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1 Kings Chapter
Sixteen
1 Kings 16
Chapter Contents
The reigns of Baasha and Elah in Israel. (1-14) Reigns of
Zimri and Omri in Israel. (15-28) Ahab's wickedness, Hiel rebuilds Jericho.
(29-34)
Commentary on 1 Kings 16:1-14
(Read 1 Kings 16:1-14)
This chapter relates wholly to the kingdom of Israel, and
the revolutions of that kingdom. God calls Israel his people still, though
wretchedly corrupted. Jehu foretells the same destruction to come upon Baasha's
family, which that king had been employed to bring upon the family of Jeroboam.
Those who resemble others in their sins, may expect to resemble them in the
plagues they suffer, especially those who seem zealous against such sins in
others as they allow in themselves. Baasha himself dies in peace, and is buried
with honour. Herein plainly appears that there are punishments after death,
which are most to be dreaded. Let Elah be a warning to drunkards, who know not
but death may surprise them. Death easily comes upon men when they are drunk.
Besides the diseases which men bring themselves into by drinking, when in that
state, men are easily overcome by an enemy, and liable to bad accidents. Death
comes terribly upon men in such a state, finding them in the act of sin, and
unfitted for any act of devotion; that day comes upon them unawares. The word
of God was fulfilled, and the sins of Baasha and Elah were reckoned for, with
which they provoked God. Their idols are called their vanities, for idols
cannot profit nor help; miserable are those whose gods are vanities.
Commentary on 1 Kings 16:15-28
(Read 1 Kings 16:15-28)
When men forsake God, they will be left to plague one
another. Proud aspiring men ruin one another. Omri struggled with Tibni some
years. Though we do not always understand the rules by which God governs
nations and individuals in his providence, we may learn useful lessons from the
history before us. When tyrants succeed each other, and massacres,
conspiracies, and civil wars, we may be sure the Lord has a controversy with
the people for their sins; they are loudly called to repent and reform. Omri
made himself infamous by his wickedness. Many wicked men have been men of might
and renown; have built cities, and their names are found in history; but they
have no name in the book of life.
Commentary on 1 Kings 16:29-34
(Read 1 Kings 16:29-34)
Ahab did evil above all that reigned before him, and did
it with a particular enmity both against Jehovah and Israel. He was not
satisfied with breaking the second commandment by image-worship, he broke the
first by worshipping other gods: making light of lesser sins makes way for
greater. Marriages with daring offenders also imbolden in wickedness, and hurry
men on to the greatest excesses. One of Ahab's subjects, following the example
of his presumption, ventured to build Jericho. Like Achan, he meddled with the
accursed thing; turned that to his own use, which was devoted to God's honour:
he began to build, in defiance of the curse well devoted to God's honour: he
began to build, in defiance of the curse well known in Israel; but none ever
hardened his heart against God, and prospered. Let the reading of this chapter
cause us to mark the dreadful end of all the workers of iniquity. And what does
the history of all ungodly men furnish, what ever rank or situation they move
in, but sad examples of the same?
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 16
Verse 1
[1] Then
the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
Hanani — He
was sent to Asa, king of Judah. But the son, who was young and more active, was
sent on this longer and more dangerous expedition to Baasha, king of Israel.
Verse 2
[2] Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my
people Israel; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my
people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins;
I made thee —
Though that invading the kingdom was from himself, and his own wicked heart;
yet the translation of the kingdom from Nadab to Baasha simply considered, was
from God, who by his providence disposed of all occasions, and of the hearts of
the soldiers and people, so that Baasha should have opportunity of executing
God's judgment upon Nadab; nay, the very act of Baasha, the killing his master
Nadab, was an act of divine justice. And if Baasha had done this in obedience
to God's command, and with a single design, to execute God's vengeance
threatened against him, it had been no more a sin, than Jehu's act in killing
his master king Jehoram, upon the same account, 2 Kings 9:24. But Baasha did this, merely to
gratify his own pride, or covetousness, or malice, verse 7.
Verse 7
[7] And
also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the
LORD against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did
in the sight of the LORD, in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands,
in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he killed him.
Came, … —
The meaning is, the message which came from the Lord to Jehu, verse 1, etc. was here delivered by the hand, the
ministry of Jehu, unto Baasha. Jehu did what God commanded him in this matter,
tho' it was not without apparent hazard to himself.
Verse 8
[8] In
the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to
reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years.
Two years —
One compleat, and part of the other, verse 10.
Verse 9
[9] And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against
him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward
of his house in Tirzah.
Chariots — Of
all his military chariots, and the men belonging to them: the chariots for
carriage of necessary things, being put into meaner hands.
Tirzah —
Whilst his forces were elsewhere employed, verse 15, which gave Zimri advantage to execute his
design.
