9In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa king of Judah began to reign.10He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Maacah the daughter of Absalom.11Asa did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD, just as David his father had done.12He removed the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.13He also removed his mother Maacah from her position as queen because she had made a horror for Asherah; Asa cut down her horror and burned it in the Kidron torrent.14The high places were not removed, except that the heart of Asa was fully devoted to the LORD all his days.15He brought the holy things of his father and his own holy things and the holy things of the house of the LORD—silver, gold, and articles—into the house of the LORD.16There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout all their days.17Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.18Asa took all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the treasuries of the king's house and gave them into the hands of his servants; then King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying:19There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a bribe of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.20Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the cities of Israel; he struck Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maachah, and all Chinnereth, together with all the land of Naphtali.21When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and stayed in Tirzah.22Then King Asa conscripted all Judah—there was no one exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber that Baasha had used to build it; with those materials King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.23Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities that he built—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.24Asa lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.