1 Kingschapter 15
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A.Abijam walks in all the sins of his fathervv. 1-8
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. And Abijam walked in all the sins that his father before him had committed, and his heart was not as fully devoted to the LORD his God as the heart of David his forefather had been. Nevertheless, for the sake of David, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and to make Jerusalem strong. For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not turned aside from anything the LORD commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. And there was war between the houses of Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of Abijam’s life. As for the rest of the acts of Abijam, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And Abijam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa reigned in his place.
1 Kings 15:1-2
Kings dates Judah's king by the regnal year of Israel's king, in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, and will date Israel's kings by Judah's in turn, a double synchronism that runs through both books and lets a reader check the chronology at every accession. Abijam reigns three years, and his mother is named Maachah the daughter of Abishalom, the same maternal formula that returns unchanged at Asa's own accession in verse 10.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
1 Kings 15:1
“Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah. That is, began to reign; and by this it appears that Rehoboam was in the eighteenth year of his reign when he died, for he and Jeroboam began their reign at the same time.”
1 Kings 15:1
“Abijam--His name was at first Abijah (2Ch 12:16); "Jah," the name of God, according to an ancient fashion, being conjoined with it. But afterwards, when he was found "walking in all the sins of his father" [1Ki 15:3], that honorable addition was withdrawn, and his name in sacred history changed into Abijam [LIGHTFOOT].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:2, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:2
“Three years - More strictly, not much more than two years (compare 1Ki 15:1, 1Ki 15:9). Any part of a year may, however, in Jewish reckoning, be taken as a year. His mother’s name was Maachah - Or Michaiah, according to the present reading of marginal reference. The daughter of Abishalom - Absalom seems to have had but one daughter, Tamar 2Sa 14:27, so that Maachah must have been, not his daughter, but his grand-daughter. Her father (see the margin) was Uriel of Gibeah whom, therefore, Tamar married. Maachah took her name from her great-grandmother 2Sa 3:3.”
1 Kings 15:2
“Parts of years are often counted in Scripture as whole years. The reign began in Jeroboam's eighteenth year, continued till the nineteenth, and ended in the course of the twentieth. his mother's name was Maachah--or Michaiah (2Ch 13:2), probably altered from the one to the other on her becoming queen, as was very common under a change of circumstances.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:3
Abijam walked in all the sins of his father, and the verdict measures him against a standard already fixed in the book, the heart of David his father, not against Rehoboam's own record. Chronicles calls him Abijah, my father is the Lord, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the shorter name Abijam here as the honor withdrawn once the son's life contradicted it. The book will apply this same measuring rod, the heart of David, to Judah's kings from here to the exile, one line always in view even where a king fails it.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:3, 3 voices
1 Kings 15:3
“He walked in all the sins of his father - Yet Abijam prepared precious offerings for the temple service 1Ki 15:15, probably to replace vessels which Shishak had carried off, and in his war with Jeroboam professed himself a faithful servant of Yahweh 2Ch 13:10-12.”
1 Kings 15:3
“This phrase contains a comparative reference to David's heart. His doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord (1Ki 15:5) is frequently used in speaking of the kings of Judah, and means only that they did or did not do that which, in the general course and tendency of their government, was acceptable to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:3
“He makes a better figure, 2 Chron. xiii. , where we have an account of his war with Jeroboam, the speech which he made before the armies engaged, and the wonderful victory he obtained by the help of God. There he is called Abijah--My father is the Lord, because no wickedness is there laid to his charge.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:4-5
Nevertheless carries the whole verse against the one before it: a king who fails David's own standard still receives a lamp in Jerusalem, kept alight not for his own merit but for David's sake, the phrase that will return at 2 Kings 8:19 when Judah stands at its own point of collapse. Verse 5 states David's one exception in the plainest terms Scripture gives it, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, so the standard Abijam is measured against was never sinlessness but a heart that did not turn aside. The lamp promise answers 2 Samuel 7:14-15 and will be repeated at 11:36 and 15:4 across the two kingdoms' whole history, a single thread carrying every wicked king Judah still produces.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:4, 4 voices
1 Kings 15:4
“Nevertheless, for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem,.... A kingdom there, as the Targum, splendid and glorious, to be continued in his posterity: to set up his son after him; in it: and to establish Jerusalem: to continue that in which the temple was, for the sake of which, and the worship of God in it, there was a succession of David's posterity on the throne of Judah.”
