Reign c. 911 - 870 BCE Father Abijam Grandparents Rehoboam, Maacah House House of David Role King Children Jehoshaphat | Name Asa Judah Parents Annas, Abijah of Judah Mother Annas | |
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Asa (Hebrew: אָסָא, Asa, ʾĀsâ; Greek: Ασα; Latin: Asa) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the Kingdom of Judah and the fifth king of the House of David. The Hebrew Bible gives the period of his reign as 41 years. His reign is dated between 913-910 BC to 873-869 BC. He was succeeded by Jehoshaphat, his son (by Azubah). According to Thiele's chronology, when Asa became very ill, he made Jehoshaphat coregent. Asa died two years into the coregency.
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Asa was zealous in maintaining the traditional worship of God, and in rooting out idolatry, with its accompanying immoralities. After concluding a battle with Zerah of Egypt in the 10th year of his reign, there was peace in Judah (2 Chronicles 14:1,9) until the 35th year of Asa's reign (2 Chronicles 16:1). In his 36th year he was confronted by Baasha, king of Israel. He formed an alliance with Ben-Hadad I, king of Aram Damascus, and using a monetary bribe, convinced him to break his peace treaty with Baasha and invade the Northern Kingdom. (2 Chronicles 16:2-6) He died greatly honoured by his people, and was considered for the most part a righteous king. He threw the prophet Hanani in jail and "oppressed some of the people the same time" (2 Chronicles 16:10). It is also recorded of Asa that in his old age, when afflicted with a foot disease, he “sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians”.
Family
Asa is typically understood as the son of Abijam. However, scholars have found the biblical accounts of Asa's family to be contradictory. While a number of theories have been suggested, no explanation can accommodate all available sources or has proved definitively compelling.
Purging of idolatry
Azariah son of Oded, a wiseman and prophet, exhorted Asa to reinforce strict national observance of Judaism, and Asa paid heed. He purged the land of former religious worships; all the sites of non-Judaic worship were destroyed and the nation entered into a covenant or oath together. The Queen Mother, Maacah, was also deposed for having been involved with local, non-Judaic gods, worships, and beliefs, which were practiced by neighboring peoples. Finally, when the religious transition was completed in Asa's fifteenth year, a great feast was held in Jerusalem at Solomon's Temple (2 Chronicles 15:10-11). At that time, many northerners, particularly from the tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, migrated to the Kingdom of Judah because of the fruitful golden age in Judah, and the internal conflict in Israel after the fall of the dynasty of Jeroboam I.
Wars and defense projects
Taking advantage of 35 years of peace, Asa revamped and reinforced the fortresses originally built by his grandfather Rehoboam. 2 Chronicles reports that Asa also repelled a raid by the Egyptian-backed chieftain Zerah the Ethiopian, whose million men and 300 chariots were defeated by Asa's 580,000 men in the Valley of Zephath, near Mareshah (2 Chronicles 14:8-15). According to Steven Shawn Tuell, the biblical numbers given in this passage are "completely unrealistic." The Bible does not state whether Zerah was a pharaoh or a general of the army. The Ethiopians were pursued all the way to Gerar, in the coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah free from Egyptian incursions until the time of Josiah, some centuries later.
In Asa's 36th year, King Baasha of Israel attacked the Kingdom of Judah (2 Chronicles 16:1; the Seder Olam and some later commentators take this as the 36th year since the division of the kingdom, not the 36th year of Asa's reign). Baasha built the fortress of Ramah on the border, less than ten miles from Jerusalem. The result was that the capital was under pressure and the military situation was precarious. Asa took gold and silver from the Temple and sent them to Ben-Hadad I, king of Aram Damascus, in exchange for the Damascene king canceling his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad I attacked Ijon, Dan, and many important cities of the tribe of Naphtali, and Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah. Asa tore down the unfinished fortress and used its raw materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah, on his side of the border.
Later years
Hanani the Seer, a prophet, admonished Asa for relying on the King of Syria as opposed to Divine help in defeating Baasha (2 Chronicles 16:7-10). Asa became very angry and threw Hanani in jail. Asa was also not as just as he had been and oppressed some of the people. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a severe disease in his feet, for which he sought the help of physicians, not the Lord (2 Chronicles 16:12). In Thiele's chronology, Asa made his son Jehoshaphat coregent in the year that saw the onset of his disease. Asa died two years later and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, in the grave that he had dug for himself (2 Chronicles 16:13-14).
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