2 Chronicles 16: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Baasha king of Israel fortifies Ramah to cut off traffic to and from Judah, so Asa sends silver and gold from the temple and palace treasuries to hire Ben-hadad of Syria to break his treaty with Baasha. Ben-hadad attacks northern Israel, Baasha abandons the work, and Asa carries off the building materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah. Hanani the seer rebukes Asa for relying on Syria instead of the LORD and tells him he will have wars from then on; Asa jails him and oppresses some of the people. The chapter closes with Asa's foot disease, in which he sought physicians and not the LORD, his death in the forty-first year of his reign, and his burial.

Claim by Claim

1. 16:1
   • In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah.
   • Baasha built up Ramah.
   • Baasha's purpose was to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.
2. 16:2
   • Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
   • Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the king's house.
   • Asa sent the silver and gold to Ben-hadad king of Aram.
   • Ben-hadad was dwelling in Damascus.
   • Asa sent Ben-hadad a message.
3. 16:3
   • Asa said there is a covenant between himself and Ben-hadad, and between his father and Ben-hadad's father; the wording can also be read as a request that such a covenant be made.
   • Asa said he had sent Ben-hadad silver and gold.
   • Asa told Ben-hadad to go and break his covenant with Baasha king of Israel.
   • Asa said the purpose was that Baasha would withdraw from him.
4. 16:4
   • Ben-hadad listened to king Asa.
   • Ben-hadad sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel.
   • They struck Ijon.
   • They struck Dan.
   • They struck Abel-maim.
   • They struck all the store cities of Naphtali.
5. 16:5
   • When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah.
   • Baasha made his work cease.
6. 16:6
   • King Asa took all Judah.
   • They carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, which Baasha had been building with.
   • Asa built Geba with those materials.
   • Asa built Mizpah with those materials.
7. 16:7
   • At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah.
   • Hanani said to Asa that he had relied on the king of Aram.
   • Hanani said Asa had not relied on the LORD his God.
   • Hanani said that therefore the army of the king of Aram had escaped out of Asa's hand.
8. 16:8
   • Hanani asked whether the Cushites and the Libyans were not a great army with very many chariots and horsemen.
   • Hanani said that because Asa relied on the LORD, the LORD gave them into Asa's hand.
9. 16:9
   • The eyes of the LORD range throughout the whole earth.
   • The LORD shows himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.
   • Hanani told Asa he had acted foolishly in this matter.
   • Hanani said that from now on Asa would have wars.
10. 16:10
    • Asa was angry with the seer.
    • Asa put the seer in the house of the stocks.
    • Asa was in a rage with the seer over this matter.
    • At that same time Asa crushed some of the people.
11. 16:11
    • The acts of Asa, first and last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
12. 16:12
    • In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet.
    • Asa's disease became exceedingly severe.
    • Even in his disease Asa did not seek the LORD.
    • Asa sought the physicians.
13. 16:13
    • Asa slept with his fathers.
    • Asa died in the forty-first year of his reign.
14. 16:14
    • They buried Asa in his tombs, which he had cut out for himself in the city of David.
    • They laid Asa on a bier that was filled with spices and various kinds of blended perfumes prepared by the perfumer's art.
    • They made a very great burning for him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1

Ramah lay about five miles north of Jerusalem on the main north–south road, at the border between the two kingdoms. Fortifying it let Baasha control all traffic in and out of Judah, a blockade rather than an invasion. The date is a long-standing puzzle: 1 Kings 16 has Baasha dying in the twenty-sixth year of Asa's reign, ten years before the events described here.

16:2

The temple treasury and the palace treasury together held the kingdom's reserves of precious metal, accumulated from tribute, taxes and gifts; kings drew on both in emergencies. "Syria" here translates Aram, an Aramean kingdom centered on Damascus to the north-east; it does not correspond to the borders of modern Syria. Ben-hadad was a throne name used by several Aramean kings.

16:3

In this world a "treaty" or "league" was a formal alliance sworn between rulers, and it was understood to pass from father to son, which is why Asa appeals to the arrangement their fathers had. The silver and gold is not a gift but the price of switching sides. The Hebrew of the first clause can be read either as a statement of fact ("there is a treaty between us") or as a proposal ("let there be a treaty between us").

16:4

Ijon, Dan and Abel-maim were towns in the far north of Israel, in the territory of the tribe of Naphtali, the region nearest Damascus and therefore the easiest for an Aramean army to reach. "Supply cities" (KJV "store cities") were fortified royal depots where grain, weapons and equipment were stockpiled.

16:6

Geba and Mizpah were towns on Judah's northern frontier, a few miles from Ramah. Dressed stone and cut timber were expensive and scarce, so carrying off an enemy's building material and reusing it in your own fortresses was normal practice.

16:7

A "seer" is an older term for a prophet, literally one who sees, that is, receives visions. To have someone "in your hand" is a standard idiom meaning to have them in your power; the charge is that by hiring the Aramean king Asa let a force he might have defeated slip beyond his reach.

16:8

This looks back to the invasion described in chapter 14. The KJV's "Ethiopians" translates Hebrew Cush, the region along the Nile south of Egypt (roughly modern Sudan), not the modern country of Ethiopia; the Lubim were Libyans, from west of Egypt. Chariots and cavalry were the elite arm of ancient warfare, expensive and hard for a small hill kingdom like Judah to match.

16:9

The image is of a king's scouts or agents patrolling his realm and reporting back, so that he can send help where it is needed. In the KJV "perfect" does not mean faultless; the Hebrew word means whole or undivided, a loyalty not shared with anyone else.

16:10

The Hebrew for the place of confinement is literally "the house of the stocks", a lock-up where prisoners were held with their feet or hands clamped in a wooden frame. The verb rendered "oppressed" or "mistreated" means to crush or break; it suggests violence against those who took the prophet's side, not merely harsh taxation.

16:11

This is a source document the writer is citing, a court chronicle of the two kingdoms that has not survived. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Kings.

16:12

"To seek the LORD" is the standard Hebrew phrase for formally consulting God about a decision or a crisis, usually through a prophet or a priest, the same procedure a king would use before a battle. The contrast drawn is with whom Asa consulted, not with the use of treatment as such.

16:13

"Slept with his fathers" is the set formula used of a king who dies peacefully and is buried in the ancestral tomb, as opposed to one killed in battle or by assassination.

16:14

Wealthy families and kings were buried in chambers cut into rock, often with several compartments, hence the KJV's plural "sepulchres." The "bed" is a bier, the frame on which the body was carried and laid out. "Prepared by the apothecaries' art" means blended by professional perfumers, a recognized trade. The "very great burning" was a ceremonial bonfire of spices in the king's honor; Israelites did not cremate their dead, and burning the body itself was a disgrace, not an honor.