Asa and the Kings of Israel

In his place his son Abijah held the kingdom at Jerusalem for six years, although the Chronicle says he reigned three years. His son Asa succeeded him, the fifth from David, being his great-great-grandson. He was a devout worshiper of God: he destroyed the altars and the groves of the idols and so removed the traces of his father’s unfaithfulness. He made an alliance with the king of Syria, and with his help he did much damage to the kingdom of Jeroboam, which was then held by Jeroboam’s son. Often, after defeating the enemy, he carried off plunder as the fruit of victory. After forty-one years he died, suffering from a disease in his feet. Three kinds of sin are laid to his charge: first, that he trusted too much in his alliance with the king of Syria; second, that he threw into prison a prophet of God who rebuked him for it; and third, that when he was suffering from the disease in his feet, he looked for a cure not from God but from the physicians. [a]

Early in his reign Jeroboam, king of the ten tribes, died and left his throne to his son Nadab. Nadab was hateful to God for his wicked deeds, both his own and his father’s, and he held the kingdom no more than two years; his children, as unworthy, were deprived of the government. His successor was Baasha, the son of Ahijah, who proved just as much a stranger to God. He died in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, and his power passed to his son Elah, but Elah kept it no more than two years. For Zimri, the commander of his cavalry, killed him at a banquet and seized the kingdom, a man as hateful to God as to men. Part of the people revolted from him, and the royal power was given to a man named Tibni. But Zimri reigned seven years before him, and twelve years alongside him.

And when Asa died, his son Jehoshaphat began to reign over part of the tribe of Judah, a man rightly famous for his godly virtues. He lived at peace with Zimri, and he died after a reign of twenty-five years.