That Asa regarded Israel’s fortifying Ramah as a threat that he was unable to deal with is seen in the manner in which he responded to it. It is a response of worldly wisdom. Baasha had an ally in a ruler named Ben-hadad, whose position the ESV translates as king of Syria,
while other scholars believe it should be king of the Arameans,
since his rule did not correspond to what we now call Syria. It was, they say, the city of Damascus and its surrounding vicinity.
Asa’s plan was to seek to change that ruler’s allegiance to Judah by a substantial gift of money. To accomplish this Asa raided the temple treasury and his own to send that silver and gold to Ben-hadad to be given to him on the condition that he break the covenant he had made with Israel.
There were at least two things worthy of biblical reproof in this action. First, it exhibited an abandonment of trust in the Lord his God. As we learn in 2 Chronicles, the Lord had saved Judah from an earlier danger when Asa cried out to him for deliverance. Now, he exchanges trust in the Lord for trust in a pagan king. Second, to get some of the payment, he robbed the temple, which can be looked at as robbing God. The gift, therefore, would have included some, if not all, of the sacred gifts he had given to the house of the Lord earlier in his reign.
The parallel passage in 2 Chronicles includes the prophetic denunciation of Asa’s actions here, but 1 Kings is silent. We will delay our suggested answer to the end of this narrative.
18 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 gave them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying,