Chapter Sixteen

1–7. God’s judgment on Baasha, king of Israel. 8–33. Other kings of Israel, contemporaries of Asa of Judah: Elah (8–10), Zimri (10–15), Phanni (21–22), Omri (23–28), and Ahab (29–33). 34. The displeasing restoration of Jericho to the Lord.

1 Kings 16:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jehu, son of Hanani, concerning Baasha: 1 Kings 16:2. because I lifted you from the dust and made you leader of My people Israel, yet you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and caused My people Israel to sin, provoking Me to anger by their sins, 1 Kings 16:3. behold, I will sweep away the house of Baasha and his descendants and make your house like the house of Jeroboam, son of Nadab; 1 Kings 16:4. whoever of Baasha dies in the city, the dogs shall eat; and whoever dies in the field, the birds of the sky shall devour. 1 Kings 16:5. Now the rest of the deeds of Baasha, all that he did, and his mighty deeds are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 1 Kings 16:6. And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. And Elah his son reigned in his place. 1 Kings 16:7. But through Jehu, son of Hanani, the word of the Lord had already been spoken concerning Baasha and his house and all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him by the works of his hands, imitating the house of Jeroboam, for which reason he was destroyed. For the first time after the kingdom’s division, a prophet emerged in the Israelite kingdom (the elder prophet of Bethel in chapter XIII did not appear as a public figure and teacher): and the ten-tribe kingdom, despite its unfaithfulness to the Lord, remained God’s people, many of whose members were bound by the closest ties of faith and love to Solomon’s temple with the kingdom of Judah, and moreover, were destined in the future to form with it one people of God. The name of the prophet “Jehu” (Hebrew Yehu, Vulg.: Iehu), identical with that of one of the kings of Israel (2 Kgs 9:2), occurs only here and (2 Chr 19:2), cf. (2 Chr 20:34); probably the prophet Jehu’s father Hanani (1 Kgs 16:1) is one person with the prophet Hanani who reproved Asa and was imprisoned by him (2 Chr 16:7-10). The terrible prophecy of Jehu against the house of Baasha (v. 3–4) is set forth in expressions closely resembling the prophecies: of Ahijah against the house of Jeroboam (1 Kgs 14:10-11) and of the prophet Elijah against the house of Ahab (1 Kgs 21:23-24).

1 Kings 16:8. In the twenty-sixth year of Asa, king of Judah, Elah, son of Baasha, became king over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years. 1 Kings 16:9. And his servant Zimri, captain of half the chariots, formed a conspiracy against him. When he was drinking heavily in the house of Arza, steward of the household in Tirzah, 1 Kings 16:10. then Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned in his place. The two years of the reign of the fourth king of Israel, Elah, were incomplete (cf. v. 10, 15). The conspirator Zimri, chief of half the royal cavalry (cf. 1 Kgs 9:19), took advantage of Elah’s intoxication at a feast of a certain courtier Arza, and also (cf. Josephus, Antiquities VIII, 12, 4) the absence of the royal commanders and troops, which had been sent to besiege Gibbethon (cf. v. 15) and (1 Kgs 15:27).

1 Kings 16:11. When he had become king and sat on his throne, he struck down the entire house of Baasha, leaving him not a single man child, nor his relatives, nor his friends. 1 Kings 16:12. Thus Zimri destroyed the entire house of Baasha, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke concerning Baasha through Jehu the prophet, 1 Kings 16:13. for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they themselves committed and by which they led Israel into sin, provoking the Lord, God of Israel, with their idols. 1 Kings 16:14. Now the rest of the deeds of Elah, all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 1 Kings 16:15. In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri reigned and reigned seven days in Tirzah, while the people were besieging Gibbethon of the Philistines. In the second revolution in the Israelite kingdom, Zimri carried out an even more thorough destruction of the deposed Baasha dynasty than Baasha had done with respect to the dynasty of Jeroboam (1 Kgs 15:29). Zimri’s reign lasted only 7 days—until news of it reached the Israeli forces besieging Gibbethon, who immediately proclaimed their military commander Omri as king (Hebrew Omri).

