1 Kings 16

1Ki 16:1-8.

JEHU'S

PROPHECY AGAINST

BAASHA.

1. Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu--This is the only incident

recorded in the life of this prophet. His father was also a prophet

(2Ch 16:7).

2. Forasmuch as I exalted thee--The doom he pronounced on Baasha was

exactly the same as denounced against Jeroboam and his posterity.

Though he had waded through slaughter to his throne, he owed his

elevation to the appointment or permission of Him "by whom kings

reign."

over my people Israel--With all their errors and lapses into idolatry,

they were not wholly abandoned by God. He still showed His interest in

them by sending prophets and working miracles in their favor, and

possessed a multitude of faithful worshippers in the kingdom of Israel.

7. also by the hand of the prophet Jehu--This is not another prophecy,

but merely an addition by the sacred historian, explanatory of the

death of Baasha and the extinction of his family. The doom pronounced

against Jeroboam

(1Ki 14:9),

did not entitle him to take the execution of the sentence into his own

hands; but from his following the same calf-worship, he had evidently

plotted the conspiracy and murder of that king in furtherance of his

own ambitious designs; and hence, in his own assassination, he met the

just reward of his deeds. The similitude to Jeroboam extends to their

deaths as well as their lives--the reign of their sons, and the ruin of

their families.

8. began Elah the son of Baasha to reign--(compare

1Ki 15:33).

From this it will appear that Baasha died in the twenty-third year of

his reign (see on

1Ki 15:2),

and Elah, who was a prince of dissolute habits, reigned not fully two

years.

1Ki 16:9-22.

ZIMRI'S

CONSPIRACY.

9-12. Zimri . . . conspired against him--"Arza which was over his

house." During a carousal in the house of his chamberlain, Zimri slew

him, and having seized the sovereignty, endeavored to consolidate his

throne by the massacre of all the royal race.

15-18. did Zimri reign seven days--The news of his conspiracy soon

spread, and the army having proclaimed their general, Omri, king, that

officer immediately raised the siege at Gibbethon and marched directly

against the capital in which the usurper had established himself. Zimri

soon saw that he was not in circumstances to hold out against all the

forces of the kingdom; so, shutting himself up in the palace, he set it

on fire, and, like Sardanapalus, chose to perish himself and reduce all

to ruin, rather than that the palace and royal treasures should fall

into the hands of his successful rival. The seven days' reign may refer

either to the brief duration of his royal authority, or the period in

which he enjoyed unmolested tranquillity in the palace.

19. For his sins which he sinned--This violent end was a just

retribution for his crimes. "His walking in the ways of Jeroboam" might

have been manifested either by the previous course of his life, or by

his decrees published on his ascension, when he made a strong effort to

gain popularity by announcing his continued support of the calf

worship.

21, 22. Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts--The

factions that ensued occasioned a four years' duration (compare

1Ki 16:15

with 1Ki 16:23),

of anarchy or civil war. Whatever might be the public opinion of Omri's

merits a large body of the people disapproved of the mode of his

election, and declared for Tibni. The army, however, as usual in such

circumstances (and they had the will of Providence favoring them),

prevailed over all opposition, and Omri became undisputed possessor of

the throne.

22. Tibni died--The Hebrew does not enable us to determine whether

his death was violent or natural.

1Ki 16:23-28.

OMRI

BUILDS

SAMARIA.

23. In the thirty and first year of Asa . . . began Omri to reign--The

twelve years of his reign are computed from the beginning of his reign,

which was in the twenty-seventh year of Asa's reign. He held a

contested reign for four years with Tibni; and then, at the date stated

in this verse, entered on a sole and peaceful reign of eight years.

24. he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer--The palace of Tirzah being

in ruins, Omri, in selecting the site of his royal residence, was

naturally influenced by considerations both of pleasure and advantage.

In the center of a wide amphitheatre of mountains, about six miles from

Shechem, rises an oblong hill with steep, yet accessible sides, and a

long flat top extending east and west, and rising five hundred or six

hundred feet above the valley. What Omri in all probability built as a

mere palatial residence, became the capital of the kingdom instead of

Shechem. It was as though Versailles had taken the place of Paris, or

Windsor of London. The choice of Omri was admirable, in selecting a

position which combined in a union not elsewhere found in Palestine:

strength, beauty, and fertility [STANLEY].

two talents of silver--£684. Shemer had probably made it a

condition of the sale, that the name should be retained. But as city

and palace were built there by Omri, it was in accordance with Eastern

custom to call it after the founder. The Assyrians did so, and on a

tablet dug out of the ruins of Nineveh, an inscription was found

relating to Samaria, which is called Beth-khumri--the house of Omri

[LAYARD]. (See

2Ki 17:5).

25-27. But Omri wrought evil--The character of Omri's reign and his

death are described in the stereotyped form used towards all the

successors of Jeroboam in respect both to policy as well as time.

29-33. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all

that were before him--The worship of God by symbols had hitherto been

the offensive form of apostasy in Israel, but now gross idolatry is

openly patronized by the court. This was done through the influence of

Jezebel, Ahab's queen. She was "the daughter of Eth-baal,

king of the Zidonians." He was priest of Ashtaroth or Astarte, who,

having murdered Philetes, king of Tyre, ascended the throne of that

kingdom, being the eighth king since Hiram. Jezebel was the wicked

daughter of this regicide and idol priest--and, on her marriage with

Ahab, never rested till she had got all the forms of her native Tyrian

worship introduced into her adopted country.

32. reared up an altar for Baal--that is, the sun, worshipped under

various images. Ahab set up one

(2Ki 3:2),

probably as the Tyrian Hercules, in the temple in Samaria. No human

sacrifices were offered--the fire was kept constantly burning --the

priests officiated barefoot. Dancing and kissing the image

(1Ki 19:18)

were among the principal rites.

1Ki 16:34.

JOSHUA'S

CURSE

FULFILLED UPON

HIEL THE

BUILDER OF

JERICHO.

34. In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build

Jericho--(see on

Jos 6:26).

The curse took effect on the family of this reckless man but whether

his oldest son died at the time of laying the foundation, and the

youngest at the completion of the work, or whether he lost all his sons

in rapid succession, till, at the end of the undertaking, he found

himself childless, the poetical form of the ban does not enable us to

determine. Some modern commentators think there is no reference either

to the natural or violent deaths of Hiel's sons; but that he began in

presence of his oldest son, but some unexpected difficulties, losses,

or obstacles, delayed the completion till his old age, when the gates

were set up in the presence of his youngest son. But the curse

was fulfilled more than five hundred years after it was uttered;

and from Jericho being inhabited after Joshua's time

(Jud 3:13;

2Sa 10:5),

it has been supposed that the act against which the curse was directed,

was an attempt at the restoration of the walls--the very walls which

had been miraculously cast down. It seems to have been within the

territory of Israel; and the unresisted act of Hiel affords a painful

evidence how far the people of Israel had lost all knowledge of, or

respect for, the word of God.