ASA. - V. AMEŠA SPENTA.
ASA. - Third king of Judah after the division of the kingdom, son and successor of Abijah. He reigned 41 years (910-870 B.C.). He repaired the ruins that, under Rehoboam, his grandfather, Pharaoh Shishak had caused to the country; he erected various fortresses to defend the borders. In the 15th year of his reign, the bandit chief (not king) Zerah the Ethiopian (Cushite), not to be confused with Osorkon I son of Shishak, with vast hordes of Arabs and Libyans invaded Palestine as far as Mareshah, beyond Hebron. A. drove him back victoriously as far as Gerar, carrying off great booty. He waged another war against Baasha, king of Israel, who had already occupied Ramah, the gateway toward Judah; A. defeated him, but with the help of Ben-hadad king of Syria, formerly an ally of Baasha, whom he had won over to his cause with the treasures of the Temple and of the palace. This lack of theocratic spirit was reproached to him by the prophet Hanani (II Chron. 16, 7-10).
Moreover A. looked after the interests of his people and of religion. He reformed the court, removing from it even his mother, Maacah, an open patroness of idolatrous cults, and he removed from the country the idols and the sacred prostitutes that his predecessors had introduced, destroying also a statue of 'Āšerāh that his mother had set up.
To the Temple, then, he consecrated a rich portion of the spoils of war; he favored the people's return to the true cult, having them solemnly renew, in the 15th year of his reign, the promise of fidelity to Yahweh. But in his last years he showed little faith, seeking help, to cure the ills that afflicted him, more from the physicians than from Yahweh. In the 39th year of his reign, no longer able to govern because of the worsening of his infirmities, he associated his son Jehoshaphat with the kingdom. I Kings 15, 8-24, II Chron. 14, 1-16, 14 describe in greater detail the vicissitudes of the long reign, insisting on the partial religious defection of A., in conformity with the pedagogical-religious purpose of the work.
Bibliography
Giuseppe Priero