¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and he built Ramah, to prevent traffic to and from Asa king of Judah. ²And Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house, and he sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aramaea, who was living in Damascus, and he said, ³“There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go and break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel so that I am rid of him.” ⁴And Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his forces to the cities of Israel, and they attacked Ijon and Dan and Abel-Maim, and all the storehouses in the cities of Naphtali. ⁵And when Baasha heard about it, he discontinued building Ramah, and he put a stop to his work. ⁶And King Asa took all of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timbers, with which Baasha had been building it, and he built Geba and Mizpah with them. ⁷And at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aramaea, and you have not relied on the Lord your God, the forces of the king of Aramaea have escaped from your control. ⁸Had not the Ethiopians and the Libyans become a numerous force, with chariots and horsemen in very great numbers? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹For the eyes of the Lord scour the whole land, so that he may show his strength to those whose heart is sincere with him, but you have acted foolishly in this respect, so from now on you will have wars.” ¹⁰At this Asa became angry with the seer, and he put him in prison, for he was in a rage with him about this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time. ¹¹And as for the affairs of Asa – the first and the last – they are to be seen written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²Now Asa became diseased in his feet in the thirty-ninth year of his reign. His disease was in an advanced stage, but even with his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the doctors. ¹³And Asa lay with his fathers, and he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴And they buried him in his own grave which he had had dug for himself in the City of David, and they laid him on a bed which he had filled with fragrances and suchlike, composed as a professional preparation, and they lit a very great fire for him indeed.