Asa of Judah

Asa (Hebrew: אָסָא, Standard Asa Tiberian ʾĀsâ) was the fifth king of the House of David and the third of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the son of Abijam, and great-grandson of Solomon. He was also reportedly the grandson of Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 913 B.C.E.-873 B.C.E., while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 911 B.C.E.-870 B.C.E.

Asa regained reportedly won an important victory over Egyptian forces to the south and later forged a military alliance with Damascus that enabled him to resist pressure from King Baasha of Israel. In matters of religion, he was the first king to carry out a strong Yahweh-only religious reform. I Kings and II Chronicles thus describe his reign in a favorable manner. They both give his reign as being 41 years.

Background

Asa lived during the first stages of the Divided Kingdoms, when the unified monarchy under Solomon had been split into two by the successful rebellion of Jeroboam I, who reigned under the northern kingdom of Israel. The Davidic dynasty under Solomon's son Rehoboam remained in control over the southern kingdom of Judah. According to the biblical account, Jeroboam's rebellion had initially been sanctioned by God through the ministry of the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh. However, Jeroboam earned the prophet's disapproval for establishing sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel.

Although the prophets warned the kings of Judah against military actions against their northern brothers, wars did break out. Judah suffered as a result of the north's alliance with Egypt, and Jerusalem was sacked by the Egyptian king, whom the Bible calls Shishak, during the reign of Rehoboam. After Rehoboam's death, his son Abijam (also called Abijah) succeeded in winning back several northern towns, in part through an alliance with Israel's enemy, the kingdom Damascus (Syria).

Although generally favoring the south against the north, the biblical writers disapprove of both Rehoboam and Abijam for not being zealous enough in promoting the "Yahweh-only" tradition of the Jerusalem priesthood. That situation changed under the reign of Asa.

Our sources concerning Asa's rule are the accounts in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The accounts, of course, are heavily biases in favor of Judah versus Israel and do not completely agree in their assessment of Asa. The account in Chronicles is considerably more detailed concerning Asa himself, but the account in kings is more detailed about his northern counterpart, Baasha of Israel. Chronicles also makes Asa appear to be a much grander figure than does Kings.

Early victories

According to Chronicles, Asa's reign began with an impressive building program to fortify the towns of Judah. He also carried out a program to promote Yahweh-worship and destroy the shrines of other deities. Chronicles states that he also removed the high places, although the account in kings specifically says otherwise (1 Kings 15:14). Kings also adds that he expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and destroyed the idols that "his fathers had made.

Chronicles gives the size of Asa's armies as 300,000 men from Judah and 280,000 from Benjamin. The figures, however, are probably exaggerated. Archaeological evidence suggest armies of this size were not present in the area in the tenth century B.C.E., although large forces did exist at the time of Chronicles' composition. In any case, Asa's forces fought a major battle against the vast army of "Zerah the Cushite," an apparent reference to Egyptians of the Upper Nile region who controlled areas near Judah in Philistia. Asa's army won the day and drove the invaders back to the Philistine town of Gerar. His men also won a great deal of plunder from the territory the Cushites had controlled.

Chronicles next describe the ministry of prophet Azariah son of Oded and Asa's response to it. Azariah exhorted Asa to reinforce strict national observance of worship of Yahweh only. Asa responded by purging the land of religious worship not devoted to Yahweh. All the sites of non-Judaic worship were destroyed and the worshipers persecuted. Asa also made the practice of ritual prostitution forbidden and prosecuted all offenders.

The Queen Mother, Asa's grandmother Maacah, was deposed for having been erected an "Asherah pole". Finally, when the religious transition was completed in Asa's fifteenth year, a great feast was held in Jerusalem at Solomon's Temple. At that time, many northerners, particularly from the tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, reportedly migrated to the Kingdom of Judah. Others came on temporary visits to the Temple in Jerusalem for the purposes of pilgrimage.

Wars and Defense Projects

Although the Book of Kings states that "there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns," Chronicles takes the view that Asa's religious piety resulted in a long period of peace, indicated that "there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign."

In Asa's thirty-sixth year, King Baasha of Israel brought a force close to Jerusalem and fortified the town of Ramah, seeking to prevent further immigration and pilgrimage to Jerusalem. With his capital under pressure Asa took "all the silver and gold" from the Temple and his own palace and sent them to Ben-Hadad I, King of Damascus, as a bribe to induce him to break his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad complied, attacking several key northern cities and forcing Baasha to withdraw from Ramah. Asa tore down the unfinished fortress and used its raw materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah, on his side of the border.

The prophet known as Hanani the Seer, however, admonished Asa for relying on foreign help as opposed to Divine aid in defeating Baasha. Hanani predicted that Asa would remain at war for the rest of his life as a result. Asa grew angry and imprisoned Hanani in jail and allegedly "oppressed some of the people" in an unspecified way. No additional battles are related in the text, but Chronicles does say that Asa developed an infection in his toes that later spread to the rest of his body. Because he consulted doctors as opposed to "the Lord" for a cure, the disease only grew worse. He died after 41 years as king and was buried with great honor in Jerusalem.

Legacy

Asa was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, who ended the war with Israel and formed an alliance with its powerful kings, Omri and his son Ahab. The biblical authors speak highly of Jehosaphat for the most part, but criticize him for allowing his son to marry Ahab's daughter Athaliah, who would later become Judah's reigning Queen, relax the restrictions against Baal worship, and carry out a bloodbath in retaliation for the murder of her own family by the Yahwist zealot Jehu of Israel. Asa's lineage, however, would survive Athaliah's purge and thus continue the Davidic dynasty until the Babylonian Exile.

Critical issues

Zerah the Cushite, is an individual mentioned by the Book of Chronicles as having invaded the Kingdom of Judah with an enormous army, in the days of Asa. According to the text, when Zerah's army reached that of Asa at Zephathah, Zerah's army was utterly defeated, by divine intervention, and Asa's forces collected a large volume of spoils of war.

The invasion, and its implied time-frame, means that the traditional view was to consider this Zerah to have actually been Osorkon II or Osorkon I, both being rulers of Egypt. Osorkon II, is known to have entered the Kingdom of Judah, with a huge army, in 853B.C.E.; however, rather than attacking Judah, the army was just passing through, on its way to attack the Assyrian forces. In addition, Asa's reign is traditionally dated to have ended in 873B.C.E., making it impossible for the biblical text to be accurate if Osorkon II was Zerah, since Osorkon II's reign hadn't even begun until one year later - 872B.C.E. In the Book of Kings, which doesn't mention Asa's defeat of Zerah, Asa is described as being extremely weak from a defensive point of view, and Biblical scholars regard the idea that Asa could defeat an enormous Egyptian army to be untenable.

Furthermore, Cushite refers to Kush (historic Ethiopia), and it is unclear why either Osorkon should be described as a Cushite, since the assertion would be unjustified. It is a possibility that Cushite (כושי)is a typographic error for Kassite (כישי), and that it consequently refers to a Babylonian (Kassite) invasion, but it is considered far more likely that it refers to an invasion by a marauding group of Arabs, whose numbers have been vastly exaggerated.

House of David Cadet Branch of the Tribe of Judah
Preceded by: Abijam	King of Judah Albright: 913 B.C.E. – 873 B.C.E. Thiele: c.911 B.C.E. – 870 B.C.E. Galil: c.911 B.C.E. – 870 B.C.E.	Succeeded by: Jehoshaphat

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