1 Kings 16:16. When the besieging people heard that Zimri had conspired and killed the king, all the Israelites made Omri, the military commander, king over Israel on that very day in the camp. 1 Kings 16:17. And Omri and all Israel with him withdrew from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. 1 Kings 16:18. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he entered the inner chamber of the royal palace and set the king’s house on fire around him and died 1 Kings 16:19. for his sins, wherein he sinned, doing what was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sins, which he committed in order to lead Israel into sin. 1 Kings 16:20. Now the rest of the deeds of Zimri and the conspiracy which he formed are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 1 Kings 16:21. Then the people of Israel became divided: half the people followed Tibni, son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. Now an interregnum began. Besieged by the returning force under Omri, Zimri ended his life by suicide as soon as the city was taken: he burned himself and the royal palace, withdrawing into an inner and elevated chamber (Hebrew harmon, the elevated tower; LXX: ἄντπον, Vulg.: palatium). “And we are taught through this,” said the blessed Theodoret (question 48), “that the Sovereign God punishes those living wickedly, one through another, and gives over one wicked man to another more wicked, using the latter as it were as an executor of punishment.” During his 7-day reign (verse 15), Zimri, of course, could not prove himself an ardent follower of Jeroboam (v. 19), but he could have shown devotion to his cult even before his revolutionary step.

1 Kings 16:22. And the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni, son of Ginath, so Tibni died and Omri reigned. 1 Kings 16:23. In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel and reigned twelve years. He reigned six years in Tirzah. For four years, from the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign (v. 15) until the thirty-first year of his reign (v. 23), there was a joint reign of Omri with his opponent, Tibni, son of Ginath; and only after the death of the latter (and, according to the LXX, also his brother Joram: καὶ ἀπέθανε Θαβνί καὶ Ιωράμ ὁ ἀδελφός αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνω; Slavonic: “Tibni died, and Joram his brother at that time,” – a note which might have belonged to the original text, although it was not preserved in the Masoretic text), did Omri become the sole ruler of the ten-tribe kingdom. His 12-year reign was certainly not complete (according to v. 15–16, Omri was made king by the army in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign, and according to v. 29, Ahab his son became king in the thirty-eighth year of Asa’s reign, therefore Omri’s reign accounts for 11 years with months), and is divided as follows: half of this time, 6 years, Omri lived in Tirzah (v. 23), of which the first 4 years he reigned simultaneously with Tibni, and the last 6 years he reigned, already dwelling in Samaria (v. 24).

1 Kings 16:24. And Omri bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built on the hill and named the city which he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill. Desiring, perhaps, to have a more fortified and inaccessible capital by its physical position, Omri bought from a certain Shemer a hill and on it built the city of Samaria (Hebrew Shomeron), which became from then on the permanent capital of the Israelite kingdom, known also in Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions by the name Samerina (Aramaic Shemrain, (Ezra 4:10); Greek Σαμάρεια, Latin Samaria; cf. Onomast. 822). Herod the Great later rebuilt this city, naming it in honor of Emperor Augustus, in Greek Sebaste (Σεβαστή). (Josephus, Antiquities XV, 7, 7; Robinson. Palestine, III, 365 ff.). “Thus, from Shemer the hill was named Shemerim, and from the hill the city: Samaria. Samaria moreover is a city, now called Sebaste. In it the kings of the ten tribes had their house. And when the ten tribes were led into captivity, and that land became desolate, the kings of Assyria settled inhabitants from eastern lands in those cities. And they came to be named Samaritans from Samaria” (the blessed Theodoret, question 48). The hill of Samaria and the city of Samaria were located not far to the east of the former Israelite capital Tirzah and to the northeast of the very first capital of the Israelite kingdom – Shechem. The palace burned in Tirzah (v. 18), apparently was not restored, and Omri in choosing a place for the new capital naturally settled on Shemerim – Samaria, which in no way yielded in beauty of position to the former capital Tirzah (cf. Isa 28:1-4): located on a rounded beautiful elevation, Samaria rose (over 100 meters – 46 fathoms) above a fertile bowl-shaped plain, with hills and villages, and the elevated position of the city made it possible to fortify it appropriately; two talents of silver at our rates would be worth over 4,000 rubles.

