1And the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani about Baasha, saying: 2“Inasmuch as I have raised you from the dust and have made you prince over My people Israel, yet you went in the way of Jeroboam and led My people Israel to offend, to vex Me with their offenses. 3I am about to root out Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 4The dogs will eat Baasha’s dead in the town, and his dead in the field the fowl of the heavens will eat.” 5And the rest of the acts of Baasha and that which he did and his valor, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel? 6And Baasha lay with his fathers, and he was buried in Tirzah, and Elah his son was king in his stead. 7And indeed through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani the word of the LORD had come against Baasha and against his house, because of the evil he had done in the eyes of the LORD to vex Him by the work of his hands, to become like the house of Jeroboam, and because he had struck him down.
8In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king over Israel for two years. 9And his servant Zimri commander of half the chariotry plotted against him when he was in Tirzah in a drunken stupor at the house of Arzah, who was appointed over the palace, in Tirzah. 10And Zimri came and struck him down and put him to death in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and he became king in his stead. 11And it happened when he became king, when he took his seat on the throne, that he struck down the whole house of Baasha, he did not leave him a pisser against the wall, nor a blood-redeemer or companion. 12And Zimri destroyed the whole house of Baasha according to the word of the LORD that He had spoken against Baasha through Jehu the prophet, 13for all the offenses of Baasha and the offenses of Elah his son, which they committed and which they led Israel to commit, to vex the LORD God of Israel with their empty idols. 14And the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel?
15In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri became king in Tirzah for seven days, while the troops encamped at Gibethon, which was the Philistines’. 16And the encamped troops heard, saying, “Zimri has hatched a plot and actually struck down the king.” And all Israel made Omri, commander of the army, king over Israel on that day in the camp. 17And Omri, and all Israel with him, came up from Gibethon and besieged Tirzah. 18And it happened when Zimri saw that that town was taken, he came into the palace, the king’s house, and he burned down the king’s house upon himself and died 19for the offenses that he had committed to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, to go in the way of Jeroboam and in his offense that he had done to lead Israel to commit. 20And the rest of the acts of Zimri and the plot that he had hatched, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel? 21Then was the people of Israel divided in two—half the people followed Tibni son of Ginath to make him king and the other half followed Omri. 22And the people who followed Omri were stronger than the people who followed Tibni son of Ginath, and Tibni died, and Omri became king.
23In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel for twelve years. In Tirzah he was king six years. 24And he bought the Mount of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built up the mount and called the name of the town that he had built up after the name of Shemer master of Mount Samaria. 25And Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and he was more evil than all who were before him. 26And he went in all the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his offenses that he had led Israel to commit, to vex the LORD God of Israel with their empty idols. 27And the rest of the acts of Omri and his valor which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel? 28And Omri lay with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son was king in his stead.
29And Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab son of Omri was king over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30And Ahab son of Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD more than all who were before him. 31And it happened, as though it were a light thing for him to follow in the offenses of Jeroboam son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel, daughter of Ithbaal king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and bowed down to him. 32And he set up an altar to Baal in the house of Baal that he had built in Samaria. 33And Ahab made a sacred pole, and Ahab continued to act so as to vex the LORD God of Israel more than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34In his days Hiel the Bethelite built up Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation and at the cost of Segib his youngest he put up its gates, according to the word of the LORD that He spoke through Joshua son of Nun.
CHAPTER 16 NOTES
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1. about Baasha. The Hebrew preposition could also mean “against” and even “to.” In any case, God’s address in the words of the prophecy is directed to Baasha, not to the prophet.
4. The dogs will eat Baasha’s dead in the town. For the force of this curse, which will recur in connection with Ahab and Jezebel, it should be kept in mind that in ancient Israel dogs were semiferal scavengers, not pets, and thus an apt match for “the fowl of the heavens,” which would be vultures and related aerial scavengers.
