A.C. 914. 2 Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, that Heb. Dar- dwelt at Damascus, saying, mesek. 11 Kings xv. 15. +Heb, horror. 955. a ch, xi. 31. + Heb. in thine hand. Or, cakes. * 3 There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4 And Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmaim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. 5 And it came to pass, when Baasha heard it, that be left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease. 6 Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha was building; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah. 2 CHRONICLES XV. VER. 16, 17. 16 ¶ And also concerning 1 Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an † idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron. 17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. CHAPTER III. PART II. Events in the Kingdom of Israel, contemporary with the SECTION I. Death of Jeroboam and his Son. 1 KINGS XIV. 1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. 2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. a 3 And take with thee ten loaves, and § cracknels, and a || cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what Or, bottle. shall become of the child. * Heb. stood for his hoariRess. 4 And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his * eyes were set by reason of his age. 5 ¶ And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick thus and thus shalt thou say unto her for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. 6 And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her A.C. 955. feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, 8 And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; 9 But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: * Heb. hard. c ch. xxi. 21. 10 Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house beh. xv. 29. of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that 2 Kings ix. 8. pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. 11 Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it. 12 Arise thou therefore, and get thee to thine own house : and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him : for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. 14 Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now. 15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. 16 And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin. 17 And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; 18 And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. A. C. 955. 954. 19 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. * 20 And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and *Heb. lay twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead. down. + Heb. reign ed. 953. SECTION II. Reign of Nadab. 1 KINGS XV. 25-32. 25¶And Nadab the son of Jeroboam + began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years. 26 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. 27¶ And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. 28 Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in his stead. 29 And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that d ch. xiv. 10. breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Abijah the Shilonite : 30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger. 31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? But 5 Nadab reigned in the second, and was killed in the third year of Asa. Jeroboam his father, reigned twenty-two years, and Asa began to reign in the twentieth year of Jeroboam. Nadab therefore was made king in his father's life; and died in the same year as his son. It is necessary to observe these points; as the chronology otherwise appears confused. SECTION III. Reign of Baasha". 1 KINGS XV. VER. 32. TO THE END. 32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of A.C. 953. Israel all their days. 33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years. 34 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. 1 KINGS XVI. VER. 1—8. 1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, 2 Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; .3 Behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house; and will make thy house like e the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. e ch. xv. 29. 4 Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs fch. xiv. 11. eat; and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat. 5 Now 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? 6 So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah and Elah his son reigned in his stead. 7 And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and • Baasha began to reign in the third year of Asa; and he reigned twenty-four years. He died therefore in the twenty-seventh year of Asa; yet we read, (2 Chron. xvi. 1.) in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha came up against Asa: when he must have been dead more than eight years. Dr. Hales solves this apparent difficulty by proposing an alteration in the text: the Masorite text, he observes, corruptly reads in the thirty-fifth year. Lightfoot, however, who on all occasions shews a laudable anxiety to maintain the text in its present form, and to prevent any needless calteration, says, that the word man is not to be understood of Asa's reign, but of the kingdom of Asa, as distinct from the kingdom of Israel. And if the reader will calculate, he will find that the year in which Baasha built Ramah, and invaded Judah, was the thirty-sixth year from the division of the kingdoms.-Hales's Anal. vol. 2. p. 417.-Lightfoot in loc. 930. A.C. 930. 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 killed him. SECTION IV. Reign of Elah. 1 KINGS XVI. VER. 8-15. 8 In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years. 9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking him*Heb. which self drunk in the house of Arza steward of his house in Tirzah. was over. 929. 10 And 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. Il And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against the wall, Or, both his neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends. kinsmen and his friends, 12 Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake against Heb. by the Baasha † by Jehu the prophet, hand of. 13 For 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. 14 Now 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? SECTION V. Reign of Zimri. 1 KINGS XVI. VER. 15-23. 15 In 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. 16 And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. |