1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah to blockade Asa king of Judah.
2 Asa then took the silver and gold from the treasuries of Yah weh’s House and the royal palace, and sent it with the following message to Ben-hadad king of Aram who lived in Damascus,
3 “Let there be a covenant between myself and you, as between my father and your father! With this I send you silver and gold. Come, break off your alliance with Baasah king of Israel, so that he goes away from me.
4 Ben-hadad agreed, and sent his generals against the towns of Israel; he conquered Ijon, Dan, Abelmaim and all the garrison towns of Naphtali.
5 When Baasha heard this he stopped fortifying Ramah, abandoning this work.
6 King Asa then brought all the people of Judah, who took away the stones and timber with which Baasah had been fortifying Ramah, and the king used them to fortify Geba and Mizpah.
7 It was then that Hanani, the pro phet, came to Asa king of Judah and said, “Since you have relied on the king of Aram and not on Yahweh your God, the army of the king of Aram will escape from you.
8 Did not the Cushites and Libyans form a vast army with great numbers of chariots and horses? And were they not delivered into your power because you relied on Yahweh?
9 Yahweh keeps close watch over the whole world to give strength to those who are devoted to him wholeheartedly. You have acted foolishly in this matter, for from now on you will have wars.”
10 Asa was very angry with the prophet and had him put in chains in prison, for he was angry because of these words. At the same time Asa treated some others harshly too.
11 The history of Asa, from first to last, is recorded in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
12 A disease attacked Asa from head to foot in the thirty-ninth year of his reign; and, what is more, he turned in his sickness, not to Yahweh, but to doctors.
13 Then Asa rested with his fathers in the forty-first year of his reign.
14 They buried him in the tomb he had ordered to be dug for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a couch entirely covered with spices and varied ointments, products of the perfumer’s skill, and lit a huge fire for him.