Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 15:33
In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years.
33. in Tirzah, twenty and four years ] To complete the sense the R.V. inserts in italics after ‘Tirzah’ the words ‘ and reigned.’
Tirzah seems to have become by this time a more common royal residence than Shechem. Perhaps its extreme beauty attracted the kings and their families. Cf. Sol. Son 6:4, ‘Thou art beautiful as Tirzah’.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah,…. Which is repeated, partly to observe that the whole kingdom submitted to him, though an usurper and murderer, and the place where he kept his court, as also the time of his reign, as follows:
twenty four years; which were as long as both Jeroboam and his son reigned.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Reign of Baasha is described very briefly according to its duration (two years) and its spirit, namely, the attitude of Baasha towards the Lord (1Ki 15:34); there then follow in 1Ki 16:1-4 the words of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani (2Ch 16:7), concerning the extermination of the family of Baasha; and lastly, in 1Ki 16:5-7, his death is related with the standing allusion to the annals of the kings. The words of Jehu concerning Baasha (1Ki 16:1-4) coincide exactly mutatis mutandis with the words of Ahijah concerning Jeroboam.
(Note: “ There was something very strange in the perversity and stolidity of the kings of Israel, that when they saw that the families of preceding kings were evidently overthrown by the command of God on account of the worship of the calves, and they themselves had overturned them, they nevertheless worshipped the same calves, and placed them before the people for them to worship, that they might not return to the temple and to Asa, king of Jerusalem; though prophets denounced it and threatened their destruction. Truly the devil and the ambition of reigning blinded them and deprived them of their senses. Hence it came to pass, through the just judgment of God, that they all were executioners of one another in turn: Baasha was the executioner of the sons of Jeroboam; Zambri was the executioner of the sons of Baasha; and the executioner of Zambri was Omri. ” – _C. a Lapide.)
The expression “exalted thee out of the dust,” instead of “from among the people” (1Ki 14:7), leads to the conjecture that Baasha had risen to be king from a very low position. (his might) in 1Ki 16:5 refers, as in the case of Asa (1Ki 15:23), less to brave warlike deeds, than generally to the manifestation of strength and energy in his government.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
33. Twenty and four years That is, he reigned twenty-four years.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 15:33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years.
Ver. 33. Over all Israel. ] Who soon submitted to the usurper.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in Tirzah. See notes on 1Ki 14:17 and 1Ki 15:21.
twenty and four years. Began in the third year of Asa. Therefore he died in the twenty-sixth year of Asa (1Ki 16:8). Yet in the thirty-sixth year Baasha came and made war against Judah (2Ch 16:1). This would be nine or ten years after he was dead. But see note on 2Ch 16:1, where the word “reign” should be rendered “kingdom”: i.e. the thirty-sixth year from the kingdom of Israel. See App-50.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
twenty and four years: 1Ki 16:8
Reciprocal: 1Ki 14:17 – Tirzah 1Ki 16:1 – Hanani 2Ki 15:14 – Tirzah 2Ch 15:19 – five and thirtieth Son 6:4 – as Tirzah
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 15:33 to 1Ki 16:34. Baashas Dynasty. Rise of the House of Omri.Nothing is told us of Baasha except the usual annalistic details, and, that a prophet named Jehu foretold the destruction of his whole house. His son Elah was at war with the Philistines (1Ki 16:15), but remained at Tirzah (p. 30), which at this time was the chief residence of the kings of Israel. Zimri slew him and reigned but seven days, and was then attacked by the army under Omri, and burned himself in his house. For four years, (cf. 1Ki 16:15 with 1Ki 16:23), there was civil war between Omri and Tibni. Finally (1Ki 16:22) Omri prevailed. Omri is described as more wicked than any of his predecessors. The only thing recorded of him is that he built a city on a hill bought from a man named Shemer (1Ki 16:24), and called it after his name Shomeron, more familiar to us as Samaria (p. 30), the Greek form, which is more akin to the Assyrian word found on the monuments, Sa-ma-ri-na. Omri was so important that on the Assyrian monuments Jehu, who destroyed his dynasty, is called son of Omri, and in the eighth century the district of Samaria is the Land of Humri (Omri).
