King Asa of Judah

9 After Jeroboam had been the king of Israel for almost 20 years, Asa started to rule Judah. 10 He ruled in Jerusalem for 41 years. His grandmother was Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom.

11 Asa did what was pleasing to Yahweh, as his ancestor David had done. 12 He got rid of the male prostitutes that were at the places where the people worshiped idols, and he also got rid of all the idols that his ancestors had made. 13 He also removed his grandmother Maacah so that she no longer had influence in the government because of being the mother of a previous king. He did that because she had made a disgusting wooden statue of the goddess Asherah. Asa told his workers to cut down the statue and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14 He was not able to destroy all the places where the people worshiped idols on the high hills, but he continued to be dedicated/committed to Yahweh his entIre life. 15 He told his workers to place in the temple all the items that his father had dedicated to God, and all the gold and silver things that he had dedicated to God.

16 There were wars between the armies of Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, all during the time that they ruled. 17 Baasha’s army invaded Judah. They captured Ramah town north of Jerusalem. Then they started to build a wall around it in order to prevent people from entering or leaving the area in Judah that was ruled by King Asa.

18 So Asa told his workers to take all the silver and gold that was still in the storerooms in the temple and in the palace. He told them to take it to Damascus and give it to King Ben-Hadad who ruled Syria. Ben-Hadad was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion. He told the workers to say this to Ben-Hadad: 19 “I want there to be a peace treaty between you and me, like there was between your father and my father. For that reason, I am giving you this silver and gold. So now please cancel the treaty that you made with Baasha, the king of Israel, in order that he will take his soldiers away from attacking mine, because he will be afraid of your army.” 20 So the workers went and gave the message to Ben-Hadad, and he did what Asa suggested. He sent his army commanders and their soldiers to attack some of the towns in Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel-Beth-Maacah, the area near Galilee Lake, and all the land of the tribe of Naphtali. 21 When Baasha heard about that, he told his soldiers to stop working at Ramah. He and his soldiers returned to Tirzah and stayed there. 22 Then King Asa sent a message to all the people in the towns in Judah, stating that they all were required to go to Ramah and carry away the stones and timber that Baasha’s soldiers had been using to build a wall around the city. With those stones and timber they fortified Mizpah city north of Jerusalem, and Geba, a town in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.

23 Everything else that Asa did, the armies that his soldiers defeated, and the names of the cities that he caused to be fortified, are [RHQ] written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah’. But when Asa became old, he got a disease in his feet. 24 He died [EUP] and was buried where his ancestors were buried in the part of Jerusalem called ‘The City of David’. Then his son Jehoshaphat became king.