According to the biblical book of Kings, Asa called on Ben-Hadad I to aid him in attacking northern Israel while Baasha restricted access to Jerusalem through border fortifications.
Ben-Hadad took the towns of "Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maachah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali" (1 Kings 15:20).
This acquisition gave Aram-Damascus control of the trade route to southern Phoenicia.
[2] According to the archaeologist William Foxwell Albright, the Melqart stele should be attributed to Ben-Hadad I.
[3] However, Kenneth Kitchen disagrees and states that there is no actual evidence that connects that stele to this particular king.