2 Chronicles 16:5 (DBY)

Passage

And it came to pass when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.

Nearby Context

2 Chronicles 16:3 There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I send thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

2 Chronicles 16:4 And Ben-hadad hearkened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his forces against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon and Dan and Abelmaim, and all the store-magazines of the cities of Naphtali.

2 Chronicles 16:5 And it came to pass when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.

2 Chronicles 16:6 And king Asa took all Judah; and they carried away the stones and the timber from Ramah, with which Baasha had been building, and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.

2 Chronicles 16:7 And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on Jehovah thy God, therefore has the army of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "came", "pass", "baasha", "heard", "left", "building", "ramah", and "cease". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "came" and "pass", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "And Ben-hadad hearkened to king Asa and..." into verse 6's "And king Asa took all Judah and...", so "came" and "pass" belong inside that flow. In 2 Chronicles context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "came" and "pass" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.