, 6 so King Asa took men there from Yehudah. They carried away all the building stones from Ramah, along with the timber which Baasha had been using, and used it all to build Geva and Mitspah (north of Yerushalem).