Asa of Judah

Asa is presented in the Hebrew Bible as a member of the House of David who ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Judah. Biblical regnal lists and narratives place him as the third king of Judah (fifth of the Davidic line in some summaries). Traditional Biblical chronology places his reign in the late tenth to early ninth century BCE according to the regnal reckoning preserved in the biblical books and scholarly reconstructions such as those summarized by Edwin R. Thiele; the supplied sources treat these dates as dependent on Biblical chronology rather than as independently verified.

The supplied sources contain no physical or bodily description of Asa beyond his social and political roles: king, son of Abijah/Abijam, father of Jehoshaphat, and an actor in royal and cultic settings. Descriptions focus on his actions—purging idolatry, building fortifications, engaging in diplomacy and warfare—rather than on personal physical characteristics.

Asa's recorded capacities are political and religious rather than supernatural. He is depicted as a reforming monarch who purged foreign cults and idols (including removing the queen mother Maacah for Asherah worship), renewed the covenant with YHWH after prophetic exhortation, instituted national observance measures and a great feast at Solomon's Temple, strengthened cities and fortifications during a long period of peace, and led military actions (including repelling an invasion associated in the text with Zerah the Ethiopian). His behaviors also include diplomatic initiative (sending temple and palace silver to Ben-Hadad I to alter Aramean-Israelite politics), repression of prophetic criticism (imprisoning Hanani the Seer), and late-life reliance on physicians for a severe foot disease rather than seeking the Lord, an action the narrative criticizes.