2Ch 16:1-6 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for 2Chr 16:1-10: 16:1-10 Instead of trusting the Lord, Asa relied on foreign powers when Baasha attacked. The Chronicler’s theological purpose was to show that disobedience has consequences. 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign: According to the book of Kings, King Baasha (909–886 BC ) died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign (1 Kgs 16:8 ). One solution is that the Chronicles text might contain transmission errors and should instead read the fifteenth and sixteenth years (about 895 BC ) instead of the thirty-fifth (2 Chr 15:19 ) and thirty-sixth years of Asa. Another possibility is that the Chronicler counted these years from the division of the kingdom. • Ramah was located five miles north of Jerusalem near Geba and Mizpah (see 16:6 ). King Baasha expanded Israel deep into the territory of Benjamin, separating important territory from Judah very shortly after the victories of Abijah (13:19 ).

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‏ 2 Chronicles 16:1-6

Summary for 2Chr 16:1-10: 16:1-10 ^a Instead of trusting the Lord, Asa relied on foreign powers when Baasha attacked. The Chronicler’s theological purpose was to show that disobedience has consequences. 16:1 ^b In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign: According to the book of Kings, King Baasha (909–886 BC) died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign (1 Kgs 16:8 ^c). One solution is that the Chronicles text might contain transmission errors and should instead read the fifteenth and sixteenth years (about 895 BC) instead of the thirty-fifth (2 Chr 15:19 ^d) and thirty-sixth years of Asa. Another possibility is that the Chronicler counted these years from the division of the kingdom.

• Ramah was located five miles north of Jerusalem near Geba and Mizpah (see 16:6 ^e). King Baasha expanded Israel deep into the territory of Benjamin, separating important territory from Judah very shortly after the victories of Abijah (13:19 ^f).
16:2 ^g To obtain relief from Baasha’s aggression, Asa bribed the Arameans with silver and gold from ... the Temple, appealing to an earlier treaty that his father Abijah had made with them.
16:4 ^h King Ben-hadad of Aram (16:2 ⁱ) broke his treaty with Baasha and attacked northern Israel, capturing all the land of Naphtali; this area included all of Galilee and nearly all of the country north of the Jezreel Valley and east of the Sea of Galilee.

• Ijon was a large village in the southern Beqa‘ Valley, on the southern border of modern-day Lebanon. This town is usually listed with Dan (Laish), Abel-beth-maacah, and Hazor in northern Israel. Abel-beth-maacah was near a major waterfall of the Jordan River tributaries, at the juncture of the Hula Valley and the Beqa‘ Valley in Lebanon.
16:6 ^j Asa drafted laborers to use the materials from Ramah to fortify the northern border of his kingdom. Mizpah is usually identified with Tell en-Nasba, about four miles north of Ramah and two miles from Bethel. Geba was probably located three miles beyond the watershed east of Gibeah, protecting a wadi leading down to Jericho and the sanctuary at Gilgal.