“They made a great fire in his honor”
They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor. (2 Chronicles 16:14 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A cremation, or the king's body being burned on a pyre.
The cultural key
The 'great fire' at Asa's burial is easily misread as cremation, which Israelites did not practice for those they honored; burning a body was reserved for criminals. This was instead a huge ceremonial burning of costly spices and perfumes in the king's honor, a public display of the wealth and respect lavished on his funeral, the ancient equivalent of a state funeral's grandeur. The contrast makes the meaning plain: when the wicked king Jehoram died, the Chronicler pointedly records that 'his people made no fire in his honor like the fire for his fathers' (21:19). The presence or absence of the funeral fire was itself a verdict on the reign.
Recovered meaning
The fire is not cremation but a costly burning of spices in the king's honor, a grand funeral tribute. Denying it to a bad king, as later happened to Jehoram, was a pointed public disgrace.