This
chapter relates wholly to the
kingdom
of Israel, and the revolutions of that kingdom--many
in a little time. The utter ruin of Jeroboam's family, after it had been
twenty-four years a royal family, we read of in the foregoing chapter. In
this chapter we have, I. The ruin of Baasha's family, after it had been but
twenty-six years a royal family, foretold by a prophet (ver. 1-7), and
executed by Zimri, one of his captains, ver. 8-14. II. The seven days' reign
of Zimri, and his sudden fall, ver. 15-20. III. The struggle between Omri
and Tibni, and Omri's prevalency, and his reign, ver. 21-28. IV. The
beginning of the reign of Ahab, of whom we shall afterwards read much, ver.
29-33. V. The rebuilding of Jericho, ver. 34. All this while, in Judah,
things went well.
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Ruin
of Baasha's Family Foretold.
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B.
C. 931.
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1 Then the word of the LORD
came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, 2
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; 3
Behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his
house; and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
4 Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that
dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat. 5 Now
the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, are
they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
6 So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah: and Elah his
son reigned in his stead. 7 And also 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 him. 8 In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of
Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two
years. 9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his
chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk
in the house of Arza steward of his house in Tirzah. 10
And Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh
year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. 11 And it
came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that
he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a
wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends. 12 Thus did
Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD,
which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, 13 For all
the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and
by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD
God of Israel to anger with their vanities. 14 Now the rest of
the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Here is, I. The ruin of the family of Baasha foretold. He was a man likely
enough to have raised and established his family--active, politic, and
daring; but he was an idolater, and this brought destruction upon his
family.
1. God sent him warning of it before. (1.) That, if he were thereby wrought
upon to repent and reform, the ruin might be prevented; for God threatens,
that he may not strike, as one that desires not the death of sinners. (2.)
That, if not, it might appear that the destruction when it did come, whoever
might be instruments of it, was the act of God's justice and the punishment
of sin.
2. The warning was sent by Jehu the son of Hanani. The father was a
seer, or prophet, at the same time (2 Chron. xvi. 7), and was sent to Asa
king of Judah; but the son, who was young and more active, was sent on this
longer and more dangerous expedition to Baasha king of Israel. Juniores
ad labores--Toil and adventure are for the young. This Jehu was a
prophet and the son of a prophet. Prophecy, thus happily entailed, was
worthy of so much the more honour. This Jehu continued long in his
usefulness, for we find him reproving Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xix. 2) above
forty years after, and writing the annals of that prince, 2 Chron. xx. 34.
The message which this prophet brought to Baasha is much the same with that
which Ahijah sent to Jeroboam by his wife.
(1.) He reminds Baasha of the great things God had done for him (v.
2): I exalted thee out of the dust to the throne of glory, a
great instance of the divine sovereignty and power, 1 Sam. ii. 8. Baasha
seemed to have raised himself by his own treachery and cruelty, yet there
was a hand of Providence in it, to bring about God's counsel, concerning
Jeroboam's house; and God's owning his advancement as his act and deed does
by no means amount to the patronising of his ambition and treachery. It is
God that puts power into bad men's hands, which he makes to serve his good
purposes, notwithstanding the bad use they make of it. I made thee prince
over my people. God calls Israel his people still, though wretchedly
corrupted, because they retained the covenant of circumcision, and there
were many good people among them; it was not till long after that they were
called Loammi, not a people, Hos. i. 9.
(2.) He charges him with high crimes and misdemeanours, [1.] That he had
caused Israel to sin, had seduced God's subjects from their
allegiance and brought them to pay to dunghill-deities the homage due to him
only, and herein he had walked in the way of Jeroboam (v. 2),
and been like his house, v. 7. [2.] That he had himself provoked
God to anger with the work of his hands, that is, by worshipping images,
the work of men's hands; though perhaps others made them, yet he
served them and thereby avowed the making of them, and they are therefore
called the work of his hands. [3.] That he had destroyed the house
of Jeroboam (v. 7), because he killed him, namely,
Jeroboam's son and all his: if he had done that with an eye to God, to his
will and glory, and from a holy indignation against the sins of Jeroboam and
his house, he would have been accepted and applauded as a minister of God's
justice; but, as he did it, he was only the tool of God's justice, but a
servant to his own lusts, and is justly punished for the malice and ambition
which actuated and governed him in all he did. Note, Those who are in any
way employed in denouncing or executing the justice of God (magistrates or
ministers) are concerned to do it from a good principle and in a holy
manner, lest it turn into sin to them and they make themselves obnoxious by
it.
