1 Kings 15

Chap. XV. Ver. 1-34. The reign of Abijam and Asa in treachery and murder are no less abhorrent to God, than acts — Judah; and in Israel, of Nadab, who is slain, with all the | of rebellion against himself. = house of Jeroboam, by Baasha, his successor.—Abijam, we have |. Perpetual warfare was a natural consequence of the separaseen, was the son 0 Rehoboam, and “ walked in all the sins | tion of the land of Israel into two kingdoms; in consequence of his father,” in which Maachah, his mother, certainly en- | of which we find there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroand may be paraphrased as follows; “‘ But what, speak 1 of a king to be raised | among the Canaanites and apostate Jews, sacred to Venus; they practised ri, and Omri by Ahab.—Baasha, though instrument of destruction to J erob ated as to tread in the steps of that wicked prince, which tailed upon himself the same destruction.

“T exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee the Lord says, prince over my people Israel,’ we must not consider this as giving any sanction to the treachery or cruelty of Baasha, who was no better than a rebel and an assassin; but_as markin i who, as Daniel saith, the sovereignty of His providence, “changeth the times and seasons; removeth kings, and seti; yet so as not to interfere with teth up kings” at his pleasure the free agency of men, or excuse their criminality. On the contrary, the same judgment was had executed on Nadab the son of Jeroboam. Elah the son of Baasha succeeded his father, than two years when he also was slain by one of his own cap- “drinking himself drunk” in the house of one of tains, while nis servants !

The trium h of Zimri was, however, very short; he reigned but seven days, when the army, which were encampe Gibbethon, hearing of his treachery, proclaimed Omri, their he was himself the oam’s family, was so infatui When, however, executed on Baasha as he but he had not reigned more The naking’s palace, and burnt that and himself together. One half the people, we however, unanimous. the army, are told, followed Tibni, while the other, including etter than remained attached to Omri; he was, however, no b his predecessors, but followed the idolatries of only fact here thought worthy of recording is, that he bought and built thereon the city of Samaria, the hill of Shemer, I which became afterwards the capital of the I f kingdom of Isand a rival city to Jerusalem.

Omri was succeeded by his son Ahab, who is branded bemore to proyond all his predecessors for idolatry, and ‘did voke the Lor d God of Israel to anger than all the kings of were before him.” Such was the progress of idola- Israel that y 1 i witnesses for try in a nation singled out from all others to be the true God es! Some, against the idols of the Gentiles! Some, may be ready to wonder what there could be so bewitching in idolatry. ~ The truth appears to be, that every man by nature (as saith the rophet Jeremiah) “ walks after the imagination of his own heart,” and “the imagination of man’s heart is only evil, and continually.’ Men’s depraved fancies picture to them-

Notes on the verses

Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah,” though its precise situation | Chap. XV. Ver. 2. Abifam’s mother’s name.—Consequently the grandcannot now be ascertained. It seems to have been the royal city, and the seat | mother of Asa.— Abishalom—i. e. Absalom; (2 Chronicles 11:21). so the LXX. of government for a long time after the revolt of the ten tribes, till Omri built | always spell it. Josephus says that ° Maachah was a grand-daughter of Ab- Samaria.|—Bagster. — salom, by Thamar his daughter.” (2 Chronicles 13:2). we read, Abijah’s mother’s Ver. 21. Rehoboam was forty and one years old.—There is some difficulty | name was Michaiah (a different spelling for Maachah) the daughter of Uriel nttending this age of Rehoboam.

If he were forty-one years of age at his fa- | of Gibeah; probably the husband of ‘Thamar.—Dr. Wail. i ther’s death, it not only makes Solomon to have married two years before he Ver. 4. A lamp in Jerusalem.—That is, a son to reign there, ch. xi. 36. came to the crown, but it is hard to explain how he could then be “young and| Ver. 6. There was roar, &c.—IInstead o1 Rehoboam, fourteen MSS. the tender hearted.” Sce (2 Chronicles 13:7). ‘Two Greek fragments read, Sixteen | Arabic, and some copies of the Targum, read Abijam. The Syriac has “Abia, ears old when he began to reign;” but this is slight authority; it is followed | the son of Rehoboam;” and the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate has Abia, however by Houbigant, Boothroyd, Clarke, &c.

Capellus prefers 22 years, but This is doubtless the trie reading, as otherwise it would be an unnecessary is 1s wholly conjectural. See Boothroyd, also Wall’s Crit. Notes. —- of ch. xiv. 30. and a repetition which interrupts the history ef Abi- Ver. 24. There were also Sodomites.—’ Proatitutes, male or female, were, | jah: see (2 Chronicles 13:3), &c.] Bagster. * 21 And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. 22 Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none wus ¥ exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, |>«153s. boam—Abijam and Jeroboam—Asa and Baasha, and so on, while the two kingdoms subsisted. By perpetual warfare, however, we need not understand perpetual slaughter; but continual enmity, with frequent petty ahipiisiiaes though not worth recording.

So, in the last mentioned instance; though there was much animosity between the contemporary kings, there was no open war till Baasha began to build the fortress _of Ramah, near Jerusalem, in order to cut off all communication between the two kingdoms. (See note on ver. 17.) But here it should seem Asa’s faith, as well as his feet, failed him, and the Lord sent a prophet to reprove him for it, as we shall find in the parallel account of Chronicles. ((2 Chronicles 16:7), &c.) Asa, however, thought it necessary to bribe Benhadad, king of Syria, to assist him, by attacking some of the principal cities Ver. 9. In the twentieth year of Jeroboam reigned Asa.—By ver. 1. Abijam began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, muigned through the nineteenth, and began the twentieth, in the latter puri uf which Asa began his reign: The Hebrews reckon Bey pare of three years or days, as three years or days.

_ This remark will be found important, when we come to speak of the resurrection of our Saviour. Ver. 13. From being queen:—Some read, ‘‘ From the queen;”’ i. e. Asa’s wife, over whom she might assume authority.——She had made an idol in a srove.—This refers to an obscene priapean figure, made for Venus. The Vulgate renders it, ‘‘ a most abominable image;”’ and in (2 Chronicles 15:16). an image of Priapus. This idol Asa destroyed, or cut to pieces, then bumt, and probably threw its ashes into the brook Kedron. " Ver. 14. The high places were not removed.—That is, as some explain it, those employed to sacrifice to Jehovah; for otherwise we learn, (2 Chronicles 14)against Elah, succeedeth him. 11 Zimri executeth Jehu’s prophecy.

15 Omri, mada A. M. 3073. B. C. 931, lang by the soldiers, forceth Zimri desperately to burn himself, 21 ‘The kingdom bein, divided, Omri prevaileth against Tibni. 23 Omri buildeth aria. 25 His wick reign. 27 Ahab succeedeth him. 29 Ahab’s most wicked reign. 34 Joshua’s curse upon Hiel, the builder of Jericho. a ver.7. 2 Ch.19.2, HEN the word of the Lord came to Jehu *the son of Hanani against » Baasha, of Israel: he thus compelled Baasha to give up his design. Asa then summoned the people throughout Judah to destroy what Baasha had erected, which appears to have been_ of arent strength, as he built. or fortified two other towns with the stones and timber taken therefrom. The sacred historian now marks the fulfilment of Ahijah’s prophecy, of destruction.

to the house of Jeroboam. Baasha not only destroyed his son Nadab, then on the throae, but left not “any that breathed;” according to the saying of the Lord by his servant Ahijah, of Shiloh, because of the sins of Jeroboam, and “the provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.” So truly is it “a fearful (awful) thing to fall in the hands of the living God.” ((Hebrews 10:31).)