1 Kings 15

The historian's formula reaches its first complex application with Asa of Judah. Asa gets the positive verdict — he does that which is right, like David his father — but the high places are not removed, and Asa's mother rather than his wife holds the queen-mother position, suggesting unusual family dynamics. The deposition of Maacah from the queen-mother position because of her Asherah pole is a small, concrete detail that gives Asa a moment of personal courage: she is the most politically powerful woman in the kingdom and he removes her from her official role for a religious reason. The Asherah pole is cut down and burned at Kidron. The incomplete reform — right heart, unreformed high places — becomes the standard characterisation of Judah's better kings.

The treaty Asa makes with Ben-hadad of Syria against Baasha of Israel is the first explicit instance of one Israelite kingdom purchasing a foreign ally to use against the other. Asa sends silver and gold from the treasuries of the temple and the royal house, and Ben-hadad breaks his treaty with Baasha and raids the northern cities, relieving military pressure on Jerusalem. The episode introduces the Damascus axis that will complicate both kingdoms' politics through the rest of Kings. In Israel, the formula for the northern kingdom's instability is demonstrated: Baasha kills Nadab in battle, then kills all the house of Jeroboam, fulfilling — but without authorization — the prophetic oracle of Ahijah. The execution of an oracle does not itself validate the executor; Baasha's own house will receive the same treatment.