Verse 11
[11] And
it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that
he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a
wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.
Kinfolks —
Heb. avengers; to whom it belonged to revenge his death.
Verse 13
[13] For
all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and
by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger
with their vanities.
Vanities —
Idols called vanities; because they are but imaginary deities, and mere
nothings; having no power to do either good or hurt.
Verse 15
[15] In
the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in
Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the
Philistines.
Gibbethon —
Which had been besieged before, but, it seems, was then relieved, or afterwards
recovered by the Philistines; taking the advantage of the disorders and
contentions which were among their enemies.
Verse 19
[19] For
his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in
the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin.
For his sins —
This befell him for his sins.
In walking, … —
This he might do, either before his reign, in the whole course of his life,
which is justly charged upon him, because of his impenitency: or during his
short reign; in which, he had time enough to publish his intentions, about the
worship of the calves; or to sacrifice to them, for his good success.
Verse 21
[21] Then
were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed
Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.
Were divided —
Fell into a civil war: yet neither this, nor any other of God's dreadful
judgments could win them to repentance.
Verse 22
[22] But
the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni
the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
Prevailed —
Partly, because they had the army on their side; and principally, by the
appointment of God, giving up the Israelites to him who was much the worst,
verse 25,26.
Died — A
violent death, in the battle: but not till after a struggle of some years. But
why in all these confusions of the kingdom of Israel, did they never think of
returning to the house of David? Probably because the kings of Judah assumed a
more absolute power than the kings of Israel. It was the heaviness of the yoke
that they complained of, when they first revolted from the house of David. And
it is not unlikely, the dread of that made them averse to it ever after.
Verse 23
[23] In
the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel,
twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.
Twelve years —
That is, and he reigned twelve years, not from this thirty-first year of Asa,
for he died in his thirty-eighth year, verse 29, but from the beginning of his reign, which
was in Asa's twenty-seventh year, verse 15,16. So he reigned four years in a state of
war with Tibni, and eight years peaceably.
Verse 24
[24] And
he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on
the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of
Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria.
Two talents —
Two talents is something more than seven hundred pounds.
Verse 26
[26] For
he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith
he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their
vanities.
Did worse —
Perhaps he made severer laws concerning the calf worship; whence we read of the
statutes of Omri, Micah 6:16.
Verse 31
[31] And
it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal
king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
A light thing —
The Hebrew runs, was it a light thing, etc., that is, was this but a small sin,
that therefore he needed to add more abominations? Where the question, as is
usual among the Hebrews, implies a strong denial; and intimates, that this was
no small sin, but a great crime; and might have satisfied his wicked mind,
without any additions.
Jezebel — A
woman infamous for her idolatry, and cruelty, and sorcery, and filthiness.
Eth-baal —
Called Ithbalus, or Itobalus in heathen writers. So she was of an heathenish
and idolatrous race. Such as the kings and people of Israel were expressly
forbidden to marry.
Baal —
The idol which the Sidonians worshipped, which is thought to be Hercules. And
this idolatry was much worse than that of the calves; because in the calves
they worshipped the true God; but in these, false gods or devils.
Verse 34
[34] In
his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof
in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son
Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of
Nun.
In his days —
This is added, 1. as an instance of the certainty of divine predictions, this
being fulfilled eight hundred years after it was threatened; and withal, as a
warning to the Israelites, not to think themselves innocent or safe, because
the judgment threatened against them by Ahijah, chap. 14:15, was not yet executed. Or, 2. as an
evidence of the horrible corruption of his times, and of that high contempt of
God which then reigned.
The Bethelite —
Who lived in Bethel, the seat and sink of idolatry, wherewith he was throughly
leavened.
He laid, … —
That is, in the beginning of his building, God took away his first-born, and
others successively in the progress of the work, and the youngest when he
finished it. And so he found by his own sad experience, the truth of God's
word.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
16 Chapter 16
Verses 1-10
Verses 8-10
Elah . . . Zimri . . . Arza.
Elah, Zimri, and Arza
There was once a king in Israel called Elah. He reigned over
Israel in Tirzah two years. He had a servant called Zimri who was a captain of
his chariots. Zimri was a born traitor. Treachery was in his very blood. In the
case of Elah, Zimri had a marked advantage; for Elah was a drunken fool. He was
in the habit of visiting the house of another of his servants, a steward called
Arza, and there he had what drink he asked for; and he asked for a good deal,
so much so that he was often drunk in his servant’s house, and on one of these occasions,
Zimri went in and killed him, and reigned in his stead. These are the facts
which we have to deal with. Are they very ancient, or are they happening round
about us every day?