1 Kings 16:25. And Omri did what was displeasing in the sight of the Lord and acted worse than all who came before him. 1 Kings 16:26. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam, son of Nadab, and in his sins, by which he led the Israelites into sin, to provoke the Lord, God of Israel, with his idols. In religious and moral terms, the reign of Omri was not only a repetition of the sins of previous reigns, beginning with Jeroboam, but was something worse than all the previous ones: perhaps Omri not only lured his subjects by example to the godless cult of the calves (called in v. 26, as in 13, idols, Hebrew gavvaim, LXX: μάταια, Vulg.: vanitates, Slavonic: “vain things”), but also tried to strengthen this cult by legislative measures: “You have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the deeds of the house of Ahab,” reproved the prophet Micah (Mic 6:16) the Israelites more than 150 years later.

1 Kings 16:27. Now the rest of the deeds of Omri which he did, and the might which he showed, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 1 Kings 16:28. And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son reigned in his place. In civil and political respects, Omri, the founder of the mighty Omride dynasty, was known not only as a builder and administrator of the state, but also as a courageous, warlike leader and conqueror: the biblical text (v. 27) ascribes to him special “might” (Hebrew gebura), which was displayed, of course, in military deeds, something attributed to few kings (Baasha, v. 5; Jehoshaphat, (1 Kgs 22:45); Joash of Israel, (2 Kgs 13:12)). The Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions know of Omri and his dynasty; the inscription of the Moabite king Mesha speaks of his conquering actions against the Moabites (p. 4, 7).

1 Kings 16:29. Ahab, son of Omri, became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, and Ahab, son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 1 Kings 16:30. And Ahab, son of Omri, did what was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, more than all those before him. 1 Kings 16:31. Not enough that he fell into the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nadab; he took Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of Sidon, as his wife, and served Baal and bowed down to him. 1 Kings 16:32. And he built an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal which he constructed in Samaria. 1 Kings 16:33. And Ahab made an Asherah, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him, [and he destroyed himself]. An overview of the reign of the eighth king of Israel, Ahab, son of Omri: (LXX: Αχαάβ, Slavonic: “Akhaav”) the extreme impiety of this king. The individual events of his reign are set forth below: chapters XVII–XXII; here (1 Kgs 16:30-33) a general introduction is made to the narrative concerning Ahab’s reign and the religious-theocratic point of view is established for Ahab’s activity, his religious syncretism. From the standpoint of the political interests of the Israelite kingdom, Ahab’s rapprochement with the Phoenician king could be as beneficial in a cultural sense for the Israelite kingdom as Solomon’s relations with Hiram were for the Hebrew kingdom. For Ahab, moreover, there could be a special reason to turn to Phoenicia for aid and alliance: a far-sighted politician had to oppose the threatening power of Syria and Assyria coming from the east with a solid alliance of Israel and Phoenicia. But the useful political-economic alliance of Ahab with Phoenicia proved extremely harmful in a religious-moral sense: not content with the worship of the Lord through the image of golden calves, which was close to paganism, Ahab, as a result of his marriage to Jezebel, daughter of the Phoenician king Ethbaal (Hebrew Ethbaal, in Josephus, Antiquities VIII, 13, 1–2; Against Apion 1 – εἰθώβαλος), who was a priest of Baal and Astarte, introduced into the Israelite kingdom the formal worship of Baal (Hebrew (Gab.) Baal, lord, master). Baal originally (like Babylonian Bel) was a common Semitic name for divinity, but later became specifically the proper name of the chief Phoenician god of the sun, primarily as the bearer and principle of physical life and the productive power of nature, conceived as emanating from Baal’s being. As a god of the sun, Baal was dedicated: 1) the so-called hammanim, sun or fire pillars or conical statues (Isa 17:8; 2 Chr 34:4) – made of gold, emerald (in the temple of Tyrian Baal – Melkart stood two such statues – one of gold, the other of emerald. Herodot, II, 44); 2) mazzeboth – statues or monuments of stones in general, as well as wooden stelae (Lev 26:1 and others): such a stele (Hebrew mazzeba) Ahab made for Baal in Samaria, and only his son Jehoram removed it (2 Kgs 3:2); later many statues of Baal were destroyed and burned by Jehu (2 Kgs 10:26-27); 3) finally, to Baal, as the chief of pagan deities, were dedicated sanctuaries and temples (Judg 9:4; 1 Kgs 16:32; 2 Kgs 10:21; 2 Chr 23:17). Such a temple to Baal was built by Ahab in Samaria (v. 32), probably under the influence of his wife Jezebel, fanatically devoted to this cult, who became in the Bible a synonym for impiety and vice (Rev 2:20). Together with the male deity Baal, Ahab introduced the female Astarte – Asherah (cf. 1 Kgs 14:15), to whom he dedicated a special image with a grove beside it (v. 33). How widely developed and how complexly organized was the cult of Baal and Astarte introduced in the Israelite kingdom by Ahab can be seen from the fact that in Ahab’s time there were 450 prophets of Baal here, 400 prophets of Astarte – Asherah (1 Kgs 18:19).

