asa Summary and Overview

physician, son of Abijah and grandson of Rehoboam, was the third king of Judah. He was zealous in maintaining the true worship of God, and in rooting all idolatry, with its accompanying immoralities, out of the land (1 Kings 15:8-14). The Lord gave him and his land rest and prosperity. It is recorded of him, however, that in his old age, when afflicted, he "sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians" (compare Jer. 17:5). He died in the forty-first year of his reign, greatly honoured by his people (2 Chr. 16:1-13), and was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat.

(physician, or cure). 1. Son of Abijah and third king of Judah. (B.C. 956-916.) (His long reign of 41 years was peaceful in its earlier portion, and he undertook the reformation of all abuses, especially of idolatry. He burnt the symbol of his grandmother Maachah's religion and deposed her from the dignity of "king's mother,") and renewed the great altar which the idolatrous priests apparently had desecrated. #2Ch 15:8| Besides this he fortified cities on his frontiers, and raised an army, amounting, according to #2Ch 14:8| to 580,000 men, a number probably exaggerated by an error of the copyist. During Asa's reign, Zerah, at the head of an enormous host, #2Ch 14:9| attacked Mareshah. There he was utterly defeated, and driven back with immense loss to Gerar. The peace which followed this victory was broken by the attempt of Baasha of Israel to fortify Ramah. To stop this Asa purchased the help of Benhadad I. king of Damascus, by a large payment of treasure, forced Baasha to abandon his purpose, and destroyed the works which he had begun at Ramah. In his old age Asa suffered from gout, He died, greatly loved and honored, in the 41st year of his reign. 2. Ancestor of Berechiah a Levite who resided in one of the villages of the Netophathites after the return from Babylon. #1Ch 9:16|

A'SA (physician) was son and successor of Abijam on the throne of Judah, b. c. 955-914. 1 Kgs 15:8. He reigned forty-one years. Though educated in the principles of a false religion, he showed from the first his decided opposition to idolatry, and even deposed his grandmother, Maachah, because she had made an idol in a grove. The first part of his reign was peaceful, and he improved the opportunity to purify his kingdom from idolatry and to build and fortify several cities; and when Zerah, an Ethiopian king, invaded his territories with an army of a million of men and three hundred chariots, Asa met him at Mareshah with 580,000 men, and defeated him. This battle was one of the most important in Jewish history. 2 Chr 14. At the suggestion of the prophet Azariah, Asa set about the reformation of every abuse in his kingdom, and appointed a solemn festival of thanksgiving to God, at which all the people were assembled, and entered into a formal covenant with God. Baasha, king of Israel, finding his subjects too much disposed to go into Judah and dwell there, commenced fortifying Ramah, a place near the frontiers of both kingdoms, with a view to cut off the passage of emigrants to Jerusalem and other parts of Judah. Asa, though he had so long enjoyed the favor and protection of God, was now tempted to forsake him. Instead of trusting him for deliverance, as he had done in years past, he sent to Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, and prevailed on him, even in violation of a treaty which existed between Ben-hadad and Baasha, to come to the help of Judah against Israel. The Syrian king, won by the presents which Asa had sent him, immediately attacked and destroyed several important cities of Israel. Baasha, finding his kingdom thus invaded, abandoned the fortification of Ramah that he might protect the provinces of the interior from desolation. Asa seized the opportunity to demolish Ramah and take away the stone and timber which were collected there and use them in the building of his own cities. In the mean time, Hanani the prophet was sent to rebuke him for forsaking Jehovah, and to announce his punishment. But Asa was enraged by the faithful message, and caused the bearer of it to be imprisoned. 2 Chr 16:10. In the latter part of his life Asa had a disease of the feet, perhaps the gout, but "he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians." We may, however, accept his sufferings as an extenuating circumstance for his occasional acts of tyranny. He died b. c. 914, in the forty-first year of his reign, and was buried with great pomp. 2 Chr 16:14. 1. A Levite who dwelt in one of the villages of the Netophathites after the Captivity. 1 Chr 9:16.

