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2 C H RO N I C L ES 1 7
4 Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and
sent the commanders of his army to attack the
towns of Israel. They conquered the towns of
Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah,* and all the store
cities in Naphtali. 5 As soon as Baasha of Israel
heard what was happening, he abandoned his
project of fortifying Ramah and stopped all
work on it. 6 Then King Asa called out all the
men of Judah to carry away the building stones
and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify
the towns of Geba and Mizpah.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to King
Asa and told him, “Because you have put your
trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord
your God, you missed your chance to destroy the
army of the king of Aram. 8 Don’t you remember
what happened to the Ethiopians* and Libyans
and their vast army, with all of their chariots
and charioteers?* At that time you relied on the
Lord, and he handed them over to you. 9 The
eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order
to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From
now on you will be at war.”
10 Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put
him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to
oppress some of his people.
Summary of Asa’s Reign
11 The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded in The Book of the
Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth
• Anger
2 CH R O NIC LE S 1 6 :7 -1 0
Even though Asa felt threatened by
Baasha’s invasion, he didn’t really have
a good reason for making a treaty with
Ben-hadad, king of Aram. God had
granted him military victory against
impossible odds before (2 Chronicles
14:9-13). By turning to a foreign ruler
for help now, Asa showed a lack of faith
in God. When Hanani exposed these
wrong motives, Asa blew up and had the
prophet put in prison. And things only
got worse. Asa went on to oppress some
of his own people and refused to seek
God’s help when he faced illness. How
do you respond when someone confronts
you and you know your motives have
been less than honorable? Are you quick
to strike back, to try to defend yourself?
Carefully evaluate what the other person
is saying. If you don’t, then like Asa, you
may be heading down a dangerous path.
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year of his reign, Asa developed a serious
foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his
disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but
turned only to his physicians. 13 So he died in
the forty-first year of his reign. 14 He was buried
in the tomb he had carved out for himself in the
City of David. He was laid on a bed perfumed
with sweet spices and fragrant ointments, and
the people built a huge funeral fire in his honor.
Jehoshaphat Rules in Judah
Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became
the next king. He strengthened Judah to
stand against any attack from Israel. 2 He stationed troops in all the fortified towns of Judah,
and he assigned additional garrisons to the
land of Judah and to the towns of Ephraim that
his father, Asa, had captured.
3 The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he
followed the example of his father’s early years*
and did not worship the images of Baal. 4 He
sought his father’s God and obeyed his commands instead of following the evil practices
of the kingdom of Israel. 5 So the Lord established Jehoshaphat’s control over the kingdom
of Judah. All the people of Judah brought gifts
to Jehoshaphat, so he became very wealthy and
highly esteemed. 6 He was deeply committed to*
the ways of the Lord. He removed the pagan
shrines and Asherah poles from Judah.
7 In the third year of his reign Jehoshaphat
sent his officials to teach in all the towns of
Judah. These officials included Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. 8 He
sent Levites along with them, including Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemir amoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah,
and Tob-adonijah. He also sent out the priests
Elishama and Jehoram. 9 They took copies of
the Book of the Law of the Lord and traveled
around through all the towns of Judah, teaching the people.
10 Then the fear of the Lord fell over all the
surrounding kingdoms so that none of them
wanted to declare war on Jehoshaphat. 11 Some
of the Philistines brought him gifts and silver as
tribute, and the Arabs brought 7,700 rams and
7,700 male goats.
12 So Jehoshaphat became more and more
powerful and built fortresses and storage cities
throughout Judah. 13 He stored numerous supplies in Judah’s towns and stationed an army of
seasoned troops at Jerusalem. 14 His army was
enrolled according to ancestral clans.
17
From Judah there were 300,000 troops
organized in units of 1,000, under the
command of Adnah. 15 Next in command
16:4 As in parallel text at 1 Kgs 15:20; Hebrew reads Abel-maim,
another name for Abel-beth-maacah. 16:8a Hebrew Cushites.
16:8b Or and horsemen? 17:3 Some Hebrew manuscripts read
the example of his father, David. 17:6 Hebrew His heart was
courageous in.