2 Chronicles 16

1 In the six-and-thirtieth year of the reign of Assa, came up Ba'sha the king of Israel against Judah, and built Kamah, in order not to suffer any one to go out or come in to Assa the king of Judah.

2 Then did Assa bring out silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent [them] to Ben-hadad the king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,

3 A covenant is between me and thee, as between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee silver and gold; go, break thy covenant with Ba'sha the king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.

4 And Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Assa, and sent the captains of the armies that he had against the cities of Israel, and they smote 'Iyon, and Dan, and Abel-mayim, and all the treasure-cities of Naphtali.

5 And it came to pass, when Ba'sha heard this, that he left off the building of Ramah, and stopped his work.

6 And king Assa took then all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, wherewith Ba'sha had built; and he built therewith Geba' and Mizpah.

7 And at that time came Chanani the seer to Assa the king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God: therefore is the army of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hands.

8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a numerous army, with chariots and horsemen in great abundance? yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he gave them up into thy hand.

9 For as regardeth the Lord, his eyes roam throughout the whole earth, to hold strongly with those whose heart is entire toward him: thou hast done foolishly for this reason; because from this time forth there will be wars with thee.

10 Then became Assa incensed toward the seer, and put him in a prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Assa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

11 And, behold, the acts of Assa, the first and the last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

12 And Assa became sick in the thirty-and-ninth year of his reign in his feet, his disease being exceedingly severe: yet even in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but [applied] to the physicians.

13 And Assa slept with his fathers, and died in the one-and-fortieth year of his reign.

14 And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had dug for himself in the city of David, and they laid him in the couch which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices mixed by the apothecary's art; and they made for him a burning uncommonly great.