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2 Chronicles 16 describes King Asa’s severe illness and his failure to seek God, relying only on doctors. This contrasts with later Jewish traditions, such as in Sirach 38, which praises doctors as instruments of healing.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Chronicles 16:12
Hebrew Bible
10 Asa was so angry at the prophet, he put him in jail. Asa also oppressed some of the people at that time. 11 The events of Asa’s reign, from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a foot disease, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but only the doctors. 13 Asa passed away in the forty-first year of his reign. 14 He was buried in the tomb he had carved out in the City of David. They laid him to rest on a platform covered with spices and assorted mixtures of ointments. They made a huge bonfire to honor him.
Date: 400–301 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 38:1
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 Honor a physician according to your need with the honors due to him, for truly the Lord has created him. 2 For healing comes from the Most High, and he shall receive a gift from the king. 3 The skill of the physician will lift up his head. He will be admired in the sight of great men. 4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth. A prudent man will not despise them. 5 Wasn’t water made sweet with wood, that its power might be known?
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Continuing his chronological interpretation of the events of Asa's reign, the Chronicler puts Asa's illness in his thirty-ninth year. In the Vorlage in 1 Kings 15:23 this was put indefinitely 'at the time of his old age.' The Chronicler's change indicates that this is a consequence of his behavior toward Hanani and not just part of the aging process. The Lucianic reading in 1 Kings 15:23, if it is an old variant, may have suggested this interpretation to the Chronicler. If he bad been faithful, he would not have contracted this disease but would have died like David in a good old age (l Chronicles 29:28). The foot disease was recorded already in the Vorlage, although here in Chronicles its severity is noted, possibly hinting that it was the cause of his death. Ironically, since Asa himself had ordered the people to seek Yahweh (2 Chronicles 14:3), and in spite of the implicit call to repentance in his illness, Asa did not seek Yahweh but only physicians, even in his illness. The word 'even' or 'also' may link back to verses 7-10, where Asa was accused of self reliance in his seeking a treaty with Ben-hadad. Yahweh is credited with the ability to heal in Chronicles and in the Old Testament in general (Exodus 15:26; 2 Chronicles 7:14; 30:20); and the healing miracles of Elijah and Elisha ... For the generally favorable attitude towards physicians in the Old Testament world, see Genesis 50:2; Jeremiah 8:22; 2 Kings 20:7; Isaiah 38:22; Sirach 38:1) ... although we would commend the use of physicians through whose ministrations healing might be accomplished, the Chronicler saw Asa's resorting to them as an expression of a lack of faith ..."
Ralph W. Klein, 2 Chronicles: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 242–243.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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