1 Kings 15:4
“To set up his son - The idolatry of Abijam deserved the same punishment as that of Jeroboam 1Ki 14:10-14, of Baasha 1Ki 16:2-4, or of Zimri 1Ki 16:19, the cutting off of his seed, and the transfer of the crown to another family. That these consequences did not follow in the kingdom of Judah, was owing to the “faithfulness” of David (see the marginal reference), which brought a blessing on his posterity.”
1 Kings 15:4
“A lamp - A son and successor to perpetuate his name and memory, which otherwise had gone into obscurity. Jerusalem - That he might maintain that city, and temple, and worship, as a witness for God, in the world, against the Israelites and heathen world.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 15:4-5
“David was guilty of other faults, but they were nothing in comparison of that; yet even that being repented of, though it be mentioned for warning to others, did not prevail to throw him out of the covenant, nor to cut off the entail of the promise upon his seed.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:5, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:5
“Save only in the matter of Uriah - Properly speaking, this is the only flagrant fault or crime in the life of David. It was a horrible offense, or rather a whole system of offenses. See the notes on 2 Samuel 11 (note), and 2 Samuel 12 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:5
“Save only - This and the like phrases are not to be understood as exclusive of every sinful action, hut only of an habitual and continued apostasy from God, as the very phrase of turning aside from God, or from his commands, doth constantly imply. And thus it is most true.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 15:6-8
Verse 6 repeats, almost word for word, the notice already given of Rehoboam and Jeroboam at 14:30, and verse 7 restates the same standing war now under Abijam's own name; Keil and Barnes read the first as the old notice still running under the new king rather than a copying error, since 2 Chronicles 13 records Abijam's own major campaign against Jeroboam by name. Abijam's death and burial close his three years with the book's standard formula, and Asa succeeds him, the reign that fills the rest of the chapter.
1 Kings 15:6, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:6
“And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. Not the days of Rehoboam, though that was true, and is observed, 1Ki 14:30, but all the days of Abijam, before he came to the throne, and in which, when a young man, he was concerned, and which still continued between him and Jeroboam; though some think he is called by his father's name, as Rehoboam is called David, 1Ki 12:16.”
1 Kings 15:6
“There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam - This was mentioned in the preceding chapter, 1Ki 14:30, and it can mean no more than this: there was a continual spirit of hostility kept up between the two kingdoms, and no doubt frequent skirmishing between bordering parties; but it never broke out into open war, for this was particularly forbidden. See 1Ki 12:24. Hostility did exist, and no doubt frequent skirmishes; but open war and pitched battles there were none. But why is this circumstance repeated, and the history of Abijam interrupted by the repetition?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:7, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:7
“Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?.... Which seem to be written by Iddo the prophet, see 2Ch 13:22, and there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam; and a famous pitched battle between them we read of in 2Ch 13:3.”
1 Kings 15:8, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:8
“And Abijam slept with his fathers,.... That is, died as they did: and they buried him in the city of David, in the sepulchre of his royal ancestors, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam: and Asa his son reigned in his stead; who perhaps was the eldest of his twenty two sons, 2Ch 13:21.”
B.Asa removes his own mother from being queenvv. 9-15
In the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. He also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the LORD all his days. And he brought into the house of the LORD the silver and gold and other articles that he and his father had dedicated.
C.Ramah pulled down; Asa's feet diseased in his old agevv. 16-24
Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their days. Baasha king of Israel went to war against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace. He entrusted it to his servants and sent them with this message to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus: “Let there be a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Now go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.” And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and the whole land of Naphtali, including the region of Chinnereth. When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. Then King Asa summoned all the men of Judah, with no exceptions, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building. And with these materials King Asa built up Geba of Benjamin, as well as Mizpah. Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet. And Asa rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.
