The Fallible Study Bible

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1 Kings15:23–24

Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa

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1 Kings 15:23–24 — Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

23

Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer kāl- diḇ·rê- ’ā·sā wə·ḵāl gə·ḇū·rā·ṯōw wə·ḵāl ’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh wə·he·‘ā·rîm ’ă·šer bā·nāh hêm·māh hă·lō- ḵə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yə·hū·ḏāh lə·‘êṯ ziq·nā·ṯōw raq ḥā·lāh ’eṯ- raḡ·lāw

Word by word27 · parsed
וְיֶ֣תֶרwə·ye·ṯerNow the restH3499
√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
yether: an overhanging, a remainder The hinge word of the standing regnal formula in Kings. It names what spills past the frame of this book, and so confesses that Kings is a selection made for a purpose out of a fuller archive. Cambridge notes the conjunction at the head of the verse in the original, so this is not a new heading but the closing of an account already running.
כָּל־kāl-. . .H3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
דִּבְרֵֽי־diḇ·rê-of the actsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word, a matter, a deed Hebrew keeps saying and doing in one noun. diḇrê Asa is simultaneously his words, his affairs and his deeds, and the same construct returns at index 17 as diḇrê hay·yā·mîm, the words of the days. A king's life and a king's record share a name here, which is why the narrator can ask whether the acts are "written" rather than whether they happened.
אָ֠סָא’ā·sāof AsaH609
√ ʼÂçâʼ — Asa, the name of a king and of a LeviteNounpropermasculine singular
וְכָל־wə·ḵālalong with allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
גְּב֨וּרָת֜וֹgə·ḇū·rā·ṯōwhis mightH1369
√ gᵉbûwrâh — force (literally or figuratively)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
gᵉbûwrâh: force, strength, mighty deed A weightier term than the English "might" suggests: the noun of concrete military and royal power. Ellicott observes that the phrase is used of neither Rehoboam nor Abijah, so its appearance marks a real rise in Judah's strength under Asa. The verse sets it in the same breath as the disease, and lets the reader hold both.
וְכָל־wə·ḵālallH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerhis accomplishmentsH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
עָשָׂ֗ה‘ā·śāh. . .H6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
Relative clause verb, Qal perfect: "that he did."
וְהֶֽעָרִים֙wə·he·‘ā·rîmand the citiesH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounfeminine plural
אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
בָּנָ֔הbā·nāhhe builtH1129
√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
bânâh: to build Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D all read these as the fortified cities of 2 Chronicles 14:5-7, built in the years of peace. Barnes presses the prudence of it: Asa fortified before any serious attack came, "so strengthening himself against a possible evil day." The builder of walls is the man who ends the verse unable to walk them.
הֵ֣מָּהhêm·māh[are] theyH1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
הֲלֹֽא־hă·lō-notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
כְתוּבִ֗יםḵə·ṯū·ḇîmwrittenH3789
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural
kâthab: to grave, to inscribe, to write Qal passive participle, masculine plural: not "were written" as a past event but "are standing written," a settled state. The rhetorical question assumes an archive the reader could in principle consult. What Kings gives is therefore an edited testimony, and the participle says so without apology.
עַל־‘al-inH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612
√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
The second occurrence of dâbâr in the verse, now in the title of the royal annals: words of the days.
הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day Plural with the article: "the days." The annal is time itself written down.
לְמַלְכֵ֣יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428
√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct
יְהוּדָ֑הyə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063
√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
לְעֵ֣תlə·‘êṯvvvH6256
√ ʻêth — time, especially (adverb with preposition) now, when, etcPreposition-lNouncommon singular construct
זִקְנָת֔וֹziq·nā·ṯōwIn his old ageH2209
√ ziqnâh — old ageNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ziqnâh: old age A rare noun, standing in only six verses of the Hebrew Bible, and one of them is 1 Kings 11:4, where at the time of Solomon's old age his wives turned his heart after other gods. Kings uses this uncommon word at the two points where a good reign sours at its end. Barnes cautions that Asa's actual age here was probably under fifty, and notes that Solomon too was called old at about fifty, so ziqnâh in Kings marks the end of a life rather than a number of years.
רַ֚קraqhoweverH7535
√ raq — properly, leanness, iAdverb
raq: only, except A restrictive adverb, not a concessive conjunction. It is the same particle that qualifies Asa at 1 Kings 15:14 and 2 Chronicles 15:17 ("only, the high places were not removed"). Twice the narrator gives Asa a whole and true commendation and then cuts one exception out of it with raq. The book will not round his record either up or down.
חָלָ֖הḥā·lāhhe became diseasedH2470
√ châlâh — properly, to be rubbed or wornVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
châlâh: to be rubbed or worn, to be sick The root sense is attrition rather than sudden blow: the man wears out. K&D, reading this verse with 2 Chronicles 16:12, dates the disease to the thirty ninth year of the reign and draws the inference that the longer Asa lived the further his heart turned from the Lord. Kings itself says no such thing; it reports only the sickness, and leaves the reader to fetch the verdict from Chronicles.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Preposition
Object marker before the feet, making them the precise site of the affliction.
רַגְלָֽיו׃raḡ·lāwin his feetH7272
√ regel — a foot (as used in walking)Nounfeminine dual constructthird person masculine singular
regel: a foot, as used in walking Feminine dual with the suffix: the pair of them. Of every part of a king this is the one that carries him out to battle and up to the house of the Lord, and it is the one that fails. The man who built fortified cities ends the verse unable to walk their walls. Benson, Gill, Geneva and Pulpit all pass on the traditional identification of the disease as gout; the Hebrew says only that he was worn out in his feet.
24

