1st Kings 15:7-26

⁷Soothly the residue of the words of Abijam, and all things that he did, whether these be not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? And battle was betwixt Abijam and Jeroboam (or And there was always battle between Abijam and Jeroboam).

⁸And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa, his son, reigned for him.

⁹And Asa, king of Judah, reigned in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel; (And Asa, the king of Judah, began to reign in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, the king of Israel;)

¹⁰and Asa reigned one and forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his (grand)mother was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹And Asa did rightfulness in the sight of the Lord, as David, his father, did;

¹²and he took away from the land men of women’s conditions, and he purged all the filths of idols, which his fathers (had) made.

¹³Furthermore and he removed Maachah, his (grand)mother, that she should not be princess in the solemn things of the idol Priapus, and in his maumet wood that she had hallowed; and he destroyed the den of him, and he brake the foulest simulacrum, and burnt it in the strand of Kidron; (And furthermore he removed Maachah, his grandmother, so that she would no longer be the queen mother, for she had erected an idol of Priapus in a grove, and worshipped it, or for she had made an obscene idol for the worship of Asherah; and he broke up, and destroyed, that most foul idol, and burned it by the Kidron Stream or and burned it in the Kidron Gorge;)

¹⁴soothly he did not (do) away the high things (or but he did not do away the hill shrines); nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with his Lord God, in all his days.

¹⁵And he brought into the house of the Lord those things, which his father had hallowed, and avowed, (the) silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁶Forsooth battle was betwixt Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, in all the days of them.

¹⁷And Baasha, king of Israel, went up into Judah, and builded Ramah, that no man of the part of Asa, king of Judah, might go out, either go in. (And Baasha, the king of Israel, went up to Judah, and fortified Ramah, so that no man of Asa, the king of Judah, could come in, or could go out.)

¹⁸Therefore Asa took all the silver and gold, that (were) left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and gave it into the hands of his servants; and he sent it to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, son of Hezion, the king of Syria, that dwelled in Damascus (or who lived in Damascus), and said,

¹⁹A bond of peace is betwixt me and thee, and betwixt my father and thy father, and therefore I sent to thee gifts, gold, and silver; and I ask, that thou come, and make void the bond of peace, that thou hast with Baasha, king of Israel, and that he go away from me. (There is a covenant between me and thee, and between my father and thy father, and so I sent gifts of gold and silver to thee; and I ask that thou come, and dissolve the covenant, that thou hast with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that then he shall go away from me.)

²⁰Benhadad assented to king Asa, and sent the princes of his host into the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel, the house of Maachah (or and Abelbethmaachah), and all Cinneroth, that is, all the land of Naphtali.

²¹And when Baasha had heard this thing, he left (off) to build Ramah, and turned again into Tirzah. (And when Baasha had heard of this thing, he stopped fortifying Ramah, and returned to Tirzah.)

²²Forsooth king Asa sent a message into all Judah, and said, No man be excused. And (so) they (all came, and) took (away) the stones of Ramah, and the trees thereof, by which Baasha had builded (it); and king Asa builded of the same stones and trees Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah. (And King Asa sent a message to all Judah, and said, No man shall be excused. And so they all came, and took away the stones, and the timber, from Ramah, with which Baasha had fortified it; and King Asa used these same stones and timber to fortify Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.)

²³Soothly the residue of all the words of Asa, and of all his strength, and all things that he did, and the cities which he builded, whether these be not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless Asa had (an) ache in his feet, in the time of his eld (age).

²⁴And Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with them in the city of David, his father; and Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned for him.

²⁵Forsooth Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, reigned on Israel, in the second year of Asa, king of Judah; and he reigned on Israel two years. (And Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign upon Israel in the second year of Asa, the king of Judah; and he reigned upon Israel for two years.)

²⁶And he did that, that was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he went in the ways of his father, and in the sins of him, in which he made Israel to do sin.