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. 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. I Kings and II Chronicles 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

Asa revamped and reinforced the fortress system originally built by his grandfather Rehoboam, taking advantage of years of peace. An invasion by the Egyptian-backed chieftain Zerah the Ethiopian and his million men and 300 chariots was defeated by Asa's 580,000 men (these figures come from II Chronicles) in the Valley of Zephath, near Mareshah. The Ethiopians were pursued all the way to Gerar, in the coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah free of the influence of the Pharaohs until the time of Jehoiakim, some centuries later.

In Asa's 36th year, King Baasha of Israel attacked the Kingdom of Judah. Baasha built the fortress of Ramah on the border, not ten miles from Jerusalem. The result was that the capital was under pressure and the military situation was precarious. Asa took gold and silver from the Temple and sent them to Ben-Hadad I, King of Damascus, in exchange for the Damascene king cancelling his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad I attacked Ijon, Dan, and many important cities of the tribe of Naphtali. and Baasha was forced 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.

Later Years

Hanani the Seer, a prophet, admonished Asa for relying on foreign as opposed to Divine help in defeating Baasha. Asa became very angry and threw Hanani in jail. Asa was also not as just as he had been. Asa developed an infection in his toes that later spread to the rest of his body. However, he consulted doctors as opposed to prophets and priests to try and cure it.

Succession

Asa died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, in the grave that he had dug for himself. He was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat.

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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