Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 16:14
And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the burial procedures for King Asa immediately following his death in the forty-first year of his reign.
The words — The text specifies he was laid in the tomb he himself had cut out (כָּרָה, kārah, “he had dug”) in the City of David. It further notes they placed him on a bier (מִשְׁכָּב, mišḵāḇ, “lying place”) packed with spices and blended perfumes.
The thread — The burial honors align with the spice-burning tradition for former kings referenced in Jeremiah 34:5 and the embalment practices detailed in Genesis 50:2.
Why it lands — The passage describes a ceremonial royal burial before any assessment of Asa’s reign, requiring the reader to separate the historical record of his honored interment from the theological evaluation of his later reliance on human alliances.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.
Cross-references
- Genesis 50:2 And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,
- 2 Chronicles 21:19 This continued day after day until two full years had passed. Finally, his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died in severe pain. And his people did not make a fire in his honor as they had done for his fathers.
- Jeremiah 34:5 you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.”
- Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus.
- Exodus 30:25 Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer; it will be a sacred anointing oil.
- 2 Chronicles 35:24 So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
- Ecclesiastes 10:1 As dead flies bring a stench to the perfumer’s oil, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
- Isaiah 22:16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?
- John 19:39 Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.