And Asa rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ā·sā way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·qā·ḇêr ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw bə·‘îr ’ā·ḇîw dā·wiḏ bə·nōw yə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭ way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word14 · parsed
אָסָא֙’ā·sāAnd AsaH609
√ ʼÂçâʼ — Asa, the name of a king and of a LeviteNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901
√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâkab: to lie down, for rest, for sleep, for death Consecutive imperfect, the narrative tense: the reign simply ends the way every reign in this book ends. Kings has used the same verb of Abijam at 1 Kings 15:8 and will use it of Jehoshaphat, and Chronicles repeats it of Asa at 2 Chronicles 16:13. The formula is deliberately flat, and its flatness is the book's quiet verdict on royal greatness.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father, literal or remote "With his fathers": the plural gathers the whole line into one company that the king joins. The phrase names a communion, not a grave, since the next clause has to say separately that he was buried.
וַיִּקָּבֵר֙way·yiq·qā·ḇêrand was buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
qâbar: to inter Nifal, passive. The reversal matters: the same man who is the acting subject of "lay down" becomes the one acted upon here. Cambridge and Pulpit both fill the scene out from 2 Chronicles 16:14, where he is laid in a bed filled with sweet odours and spices and a very great burning is made for him. Kings itself keeps one passive verb and moves on.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāw[them]H1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
The second "with his fathers" in the verse, now of the burial place rather than the company.
בְּעִ֖ירbə·‘îrin the cityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
אָבִ֑יו’ā·ḇîwof his fatherH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father Of David, four generations back. Geneva's gloss reads "His great-grandfather," and the point stands whatever the exact count: in the regnal formula "father" means founder of the house. Asa the reformer is buried in the city of the man whose covenant is the reason Judah still has a king at all.
דָּוִ֣דdā·wiḏDavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
בְּנ֖וֹbə·nōwand his sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
bên: a son, as a builder of the family name Strong's own gloss for bên ties sonship to building, and the previous verse ended with cities Asa built. That association belongs to the lexicon's etymology rather than to a shared root with bânâh in the text, but the sequence stands on the page: the builder of walls is succeeded by the builder of the name.
יְהוֹשָׁפָ֥טyə·hō·wō·šā·p̄āṭJehoshaphatH3092
√ Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ — Jehoshaphat, the name of six IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôwshâphâṭ: Jehoshaphat Strong's glosses the name only as a personal name; ⚙ its form compounds the shortened divine name with the root for judging, so far as the spelling shows, and it lands in a verse whose whole burden is that the LORD's verdict outlasts the king's reign. The Verifier finds him standing beside his father in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 3:10 and again at 1 Kings 22:41, where this same accession is dated from Asa's reign, so the transition recorded here in one clause is the seam the later narrative keeps returning to. Gill gives the forward verdict in a phrase: "a very pious and worthy prince," though Ellicott warns that Jehoshaphat "still found much to do for the religious condition of his people."
וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign Consecutive imperfect again, and the third such form in a verse of three clauses: he lay down, he was buried, he reigned. The verb that closes this reign is the identical verb that will open the next, which is how Kings turns a death into a seam rather than an ending. Nothing in the clause is said about the new king's worth; the formula records only that the reigning did not stop.
תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478
√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular
tachath: the bottom, underneath Succession expressed as position: the son reigns "under" the father, in the space beneath him. The idiom quietly makes the throne prior to the man. Every king in this book is a tenant of a place that keeps needing another occupant, which is the exact pressure the New Testament will put on the word "forever" in the promise to David.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The surplus and the archive — 15:23a

