Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Ben-ha'dad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying,
Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the ... house of the Lord. Asa's religious character is now seen to decline. He trusted not in the Lord (2 Chronicles 16:7). In this emergency Asa solicited the powerful aid of the king of Damascene-Syria; and to bribe him to break off his alliance with Baasha, he transmitted to him the treasure lying in the temple and palace. The Syrian mercenaries were gained. Instances are to be found, both in the ancient and modern history of the East, of the violation of treaties equally sudden and uuscrupulous, through the presentation of some tempting bribe. Ben-hadad poured an army into the northern provinces of Israel, and having captured some cities in Galilee, on the borders of Syria, compelled Baasha to withdraw from Bamah back within his own territories.
Ben-hadad - (see the notes at 1 Kings 11:24.)