Study Desk

The people of Israel mourned for him and buried him, as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

Jeroboam ruled as king for twenty-two years. He died and was buried, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done.

Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

and he ruled three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.

He committed the same sins as his father and was not completely loyal to the Lord his God, as his great-grandfather David had been.

But for David's sake the Lord his God gave Abijah a son to rule after him in Jerusalem and to keep Jerusalem secure.

The Lord did this because David had done what pleased him and had never disobeyed any of his commands, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

Abijah died and was buried in David's City, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.

and he ruled forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.

Asa did what pleased the Lord , as his ancestor David had done.

He expelled from the country all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan places of worship, and he removed all the idols his predecessors had made.

He removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol and burned it in Kidron Valley.

Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life.

He placed in the Temple all the objects his father had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated.

So King Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the Temple and the palace, and sent it by some of his officials to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, with this message:

"Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory."

King Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, the area near Lake Galilee, and the whole territory of Naphtali.

Everything else that King Asa did, his brave deeds and the towns he fortified, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. But in his old age he was crippled by a foot disease.

Asa died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.