1 And in the eighteenth year {shmonah esreh: compound cardinal number} of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam took the kingship over Judah {Yehudah: southern Israelite kingdom}.
2 His reign in Jerusalem lasted three years. His mother’s name was Maakah {maakah: royal woman}, daughter of Abishalom {avishalom: father of peace}.
3 He kept to all the sins his father had practiced before him, and his heart was not whole with the LORD his God {YHWH Elohav, Standard of Devotion}, unlike the heart {levav: innermost self} of David his father.
4 Yet for the sake of David, the LORD his God {YHWH Elohav, Covenant Protector} granted him a lamp in Jerusalem, raising up his son after him and keeping Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: city of peace} established.
5 Because David did what was right {yashar: straight conduct} in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Evaluator}, he did not turn aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
6 And war {milchamah: armed struggle} persisted between Rehoboam and Jeroboam for the whole of his lifetime {ḥayyav: lifetime span}.
7 As for the remaining words of Abijam and everything he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles {sefer: official record} of the kings of Judah? War {milchamah: prolonged conflict} also took place between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 Abijam slept {vayishkav: Hebrew death idiom} with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David. Asa his son then reigned {vayimlokh: dynastic succession} in his place.
9 In Jeroboam’s {Yarav'am: people’s contender} twentieth year as king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah {Yehudah: southern kingdom}.
10 He reigned in Jerusalem {yerushalayim: city of covenant monarchy} for forty-one years, and his mother’s {immo: maternal lineage significance} name was Maakah, daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did what was right {hayashar: moral uprightness} in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, as his forefather David had done.
12 And he removed the male shrine prostitutes {haqqedeshim: cultic sexual servants} from the land, and he took away all the idols {hagillulim: false images} that his fathers had made.
13 He also removed his mother Maakah from being queen mother because she had made an abomination {mifletset: Detestable Idol} for Asherah. Then Asa cut down that abomination and burned it at the brook {nachal: Seasonal Stream} Kidron.
14 Yet the high places were not removed; however, Asa’s heart was wholly devoted to the LORD {YHWH, Faithful Covenant Partner} all his days {yamav: earthly lifetime}.
15 He brought the holy things of his father and his own holy things into the house of the LORD {YHWH, Sanctuary Recipient}: silver {keseph: precious metal}, gold, and vessels.
16 War {milchamah: armed conflict} continued between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, for all their days {yemeihem: full reigns}.
17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah {ramah: border fortress}, in order not {bilti: block access} to allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
18 Asa took all the silver and the gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the LORD {YHWH, Temple Sanctifier} and the treasuries {otsrot: secured vaults} of the king’s house, the king’s palace, and he put them into the hand of his servants and sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezyon, king of Aram, the one dwelling in Damascus, saying,
19 A covenant exists between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I am sending you a gift {shochad: tribute or bribe} of silver and gold. Go and break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me {me‘alai: from upon me}.
20 Ben-Hadad {ben-haddad: Son of Hadad, Aramean King} listened to King Asa and sent his commanders against the cities of Israel; they struck Iyon, Dan, Abel Beth-Maacah, and all Kinnereth {kinnerōt: region around the Sea of Galilee}, throughout the land of Naphtali.
21 When Baasha heard of this, he ceased work on Ramah {ramah: fortified city} and lived in Tirzah {tirzah: royal city}.
22 King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—no one was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah {ramah: Border Fortress} and its timbers, with which Baasha had built; and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah {mitspah: Watch Post}.
23 The remaining acts of Asa—his might, what he did, and the cities he built—are they not written in the book {sefer: official record} of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Yet in his old age {ziknato: advanced years}, he became diseased in his feet.
24 Asa {Asa: king of Judah} lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city {ir: dynastic burial site} of David his father; then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.
25 Nadab, son of Jeroboam, ascended the throne {malakh: ascended throne} of Israel in the second year of Asa, king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years {shnatayim: dual term indicating two full years}.
26 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}; he walked in his father’s way and in the sin by which he caused Israel to commit {hecheti: led astray}.
27 Baasha son of Ahijah, of the house {bayit: extended family group} of Issachar, conspired against him; Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging {tsarim: siege forces} Gibbethon.
28 Baasha killed him in the third year {bishnat: regnal dating} of Asa, king of Judah, and he reigned in his place {takhtav: throne succession}.
29 As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all the house of Jeroboam; he left Jeroboam no one who breathed {neshamah: living soul} until he had destroyed it according to the word of the LORD {YHWH, Promise Fulfiller} spoken by the hand of His servant Ahijah the Shilonite.
30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam {Yarovʾam: northern ruler} that he committed and that he caused Israel to commit, and because of the provocation with which he provoked the LORD God {YHWH Elohei Yisraʾel, Just Judge}.
31 The rest of the words {divrei: official account} of Nadab, and all that he did—are they not written in the book of the chronicles {yamim: annual records} of the kings of Israel?
32 War {milchamah: armed conflict} remained between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, for all their days {yemeihem: entire duration of their reigns}.
33 In the third year {shalosh: feminine cardinal} of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah began to reign {malakh: assuming sovereign authority} over all Israel in Tirzah for twenty-four years.
34 He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Moral Judge}; he walked in the way of Jeroboam {Yarov'am: Rebel Precedent} and persisted in the sin by which he led Israel to sin.