1 Kings 15:17-22

15:17 King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah and established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah. ¹  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 ²  to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message: 15:19 “I want to make a treaty with you, like the one our fathers made. ³  See, I have sent you silver and gold as a present. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he will retreat from my land.” ⁴  15:20 Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. ⁵  They conquered ⁶  Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth. ⁷  15:21 When Baasha heard the news, he stopped fortifying ⁸  Ramah and settled down in Tirzah. 15:22 King Asa ordered all the men of Judah (no exemptions were granted) to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. ⁹  King Asa used the materials to build up ¹⁰  Geba (in Benjamin) and Mizpah.

1 Kings 15:2

15:2 He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. ¹¹  His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. ¹² 

1 Kings 16:1-10

16:1 Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord this message predicting Baasha’s downfall: ¹³  16:2 “I raised you up ¹⁴  from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel. Yet you followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps ¹⁵  and encouraged my people Israel to sin; their sins have made me angry. ¹⁶  16:3 So I am ready to burn up ¹⁷  Baasha and his family, and make your family ¹⁸  like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16:4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family ¹⁹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

16:5 The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, including his accomplishments and successes, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰  16:6 Baasha passed away ²¹  and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah replaced him as king. 16:7 The prophet Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord the message predicting the downfall of Baasha and his family because of all the evil Baasha had done in the sight of the Lord. ²²  His actions angered the Lord (including the way he had destroyed Jeroboam’s dynasty), so that his family ended up like Jeroboam’s. ²³ 

Elah’s Reign over Israel

16:8 In the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha’s son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years. 16:9 His servant Zimri, a commander of half of his chariot force, conspired against him. While Elah was drinking heavily ²⁴  at the house of Arza, who supervised the palace in Tirzah, 16:10 Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king. ²⁵ 

[15:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and he built up Ramah so as to not permit going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.”

[15:18]  ² tn Heb “King Asa sent it.”

[15:19]  ³ tn Heb “[May there be] a covenant between me and you [as there was] between my father and your father.”

[15:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “so he will go up from upon me.”

[15:20]  ⁵ 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.”

[15:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “he struck down.”

[15:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all Kinnereth together with all the land of Naphtali.”

[15:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “building.”

[15:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “and King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, there was no one exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its wood which Baasha had built.”

[15:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and King Asa built with them.”

[15:2]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:2]  ¹² 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.

[16:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came to Jehu son of Hanani concerning [or “against”] Baasha, saying.”

[16:2]  ¹⁴ 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.

[16:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “walked in the way of Jeroboam.”

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “angering me by their sins.”

[16:3]  ¹⁷ 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.

[16:3]  ¹⁸ tc The Old Greek, Syriac Peshitta, and some mss of the Targum have here “his house.”

[16:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the ones belonging to Baasha.”

[16:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Baasha, and that which he did and his strength, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”

[16:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[16:7]  ²² tn Heb “and also through Jehu son of Hanani the word of the Lord came concerning [or “against”] Baasha and his house, and because of all the evil which he did in the eyes of the Lord.”

[16:7]  ²³ tn Heb “angering him by the work of his hands, so that he was like the house of Jeroboam, and because of how he struck it down.”

[16:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “while he was drinking and drunken.”

[16:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he became king in his place.”