¹Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam started to reign over Judah. ²He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. ³And he walked in all the sins of his father which he did before him, and his heart was not sincere with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father was. ⁴For it was for David's sake that the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem in raising up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem, ⁵because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he did not depart from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the incident of Uriah the Hittite. ⁶And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ⁷And as for the rest of the affairs of Abijam, and everything he did – are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸And Abijam lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa his son reigned in his place. ⁹And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa reigned as king of Judah. ¹⁰And he reigned in Jerusalem for forty-one years, and his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹Now Asa did what was right in the Lord's sight, as David his father did. ¹²And he ejected the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all the idols which his father had made. ¹³And as for Maachah his mother too, he excluded her from being queen mother, because she had made a monstrosity for the phallic park. And Asa cut her monstrosity down and burnt it at the Kidron Brook. ¹⁴But the idolatrous raised sites were not removed, yet Asa's heart was sincere with the Lord all his days. ¹⁵And he fetched his father's holy articles, and the holy articles of the house of the Lord – silver and gold and equipment. ¹⁶And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and he built Ramah, in order to prevent traffic to and from Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸And Asa took all the silver and the gold which remained in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king's house, and he committed them to the care of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aramaea, who was living in Damascus, and he said, ¹⁹“There is a covenant between me and you as there was between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift – silver and gold. Go and break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel so that I am rid of him.” ²⁰And Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his forces against the cities of Israel, and he attacked Ijon and Dan and Abel-Beth-Maachah, and all of Kinnereth over all the land of Naphtali. ²¹And when Baasha heard about it, he discontinued building Ramah, and he lived in Tirzah. ²²And King Asa made a proclamation to the whole of Judah – no-one was exempt – and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timbers, with which Baasha had been building it. And King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them. ²³And the rest of all the affairs of Asa, and all his bravery, and everything he did, and the cities which he built – are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? Except that in the time of his old age, he had a disorder in his feet. ²⁴And Asa lay with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place. ²⁵And Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ²⁶And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of his father, and in his sin, in that he caused Israel to sin. ²⁷And Baasha the son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against him, and Baasha attacked him in Gibbethon, which the Philistines had held. So Nadab and the whole of Israel besieged Gibbethon. ²⁸And Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned in his place. ²⁹And it came to pass while he reigned that he struck the whole house of Jeroboam down until he had eradicated it – he did not leave anyone of Jeroboam's family with breath remaining – according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through the intermediacy of his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, ³⁰because of the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and because he caused Israel to sin by his provocative behaviour by which he provoked the Lord God of Israel. ³¹And the rest of the affairs of Nadab, and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ³²And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all the time. ³³In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over the whole of Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of Jeroboam and his sin by which he caused Israel to sin.