1 Kings 15:9-10
Asa's accession is dated to Jeroboam's twentieth year, the chronology moving forward two synchronisms in eleven verses, and his reign of forty and one years is the longest so far recorded for either kingdom. Verse 10 repeats the exact maternal formula already given for Abijam at verse 2, Maachah the daughter of Abishalom, though Asa is Abijam's son; the bench reads Maachah here as the queen mother continuing in that office under her grandson rather than as Asa's own mother, which is what makes it possible for Asa himself to remove her from being queen three verses later. The puzzle is not solved by inventing detail beyond the text, only by naming what the office of queen mother explains.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:10, 3 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
1 Kings 15:10
“And forty one years reigned he in Jerusalem,.... Being a good king, had the blessing of a long reign, and reached, and even exceeded, the years of the reigns of David and Solomon: and his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom; that is the name of his grandmother, see 1Ki 15:2 she is called his mother, not because she brought him forth, but because she brought him up; and this is observed to his commendation, that though he was educated by an idolatrous woman, yet was not corrupted by her as his father was.”
1 Kings 15:10
“His mother’s name - Our translators thought that grandmother was likely to be the meaning, and therefore have put it in the margin. The daughter of Abishalom - She is called, says Calmet, the daughter of Absalom, according to the custom of the Scriptures, which give the name of daughter indifferently to the niece, the grand-daughter, and great grand-daughter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:10
“In the account we have of the kings of Judah we find the number of the good kings and the bad ones nearly equal; but then we may observe, to our comfort, that the reign of the good kings was generally long, but that of the bad kings short, the consideration of which will make the state of God's church not altogether so bad within that period as it appears at first sight.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:11-13
Asa is measured by the same standard just applied to his father, as did David his father, and this time the verdict is positive: the sodomites, the cult prostitutes the law names at Deuteronomy 23:17-18, are put out of the land, and the idols his fathers made are removed. His own mother is not spared; he takes away her standing as queen for the idol she had made in a grove, and burns it at the brook Kidron, the same valley Judah's later reformers will use for the same purpose.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:11, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:11
“He did as did David his father, kept close to God, and to his instituted worship, was hearty and zealous for that, which gave him this honourable character, that he was like David, though he was not a prophet, or psalmist, as David was. If we come up to the graces of those that have gone before us it will be our praise with God, though we come short of their gifts.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:12, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:12
“And he took away the Sodomites out of the land,.... Which were in the times of Rehoboam, 1Ki 14:24, and continued in his father's reign; those he took away, either by driving them out of the land, or by putting them to death according to the law of God, Lev 20:13 even as many of them as he had knowledge of, for some remained, see 1Ki 22:46, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made; or suffered to be made, as Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam, see 1Ki 11:7.”
1 Kings 15:12
“His father having made them, he was the more concerned to remove them, that he might cut off the entail of the curse, and prevent the visiting of that iniquity upon him and his. Nay (which redounds much to his honour, and shows his heart was perfect with God), when he found idolatry in the court, he rooted it out thence,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:13, 3 voices
1 Kings 15:13
“Furthermore, the adversary tempted Job through his children and his possessions, and when he could not prevail over him, he went and brought against him his armor, and he came, bringing with him a daughter of Eve, who had caused Adam to sink, and through her mouth he said to Job, her righteous husband, "Curse God." But Job rejected her counsel. King Asa also conquered the Accursed-of-life, when he wished to come in against him, through his mother.”