1. Elah lives in every man who has great chances or opportunities in
life, but allows them to slip away through one leak in the character. Elah was
a king, and the son of a king, so his openings in life were wide and splendid;
but he loved strong drink, and through that leak in his character all that
might have made him a man oozed away, and left him a king in nothing but the
barren name. Strong drink will ruin any man. What is true of this leak in a
man’s character is true of every other. Take indecision for example, or
idleness, or love of company, or devotion to pleasure. A great merchant once
said to me of a certain man in his employment, “I would to-morrow give that man
a thousand a year to begin with, if he could do one thing, and that is, hold
his tongue; but he would no sooner get the appointment than he would go into an
ale-house, and tell the whole company everything I am doing.” There is the leak
in the character, and it means ruin! It is astounding what one leak will do.
2. Zimri still lives in all persons who take advantage of the
weaknesses of others. Zimri knew that Elah was a drunkard, and he further knew
that through his habit of drunkenness alone he could reach the king. On every
other side of his character Elah may have been a strong man: acute, shrewd,
far-sighted; but when in drink, weak and foolish. And Zimri played his game
accordingly. Some people trade on the weaknesses of others. They study them.
Thy adapt themselves to them. They watch for striking time, and seldom miss the
mark. How else could the net be always ready for the bird? How else the pit be
always prepared for the unexpected and bewildered traveller? There is an
infernal science in these things--a devil’s black art!
3. And does not Arza still live in those who find the means whereby
men may conceal their evil habits and indulge their unholy desires? They seem
to say, “In my house you may do what you please. I shall not look at you. Come
when you please; go when you like; I am nobody, if you like to call me so.” My
wonder is that any young man can keep his morals uncorrupted in a strange city.
Houses of destruction are open in every street. How foolish, too, are the
wicked! If they would devote their talents to some virtuous end they would
attain honourable success, sweetened with a sense of honesty. They often have
great talents, fine powers, large capacities, and if they gave themselves with
ardour and energy to the pursuit of good ends they would outrun many, and gain
a prize worthy and lasting. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 11-34
Verse 22
So Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
Tibni and Omri
We have often been struck by the difference in the lot of men upon
the earth; for example, as between the rich man and Lazarus, and between the
great king and the poor wise man. The text brings these differences before us
sharply--“Tibni died, and Omri reigned.” A short explanatory story is needed
here. When Zimri killed Elah, the people proclaimed Omri as king; but the
proclamation was not unanimous; half of the people wanted Tibni, and half
wanted Omri: the half that wanted Omri prevailed; so Tibni died, and Omri
reigned. Our purpose is to show that both Tibni and Omri are still living, and
that we may learn a good deal from their different lots in life.
1. Tibni and Omri are both living in the persons of those who divide
public opinion respecting themselves. Is there any man living with whom
everybody is satisfied? Take a Christian minister--any minister in this great
London, and see how public opinion is divided about him. To one set of men he is the
supreme human teacher; to another set of men he is almost unfit to be in the
pulpit at all. Take a statesman; to one class he is the salvation of the
kingdom, to another he is an empiric, a traitor, or in some degree a political
rascal. Take any friend in social life; to one man he is an idol, to another he
is bore. There are great moral lessons coming out of these simple facts.
Society will always be divided about its leading men; but let us insist that
there may be difference without bitterness, and that you may make one man king
without taking away the character and perhaps the life of his rival. Let us
pray God to show us the best points in every man s character.
2. Tibni still lives in the man who comes very near being a king but
just misses the throne. Half the people in the camp were in his favour. In some
of the popular shouts you could hardly tell whether Tibni or Omri was the
uppermost name. Now the one seemed to fill the whole wind and now the other.
The men themselves did not know for certain which of them was to have the
crown. Let us see if there be not a good deal of our own life in this
apparently remote and uninteresting fact. Whatever you strive for most
anxiously in life is the crown to you, because it is the thing you want beyond
all others. Sometimes it is so near! You feel as if you could put out your hand
and take it! And yet though so near, it is so far, like a star trembling in a
pool. Here we come upon the very first lines of Providence, and the finer the
lines the subtler the temptation. We are tempted to step over some lines; it
seems right that we should do so; we say we ought to take advantage of our good
fortune, and if God has come so near He means us to take the one last step. It
is just there that many a man suffers the supreme trial of his faith and the
supreme agony of his sensibilities. We have referred to the supreme trial of a
man’s sensibilities; let us explain our meaning. We often say of this man or
that, How narrowly he escapes being a great man! There is only one thing
wanting, one element, one force, one virtue--one thing thou lackest, one thing
is needful! And the man himself is tormented by a sense of greatness which is
always nearing the point of royalty but never absolutely reaching it. He feels
that the great poem which would give him literary immortality is breathing
within him and around him, but the moment he puts pen to paper the inspiration
ceases and will not harden into words. He has m him strange wild dreamings of
power; he can write a book, he can found a new school of philosophy, he can
illumine the whole horizon of theology, he can save the State; innumerable
things he attempts and completes in his dreams, but the day of execution never
dawns! It is in such men that Tibni still lives; in disappointed hearts, in
blighted hopes, in brilliant prospects overcast, in kingdoms made of cloud, in
castles built in air.