The unit opens on a word that admits its own limits. וְיֶ֣תֶר (yether) is an overhanging, a remainder, and Cambridge notes that the Hebrew begins with a conjunction, so the Revised Version rightly reads "Now the rest." What follows is a list of exactly the things Kings will not narrate: his force, all that he did, the cities he built. Ellicott weighs the first of them, observing that "all his might" is a phrase used of neither Rehoboam nor Abijah and so marks a real increase of Judah's power under Asa. Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D agree that the cities are the fortified cities of 2 Chronicles 14, built in the years of peace, and Barnes adds the prudence of the timing: Asa walled himself in before any serious attack came. Then the narrator turns the whole catalogue into a question, and the answer lies in another book. ⚙ The Qal passive participle כְתוּבִ֗ים says "standing written," not "were written": the record exists, it is consultable, and this book is a selection out of it. Kings is not hiding Asa's achievements; it is declining to make them the point.

ii. Only: the one word that cuts — 15:23b

Everything turns on רַ֚ק. The Pulpit Commentary supplies the literal value in a bracket: "Heb. only. There was one exception to his otherwise happy and prosperous reign." Cambridge makes the same correction, preferring the Revised Version's "But" and warning that "Nevertheless" makes it sound as though the successes ought to have prevented the disease. ⚙ This is the second time the particle has been used of Asa: at 1 Kings 15:14 his heart is whole with the LORD all his days, only the high places were not removed. Kings commends him fully and then excises one exception with the same word, twice. The exception here is located with unusual precision: the direct object marker אֶת־ stands before רַגְלָֽיו, his feet, and the verb חָלָ֖ה is glossed at root as being rubbed or worn. The builder of walls wears out at the ankles. Benson and Poole read the sickness as the effect of human infirmity and of his own sins; Gill and Geneva pass on the tradition, Gill citing the Babylonian Talmud, that the disease was gout; Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge and K&D all reach past Kings to 2 Chronicles 16:12, where Asa in his disease sought not to the LORD but to the physicians, and to the imprisonment of Hanani the seer. K&D draw the sharpest inference: the longer he lived, the more he turned his heart away from the Lord. Barnes is careful to keep the disease from carrying the whole verdict, noting that Asa maintained the worship of Yahweh from first to last and lost instead the personal faith and piety of his youth, and that the "old age" of a king under fifty is an idiom for the end of a life, since Solomon too was called old at about that age.