Aphrahat the Persian Sage· written before 345· DEMONSTRATION 6.3patristic
1 Kings 15:13
“Her title, and the privileges connected with that honor and dignity which gave her precedency among the ladies of the royal family, and great influence in the kingdom, were taken away. She was degraded for her idolatry. because she had made an idol in a grove--A very obscene figure, and the grove was devoted to the grossest licentiousness.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:13
“An Idol - Hebrew. a terror, or horror, that is, an horrible idol; which it may be so called, because it was of a more terrible shape than ordinary, and not to be seen without horror. Kidron - That when it was burnt to powder, it might be thrown into the water, and be unfit for any use.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 15:14
The high places were not removed: Howbeit qualifies a reign the text has just called right: the high places, the local shrines Israel never fully surrendered even for the Lord's own worship, stay standing through the whole reign, and the book will repeat this exact qualification of nearly every king it otherwise commends. Nevertheless answers howbeit in the same verse; the imperfection is named honestly and the heart is called perfect all the same, one verse holding a real king's real mixture without collapsing either word into the other.
1 Kings 15:14, 3 voices
1 Kings 15:14
“Regarding many kings of the line of David, we read that they were saved not through their own merit but through the virtues of their father, David, who did that which was pleasing in the sight of God. And we come to Asa, the king of Judah, of whom it is written: "Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as did David, his father." And after a lengthy account of his many virtues, the story is concluded with these words: "But the high places he did not take away.”
Jerome· written before 420· Against the Pelagians 2.21patristic
1 Kings 15:14
“The high places were not removed - He was not able to make a thorough reformation; this was reserved for his son Jehoshaphat. Asa’s heart was perfect - He worshipped the true God, and zealously promoted his service; see on 1Ki 15:3 (note). And even the high places which he did not remove were probably those where the true God alone was worshipped; for that there were such high places the preceding history amply proves, and Jarchi intimates that these were places which individuals had erected for the worship of Jehovah.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:14
“This affords us a comfortable note, That those may be found honest and upright with God, and be accepted of him, who yet, in some instances, come short of doing the good they might and should do. The perfection which is made the indispensable condition of the new covenant is not to be understood of sinlessness (then we were all undone), but sincerity.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:15
Asa restores to the house of the Lord the silver, gold and vessels both Abijam and he himself had set apart, rebuilding a treasury the book will show him spending three verses later on a foreign king rather than on the Lord who filled it. The dedication itself is never criticized; what follows it is.
1 Kings 15:15, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:15
“And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated,.... The spoils he had taken in war from Jeroboam, and which he had devoted to religious uses, but lived not to perform his vows, which his son now did for him; so that it seems, notwithstanding the sins he fell into, he had some regard to God and his worship, see 2Ch 13:19. and the things which himself had dedicated; out of the spoils taken from the Ethiopians, 2Ch 14:13, these he brought into the house of the Lord, silver, and gold, and vessels; of various sorts.”
1 Kings 15:15
“Abijam’s dedications were made after his victory over Jeroboam, and probably consisted of a portion of the spoils which were the fruit of the battle 2Ch 13:16-19. Asa’s dedications may have been made from the spoils of Zerah the Ethiopian, who attacked him in his eleventh year (2Ch 14:9, etc.). They were not deposited in the temple until his fifteenth year 2Ch 15:10, 2Ch 15:18.”
1 Kings 15:16-19
war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel: Baasha's fortification of Ramah, a few miles from Jerusalem, is meant to seal Judah's northern border and choke its traffic, and Asa answers not with the Lord he has just honored but with the very silver and gold verse 15 named as dedicated, sent to buy off Ben-hadad of Damascus and break a standing treaty with Israel. 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 records the prophet Hanani's rebuke for exactly this choice, trusting a Syrian king rather than the Lord who had already given Asa victory over a far larger army; Kings itself states the deed without the rebuke and lets the treasury's history from verse 15 make the point.
1 Kings 15:16, 3 voices
1 Kings 15:16
“And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days: That is as long as they lived together; for Baasha died many years before Asa, and this must be reckoned from the time the war began between them.”
