19. there was no more war] This statement can be reconciled with 1 Kings xv. 16, 32 only by interpreting it broadly to mean that nothing serious occurred until the war with Baasha had been going on for several years: a forced interpretation. Perhaps the Chronicler deliberately contradicts Kings “there was war between Asa and Baasha all their days,” assigning to Asa’s reign a time of peace which seemed appropriate to his piety.
Chapter XVI.
1–6 (= 1 Kings xv. 17–22).
Asa asks help of Ben-hadad.
¹In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
1. the six and thirtieth year] According to 1 Kings xvi. 8 Baasha was succeeded by his son Elah in the six-and-twentieth year of Asa. The number thirty-six may therefore be wrong. It should be noticed however that the thirty-sixth year of the separate kingdom of Judah corresponds with the sixteenth year of Asa, so that possibly two different reckonings are here confused and we should read, In the six and thirtieth year, that is, in the sixteenth year of Asa. So in xv. 19 we should read, in the five and thirtieth, that is, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. This scheme of Asa’s reign, however, agrees badly with the dominant ideas of the Chronicler, for the religious reform and covenant in the fifteenth year (verse 10) ought not to have been immediately followed by war in the sixteenth year, but rather by a period of peace and prosperity. Hence thirty-six may after all be the original text, and we must suppose that the Chronicler either ignored or overlooked 1 Kings xvi. 8; or perhaps that he quoted from a midrashic source, having a different system of chronology from that in Kings.
Ramah] The modern er-Rām, situated on a commanding hill about two hours north of Jerusalem. Bädeker, Palestine⁵, p. 216.
²Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus[¹], saying, ³There is[²] a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.
[¹] Hebrew Darmesek.
[²] Or, Let there be.