iii. He lay down, and his son reigned under him — 15:24

The closing verse is pure formula, and the formula is the argument. וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤ב is the plain verb for lying down; וַיִּקָּבֵר֙ is Nifal, and the reversal of voice is the whole human fact of the verse, since the man who lies down himself must be buried by others. Barnes records that Asa had prepared his own sepulchre in his lifetime, as Oriental kings often did, and that the funeral was conducted with great magnificence; Cambridge and the Pulpit fill it in from 2 Chronicles 16:14, the bed of sweet odours and spices and the very great burning, with Cambridge adding the custom of burning beds, clothes and spices at the funerals of the great. ⚙ Kings keeps none of that pageantry. It gives one passive verb, the city of his father David, and a successor. Geneva's marginal gloss catches what "his father" is doing here, calling David Asa's great-grandfather; by the line of 1 Chronicles 3:10 David stands four generations back, which is exactly the point, because in the regnal formula "father" means founder of the house. And the last word is תַּחְתָּֽיו, from a noun meaning the bottom or what is underneath: Jehoshaphat reigned under him, in the hollow he left. Gill's one line of hope, "a very pious and worthy prince," points forward; Henry's closing line points back, warning that some who once shone brightly have been covered with a dark cloud towards the end of their days.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered as the tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. Kings has a way of ending its best reigns with one small word and one small body part. Asa gets the fullest commendation any Judean king has yet received, and the narrator caps it with raq, only, and then points at two feet. Read as a verdict on the man, it is cruel. Read as a verdict on the office, it is honest: the formula that closes every reign in this book (the rest of the acts, are they not written, he lay down, his son reigned under him) is the book's confession that the covenant with David cannot be carried by any of David's actual sons. Note what Kings declines to say. It does not tell us that the disease was judgment; Chronicles supplies the physicians and the prophet in prison, and the commentators reach for them, but Kings simply reports that a king who built cities could not walk. The restraint is the point. A book written to vindicate the LORD's promise keeps recording that the promise's bearers wear out, are buried by other hands, and leave a hollow underneath the throne which somebody has to fill next. Whoever wrote that formula was not trying to make us admire kings. The line below is the tool's own, not Scripture.

Kings praises Asa fully, then cuts one word out of the praise and points at his feet: this is how a book keeps a promise it knows no king can carry.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

"At the time of his old age": the rare noun Kings saves for a reign gone sour verbal / quotation: confirmed

זִקְנָה (ziqnâh, H2209) stands in only six verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the Verifier finds one of them a few chapters back: at 1 Kings 11:4, at the time of Solomon's old age, his wives turned his heart after other gods. Kings reaches for this uncommon word at precisely the two points where a great reign in Jerusalem fails at its end, and in both places it is paired with עֵת (ʻêth, time). ⚙ The same noun runs the other way elsewhere: Psalm 71:9 pleads not to be cast off at the time of old age, Psalm 71:18 asks God not to forsake the psalmist in old age until he has declared God's strength (gᵉbûwrâh, the very noun used of Asa's might in v. 23), and Isaiah 46:4 has God promise "even to your old age I am He." The lexical link is real; the theological direction is contested by the contexts, and that contrast is worth more than a flattened harmony.

1 Kings 11:4 · Psalm 71:9 · Psalm 71:18 · Isaiah 46:4

basis: Verifier: shared rare Hebrew lexeme H2209 ziqnâh, standing in only 6 verses; 1 Kings 11:4 and Psalm 71:9 also share H6256 ʻêth (259 vv), and Psalm 71:18 also shares H1369 gᵉbûwrâh (61 vv). A verbal link at the level of a rare shared lexeme, not a quotation of one text by another.

Twice "only": the particle that qualifies Asa structural / thematic: confirmed

The restrictive particle רַק (raq, H7535) that opens the disease clause is the same particle used of Asa at 1 Kings 15:14 and, in the parallel account, 2 Chronicles 15:17: his heart was wholly devoted all his days, only the high places were not removed. ⚙ The narrator's method is consistent: a full and honest commendation, then one exception cut out of it with a single adverb. Pulpit's bracket at v. 23, "Heb. only," makes the grammar visible, and Cambridge warns against the older "Nevertheless," which implies the earlier successes ought to have prevented what follows. This is a pattern of narration, not a quotation.

1 Kings 15:14 · 2 Chronicles 15:17

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7535 raq (107 vv) and H609 ʼÂçâʼ (52 vv) with both verses. Common lexemes, so the link is a shared narrative pattern in the Asa account rather than a rare verbal signature.

"Are they not written": the book that is not this book structural / thematic: confirmed

The closing formula of v. 23 is built from three ordinary words that recur across the regnal notices: יֶתֶר (yether, remainder), סֵפֶר (çêpher, book) and כָּתַב (kâthab, to write). The Verifier finds the same three together at 1 Kings 22:45, closing Jehoshaphat's reign, and finds çêpher, kâthab and Asa's name together at 2 Chronicles 16:11, which cites the book of the kings of Judah and Israel for the same material. ⚙ Gill distinguishes the two archives carefully: some of Asa's acts are preserved in the canonical Chronicles, others stood in the royal annals "out of which the Scripture account was taken." The formula is therefore a structural device of the book, and its repetition is the whole point: each reign is filed and closed the same way.