7. and because he had struck him down. This clause is a little cryptic. The initial “he” has to be Baasha, and so the person he struck down is Jeroboam. Since the destruction of the house of Jeroboam for the offense of idolatry was announced in a divinely authorized prophecy, one might have thought that there was no sin in Baasha’s killing Jeroboam and all the males of his house. Perhaps the writer means to suggest that ruthless murder, even if it is the enactment of deserved retribution, remains ruthless murder, especially if the motives of the killer are far from noble, as appears to be the case with Baasha. In all these reports, the writer manifestly struggles with putting forth a theological explanation for political upheavals. The history of the kingdom of Judah, whatever its vulnerabilities and cultic derelictions, reflects relative stability: Asa’s reign lasts forty years, while a series of kings in the rival kingdom of Israel are assassinated, with one regnal span as little as two years and another only seven days. One might infer that this instability goes back to the fact that the northern kingdom was established by a usurper, Jeroboam, in contrast to the Davidic dynasty in the south with its claim of divine election and the heroic figure of David as its iconic founder. The writer, however, feels constrained to explain that each murdered monarch perished because of his idolatrous ways.
9. commander of half the chariotry. The inevitable inference is that the royal chariotry was divided into two units, but the “half” here anticipates the hostile division between factions that will occur.
when he was in . . . a drunken stupor. Zimri shrewdly waits for this moment when Elah will be an easy target for attack.
who was appointed over the palace. More literally, “over the house.” Elah is attending a feast at the house of his court official.
11. blood-redeemer. “Blood” is merely implied. The “redeemer” is a relative who in the code of vendetta justice has the obligation to avenge a murdered kinsman. No avenger is left alive by Zimri.
13. for all the offenses of Baasha and the offenses of Elah his son. As noted above, a theological explanation is offered for what appears to be a self-interested act of assassination on the part of a person who wants to seize power.
16. And all Israel. Since Israel is now clearly split into two warring factions, this formulaic phrase must mean all the Israelites present in the military encampment at Gibethon.
made Omri, commander of the army, king. One sees the rapidity with which people rise to, or claim, the throne. What this amounts to in this case is a military coup: the troops, seeing that Zimri has assassinated Elah son of Baasha, who himself assassinated the second monarch of the northern kingdom, decide to proclaim their own commander king. Omri prevails over Zimri because he has a large part of the army behind him.
18. the palace, the king’s house. This is the first time in a narrative book that the term ʾarmon, “palace,” appears. The only other occurrence in a narrative text is in Chronicles, although it is frequently used in poetry. The usual narrative designation for “palace” is “the king’s house,” which here appears as an apposition or perhaps even as a gloss on ʾarmon.
21. half the people followed Tibni son of Ginath. No information is provided about Tibni, so it is unclear whether he is a follower of the dead Zimri or simply an opportunist who seeks to seize the kingship in a moment of political chaos.
22. And the people who followed Omri were stronger. Again, it appears that Omri prevails because he can muster more troops.
24. Shemer . . . Samaria. In Hebrew, the connection between the two names is more transparent because the Hebrew for Samaria is Shomron.
29. Ahab . . . was king over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Despite being the most flagrantly idolatrous of all the kings of Israel, he enjoys a relatively long reign, though he will come to an ignominious end.
31. Jezebel, daughter of Ithbaal king of the Sidonians. Her name and lineage proclaim her roots in the world of idolatry. She is a Phoenician (Sidon being a principal Phoenician city); her father’s name contains the pagan theophoric element “Baal”; her name means “Where is the prince.” The Masoretic Text polemically revocalizes the name of the Phoenician god Zebul as zebel, “dung.”
he went and served Baal and bowed down to him. Ahab, outdoing his royal predecessors in Judah and Israel, does not merely tolerate the idolatry of a foreign wife but becomes an active worshipper of Baal, even establishing a temple and altar dedicated to Baal (the next verse) in his capital city.
34. Hiel the Bethelite. He appears to be a royal official.
built up Jericho. Joshua, after the destruction of Jericho, had pronounced a curse (Joshua 6:26) on whoever might presume to rebuild Jericho. The violation of that solemn prohibition by one of Ahab’s people is of a piece with Ahab’s building a site of worship to a pagan god.
At the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation. The probable meaning is that according to the terms of Joshua’s curse, his firstborn died when he laid the town’s foundations and his youngest when the gates were put up, marking the completion of the building. But the ghost of the ancient Near Eastern practice of a foundation sacrifice, in which a ruler sacrificed his firstborn to ensure the well-being of the city, flickers through this grim verse.