("healing".) Son of Abijah; third king of Judah. Faithful to Jehovah; determined in rooting out idolatry and its attendant licentiousness (1 Kings 15:9-15; 1 Kings 15:2 Chronicles 14; 15; 16). He built fenced cities, the Lord giving him and his land rest and prosperity. No respecter of persons: so much so that he deposed Maachah, the queenmother (wife of Rehoboam and Asa's grandmother), because she made an idol (Hebrew "horror," some abominable and impure object of worship) in a grove; and he cut her idol down, stamped, and burnt it at the brook Kedron, as Moses had done to the golden calf (Exodus 32:20). For "in a grove," translate" to Asherah" (Hebrew haasheerah), the Phoenician Venus (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Chronicles 15:16). The high places to idols he took away (2 Chronicles 14:3). But those to Jehovah, being an irregularity of a secondary kind, he did not take away (2 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Kings 15:14). Moreover, the gifts dedicated by his father Abijah, in the earlier and better part of his reign, silver, gold, and vessels, but afterward appropriated by the pagan priests for idolatry, he brought into the house of God (2 Chronicles 15:18). Encouraged by the prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded, "the Lord is with you while ye be with Him," he renewed the altar of Jehovah before the porch, after its desecration. The first ten years of his reign were occupied peacefully in such religious reforms. But in the eleventh year danger of war seems to have been anticipated, for "the land," it is said, "was quiet ten years" only (2 Chronicles 14:1-2; 2 Chronicles 14:8-15). Then follows Asa's preparation of an army with targets and spears, 300,000 of Judah and 280,000 of Benjamin, bearing shields and drawing bows. In the 14th year the threatened danger came. Zerah, the Cushite or Ethiopian, invaded Judah at Mareshah with 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. (See ZERAH.) The valley of Zephathah, at Mareshah (Marisse, S.W. of Judah, near the later Eleutheropolis), was the battle field. Like Judah, in his father Abijah's time, in the hour of imminent peril (2 Chronicles 13:14-15), Asa cried unto Jehovah his God: "Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on Thee. ... Let not man prevail against Thee" (compare 1 Samuel 14:6). So Jehovah smote the Ethiopians before Asa (compare Isaiah 59:19.) At this very time a king called Azerch Amen, we know from recently deciphered monuments, reigned in Ethiopia (G. Rawlinson). Ewald and Hincks identify him with Osorkon I., king of Egypt, second of the 22nd dynasty. Zerah's army is composed of much the same elements (2 Chronicles 16:8; 2 Chronicles 12:3), Ethiopians and Lubims (Libyans), as Shishak's (the Sukkiim being peculiar to the latter); mercenaries, we know, were much employed in the 22nd dynasty. Others fix on Osorkon II., son in law of his predecessor, and reigning in right of his wife. He was probably, if this view be true, an Ethiopian, ruling over both Egypt and Ethiopia. Asa, having refused to pay the tribute imposed by Shishak on Rehoboam, was invaded. Asa on his return from the victory gathered all Judah and Benjamin and strangers out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, who joined his kingdom, seeing the Lord was with him, in the 15th year of his reign. At this feast of thanksgiving all "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul." "The Lord gave them rest round about" for a time. But Baasha, king of Israel, jealous of the defections from his own kingdom and the growing prosperity of Judah, fortified Ramah on the road N. of Jerusalem, "that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa" (compare 1 Kings 12:27; 1 Kings 15:17.) This is said (in 2 Chronicles 16:1; 2 Chronicles 16:11) to be in the 36th year of Asa's reign; but Baasha was at that time long dead (1 Kings 15:33), therefore this 36th year must be calculated from the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. This calculation was probably drawn from "the book of the kings of Judah and Israel." Baasha's act was probably in the 17th year of Asa's reign. Asa, instead of trusting in Jehovah, bought the help of the pagan world power, Benhadad I. king of Damascus, against Israel, with the treasures left in the temple and the palace from the tribute for Egypt, which he had ceased to pay. Benhadad smote Ijon, Dan, and Abelmaim, and the store cities of Naphtali. So Baasha had to cease fortifying Ramah, and Asa used the materials to fortify Geba (the hill) and Mizpeh (the watchtower) in Benjamin to guard against future invasion. The large cistern or pit made by Asa to obviate scarcity of water in the event of a siege by Baasha is mentioned long after in Jeremiah 41:7; Jeremiah 41:9. Hanani, the seer, reproved Asa, telling him that if he had not relied on the king of Syria, instead of on Jehovah, he should have had him as a vassal instead of being himself subordinate to Syria. Carnal policy brings on the very evil which it shuns, and which would have been completely averted by a policy of faith. So far from escaping wars by his unbelieving course, he must henceforth have them (1 Kings 15:32; 2 Chronicles 16:7-9). Asa, instead of being humbled, was wroth, and put the seer in prison and oppressed some of the people, probably sympathizers with the man of God. It is true he succeeded in capturing cities of Ephraim (2 Chronicles 17:2), but his end was under a spiritual cloud. Diseased in his feet, after a reign of 39 years, "he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians," i.e., his trust was less in Jehovah than in human remedies (compare Jeremiah 17:5). That in the main, nevertheless, he served the Lord truly, appears from 1 Kings 15:14; "Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord (sincere) all his days." The funeral, with its "sweet odorous and divers spices" and "very great burning for him," marks how highly he was esteemed. His whole reign lasted 41 years, 956 to 915 B.C. His later blemishes warn even believers; "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (compare Galatians 5:7).