Hanani the Seer חנני הרואה
told Asa he had leaned on the wrong strength — and was put in the stocks
Asa bought off the threat from the north: he took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple and the palace and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Aram to break his alliance with Baasha. The plan worked — Aram struck Israel, and the building at Ramah stopped.
Then Hanani the seer came: "because you leaned on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand." Were not the Cushites and the Libyans a huge army, with chariots and horsemen beyond counting — and they were given into your hand when you leaned on Him? And then the line quoted apart from the whole story: "for the eyes of the LORD range over the whole earth, to give strength to those whose heart is whole with Him."
Asa was enraged at the seer — "for he was in a fury with him over this" — and put him in the stocks; at the same time he oppressed some of the people.
Hanani has a sequel: his son Jehu son of Hanani became a prophet in the next generation and spoke to two kings — Baasha in Israel and Jehoshaphat in Judah.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Divrei HaYamim II 16:7–9 — the rebuke over the alliance with Aram and “the eyes of the LORD range over the whole earth”
- Divrei HaYamim II 16:10 — the stocks for the seer
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.