Ahab, according to the Heb., began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Asa (1Ki 16:29); but the LXX has the second year of Jehoshaphat. The Greek version makes the reign of Omri begin with the fall of Tibni (1Ki 16:23), and not with the death of Zimri four years earlier (1Ki 16:15). Ahab is singled out for especial condemnation. His personal religion was that of his people. That is, he walked in the sins of Jeroboam (1Ki 16:31). Strangely enough, after him names compounded with Yahweh first became common both in Israel and Judah. His sons were Jehoram and Ahaziah, his daughter (or sister, 2Ki 8:26), Athaliah, his trusted servant Obadiah. He may be said to have followed Solomons policy in making a close alliance with the Zidonians. The god of his wife, Jezebel is called Baal (1Ki 16:32). The word baal (p. 87) is ambiguous: it means (a) an owner, e.q. of an ox (Exo 21:28), or in the case of a woman she is baalath of familiar spirits (1Sa 28:7); (b) a local godso in Judges we have the plural Baalim; (c) applied to Yahweh, who is called the baal of Israel (Hos 2:16); (d) as here a proper name, the Baal of Tyre, i.e. Melkarth. In the LXX the fem, article is generally prefixed to Baal since the Hebrews sometimes called him Shame (bosheth, a fem, noun, Num 32:38*, 1Sa 14:47-51*). In this narrative the masc, article is used. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal (1Ki 16:31). Josephus (Apion, i. 18) enumerates the kings of Tyre; the last are Ithobalus (Ethbaal) a priest of Astarte, Bedezor his son, Matgen and Pygmalion, the brother of Dido. Jezebel was thus an aunt of Dido. But as she lived in the ninth century B.C. she can hardly be fitted in with the scheme of chronology which makes Dido live at the time of the fall of Troy.
1Ki 15:34. The rebuilding of Jericho by Hiel the Bethelite. Joshua pronounced a curse on the man who should rebuild Jericho (Jos 6:26*), and it was fulfilled when Hiel built, i.e. fortified it. But it had been a place of some importance in the interval (2Sa 10:5), and soon after Hiel it was called a city (2Ki 21:9). The plain meaning is that Hiel lost his firstborn son when he laid the foundations of the city, and his younger son when he set up the gates. It has even been suggested that he inaugurated and finished his work by a human sacrifice as was usual among the Canaaniteswitness the excavation of human bones at Taanach and Gezer (pp. 83, 99, Exo 13:2*).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
15:33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in {m} Tirzah, twenty and four years.
(m) Which was the place where the kings of Israel remained.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
7. Baasha’s evil reign in Israel 15:33-16:7
Baasha’s 24-year reign (909-886 B.C.), which was the third longest of any king of the Northern Kingdom, fell within that of Asa’s rule over Judah (911-870 B.C.). The Israelite king who rule the longest was Jeroboam II (41 years) and the second longest was Jehu (28 years).
Baasha had an outstanding opportunity to lead Israel back to true covenantal worship after he had killed Nadab and terminated Jeroboam’s dynasty. However, he chose not to do so. He evidently regarded his elevation from a lowly origin (1Ki 15:2) to Israel’s throne as an opportunity to fulfill personal ambition rather than to glorify Yahweh. For Baasha’s failure, God announced that He would cut off his line as He had Jeroboam’s (1Ki 15:3-4; cf. 1Ki 14:11). God ended Baasha’s reign for two primary reasons: his continuation of Jeroboam’s cult, and the motive and manner with which he assassinated Nadab (1Ki 15:7).
"Besides providing information on Baasha’s death, these verses [1Ki 16:5-7] reemphasize the author’s theological approach to history. Three issues deserve mention. First, God’s word dictates history, a fact Jehu’s prophetic rebuke and prediction divulges. Second, Jeroboam and Baasha are judged unfavorably because they use their God-given political authority to preserve their own position rather than to glorify God among the people. Third, the text stresses cause and effect, not fatalistic determinism. God gives both Jeroboam and Baasha the opportunity to follow the covenant. Baasha eliminates Jeroboam’s family, as God said would happen, yet becomes like Jeroboam, which makes him a murderer, not a reformer." [Note: House, p. 200.]