1 Kings 15:16
“There was war - That is, there was continual enmity; see on 1Ki 15:6 (note). But there was no open war till the thirty-sixth year of Asa, when Baasha, king of Israel, began to build Ramah, that he might prevent all communication between Israel and Judah; see 2Ch 15:19; 2Ch 16:1. But this does not agree with what is said here, 1Ki 16:8, 1Ki 16:9, that Elah, the son and successor of Baasha, was killed by Zimri, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:16
“This was the effect of the division of the kingdoms, that they were continually vexing one another, and so weakened one another, which made them both an easier prey to the common enemy. In his old age he was himself afflicted with the gout: He was diseased in his feet, which made him less fit for business and peevish towards those about him.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:17, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:17
“Ramah (perhaps “Er-Ram;” marginal reference) was situated halfway between Bethel and Jerusalem. Its distance from Jerusalem was no more than five miles so that its occupation was a menace to that capital. Baasha’s seizure of Ramah implies a previous recovery of the towns taken by Abijam from Jeroboam, namely, Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephrain 2Ch 13:19, and was a carrying of the war into the enemy’s country. Could his conquest have been maintained, it would have crippled Judah seriously, and have almost compelled a transfer of the capital to Hebron.”
1 Kings 15:18, 3 voices
1 Kings 15:18
“Asa took all the silver - Shishak, king of Egypt, had not taken the whole, or there had been some treasures brought in since that time. Ben-hadad - This was the grandson of Rezon, called here Hezion, who founded the kingdom of Damascus. See 1Ki 11:23, 1Ki 11:24; and Calmet.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:18-20
“Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the . . . house of the Lord--Asa's religious character is now seen to decline. He trusted not in the Lord (2Ch 16:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:18-19
“Here he sinned, (1.) In tempting Benhadad to break his league, and so to violate the public faith. If he did wrong in doing it, as certainly he did, Asa did wrong in persuading him to do it. (2.) In that he could not trust God, who had done so much for him, to free him out of this strait, without using such indirect means to help himself.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:19, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:19
“There is a league between me and thee - Or, Let there be a league between me and thee; as there was between my father and thy father. There was no reason why Asa should have emptied his treasures at this time to procure the aid of the Syrian king; as it does not appear that there was any danger which himself could not have turned aside. He probably wished to destroy the kingdom of Israel; and to effect this purpose, even robbed the house of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:20-22
Ben-hadad's strike against Naphtali and its cities buys Asa exactly what his silver purchased, forcing Baasha to abandon Ramah and withdraw to Tirzah, the town that will serve as Israel's capital until Omri builds Samaria. Asa turns the abandoned stone and timber into two fortresses of his own, Geba and Mizpah, so the very materials meant to besiege Judah end by defending it. The chapter records the tactical success without recording whether it changed the king's later trust; Chronicles supplies the rest.
1 Kings 15:20, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:20
“Ijon, and Dan, etc. - He appears to have attacked and taken those towns which constituted the principal strength of the kingdom of Israel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:21, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:21
“Dwelt in Tirzah - This seems to have been the royal city; see 1Ki 15:33, and 1Ki 14:17; and in this Baasha was probably obliged to shut himself up.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:21
“There he abode to defend his own kingdoms, and durst not return to oppose Asa, lest the Syrian king should make a second invasion. So Asa met with success in this ungodly course as good men sometimes meet with disappointment in a good cause and course. So there is no judging of causes by events.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 15:22, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:22
“None was exempted - Every man was obliged to go and help to dismantle the fortress at Ramah which Baasha had built. This was a general levee en masse of the people: every one was obliged to lend a helping hand, as the state was then supposed to be in danger, and all exemptions necessarily ceased. This is a maxim of civil policy, Ubi adversus hostem muniendi sent limites, omnis immunitas cessat: “Where the boundaries are to be fortified against an enemy, then all exemptions cease.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:22
“But, though the design prospered, we find it was displeasing to God; and though Asa valued himself upon the policy of it, and promised himself that it would effectually secure his peace, he was told by the prophet that he had done foolishly, and that thenceforth he should have wars; see 2 Chron. xvi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:23-24
diseased in his feet: The closing formula for Asa's forty-one years notes his acts, his might and his building, then adds one clinical detail: in old age he is diseased in his feet. 2 Chronicles 16:12 completes the picture Kings only opens, that even in his disease he sought not the Lord but physicians, the same pattern of leaning on the nearest strength rather than the Lord that already appeared in the Syrian treaty. Jehoshaphat succeeds him, and the line the lamp promise protects continues one generation further.
