I Kings 15:8-24

⁸And Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son became king in his place.

⁹So in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah. ¹⁰He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father. ¹²He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made. ¹³He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron. ¹⁴But the high places were not taken away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days. ¹⁵He brought into the house of the Lord the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.

¹⁶Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹“Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.” ²⁰So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah and all Chinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali. ²¹When Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and remained in Tirzah. ²²Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—none was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built. And King Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³Now the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.