2 Chronicles 16 explained: A Good King's Bitter Final Years

A blockade at Ramah (v. 1)

Baasha, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, fortified Ramah, a town a few miles north of Jerusalem, to cut off traffic into Judah. The "thirty-sixth year" is puzzling because 1 Kings has Baasha dead by Asa's twenty-sixth year, and scholars are unsure whether this is a copying error or a different way of counting.

Asa pays for an ally (vv. 2-6)

Asa emptied the temple and palace treasuries to pay Ben-Hadad of Aram (roughly modern Syria) to break his treaty with Israel and raid its northern towns. The plan worked, and Asa carted off Baasha's stones and timber to fortify his own border towns.

The prophet's rebuke (vv. 7-9)

Hanani says Asa's real failure was relying on a foreign king instead of the LORD, who had already helped him defeat a huge army from Cush, south of Egypt, when he did trust (chapter 14). Verse 9 pictures God watching over the whole earth to strengthen the wholehearted, and Hanani announces that Asa will now face ongoing war.

Asa lashes out (v. 10)

Instead of listening, Asa threw the prophet in prison and treated some of his own people harshly. The text does not say who they were or what he did to them; some suggest they had sided with Hanani, but that is a guess.

Illness and burial (vv. 11-14)

In his last years Asa had a severe disease in his feet, and the writer faults him for turning only to doctors, which most readers take to mean leaving God out rather than using doctors at all. He was still honored with a lavish burial, and the "huge fire" was probably a ceremonial burning of spices, not cremation, which Israel did not normally practice.

Key verse: 2 Chronicles 16:9

Where Christians differ

Readers differ on whether Asa's final years show a real turning away from God or a late stumble by a basically faithful king, since 2 Chronicles 15:17 says his heart was fully committed all his days.

Something to think about

When someone points out a hard truth about a choice that seemed to work out, what makes it so difficult to hear?