1 Kings 15:23, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:23
“The rest of all the acts of Asa - A few of these are preserved in 2Ch 15:9-15; 2Ch 16:7-12. From the whole narrative of Chronicles we gather that the character of Asa deteriorated as he grew old, and that, while he maintained the worship of Yahweh consistently from first to last, he failed to maintain the personal faith and piety which had been so conspicuous in his early youth.”
1 Kings 15:24, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:24
“And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father,.... In a sepulchre there he himself had made, and in great pomp and solemnity, being laid on a bed filled with sweet odours and spices, prepared according to art, and which were burned for him, 2Ch 16:14, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead; a very pious and worthy prince.”
1 Kings 15:24
“Asa prepared his own sepulchre in his lifetime, as has been so often done by Oriental kings; and his funeral was conducted with great magnificence 2Ch 16:14.”
D.Nadab struck down at Gibbethon; Baasha wipes out a housevv. 25-34
In the second year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel, and he reigned two years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit. Then Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against Nadab, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines while Nadab and all Israel were besieging the city. In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place. As soon as Baasha became king, he struck down the entire household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he had provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger. As for the rest of the acts of Nadab, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their days.
1 Kings 15:25-26
Nadab's two years are measured by his father's record rather than by any standard of his own, walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, the formula 14:16 first applies to Jeroboam and that the book will repeat of nearly every king the north produces. No northern king is ever measured against David; the north's own founder supplies its whole standard of comparison, and every heir is judged only by how closely he keeps it.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:25, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
1 Kings 15:25
“And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah,.... Before Baasha did: and reigned over Israel two years, not two whole years; for he began in the second of Asa, and in the third of that king's reign Baasha slew him, and reigned in his stead, 1Ki 15:28.”
1 Kings 15:25
“The sacred historian now gives an account of the contemporary kings of Israel, beginning with Nadab, who ascended the throne in Asa’s second year, and concluding with Ahab, in whose fourth year Asa died.”
1 Kings 15:26, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:26
“And he did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry, than which nothing is a greater evil in his sight: and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin: in making and worshipping of golden calves.”
1 Kings 15:27-28
Baasha's conspiracy against Nadab happens at Gibbethon, a Philistine town under siege by Israel's own army, so the coup takes the king in the field rather than on his throne; the same site returns at 16:15-17 when Zimri kills Elah amid another siege there, a coincidence of place the book records without comment twice over. Nadab's death ends Jeroboam's dynasty after a single generation, the shortest reign of any king recorded so far in either kingdom.
1 Kings 15:27, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:27
“Baasha ... of the house of Issachar - It is curious to find Issachar furnishing a king. Tola, its one very undistinguished Judge Jdg 10:1, on obtaining office had at once settled himself in the territory of Ephraim. The tribe was as little famous as any that could be named. The “ass crouching between two burthens” was a true symbol of the patient, plodding cultivators of the plain of Esdraelon Gen 49:14-”
1 Kings 15:27
“Baasha smote him at Gibbethon--This town, within the tribe of Dan, was given to the Levites (Jos 19:44). It lay on the Philistine borders, and having been seized by that people, Nadab laid siege to recover it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Kings 15:28, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:28
“He thought it not enough to imprison or banish them, but he destroyed them, left not only no males (as was foretold, ch. xiv. 10 ), but none that breathed. Herein he was barbarous, but God was righteous.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 15:29-30
Baasha's extermination of Jeroboam's whole house executes a sentence already passed at 14:10-14, according unto the saying of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, naming the very prophet who anointed Jeroboam in the first place. The book states the fulfilment as plainly as it stated the oracle, leaving no space between promise and completion for the reader to doubt either. Verse 30 names the ground again in case the reader missed it at verse 26: the sin, and the sin Israel was made to share in, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:29, 2 voices
1 Kings 15:29
“And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam,.... That he might have no rival, or any that could pretend any title to the crown: he left not Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite; not that his intention in destroying Jeroboam's family was to fulfil that prophecy, but so it was eventually; see 1Ki 14:10.”