1 Kings 16:34. In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho: he laid its foundation on his firstborn Abiram and set up its gates on his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through Joshua, son of Nun. An indication of the people’s impiety in the Israelite kingdom was also the godless reconstruction or rather fortification (cf. (1 Kgs 11:27)) of Jericho (it had not been uninhabited even earlier, for example, in David’s time), (2 Sam 10:5), contrary to Joshua’s curse (Josh 6:25), by a certain Hiel of Bethel, and the terrible word of Joshua concerning the death of the builder’s firstborn and his youngest son was fulfilled upon this violator of the curse in complete exactness. Jericho (Hebrew Yericho, LXX: ᾿Ιεριχώ, Vulg.: Iericho), lying not far from the Jordan on its right bank, near the Dead Sea, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin (Josh 18:21), but now belonging to the Israelite kingdom (2 Kgs 2:5), was renowned for fertility, balsam, roses, palms (and therefore was called ir hatamarim, the city of palms) (Deut 34:3; Judg 1:16). By its position, Jericho was the key to the holy land; its occupation delivered all of Palestine into the hands of the Hebrews (Josh 2:1) and was at the same time the beginning of the victory of true religion and the true God over Canaanite paganism. Now, under Ahab, there was a sharp turn of Israel toward this very paganism (the cults of Baal and Astarte, v. 31–33), and the recreation of Jericho, this ancient stronghold of Canaanite pagan population, appeared now as a sad sign of the times: Israel in the person of Ahab was denying the true God, was denying also His salvific, miraculous guidance of Israel, by virtue of which Jericho once fell. Thus, the remark of v. 34, having a close connection with v. 31–33, at the same time forms a transition to the narrative of Ahab’s denouncer, the prophet Elijah, (1 Kgs 17:1) and following. * * * This was called in large houses a part that rose above the general level of the building. In houses of wealthy civilians, in this part, as the safest, women were lodged; in houses liable to attacks, this part formed a fortified place, the last refuge (Prof. Gulyaev, p. 258). Cf. Fr. Botrther, Neue exegetisch – kritische Aerenlese zum Alten Testament Leipzig. 1864, II, s. 100. R Kittel. Die Bucher der Konige. Gottingen. 1900, s. 131. I Benzinger. Die Bucher der Konige. Tubingen. 1899, s. 103 On the cult of Baal see Movers, Religion der Phonic., s. 184. Keil, Manual of Biblical Archaeology, Russian trans. (Kiev 1871), part I. p. 571 ff. M. Palmov, Idolatry among Ancient Hebrews. St. Petersburg 1897, p. 217–234. On hammanim and mazzeboth – by Prof. A. A. Olesnitsky, Megalithic Monuments of the Holy Land, St. Petersburg, 1895, p. 60–78 According to Eusebius and the blessed Jerome (Onomast. 553), Jericho, again destroyed by the Romans, was restored again, and this third city existed in their time, with remains of the first two cities also preserved. Now – Erihah, six hours south of Jerusalem