Upon Asa’s great victory over Zerah, many strangers flocked to him “out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him” (2 Chron. 15:9). To prevent his subjects from thus falling away to Asa, Baasha fortified Ramah, a town in Benjamin about 6 mi. (9.6 km.) north of Jerusalem, close to the boundary between Israel and Judah, thus endeavoring to control the border.