1 Kings 15:18

15:18 Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it ¹  to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

1 Kings 15:20

15:20 Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. ²  They conquered ³  Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth. ⁴ 

1 Kings 15:2

15:2 He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. ⁵  His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. ⁶ 

1 Kings 8:7-10

8:7 The cherubs’ wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles. ⁷  8:8 The poles were so long their ends were visible from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. ⁸  They have remained there to this very day. 8:9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. ⁹  It was there that ¹⁰  the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 8:10 Once the priests left the holy place, a cloud filled the Lord’s temple.

1 Kings 8:2

8:2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival ¹¹  in the month Ethanim ¹²  (the seventh month).

1 Kings 16:2-4

16:2 “I raised you up ¹³  from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel. Yet you followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps ¹⁴  and encouraged my people Israel to sin; their sins have made me angry. ¹⁵  16:3 So I am ready to burn up ¹⁶  Baasha and his family, and make your family ¹⁷  like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16:4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family ¹⁸  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

Jeremiah 49:27

49:27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;

it will burn up the palaces of Ben Hadad.” ¹⁹ 

Amos 1:4

1:4 So I will set Hazael’s house ²⁰  on fire;

fire ²¹  will consume Ben Hadad’s ²²  fortresses.

¹ tn Heb “King Asa sent it.”

² tn Heb “and Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of the armies which belonged to him against the cities of Israel.”

³ tn Heb “he struck down.”

⁴ tn Heb “and all Kinnereth together with all the land of Naphtali.”

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁶ sn Abishalom (also in v. 10) is a variant of the name Absalom (cf. 2 Chr 11:20). The more common form is used by TEV, NLT.

⁷ sn And its poles. These poles were used to carry the ark. See Exod 25:13-15.

⁸ tn Heb “they could not be seen outside.”

⁹ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai.

¹⁰ tn Heb “in Horeb where.”

¹¹ sn The festival. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, see Lev 23:34.

¹² sn The month Ethanim. This would be September-October in modern reckoning.

¹³ tn The Hebrew text has “because” at the beginning of the sentence. In the Hebrew text vv. 2-3 are one sentence comprised of a causal clause giving the reason for divine punishment (v. 2) and the main clause announcing the punishment (v. 3). The translation divides this sentence for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ tn Heb “walked in the way of Jeroboam.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “angering me by their sins.”

¹⁶ tn The traditional view understands the verb בָּעַר (ba’ar) to mean “burn.” However, an alternate view takes בָּעַר (ba’ar) as a homonym meaning “sweep away” (HALOT 146 s.v. II בער). In this case one might translate, “I am ready to sweep away Baasha and his family.” Either metaphor emphasizes the thorough and destructive nature of the coming judgment.

¹⁷ tc The Old Greek, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum have here “his house.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “the ones belonging to Baasha.”

¹⁹ sn Ben-Hadad was a common name borne by a number of the kings of Damascus, e.g., one during the time of Asa around 900 b.c. (cf. 1 Kgs 15:18-20), one a little later during the time of Omri and Ahab around 850 (1 Kgs 20), and one during the time of Jehoash about 800 (2 Kgs 13:24-25).

²⁰ tn “Hazael’s house” (“the house of Hazael”) refers to the dynasty of Hazael.

²¹ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the fire mentioned in the previous line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²² sn Ben-hadad may refer to Hazael’s son and successor (2 Kgs 13:3, 24) or to an earlier king (see 1 Kgs 20), perhaps the ruler whom Hazael assassinated when he assumed power.