1 Kings 22:45 · 2 Chronicles 16:11 · 1 Kings 15:8

basis: Verifier: with 1 Kings 22:45, shared H3499 yether (95 vv), H5612 çêpher (174 vv), H3789 kâthab (212 vv); with 2 Chronicles 16:11, shared H5612, H3789, H609. All are common lexemes, so the basis is a repeated compositional formula, not a rare verbal link.

"He lay down with his fathers": the sentence every king receives structural / thematic: confirmed

שָׁכַב (shâkab, H7901) closes Abijam's reign at 1 Kings 15:8 in the identical formula, is used of Asa again at 2 Chronicles 16:13, and stands behind the summary at 2 Chronicles 14:1 where Abijah's lying down opens Asa's own accession. ⚙ Kings and Chronicles spend their differing paragraphs on what made each reign distinct, then put every king to bed with the same verb. The flatness is deliberate: whatever the man was, the sentence he gets is the sentence his father got. The verb itself is ordinary (lie down to rest, to sleep, to die), which is why the later euphemism "slept" fits so easily and why the softening is worth resisting in a literal rendering.

1 Kings 15:8 · 2 Chronicles 16:13 · 2 Chronicles 14:1

basis: Verifier: shared H7901 shâkab (190 vv) plus H609 ʼÂçâʼ (52 vv) with 2 Chronicles 16:13 and 2 Chronicles 14:1, and the same pair with 1 Kings 15:8. Common lexemes in a repeated death and burial formula: shared pattern, no quotation claimed.

"Asleep with the fathers": how the apostles press this formula typological

⚙ In Acts 13:36 Paul takes the Old Testament death formula and turns it into an argument: David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay. The formula that closes Asa's reign here is the very premise Paul uses at Pisidian Antioch, and in Acts 2:29 Peter makes the same move by pointing at the patriarch's tomb, which is "with us to this day." Because the New Testament text is Greek and this unit is Hebrew, there can be no shared Strong's number to carry the link, and the Verifier offers none; the connection is the shared burial formula and the argument built on it. Held at the lower tier for that reason.

Acts 13:36 · Acts 2:29

basis: Cross-Testament, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and none is claimed. The recorded basis is the shared death and burial formula (lay down with his fathers, was buried, a successor follows) which Acts 13:36 and Acts 2:29 restate in Greek in order to argue that the buried king is not the promise's end. Ancient and apostolic in substance, but figural in method, hence typological rather than verbal.

Gout, and the physicians: a diagnosis the Hebrew does not give flagged: verify source

Gill reports that the disease was gout "as the Jews say," citing Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin fol. 48b and Clement of Alexandria; Geneva, Benson and the Pulpit repeat the identification, the Pulpit conceding that it is "generally supposed." ⚙ The Hebrew supplies only חָלָ֖ה (to be worn, to be sick) and רַגְלָֽיו (his feet). The wider charge, that Asa sought the physicians and not the LORD, comes from 2 Chronicles 16:12, not from this verse, and Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge and K&D all reach for it here. The cross-reference to Chronicles is sound; the specific medical identification rests on later rabbinic and patristic tradition and should be checked at the source before being repeated as fact. Flagged accordingly.

