1 In Asa's thirty-sixth year, Baasha king of Israel marched against Judah and built up Ramah to keep anyone from going out to or coming in to Asa king of Judah.
2 Asa took silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the palace and sent it to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who ruled in Damascus, with this message:
3 "Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and yours. I am sending you silver and gold. Go and break off your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will pull back from me."
4 Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa and sent his army commanders against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all Naphtali's storage cities.
5 As soon as Baasha heard this, he quit building up Ramah and abandoned his work.
6 King Asa then brought all Judah, and they hauled away the stones and timbers of Ramah that Baasha had been building with, and he used them to build Geba and Mizpah.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and told him, "Since you leaned on the king of Syria and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has slipped out of your hand.
8 Were the Cushites and Libyans not a vast army with a great many chariots and horsemen? Yet when you leaned on the LORD, he handed them over to you.
9 For the LORD's eyes roam over all the earth, to give strong support to those whose hearts are undivided toward him. You have been foolish in this matter, and from now on you will have wars."
10 Asa was furious with the seer and threw him into the stocks, for he was in a rage at him over this. At the same time Asa crushed some of the people.
11 Asa's deeds, from beginning to end, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted in his feet, and his illness became extremely severe; yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, only the physicians.
13 Asa lay down with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
14 They buried him in the tomb he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bed filled with spices and all sorts of ointments prepared by skilled perfumers, and they lit a very great fire in his honor.