1 Kings 15:29
“He smote all the house of Jeroboam - This was according to Ahijah’s prophetic declaration; see 1Ki 14:10, 1Ki 14:14. Thus God made use of one wicked man to destroy another.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 15:30, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:30
“Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel. Not that Baasha destroyed the family of Jeroboam because of his sins, which did so much mischief to Israel, and were so provoking to the Lord, from any dislike or hatred of them, for he walked in the same, 1Ki 15:34, but the Lord threatened this by his prophet, and suffered it to be done because of his abominations.”
1 Kings 15:31-32
the rest of the acts of Nadab: The closing formula for Nadab is brief because his reign was brief, and verse 32 returns to the exact sentence already given at verse 16, war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days, a resumptive repetition that closes the excursus into Israel's throne and hands the narrative back to where it left Judah. Hebrew narrative uses this device often, a phrase repeated to signal a return to the main line after a digression, and the book will use it again.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:32, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:32
“An exact repetition of 1Ki 15:16. From the book before him 1Ki 15:31 the writer extracts a passage which happens to correspond exactly with one which he has already extracted from the “Book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.” He does not object to repeating himself (compare 1Ki 14:21, 1Ki 14:31; 1Ki 14:30; 1Ki 15:6; 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11).”
1 Kings 15:33-34
Baasha's own accession formula measures him by the identical standard just used of Nadab, walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, so the man who has just executed the Lord's sentence on Jeroboam's house stands condemned by the same words before his reign properly begins. Chapter 16 will apply Ahijah's own pattern to Baasha's house in turn, a second prophetic sentence answering a second dynasty's identical sin. The refrain that opened at 14:16 has now fallen on every king the north has produced.
The wording quoted in this note is the King James Version.
1 Kings 15:33, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
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,.... 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.”
1 Kings 15:33
“In his sin - In the worship of the calves which his father had made. Even, &c. - It was threatened, chap. xiv, 15, that Israel should be as a reed shaken in the water. And so they were, when, during the single reign of Asa, their government was in seven or eight different hands.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Kings 15:34, 1 voice
1 Kings 15:34
“Walked in the way of Jeroboam - The entail of iniquity cannot be cut off but by a thorough conversion of the soul to God; and of this, these bad kings seem to have had no adequate notion. The wicked followed the steps of the wicked, and became still more wicked; sin gathers strength by exercise and age.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Threads running through this chapter
- The lamp for David's sakePattern, v. 4
Where the chapter sits
1 Kings 15 falls in Divided kingdom and Elijah (chapters 13–22). The man of God from Judah; Ahijah's oracle to Jeroboam's wife; the parade of kings evaluated in formulaic regnal summaries. Elijah arrives in ch. 17 and dominates through Carmel (18), Horeb (19), Naboth's vineyard (21), and the LORD's word that stands against four hundred false prophets (22).
Before it: Division at Shechem, chapters 12.
The whole shape of 1 Kings→Key words
The Hebrew words this chapter turns on, by how often it uses them. Each one opens its word study.
| Word | What it means | Verses |
|---|---|---|
| מֶלֶךְmelek20 times, as לַמֶּ֖לֶךְ, לְמַלְכֵ֣י, מֶ֣לֶךְ | of the king | 1, 7, 9, 16 and 11 more |
| אָסָאʼÂçâʼ18 times, as אָסָ֥א, אָסָ֖א, אָסָ֛א | Asa | 8, 9, 11, 13 and 12 more |
| יִשְׂרָאֵלYisrâʼêl15 times, as יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל, יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל, יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ | Israel | 9, 16, 17, 19 and 9 more |
| אָבʼâb12 times, as אָבִ֖יו, אָבִֽיו׃, אֲבֹתָ֔יו | father | 3, 8, 11, 12 and 4 more |
| מָלַךְmâlak11 times, as מָלַ֥ךְ, מָלַ֖ךְ, וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְ | to reign | 1, 2, 8, 9 and 6 more |
| יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh11 times, as יְהוָ֣ה, יְהוָ֨ה, יְהוָ֑ה | yahweh | 3, 4, 5, 11 and 7 more |
Cross references
The 8 chapters this one speaks with, most first. Open a row for the verses it shares.
