THE WAR WITH BAASHA—(2Chronicles 16:1-6).

Comp. 1Kings 15:17-22.

(1) In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Baasha king of Israel came up.—According to 1Kings 15:33; 1Kings 16:8, Baasha began to reign in the third year of Asa, reigned twenty-four years, and died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa. These statements are obviously irreconcilable with that of our verse. We must suppose either that the chronicler has accepted a different calculation from that of the Kings—a calculation which he may have found in one of his documents; or that the text here is unsound, and thirty-six has been substituted by an error of transcription for sixteen, or twenty-six; and that in 2Chronicles 15:19 by a similar mistake thirty-five has taken the place of fifteen or twenty-five. Upon the whole, the latter alternative appears preferable; and if we assume twenty-five and twenty-six to be the correct numerals, we get the following chronology for the reign :—First, ten years of peace (2Chronicles 14:1), during which Asa strengthened his defences (2Chronicles 14:6-8); then the invasion of Zerah, at what precise date is not clear, but at some time between the eleventh and the fifteenth year (2Chronicles 14:9; 2Chronicles 15:10); then the reformation of religion and renewal of the covenant in Asa’s fifteenth year (2Chronicles 15:10); and lastly, another ten years of peace, until the outbreak of the war with Baasha, in the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth year.

The idea of the ancient commentators, that the phrase “five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa” might mean “five and thirtieth year of the kingdom of Judah,” is absurd. The phrase “bishnath . . . lemalkûth” always denotes the year of a king’s reign, not of the duration of his kingdom. (See 2Chronicles 16:12 infra.)

And built Ramah.—Er-Râm, about five miles north of Jerusalem. Baasha had probably retaken the cities annexed by Abijah. (See on 2Chronicles 15:8.)

Built = fortified it. (See 1Kings 15:17 for the rest of the verse.)

2Ch 16:1-14. Asa, by a League with the Syrians, Diverts Baasha from Building Ramah.

1-6. In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha … came up against Judah—Baasha had died several years before this date (1Ki 15:33), and the best biblical critics are agreed in considering this date to be calculated from the separation of the kingdoms, and coincident with the sixteenth 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 (2Ch 16:11), the source from which the inspired historian drew his account.

Baasha … built Ramah—that is, fortified it. The blessing of God which manifestly rested at this time on the kingdom of Judah, the signal victory of Asa, the freedom and purity of religious worship, and the fame of the late national covenant, were regarded with great interest throughout Israel, and attracted a constantly increasing number of emigrants to Judah. Baasha, alarmed at this movement, determined to stem the tide; and as the high road to and from Jerusalem passed by Ramah, he made that frontier town, about six miles north of Asa's capital, a military station, where the vigilance of his sentinels would effectually prevent all passage across the boundary of the kingdom (see on [439]1Ki 15:16-22; also Jer 41:9).Asa maketh a league with the Syrians against the king of Israel, 2 Chronicles 16:1-6; for which the prophet reproving him, he putteth him into prison, 2 Chronicles 16:7-10. He is sick, and seeketh to the physicians, and not to God: his death and burial, 2 Chronicles 16:11-14.

Of the reign of Asa; or, of the kingdom of Asa, i.e. of the kingdom of Judah, which was now Asa’s kingdom; or from the time of the division of the two kingdoms. Rehoboam reigned seventeen years, 2 Chronicles 12:13; Abijah three years, 2 Chronicles 13:2; Asa had now reigned fifteen years, 2 Chronicles 15:10; all which, put together, make up the thirty-five years mentioned 2 Chronicles 15:19. And in the next year Baasha wars against him; and the ground of war was the defection of many of his subjects to Asa, 2 Chronicles 15:9, whom Asa endeavours to engage, together with his own subjects, by an oath and a covenant, to be true and faithful to God, and consequently to himself; which was done in his fifteenth year, 2 Chronicles 15:9,10; and therefore in his sixteenth year, called here the thirty-sixth year of his kingdom, he commenceth an open war against him. If it be objected, That the reign or kingdom of Asa is otherwise understood of the time of Asa’s personal reign, (as I may call it,) 2 Chronicles 15:10; the answer is obvious, That there are many instances in Scripture (some of which have been formerly given, and others will be given in their proper places) where the same word or phrase is taken differently, and that in the very same chapter and history. And particularly this variety is elsewhere used, both by sacred and profane writers, in the computation of the years of princes, which are sometimes reckoned from the beginning of their reign, and sometimes from other remarkable times and occurrences. Titus Nebuchadnezzar’s years are sometimes computed from the beginning of his reign, as 2 Kings 25:8 Jeremiah 52:12,29,30, and sometimes from his complete conquest of Syria and Egypt, &c., as that passage, Daniel 2:1, In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, is by the general stream of interpreters understood. Thus Ahaziah’s years, which doubtless were usually computed from the time of his birth, are computed from another head, 2 Chronicles 22:2, See Poole "2 Chronicles 22:2". And the like differences are observed in computing the years of some of the Syrian monarchs and Roman emperors; and particularly of Augustus, the years of whose reign are variously accounted by the Roman historians; sometimes from his first consulship, sometimes from the time of the triumvirate, and sometimes from that famous victory at Actium, where he utterly overthrew his competitor, and made himself sole and unquestionable emperor. And therefore it is not strange if it be so here. And that it must necessarily be thus understood, appears from hence, that it cannot be the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa in his own person, because Baasha began to reign in Asa’s third year, 1 Kings 15:28, and reigned only twenty-four years, and consequently died in Asa’s twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year, as it is said he did, 1 Kings 15:8. That he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah; that he might keep his subjects from revolting to Asa, as he perceived they began to do, 2 Chronicles 15:9, and keep Asa’s subjects from coming into his dominions to seduce his people from their obedience to him.

(a) Who reigned after Nadab the son of Jeroboam.

(b) He fortified it with walls and ditches: it was a city in Benjamin near Gibeon.