Asa

King Asa regretfully exiles his mother after she builds a shrine for the goddess Asherah.

Context

• Reference: 2 Chronicles 15:16

• King Asa of Judah suppressed the worship of gods other than that of his fathers.

• Maacah held the powerful position of Queen Mother, but supported the worship of the goddess Asherah.

Aftermath

• Asa reigned for 41 years.

Notes

Maacah, the mother of Kin Asa, is a fascinating figure. Since the Biblical text concerning her is even more confused than usual, it is unclear whether what is written about her concerns one person or several. The name reoccurs throughout the Bible and refers to men as well as to women.

It appears that Maacah was the daughter of Absalom (who appears in the stories of King David and Zadok) and the wife of Rehoboam (the cruel king who appears in the story of Jeroboam). She is listed as the mother of both King Asa and his predecessor Abijah. Another reference, however, identifies Abijah's mother as someone else with a similar name who may have been Absalom's granddaughter. And Abijah (whose is also referred to as Abijam) may have been Asa's father, rather than his brother. (Confused yet?)

But what is clear is that Maacah had quite a powerful position as "Gevirah" or Queen Mother, and that she did construct something used to worship Asherah. What it was isn't clear; apparently the word used for it, מִפְלָצֶת, doesn't appear elsewhere in the Bible. Some translators say that it was a pole used in worship.

The core of the situation is clear, though: Asa had the thing taken down and burnt, and Maacah was removed from her position. He did, however, allow the "high places" at which other gods were worshipped to remain.

Asa faced a difficult choice. Much as he may have loved his mother, he saw that his duty to his God took priority over that connection. The choice pitted his responsibilities under the first and second of the Ten Commandments against his responsibilities under the fifth. Later Jewish writings appear to find honoring the parents of lesser importance in this rare case. But it couldn't have been an easy choice for Asa.

Many of us have found that we have needed, at the end of romantic relationships, to break off contact with a person that we might still have loved. How much more difficult it might have been, then, to banish one's mother, even in these clear circumstances.

One mea culpa ere: if you follow the text closely, you will notice that this story is slightly out of sequence. 1 Kings 16:29 states that Ahab became king of Israel toward the end of Asa's reign in Judah. I only spotted this while redoing my research for these notes, after the book had gone to press, and it's too late to reorder the stories. So all I can do is file a bug report here.