2 Chronicles 16:12

basis: The link to 2 Chronicles 16:12 is attested by Ellicott, JFB, Geneva, Cambridge, Gill and K&D, but the identification of the disease as gout rests on Gill's citation of T. Bab. Sanhedrin fol. 48.2 and Clement of Alexandria, Stromata i. p. 326, neither of which is verifiable from this brief. No shared Strong's basis was computed by the Verifier for this pair. Provenance of the diagnosis is flagged.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

He lay down with his fathers, and he was buried ancient/widely-held

⚙ Every element of v. 24 is the premise of the apostolic argument about the resurrection. Asa lies down (וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤ב), is buried by other hands (Nifal וַיִּקָּבֵר֙), and lies in the city of David his father; Barnes records that he had prepared the sepulchre himself in his lifetime, and Cambridge and the Pulpit describe from 2 Chronicles 16:14 the bed of spices and the great burning. In Acts 13:36-37 Paul takes exactly this pattern and turns it on its hinge: David fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay, "but the One whom God raised from the dead did not see decay." Peter makes the same argument in Acts 2:29-31, standing within sight of the tomb. The city of David holds Asa, and it held David; the reading is the common apostolic one, recorded in the preaching of both Peter and Paul, that the promise attached to that city required a king the city could not keep.

Acts 2:29-31 · Acts 13:36-37

"Under him": a throne that keeps needing another occupant ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit's last word is תַּחְתָּֽיו (taḥ·tāw, H8478), from a noun meaning the bottom or what is underneath: Jehoshaphat reigned under Asa, in the space he vacated. Kings ends every reign this way, and the repetition builds a pressure the New Testament names directly. Gabriel's promise in Luke 1:32-33 answers the formula point for point: the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and of His kingdom there will be no end, which is to say no successor will ever reign taḥtāw. Hebrews 7:23-25 states the logic in its clearest form, that the former priests were many in number because death prevented them from continuing, whereas He holds His office permanently because He lives forever. The argument is about priesthood there and kingship here, but it is the same argument, and it is the standard Christian reading of the Davidic succession.

Luke 1:32-33 · Hebrews 7:23-25

Worn out in his feet, and the physician he did not send for novel

⚙ Offered as a figural reading, not as the sense of the verse. The one blemish Kings records is a body worn down (חָלָ֖ה, to be rubbed or worn) at the feet, and Chronicles adds that in his disease Asa sought the physicians and not the LORD, a point Ellicott, JFB, Geneva, Cambridge and K&D all bring to this verse. Mark 2:17 has Jesus name Himself over exactly that gap: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ⚙ I record honestly that no commentator in this brief makes the connection, and that Kings itself passes no judgment on the sickness at all. The figure is mine, offered to be tested, and marked novel.

Mark 2:17 · 2 Chronicles 16:12

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Two verses of Hebrew narrative, the standard closing formula of a Judean reign. The interlinear is complete for both; no textual variants are reported in the brief, and none are asserted here. At v. 23 index 21 the supplied English gloss for לְעֵ֣ת is a placeholder in the source data; the word is the preposition with ʻêth, "at the time of," and has been read that way, in agreement with the parse given.

What this unit does not say. Almost everything the commentators discuss here comes from 2 Chronicles 14 to 16, not from 1 Kings 15:23-24: the fortified cities, the defeat of Zerah, the prophecy of Azariah, the rebuke and imprisonment of Hanani, the thirty ninth year of the reign, the physicians, the bed of spices and the great burning. Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Geneva, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D all supply them, and they are cited above by name; Kings itself records only might, cities, an archive, a sickness in the feet, a burial and a successor. The inference that Asa's heart turned further from the LORD as he aged is K&D's, drawn from Chronicles, and it is marked as theirs.

Uncertain. The identification of the disease as gout is traditional (Gill citing the Talmud and Clement, with Geneva, Benson and the Pulpit repeating it) and is flagged rather than asserted. Barnes's calculation that Asa was under fifty at this point rests on his own reconstruction of Rehoboam's age at accession. Geneva's gloss calling David Asa's great-grandfather is one generation short of the line in 1 Chronicles 3:10, and is noted at the voice. Cambridge's supporting reference for the funeral burning is printed as Jeremiah 24:5, which appears to be a misprint for Jeremiah 34:5; the excerpt is quoted as printed and the problem is flagged in its editorial note rather than silently corrected.

Machine layer. Every paragraph marked ⚙ is the tool's own fallible synthesis, including the whole sola reading and the third christ entry, which is marked novel. The thread bases are the Verifier's computed shared lexemes, reproduced with their frequencies so the reader can judge the strength of each link; the Acts thread carries no lexeme basis at all, because Greek and Hebrew cannot share a Strong's number, and it is tiered typological for that reason.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)