3. Omri still lives in those who turn great powers and great openings
to dishonourable and unholy uses. Omri got the throne. For twelve years he
reigned in Israel, six of them in Tirzah. His rival died, and he was left in
undisputed sovereignty. But his way was not honourable before the Lord. “Omri
wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him.”
Some providences seem to be altogether thrown away, and we stand aghast at the
destruction, saying, “Why was this waste made?” Great talents are made to serve
the devil; great voices of song are never heard in the sanctuary; noble powers
of speech are dumb when the righteous cause has to be pleaded. Application:
Verse 28
Omri slept with his fathers . . . Ahab his son
reigned in his stead.
Omri and Ahab
A careful study of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, compels one
to feel that communities do the best when they most honour God, and that
forgetfulness of Him, and especially revolt from Him, brings disturbance and
destruction. It is true these events transpired more than two thousand five
hundred years ago, but they “are written for our learning.” Why should they be
if there is nothing that we need to learn from them?
1. We need not trouble ourselves with the settling of the periods
making up the dozen years of Omri’s reign, which had its opening portion in
Tirzah, the royal seat (1 Kings 16:17). Omri had ability of
a certain sort, and hence, probably, was able to secure the adhesion of so many
of the people and the conquest of his two rivals. He showed it in the selection
of a new capital. Shemer owned a tract of land with a hill of great strategic
value. With an opening out into the wider distant plain through the level
grounds which divided it elsewhere, all around, from the mountains, it had on
one side a gentle slope, and on all the others it was easily made strong
against an enemy, when bows and arrows and spears constituted the common
weapons of assault. The town got its name from him who owned the hill, and most
fitly, for it was the synonym of “watch-tower,” the very thing at which Omri
aimed, having in mind through the slaughter of how many enemies he had to wade
to the throne, and how necessary it was to be strong against any future assaults.
They who part with Jehovah as Guide and Protector, and trust to human
resources, need to multiply these to the utmost. Jeroboam had not flung off God
formally. He had only modified the way of serving Him. He had set up the
calves. This was politic, expedient, necessary. It was in harmony too with the
ways of the nations. This was “the Way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat” (1 Kings 16:26). It was not the way
of loyalty to Jehovah; it was not the way of truth. It was the way of
disobedience under the inspiration of policy. Between this sin and the others
that followed it was only a question of degree, not of kind. Set up taste,
usage, popular craving, fashion, artistic completeness, or anything else as
changing, modifying the method of Divine appointment, and you enter on the
inclined plane. How far down and how fast you will go is determined by
circumstances. So Omri’s working “evil in the eyes of the Lord,” and doing
“worse than all that were before him” (1 Kings 16:25), is only walking in
all “the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,” and in his corrupting and
contaminating sin. So it is ever. Given the supremacy of Peter, then his
control of all things, secular and sacred; then his infallibility! What was the
effect of all these modifications? Toward man, to keep Israel together and from
union with Judah. But in the other and higher direction--toward God--the effect
was “to provoke (1 Kings 16:26) the Lord God of
Israel to anger with their vanities.” (See, for the “statutes of Omri,” Micah 6:16.) When Omri died, the
chronicles of the kings of Israel (1 Kings 16:27) containing the record
of his deeds, they buried him in his capital, Samaria, and the throne fell to
his son Ahab in the thirty-eighth year of Asa of Judah (1 Kings 16:29), and about nine
hundred and eighteen years before the coming of our Lord. His career is as full
of darkness and weakness as a king’s life could well be. His reign of
twenty-two years was a continued curse to the people. He held on the way of his
father, but, according to the common rule in such cases, descending lower and
lower. Moral rottenness, like material putrefaction, must increase. “Evil men
and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” He married
Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians. We are not surprised
at the character of the daughter when we know the career of her father as it is
learned from outside history. Among the innovations of Ahab our version
mentions a “grove,” a misleading word into which the translators were led from
its being really an idolatrous image or group of images, including the “sacred
symbolic tree” so frequently seen in Assyrian monuments. That it could not be a
grove, a wood, is clear from 2 Kings 22:4, where Josiah brought
out “the grove”--asherah in Hebrew--from the house of the Lord. It was
doubtless a new and imposing idol, in keeping with the luxurious life now being
lived by the Israelites as wealth grew through commerce.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》