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¹ Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.² For three years he was king in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.³ And he did the same sins which his father had done before him: his heart was not completely true to the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father.⁴ But because of David, the Lord gave him a light in Jerusalem, making his sons king after him, so that Jerusalem might be safe;⁵ Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and never in all his life went against his orders, but only in the question of Uriah the Hittite.⁶  Three dots are used where it is no longer possible to be certain of the true sense of the Hebrew words, and for this reason no attempt has been made to put them into Basic English.⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.⁸ Then Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they put him into the earth in the town of David: and Asa his son became king in his place.

⁹ In the twentieth year that Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah.¹⁰ And he was king for forty-one years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.¹¹ Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father did.¹² Those used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods he sent out of the country, and he took away all the images which his fathers had made.¹³ And he would not let Maacah his mother be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had the image cut down and burned by the stream Kidron.¹⁴ The high places, however, were not taken away: but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.¹⁵ He took into the house of the Lord all the things which his father had made holy, and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels.¹⁶ Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.¹⁷ And Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah, so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah.¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still stored in the Lord's house, and in the king's house, and sent them, in the care of his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,¹⁹ Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you an offering of silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me.²⁰ So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as far as all the land of Naphtali.²¹ And Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and was living in Tirzah.²² Then King Asa got all Judah together, making every man come; and they took away the stones and the wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and King Asa made use of them for building Geba in the land of Benjamin, and Mizpah.²³ Now the rest of the acts of Asa, and his power, and all he did, and the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? But when he was old he had a disease of the feet.²⁴ So Asa went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth in the town of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place.

²⁵ Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in the second year that Asa was king of Judah; and he was king of Israel for two years.²⁶ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of his father, and the sin which he did and made Israel do.²⁷ And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the family of Issachar, made a secret design against him, attacking him at Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines; for Nadab and the armies of Israel were making war on Gibbethon.²⁸ In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha put him to death, and became king in his place.²⁹ And straight away when he became king, he sent destruction on all the offspring of Jeroboam; there was not one living person of all the family of Jeroboam whom he did not put to death, so the word of the Lord, which he said by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, came about;³⁰ Because of the sins which Jeroboam did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath.³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?³² And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days.³³ In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and was king for twenty-four years.³⁴ He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of Jeroboam and the sin which he made Israel do.