CHAPTER 16

(930 B.C.)

JEHUS PROPHECY AGAINST BAASHA

¹Then the Word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying (the reigns of these five kings of Israel are related with great brevity; the Holy Spirit is concerned only with the events of their reigns insofar as they relate to the Kingdom of God),

²Forasmuch as I exalted you out of the dust, and made you prince over My people Israel; and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel to sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins (according to Verse 1, the message was not to him, but rather against him);

³Behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house; and will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (take away means exterminate).

⁴Him who dies of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him who dies of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat (all the Prophets in succession have the same Message from God for the same sins).

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? (Their wars and their acts are stated to be recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Where is this book? It is lost. Why? Because there is no profit to be had from the doings of the workers of iniquity.)

⁶So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah: and Elah his son reigned in his stead.

⁷And also by the hand of the Prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the Word of the LORD against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD, in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he (Baasha) killed him (killed Jeroboam; it seems like Baasha executed the judgment with personal and cruel delight, therefore, God smote his family; later on in the Bible, this same principle reappears; the Babylonians were judged by God because they also mercilessly executed His Wrath upon Israel; Believers should never indulge in personal satisfaction on witnessing or hearing of Divine chastisement upon others).

ELAHS TWO-YEAR REIGN OVER ISRAEL

⁸In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years.

ZIMRIS SEVEN-DAY REIGN

⁹And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of his house in Tirzah.

¹⁰And Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.

¹¹And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he killed all the house of Baasha: he left him not one who urinates against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends (he was not content with exterminating the royal family; he, as well, put to death all who were connected with Baasha in any way).

¹²Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the Word of the LORD, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the Prophet,

¹³For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities (these kings leave one sad record upon the page of sacred history that they did evil).

¹⁴Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?

THE WICKEDNESS OF OMRI

¹⁵In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.

¹⁶And the people who were encamped heard say, Zimri has conspired, and has also killed the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.

¹⁷And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.

¹⁸And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the kings house, and burnt the kings house over him with fire, and died,

¹⁹For his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin (all of this tells us that the Lord cut short the lives of these kings because of their evil).

²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he wrought, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? (The casual reader may wonder why all of this is important. It is important because these people were raised up by God to carry His Name in the Earth. In fact, Israel and Judah were the only two nations in the world which knew Jehovah. Sadly and regrettably, they were poor examples, and were such until they were finally destroyed; however, the promises and predictions of the Prophets are clear that Israel will be restored, and that restoration has already begun. It will come to its successful conclusion at the Second Coming, when Israel then accepts Christ as her Saviour and her Lord.)

²¹Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.

²²But the people who followed Omri prevailed against the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.

²³In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.

²⁴And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria (because of this, the northern kingdom at times was referred to as Samaria).

²⁵But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who were before him (this seems to point to the organization of the calf-worship into a regular formal system).

²⁶For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities. (It seems this man Jeroboam was the epitome of evil, because all evil was judged against his evil. His wickedness was not merely a wickedness of passion, but rather of design; therefore, it was more evil.)

²⁷Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?

WICKED AHAB REIGNS OVER ISRAEL

²⁸So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.

²⁹And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.

³⁰And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all who were before him (under Ahab, positive idolatry was established and fostered the worship of foreign and shameful deities).

AHAB MARRIES JEZEBEL

³¹And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. (Baal was the supreme male god of the Canaanitish races, as Ashtoreth was their great female divinity. Jezebel would introduce Baal worship in Israel in a manner that it had not known previously a sin that God hated supremely.)

³²And he reared up an Altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria (the house and its contents alike were ultimately destroyed by Jehu [II Ki. 10:27]).

³³And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him (without sincere Repentance, evil can only get worse and worse!).

³⁴In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the Word of the LORD, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. (The Holy Spirit takes the occasion in this Verse to introduce the fulfilling of the Prophecy given to Joshua, the son of Nun. Ignoring or despising the Bible, Hiel moves against the prediction of Joshua given some 500 years before and rebuilds the walls which the judgment of God had thrown down. Upon laying the foundations, his oldest son is smitten with death. It also seems that his youngest son died whenever the wall was finished. Ahab should have learned from this how vain and how deadly are the results of opposing God.)