1 Kings 15:17-34
Baasha <01201> [A.M. 3074. B.C. 930. Baasha.]
Ramah <07414> [Ramah.]
By building Ramah is here meant fortifying it, in order to prevent all intercourse with the kingdom of Judah, lest his subjects should cleave to the house of David: for Ramah was a city of Benjamin, situated on the confines of both kingdoms, probably on a hill, as the name imports, commanding a narrow defile between the mountains, through which lay the principal road to Jerusalem; so that a fortification being erected here, no communication could be held between the people of Israel and Judah, without Baasha's permission.
prevent <05414> [he might not suffer.]
Asa ............................. He <0609> [Asa.]
Ben Hadad <01130> [Ben-hadad.]
Damascus <01834> [Damascus.]
treaty ....................... treaty <01285> [There is a league.]
treaty ..................... Break ... treaty <01285 06565> [break thy league.]
retreat <05927> [depart. Heb. go up.]
Ijon <05859> [Ijon.]
Probably the same as Hazar-enan, a frontier town to Damascus, (Eze 48:1;) and perhaps the Inna of Coele-Syria, long. 68 degrees and a half, lat. 33 degrees, according to Ptolemy.
Dan <01835> [Dan.]
Abel Beth Maacah <062> [Abel-beth-maachah.]
Kinnereth <03672> [Cinneroth.]
Baasha <01201> [when Baasha.]
Tirzah <08656> [Tirzah.]
ordered <08085> [made a proclamation.]
exemptions <05355> [exempted. Heb. free. Geba.]
[Gaba.]
Mizpah <04709> [Mizpah.]
[Mizpeh.]
rest .... events ............................ Annals <03499 01697> [rest of all.]
a <06256> [in the time.]
buried <06912> [A.M. 3090. B.C. 914. was buried.]
Of his splendid and costly funeral we read in 2 Ch 16:14.
Jehoshaphat <03092> [Jehoshaphat.]
[Josaphat.]
Nadab <05070> [A.M. 3050-3051. B.C. 954-953. Nadab.]
king ..... ruled <04427> [began to reign. Heb. reigned.]
did evil <07451 06213> [he did evil.]
<03212> [walked.]
sin <02403> [in his sin.]
Baasha son ........... Nadab <01121 01201> [Baasha the son.]
conspired <07194> [conspired.]
Gibbethon .................. Gibbethon <01405> [Gibbethon.]
Jeroboam's <07604 03379> [he left not.]
sins <02403> [the sins.]
<03708> [by his provocation.]
recorded <03789> [A.M. 3050-3051. B.C. 954-953. are they not written.]
war <04421> [A.M. 3051-3074. B.C. 953-930. there was war.]
That is, there was a constant spirit of hostility kept up between the two kingdoms, and no doubt frequent skirmishing between the bordering parties; but there was no open war till Baasha king of Israel began to build Ramah, which was, according to 2 Ch 15:19; 16:1, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa; but according to ch. 16:8, 9, his son was killed by Zimri in the twenty-sixth year of Asa, and consequently he could not make war upon him in the thirty-sixth year of his reign. Chronologers endeavour to reconcile this, by saying that the years should be reckoned, not from the beginning of Asa's reign, but from the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. We must either adopt this mode of solution, or admit that there is a mistake in some of the numbers, probably in the parallel places in Chronicles, but which we have no direct means of correcting.
year ..................... twenty-four years <06242 0702 08141> [twenty and four years.]
did evil <07451 06213> [he did evil.]
<03212> [walked.]
