1 Kings 16
DOYLY1 Kings 16:3
- — make thy house like the house of Jeroboam] This threat was remarkably executed: for, as Nadab the son of Jeroboam reigned but two years, (chap. xv. 26,) so Elah the son of Baasha reigned no more, ver. 10; and, as Nadab was killed with the sword, so was Elah. Thus there was a wonderful resemblance between Jeroboam and Baasha, in their lives and in their deaths, in their sons and in their family. Bp. Patrick.
1 Kings 16:7
- And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu &c.] The command having been given to Jehu, it is here related that he executed it, and delivered the message to Baasha,
1 Kings 16:12
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Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha,] We see clearly, in the series of all these kings of Israel, that Divine vengeance pursues the wicked, and particularly wicked princes. When God has made use of them to do justice, and to execute the decrees of His providence, He cuts them off and destroys them one by the other. But we must take notice, that all these kings, notwithstanding the warnings given them by God, and the examples they had before their eyes, continued to offend Him, by keeping up idolatry in their kingdom for reasons of state, and on principles of false policy. When men do only consult their passions and their interest, and worldly considerations prevail with them,
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- Omri’s and Ahab’s wicked reigns. Before CHRIST 929.
rael divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.
1 Kings 16:24
- — called the name — Samaria.] From this time, Samaria became the royal or capital city of the kingdom of Israel, till its final period; and the kingdom was in consequence frequently called the kingdom of Samaria. This city underwent two important sieges under Benhadad and Shalmaneser. In aftertimes, Herod the Great rebuilt and enlarged the city, so that it is conjectured to have exceeded Jerusalem in extent. There now remain of it only a few cottages, and convents inhabited by Greek monks. Dr. Wells.
1 Kings 16:29
- — in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah] It should be observed, that Asa king of Judah had now seen no less than six kings of Israel dead, some by a natural death, but in great ignominy and reproach, by the courses of a vicious life; and others destroyed, with their whole families, by the hands of usurpers, as lewd and wicked as themselves, all suffering the just recompense of their ingratitude and disobedience against the laws of Heaven, while he had enjoyed, all the while, a reign of thirty-eight years, in such blessings of peace as are the usual consequences of equitable and religious government. Pyle.
1 Kings 16:30
- And Ahab — did evil &c.] Jeroboam’s crimes were
little in comparison of those of this monster of iniquity. Jeroboam did not absolutely renounce the true God, but only worshipped him with superstitious inventions of his own; but Ahab set Him in a manner at defiance, and even abolished His worship, marrying Jezebel, one of the young princesses of the Zidonians, who, as will appear in the history, was a woman of so impetuous and ungovernable a spirit, as to hurry him into the commission of the most tyrannical actions against his subjects, and to erect an idol-temple, with its altars and priests, in the royal city, and to establish the open and professed service of the worst degrees of idolatry, which he encouraged by his own example and that of his whole court. Pyle.
1 Kings 16:34
- In his days did Hiel — build Jericho.] See notes on Josh. vi. 26. Hiel, being an inhabitant of Beth-el, lived in the very seat of idolatry, and was probably deeply infected with it. He either did not know (because ignorant of the law, which was now little read) the judgments of God denounced against the rebuilder of Jericho, or he was so impious as not to regard them, believing no other God but Baal. He soon however found those judgments to be true. This is a most remarkable instance of the certainty of Divine threatenings, as the sentence, though pronounced 440 years before, was now fulfilled in all its circumstances: and assuredly it ought to have been an awful warning to the whole nation, not to despise the longsuffering and patience of God, who,