2 Chronicles 16:1

_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._ In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha ... came up. Baasha had died several years before this date (1 Kings 15:33), and the best Biblical critics are agreed in considering this date to be calculated from the separation of the kingdoms, and coincident wish the 16th year of Asa's reign. This mode of reckoning was, in all likelihood, generally followed in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel, the public annals of the time (2 Chronicles 16:11) - the source from which the inspired historian drew his account. BUILT RAMAH - i:e., fortified it. The blessing

CHAPTER XVI _Baasha, king of Israel, begins to build Ramah, to prevent his_ _subjects from having any intercourse with the Jews_, 1. _Asa hires Ben-hadad, king of Syria, against him; and obliges_ _him to leave off building Ramah_, 2-5. _Asa and his men carry the stones and timbers of Ramah away,_ _and build therewith Geba and Mizpah_, 6. _Asa is reproved by Hanani, the seer, for his union with the_ _king of Syria: he is offended with the seer, and puts him in_ _prison_, 7-10. _Of his acts_, 11....

This passage runs parallel with Kings (see the marginal reference)....

EXPOSITION The contents of this chapter fall easily into three parts: Asa's conflict with Baasha (2 Chronicles 16:1; parallel, 1 Kings 15:16-11); Hanani's rebuke of Asa, and Asa's ill reception of it (2 Chronicles 16:7); the disease, death, and burial of Asa (2 Chronicles 16:11; parallel, 1 Kings 15:23, 1 Kings 15:24)....

IN THE THIRTY AND SIXTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF ASA BAASHA KING OF ISRAEL CAME UP AGAINST JUDAH,.... How this is to be reconciled with the reign of Baasha, which was but twenty four years, and was begun in the third of Asa, and therefore must have been dead nearly ten years before this year of Asa's reign, 1 Kings 15:17 where, and in the following verses, are the same things related as here, to the end of the sixth verse; the explanation of which the reader is referred to....

TO ASA That is, none of his subjects. (2 Chronicles 16:5); (2 Chronicles 16:6); (2 Chronicles 15:9)....

CHAPTER 16 ASA'S RELAPSE AND DEATH _ 1. War between Asa and Baasha (2 Chronicles 16:1)_ 2. Hanani's rebuke (2 Chronicles 16:7) 3. Hanani imprisoned (2 Chronicles 16:10) 4. Asa's illness and death (2 Chronicles 16:12) Much has been made by critics of the supposed wrong date, the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa. Compare 1 Kings 15:33 with the first verse of this chapter to see the apparent discrepancy. If the invasion of Judah by Baasha occurred shortly after

Taken from 1 Kings 15:16 with unimportant variations. 2 CHRONICLES 16:7. With the words of 2 Chronicles 16:9, from henceforth thou shalt have wars, contrast 1 Kings 15:16, and there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. 2 CHRONICLES 16:11. With the words a very great burning (2 Chronicles 16:14) _cf._...

IN THE, &C. This chapter is complementary to 1 Kings 15:17. six and thirtieth. The thirty-sixth year of the kingdom: i.e. from the disruption of the kingdom of Judah. This agrees with all the other dates and lengths of reigns. See App-50 and note on p. 57. REIGN. See note on 2 Chronicles 15:19. CAME UP AGAINST. There had been quiet between the two kingdoms as such (2 Chronicles 14:1; 2 Chronicles 15:19), though there had been border fighting (1 Kings 15:16;...

2 Chronicles 16:1-6 (1 Kings 15:17-22). Asa asks help of Ben-hadad 1. _the six and thirtieth year_ According to 1 Kings 16:8 Baasha was succeeded by his son Elah in the six-and-twentieth year of Asa. The number _thirty-six_is probably therefore 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 so we should read, IN THE SIX-AND-THIRTIETH YEAR, THAT IS, IN THE SIXTEENTH YEAR OF ASA. So in 2 Chronicles 15:19 we should read,