(3.) He foretels the same destruction to come upon his family which he
himself had been employed to bring upon the family of Jeroboam, v. 3,
4. Note, Those who resemble others in their sins may expect to resemble them
in their plagues, especially those who seem zealous against such sins in
others as they allow themselves in; the house of Jehu was reckoned with for
the blood of the house of Ahab, Hos. i. 4.
II. A reprieve granted for some time, so long that Baasha himself dies in
peace, and is buried with honour in his own royal city (v. 6), so far
is he from being a prey either to the dogs or to the fowls, which yet was
threatened to his house, v. 4. He lives not either to see or feel the
punishment threatened, yet he was himself the greatest delinquent. Certainly
there must be a future state, in which impenitent sinners will suffer in
their own persons, and not escape, as often they do in this world. Baasha
died under no visible stroke of divine vengeance for aught that appears, but
God laid up his iniquity for his children, as Job speaks, ch.
xxi. 19. Thus he often visits sin. Observe, Baasha is punished by the
destruction of his children after his death, and his children are punished
by the abuse of their bodies after their death; that is the only thing which
the threatening specifies (v. 4), that the dogs and the fowls of the
air should eat them, as if herein were designed a tacit intimation that
there are punishments after death, when death has done its worst, which will
be the sorest punishments and are most to be dreaded; these judgments on the
body and posterity signified judgments on the soul when separated from the
body, by him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell.
III. Execution done at last. Baasha's son Elah, like Jeroboam's son Nadab,
reigned two years, and then was slain by Zimri, one of his own soldiers, as
Nadab was by Baasha; so like was his house made to that of Jeroboam, as was
threatened, v. 3. Because his idolatry was like his, and one of the
sins for which God contended with him being the destruction of Jeroboam's
family, the more the destruction of his own resembled that, the nearer did
the punishment resemble the sin, as face answers to face in a glass.
1. As then, so now, the king himself was first slain, but Elah fell more
ingloriously than Nadab. Nadab was slain in the field of action and honour,
he and his army then besieging Gibbethon (ch. xv. 27); but the siege
being then raised upon that disaster, and the city remaining still in the
Philistines' hands, the army of Israel was now renewing the attempt (v.
15) and Elah should have been with them to command in chief, but he loved
his own ease and safety better than his honour or duty, or the public good,
and therefore staid behind to take his pleasure; and, when he was drinking
himself drunk in his servant's house, Zimri killed him, v. 9, 10.
Let it be a warning to drunkards, especially to those who designedly drink
themselves drunk, that they know not but death may surprise them in that
condition. (1.) Death comes easily upon men when they are drunk. Besides the
chronic diseases which men frequently bring themselves into by hard
drinking, and which cut them off in the midst of their days, men in that
condition are more easily overcome by an enemy, as Amnon by Absalom, and are
liable to more bad accidents, being unable to help themselves, (2.) Death
comes terribly upon men in that condition. Finding them in the act of sin,
and incapacitated for any act of devotion, that day comes upon them
unawares (Luke xxi. 34), like a thief.
2. As then, so now, the whole family was cut off, and rooted out. The
traitor was the successor, to whom the unthinking people tamely submitted,
as if it were all one to them what kind they had, so that they had one. The
first thing Zimri did was to slay all the house of Baasha; thus he
held by cruelty what he got by treason. His cruelty seems to have extended
further than Baasha's did against the house of Jeroboam, for he left to Elah
none of his kinsfolks or friends (v. 11), none of his
avengers (so the word is), none that were likely to avenge his death;
yet divine justice soon avenged it so remarkably that it was used as a
proverb long after, Had Zimri peace who slew his master? 2 Kings ix.
31. In this, (1.) The word of God was fulfilled, v. 12. (2.) The sins
of Baasha and Elah were reckoned for, with which they provoked God by
their vanities, v. 13. Their idols are called their vanities,
for they cannot profit nor help. Miserable are those whose deities are
vanities.
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Zimri's
Death; Reign of Omri.
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B.
C. 929.
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15 In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king
of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were
encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
16 And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired,
and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of
the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 And Omri
went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
18 And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went
into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him
with fire, and died, 19 For his sins which he sinned in doing
evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of
Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin. 20
Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he wrought, are
they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
21 Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people
followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.
22 But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that
followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
23 In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign
over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah. 24
And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and
built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the
name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria. 25 But Omri wrought
evil in the eyes of the LORD,
and did worse than all that were before him. 26 For he
walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith
he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD
God of Israel to anger with their vanities. 27 Now the rest of
the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, are they
not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
28 So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab his
son reigned in his stead.
