1 Kings 15

The chapter moves back and forth between the two kingdoms. In Judah, Abijam walks in his father’s sins, but Asa, his son, turns back to the LORD, though his reign ends with a failure of trust. In Israel, Nadab and Baasha continue the sin of Jeroboam, and the LORD’s word against Jeroboam’s house is fulfilled.

1 Kings 15:1-2

The writer lines up the two kingdoms by dating each king against the other. Abijam begins to rule in Judah in Jeroboam’s eighteenth year and reigns only three years. His mother Maacah was a granddaughter of Abishalom, a name tied to David’s troubled family.

See also: 2 Chronicles 13:1-2.

1 Kings 15:3

Abijam copied the sins of his father Rehoboam. His heart was not fully given to the LORD, as David’s had been. God looks past outward position to the heart, and a king’s divided loyalty marks his whole reign.

BSA: fully devoted (“completely loyal, wholly dedicated”): The measure is undivided loyalty, not perfection, and Abijam fell short of it.

Hebrew: שָׁלֵם (shalem, H8003) — “whole, complete.” The word means a heart that is whole, not split between the LORD and other loves. It is related to the word shalom, peace.

1 Kings 15:4-5

Despite Abijam’s failings, God kept his promise to David. He gave a lamp, a living line of descendants, so that David’s house would not go out. David’s record is called right, with one dark exception: the matter of Uriah.

BSA: lamp (“a candle, a light”): A lamp pictures the continuing light of David’s royal line, kept burning by God’s mercy. sake (“because of, out of regard for”): God acted out of faithfulness to His promise to David, not because Abijam earned it.

See also: 1 Kings 11:36; 2 Samuel 11:14-17.

1 Kings 15:6-8

War between Judah and Israel kept going through Abijam’s reign. The rest of his story was kept in royal records that we no longer have. He died, was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa took the throne.

BSA: rested (“slept, died”): Death is described gently as sleep, the common way the Bible speaks of a king’s passing.

1 Kings 15:9-10

Asa begins to reign in Jeroboam’s twentieth year and rules a long forty-one years in Jerusalem. Maacah is again named. In Hebrew usage the word for mother can stretch to grandmother, so she appears here as the king’s grandmother.

BSA: grandmother’s (“grand”): The text points to Maacah as a grandmother, not a mother, though the same name appears as Abijam’s mother.

1 Kings 15:11-12

Asa did what was right in the LORD’s eyes, as David had. He began a clean-up of the land. He drove out the male shrine prostitutes, whose immoral practices were part of pagan worship, and removed the idols his ancestors had made.

BSA: idols (“images, objects worshipped as gods”): These were objects people trusted in and worshipped in place of the living God.

1 Kings 15:13

Asa’s reform reached his own family. He removed Maacah from her place as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. He did not spare her, and he burned the image in the Kidron Valley. Faithfulness to God came before family loyalty.

BSA: detestable (“horrible, abominable”): God saw the image as something revolting, not just a mistaken form of worship.

See also: Exodus 34:13.

1 Kings 15:14-15

Asa’s reform was real but not complete. The high places, local worship sites, remained. Still, his heart was wholly the LORD’s. He also brought into the temple the silver, gold and vessels that he and his father had dedicated.

BSA: fully devoted (“perfect, completely committed”): His heart was set on the LORD, even though some outward practices stayed unreformed.

1 Kings 15:16-17

War continued between Asa and Baasha. Baasha fortified Ramah, only a few miles north of Jerusalem, to cut off traffic in and out of Judah. It was a blockade that threatened Asa’s kingdom and drew him toward a choice between trust and scheming.

BSA: fortified (“built and strengthened”): Baasha was building a strong border post to seal off Judah.

1 Kings 15:18-19

Asa took the temple and palace treasures and sent them to Ben-hadad of Aram, asking him to break his treaty with Baasha. The BSA calls the money a bribe. He turned to a foreign king for rescue rather than to the LORD.

BSA: gift (“present, bribe”): The payment was a bribe, using God’s own temple wealth to buy a pagan king’s help. treaty (“formal agreement, covenant”): Asa relied on a political covenant instead of the covenant LORD.

See also: 2 Chronicles 16:7-9.

1 Kings 15:20-21

The plan worked in the short term. Ben-hadad attacked cities in northern Israel, including Dan and the land of Naphtali. Baasha stopped building at Ramah and returned to Tirzah. Success came, but it was gained by human scheming.

BSA: listened (“heard”): Ben-hadad acted on Asa’s request because the payment was worth his while.

1 Kings 15:22

Asa called out every man of Judah, with no exemptions, to carry off the stones and timber from Ramah. He used them to build up Geba and Mizpah as border strongholds. The very materials meant to hem Judah in now guarded it.

BSA: no exceptions (“no one exempt, none excluded”): This was a total national effort, with everyone pressed into the work.

1 Kings 15:23-24

Asa’s might, achievements and cities are recorded in the royal chronicles. In old age he was diseased in his feet. Then he died and was buried in the City of David, and Jehoshaphat took his place.

BSA: diseased (“weak, afflicted”): His illness was a physical affliction that marked his last years.

See also: 2 Chronicles 16:12.

1 Kings 15:25-26

Now the story turns to Israel. Nadab son of Jeroboam rules two years in Asa’s second year. He does evil and follows his father, including the sin that led Israel astray, the worship of the golden calves.

BSA: caused (“led, made”): Jeroboam’s sin did not stay private. He drew the whole nation along with him.

See also: 1 Kings 12:28-30.

1 Kings 15:27-28

Baasha, from the tribe of Issachar, plotted against Nadab and killed him at Gibbethon while Israel’s army was besieging that Philistine town. Baasha then took the throne. The kingdom’s first dynasty ended in a coup after only two generations.

BSA: conspired (“plotted a secret rebellion”): Baasha seized power through secret treachery, not by any right to the crown.

1 Kings 15:29-30

Baasha wiped out Jeroboam’s whole family, exactly as the LORD had said through the prophet Ahijah. Baasha acted from his own ambition, yet God’s judgment on Jeroboam’s sin was carried out. God’s word does not fail.

BSA: breathed (“any living being, any soul with breath”): No one in Jeroboam’s family was left alive. word (“the divine message, the prophecy”): The slaughter fulfilled a prophecy given years before.

See also: 1 Kings 14:10-14.

1 Kings 15:31-32

Nadab’s other acts are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. The writer repeats that war continued between Asa and Baasha throughout their days, a reminder of the lasting division of God’s people.

1 Kings 15:33-34

Baasha reigns twenty-four years from Tirzah, but he does evil and follows Jeroboam’s way. He destroyed Jeroboam’s house for its sin and then repeated that same sin himself. Judgment on others does not make a person right with God.

BSA: walked (“lived, followed”): A person’s way of life follows a path set by those who went before.

See also: 1 Kings 16:1-4.