Bible Commentaries

^a 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;

(a) Thus spoke Jehu to Baasha in the Name of the Lord.

Behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house; and will make ^b thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

(b) Meaning, the house of Baasha.

And also ^c by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the LORD against Baasha, and 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 ^d him.

(c) That is, the prophet did his message.

(d) Meaning, Nadab Jeroboam's son.

And his servant Zimri, captain of half [his] chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, ^e drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of [his] house in Tirzah.

(e) The Chaldee text has this, "Drinking till he was drunk in the temple of Arza the idol by his house in Tirzah".

Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the ^f prophet,

(f) Both Hanani his father and he were prophets.

In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people [were] encamped ^g against Gibbethon, which [belonged] to the Philistines.

(g) The siege had continued from the time of Nadab Jeroboam's son.

And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged ^h Tirzah.

(h) Where Zimri holed up.

Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: ⁱ half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.

(i) That is, the people who were not at the siege of Gibbethon: for there they had chosen Omri.

But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did ^k worse than all that [were] before him.

(k) For such is the nature of idolatry, that the superstition of it daily increases, and the older it is, the more abominable it is before God and his Church.

So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in ^l Samaria: and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.

(l) He was the first king that was buried in Samaria, after that the kings house was burnt in Tirzah.

And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took ^m to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

(m) By whose influence he fell into wicked and strange idolatry and cruel persecution.

In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build ⁿ Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest [son] Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.

(n) See (Joshua 6:26).