Solomon observes (Prov. xxviii. 2) that for the transgression of a land
many were the princes thereof (so it was here in Israel), but by a
man of understanding the state thereof shall be prolonged--so it was
with Judah at the same time under Asa. When men forsake God they are out of
the way of rest and establishment. Zimri, and Tibni, and Omri, are here
striving for the crown. Proud aspiring men ruin one another, and involve
others in the ruin. These confusions end in the settlement of Omri; we must
therefore take him along with us through this part of the story.
I. How he was chosen, as the Roman emperors often were, by the army in the
field, now encamped before Gibbethon. Notice was soon brought thither that
Zimri had slain their king (v. 16) and set up himself in Tirzah, the
royal city, whereupon they chose Omri king in the camp, that they might
without delay avenge the death of Elah upon Zimri. Though he was idle and
intemperate, yet he was their king, and they would not tamely submit to his
murderer, nor let the treason go unpunished. They did not attempt to avenge
the death of Nadab upon Baasha, perhaps because the house of Baasha had
ruled with more gentleness than the house of Jeroboam; but Zimri shall feel
the resentments of the provoked army. The siege of Gibbethon is quitted
(Philistines are sure to gain when Israelites quarrel) and Zimri is
prosecuted.
II. How he conquered Zimri, who is said to have reigned seven days (v.
15), so long before Omri was proclaimed king and himself proclaimed traitor;
but we may suppose it was a longer time before he died, for he continued
long enough to show his inclination to the way of Jeroboam, and to make
himself obnoxious to the justice of God by supporting his idolatry, v.
19. Tirzah was a beautiful city, but not fortified, so that Omri soon made
himself master of it (v. 17), forced Zimri into the palace, which
being unable to defend, and yet unwilling to surrender, he burnt, and
himself in it, v. 18. Unwilling that his rival should ever enjoy that
sumptuous palace, he burnt it; and fearing that if he fell into the hands of
the army, either alive or dead, he should be ignominiously treated, he burnt
himself in it. See what desperate practices men's wickedness sometimes
brings them to, and how it hurries them into their own ruin; see the
disposition of incendiaries, who set palaces and kingdoms on fire, though
they are themselves in danger of perishing in the flame.
III. How he struggled with Tibni, and at length got clear of him: Half of
the people followed this Tibni (v. 21), probably those who were
in Zimri's interest, with whom others joined, who would not have a king
chosen in the camp (lest he should rule by the sword and a standing army),
but in a convention of the states. The contest between these two lasted some
years, and, it is likely, cost a great deal of blood on both sides, for it
was in the twenty-seventh year of Asa that Omri was first elected (v.
15) and thence the twelve years of his reign are to be dated; but it was not
till the thirty-first year of Asa that he began to reign without a rival;
then Tibni died, it is likely in battle, and Omri reigned, v.
22. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World (2.19.6), enquires here
why it was that in all these confusions and revolutions of the kingdom of
Israel they never thought of returning to the house of David, and uniting
themselves again to Judah, for then it was better with them than now;
and he thinks the reason was because the kings of Judah assumed a more
absolute, arbitrary, and despotic power than the kings of Israel. It was the
heaviness of the yoke that they complained of when they first revolted from
the house of David, and the dread of that made them ever after averse to it,
and attached to kings of their own, who ruled more by law and the rules of a
limited monarchy.
IV. How he reigned when he was at length settled on the throne. 1. He made
himself famous by building Samaria, which, ever after, was the royal city of
the kings of Israel (the palace at Tirzah being burnt), and in process of
time grew so considerable that it gave name to the middle part of Canaan
(which lay between Galilee on the north and Judea on the south) and to the
inhabitants of that country, who were called Samaritans. He bought
the ground for two talents of silver, somewhat more than 700l.
of our money, for a talent was 353l. 11s. 10 1/2d.
Perhaps Shemer, who sold him the ground, let him have it considerably the
cheaper upon condition that the city should be called after his name, for
otherwise it would have borne the name of the purchaser; it was called Samaria,
or Shemeren (as it is in the Hebrew), from Shemer, the former owner, v.
24. The kings of Israel changed their royal seats, Shechem first, then
Tirzah, now Samaria; but the kings of Judah were constant to Jerusalem, the
city of God. Those that cleave to the Lord fix, but those that leave him
ever wander. 2. He made himself infamous by his wickedness; for he did
worse than all that were before him, v. 25. Though he was brought
to the throne with much difficulty, and Providence had remarkably favoured
him in his advancement, yet he was more profane, or more superstitious, and
a greater persecutor, than either of the houses of Jeroboam or Baasha. He
went further than they had done in establishing iniquity by a law,
and forcing his subjects to comply with him in it; for we read of the
statutes of Omri, the keeping of which made Israel a desolation, Mic.
vi. 16. Jeroboam caused Israel to sin by temptation, example, and
allurement; but Omri did it by compulsion.
