1And in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam was king over Judah. 2Three years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maachah daughter of Absalom. 3And he went in all the offenses of his father that he had done before him, and his heart was not whole with the LORD his God like the heart of David his forefather. 4For the LORD his God for David’s sake had given him a lamp in Jerusalem to raise up his son after him and to make Jerusalem stand, 5as David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not swerved from all that He charged him all the days of his life, except for the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 6And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. 7And the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Acts 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 was king in his stead.
9And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa king of Judah became king. 10And forty-one years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maachah daughter of Absalom. 11And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD like David his forefather. 12And he rid the land of male cult-harlots and removed the vile idols that his fathers had made. 13And Maachah his mother, too, he removed from being queen mother, as she had made a horror for Asherah. And Asa cut down her horror, and burned it in the Kidron Wadi. 14But the high places did not disappear, only the heart of Asa was whole with the LORD all his days. 15And he brought his father’s consecrated things and his own consecrated things into the house of the LORD—silver and gold and vessels. 16And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17And Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah so as not to allow anyone to come or go who belonged to Asa king of Judah. 18And Asa took all the silver and the gold remaining in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the king’s treasuries and put them in the hand of his servants, and King Asa sent them to King Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion of Aram, who dwelled in Damascus, saying, 19“There is a pact between you and me, between your father and my father. Look, I have sent you a payment of silver and gold. Go, revoke your pact with Baasha king of Israel, that he withdraw from me.” 20And Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa and sent the commanders of the troops that he had against the towns of Israel, and he struck down Ijon and Dan and all Abel-Beth-Maacah and all Kinroth, with all the land of Naphtali. 21And it happened, when Baasha heard, that he left off building Ramah, and he stayed in Tirzah. 22And King Asa had mustered all Judah, none was exempt. And they bore off the stones of Ramah and its timbers with which Baasha had built, and King Asa built with them Geba-Benjamin and Mizpah. 23And the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his valor and all that he did and the towns that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Judah? Only in his old age he was ailing in his feet. 24And Asa lay with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his forefather. And Jehoshaphat his son was king in his stead.
25And Nadab son of Jeroboam had become king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he was king over Israel two years. 26And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD and went in the way of his father and his offense that he had led Israel to offend. 27And Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar plotted against him, and Baasha struck him down in Gibethon, which was the Philistines’, when Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibethon. 28And Baasha put him to death in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and he became king in his stead. 29And it happened when he became king that he struck down the whole house of Jeroboam, he did not leave Jeroboam any breathing creature, until he destroyed him, according to the words of the LORD which He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, 30for the offenses of Jeroboam that he committed and that he led Israel to commit, through the vexation through which he vexed the LORD God of Israel. 31And the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel? 32And there was constant war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel. 33In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah, for twenty-four years. 34And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and he went in the way of Jeroboam and in his offense that he had led Israel to commit.
CHAPTER 15 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. his mother’s name was Maachah daughter of Absalom. There is a problem in this notice because Maachah is also said (verse 10) to be the mother of the next king, Asa, who is Abijam’s son, and there is no warrant for the use of “mother” to mean “grandmother.” (In 2 Chronicles 13:2 it is reported that Abijam’s mother was Michaiah, daughter of Uriel from Gibeah. It is unlikely that the Absalom mentioned here is the same person as David’s son who usurped the throne.)
5. except for the matter of Uriah the Hittite. The murder of Uriah is David’s great crime, but even this notation reflects a rather selective reading of his checkered history.
6. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. This would have to mean the house of Rehoboam because it is the reign of Abijam that is being discussed. The repetition of this whole sentence at the end of the next verse looks redundant and may reflect a scribal error.
12. vile idols. The vocabulary of the Deuteronomistic writers, for understandable ideological reasons, is rich in invective terms for idols, some of them perhaps original coinages. The Hebrew gilulim is formed on a root that suggests “dung.”
13. he removed from being queen mother. From this we may infer that the role of queen mother, gevirah, had certain ceremonial or perhaps even legal functions attached to it. See the comment on 11:19.
horror. The Hebrew mifletset is clearly derived from a verbal root that means to suffer spasms of horror. Its use as an epithet for “idol” is similar to gilulim in verse 12.
And Asa cut down her horror. Some sort of sacred pole was employed in the cult of Asherah—hence the verb “cut down.”
14. But the high places did not disappear. The reason would be either that Asa regarded them as acceptable sites for the worship of YHWH or that they were spread across the countryside and hence resistant to royal control.
19. I have sent you a payment. The noun shoḥad in most other contexts means “bribe.” Either the writer put this word in Asa’s mouth to convey his own judgment that the payment to turn Ben-Hadad against Baasha was a nasty business, or—perhaps more likely—the semantic range of shoḥad extended to mean any payment offered in order to persuade someone to serve one’s purposes.
20. he struck down Ijon and Dan . . . with all the land of Naphtali. Ben-Hadad’s attack is to the north, whereas Baasha’s troops are concentrated in the south. This would have the effect of making them withdraw from their positions around Ramah. (See the next verse.)
23. Only in his old age he was ailing in his feet. This notice of foot disease (or perhaps paralysis in the feet) is by no means essential to the story and so appears to reflect an actual historical memory about the later years of King Asa, perhaps made poignant by the fact that he had previously been a valiant military commander.
25. And Nadab son of Jeroboam had become king over Israel. Both the form of the verb and the content of the statement mark this as a pluperfect: the narrative now backtracks in order to explain how it came about that Baasha supplanted Jeroboam’s son Nadab as king of Israel.
29. he struck down the whole house of Jeroboam. This liquidation of all the males in the house of Jeroboam is both the fulfillment of the prophet Ahijah’s curse and common ancient Near Eastern practice when someone usurps a royal house. One recalls Macbeth’s impulse to kill Banquo and any of his offspring in order to eliminate anyone who might lay claim to the throne.