BOOK 14 OF 66 · HISTORY · KING JAMES BIBLE

2 Chronicles 16

2 Chronicles book home•Chapter 16 of 36•14 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

2 Chronicles 16 Overview

Late in Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel fortifies Ramah to control movement into Judah. Instead of seeking the LORD as he had earlier, Asa takes silver and gold from the temple and royal treasuries to buy an alliance with Ben-hadad of Syria. The strategy works militarily, but Hanani the seer rebukes Asa for relying on Syria. Asa becomes angry, imprisons the prophet, oppresses some people, and later suffers a severe foot disease; even then he seeks physicians rather than the LORD. He dies after forty-one years.

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Before you read 2 Chronicles 16

Coming from

Chapter 15 ended with major reform and rejoicing under Asa.

In this chapter

Asa’s later years show a sharp decline from dependence on God to political self-reliance, anger at correction, oppression, and stubbornness in sickness.

Leads into

Chapter 17 introduces Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, whose early reign is marked by seeking God and sending teachers of the law throughout Judah.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The problem is not that using diplomats, money, or physicians is inherently sinful. The text identifies Asa’s fault as relying on those means instead of the LORD. His earlier prayer in chapter 14 makes the contrast deliberate. The statement about physicians must therefore not be turned into a blanket prohibition of medical care.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Past faithfulness does not excuse later self-reliance.

Truth 2

A plan can appear successful politically and still be spiritually wrong.

Truth 3

Rejecting correction can deepen a leader’s decline.

Truth 4

Human means become spiritually dangerous when trusted in place of God rather than used under dependence on him.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

First Kings 15:16-24 records Asa’s alliance with Ben-hadad and his later disease.

Connection 2

Second Chronicles 14 provides the deliberate contrast of Asa earlier crying to God against overwhelming odds.

Connection 3

Psalm 146:3 warns against ultimate trust in princes and human power.

Connection 4

Luke 5:31 uses physicians as a normal point of comparison, confirming that Scripture does not treat medical care itself as sinful.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not teach that going to doctors is sinful; the text condemns Asa’s refusal to seek God, not medicine itself.

Keep this clear 2

Do not judge Asa’s eternal destiny from his late-life failure; the chapter addresses temporal covenant faithfulness and consequences.

Keep this clear 3

Military success does not prove that Asa’s chosen method was right.

Read 2 Chronicles 16 watching for…

What Asa takes from the temple treasury.

Why the Syrian alliance appears to work.

Hanani’s explanation of what Asa lost by relying on Syria.

Asa’s reaction to rebuke.

The wording about physicians in Asa’s final illness.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6Asa relies on Syria against Baasha and gains relief from Ramah 7-10Hanani rebukes Asa for not relying on the LORD, and Asa becomes angry 11-14Asa becomes diseased, seeks physicians rather than the LORD, and dies

In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

Then 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 Benhadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying,

There is 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.

And Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmaim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

And it came to pass, when Baasha heard it, that he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease.

Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha was building; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah.

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.

Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.

And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.

And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.

And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him.

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2 Chronicles 16:2

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