V. How he ended his reign, v. 27, 28. He was in some repute for the
might which he showed. Many a bad man has been a stout man. He died in his
bed, as did Jeroboam and Baasha themselves; but, like them, left it to his
posterity to fill up the measure, and then pay off the scores, of his
iniquity.
29 And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa
king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the
son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.
30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD
above all that were before him. 31 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 to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of
the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. 32
And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built
in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to
provoke the LORD
God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before
him. 34 In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build 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.
We have here the beginning of the reign of Ahab, of whom we have more
particulars recorded than of any of the kings of Israel. We have here only a
general idea given us of him, as the worst of all the kings, that we may
expect what the particulars will be. He reigned twenty-two years, long
enough to do a great deal of mischief.
I. He exceeded all his predecessors in wickedness, did evil above all
that were before him (v. 30), and, as if it were done with a
particular enmity both to God and Israel, to affront him and ruin them, it
is said, He did more purposely to provoke the Lord God of Israel
to anger, and, consequently, to send judgments on his land, than all
the kings of Israel that were before him, v. 33. It was bad with
the people when every successive king was worse than his predecessor. What
would they come to at last? He had seen the ruin of other wicked kings and
their families; yet, instead of taking warning, his heart was hardened and
enraged against God by it. He thought it a light thing to walk in the
sins of Jeroboam, v. 31. It was nothing to break the second
commandment by image-worship, he would set aside the first also by
introducing other gods; his little finger should fall heavier upon God's
ordinances than Jeroboam's loins. Making light of less sins makes way for
greater, and those that endeavour to extenuate other people's sins will but
aggravate their own.
II. He married a wicked woman, who he knew would bring in the worship of
Baal, and seemed to marry her with that design. As if it had been a light
thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took to wife Jezebel (v.
31), a zealous idolater, extremely imperious and malicious in her natural
temper, addicted to witchcrafts and whoredoms (2 Kings ix. 22), and every
way vicious. The false prophetess spoken of Rev. ii. 20 is there called Jezebel,
for a wicked woman could not be called by a worse name than hers; what
mischiefs she did, and what mischief at last befel her (2 Kings ix. 33), we
shall find in the following story; this one strange wife debauched Israel
more than all the strange wives of Solomon.
III. He set up the worship of Baal, forsook the God of Israel and served the
god of the Sidonians, Jupiter instead of Jehovah, the sun (so some think), a
deified hero of the Phoenicians (so others): he was weary of the golden
calves, and thought they had been worshipped long enough; such vanities were
they that those who had been fondest of them at length grew sick of them,
and, like adulterers, much have variety. In honour of this mock deity, whom
they called Baal--lord, and for the convenience of his worship, 1.
Ahab built a temple in Samaria, the royal city, because the temple of God
was in Jerusalem, the royal city of the other kingdom. He would have Baal's
temple near him, that he might the better frequent it, protect it, and put
honour upon it. 2. He reared an altar in that temple, on which to offer
sacrifice to Baal, by which they acknowledged their dependence upon him and
sought his favour. O the stupidity of idolaters, who are at a great expense
to make one their friend whom they might have chosen whether they would make
a god of or no! 3. He made a grove about his temple, either a natural one,
by planting shady trees there, or, if those would be too long in growing, an
artificial one in imitation of it; for it is not said he planted, but
he made a grove, something that answered the intention, which was to
conceal and so countenance the abominable impurities that were committed in
the filthy worship of Baal. Lucus, a lucendo, quia non lucet--He
that doeth evil hateth the light.
IV. One of his subjects, in imitation of his presumption, ventured to build
Jericho, in defiance of the curse Joshua had long since pronounced on him
that should attempt it, v. 34. It comes in as an instance of the
height of impiety to which men had arrived, especially at Bethel, where one
of the calves was, for of that city this daring sinner was. Observe, 1. How
ill he did. Like Achan he meddled with the accursed thing, turned that to
his own use which was devoted to God's honour. He began to build, in
defiance of the curse well known in Israel, jesting with it perhaps as a
bugbear, or fancying its force worn out by length of time, for it was above
500 years since it was pronounced, Josh. vi. 26. He went on to build, in
defiance of the execution of the curse in part; for, though his eldest son
died when he began, yet he would proceed in contempt of God and his wrath
revealed from heaven against his ungodliness. 2. How ill he sped. He built
for his children, but God wrote him childless; his eldest son died when he
began, the youngest when he finished, and all the rest (it is supposed)
between. Note, Those whom God curses are cursed indeed; none ever hardened
his heart against God and prospered. God keep us back from presumptuous
sins, those great transgressions!