1 Kings 1414 verses
1 Kings 15:5
1 Kings 14:8I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you were not like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.1 Kings 15:29, 30
1 Kings 14:9You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.1 Kings 15:25
1 Kings 14:12As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.1 Kings 15:27
1 Kings 14:14Moreover, the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day—yes, even today!1 Kings 15:26, 34
1 Kings 14:16So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”1 Kings 15:21
1 Kings 14:17Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and departed for Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.- Read 1 Kings 14: 8 more there →
2 Chronicles 164 verses
1 Kings 15:16, 17
2 Chronicles 16:1In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.1 Kings 15:21
2 Chronicles 16:5When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned his work.1 Kings 15:22
2 Chronicles 16:6Then King Asa brought all the men of Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building. And with these materials he built up Geba and Mizpah.1 Kings 15:23
2 Chronicles 16:11Now the rest of the acts of Asa, from beginning to end, are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.- Read 2 Chronicles 16 →
1 Kings 164 verses
1 Kings 15:33
1 Kings 16:8In the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.1 Kings 15:31
1 Kings 16:14As for the rest of the acts of Elah, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?1 Kings 15:21
1 Kings 16:15In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon of the Philistines,1 Kings 15:31
1 Kings 16:27As for the rest of the acts of Omri, along with his accomplishments and the might he exercised, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?- Read 1 Kings 16 →
2 Chronicles 143 verses
1 Kings 15:8
2 Chronicles 14:1Then Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Asa reigned in his place, and in his days the land was at peace for ten years.1 Kings 15:11, 12
2 Chronicles 14:2And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.1 Kings 15:11
2 Chronicles 14:11Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God: “O LORD, there is no one besides You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal prevail against You.”- Read 2 Chronicles 14 →
The rest of the chapters this one speaks with, 4 of them, for a reader following a thread past the four above
- 1 Kings 223 verses
- 2 Chronicles 132 verses
- 1 Kings 112 verses
- Matthew 12 verses
Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.
The world behind itThe place, the time and the people around this chapter, for a reader who wants the setting.
The world behind this chapter
1 Kings 15The history
The regnal formula this chapter uses is the framework of the whole book: a king's accession is dated by the year of the rival kingdom's king, his years are totalled, his mother is named for Judah, and his conduct is graded. The synchronisms look contradictory until you allow for what Thiele demonstrated, the two kingdoms began their regnal years in different months and counted a partial first year differently, and fathers often ruled jointly with sons for a period. With those rules applied, the numbers lock together.
The king's mother was an office, not just a relation. The queen mother held real standing at court, and the note that Asa removed his grandmother Maacah from that position and burned her Asherah image in the Kidron valley is a record of a political demotion as much as a religious purge.
The war between Asa and Baasha was fought over a road. Ramah lies about five miles north of Jerusalem on the main north-south ridge route, and fortifying it choked the capital's traffic. Asa's answer was to empty the temple and palace treasuries and buy the king of Damascus out of his treaty with Israel, Aram then raided the north of Israel and Baasha had to abandon the work.
Then Asa proclaims a general levy with no one exempt and carts away Ramah's dressed stone and timber to build his own forts at Geba and Mizpah. Recycling an enemy's building material was ordinary practice; quarried and squared stone was too valuable to leave in the field. The chapter also records that the sin of Jeroboam brought his house down within two years, exterminated by an army officer at a siege, the pattern the north repeats for two centuries.
What it meant to them
The first hearers got their first genuinely good king since David, and a mixed verdict on him. Asa's heart was wholly true all his days, and the high places were not taken away, and he bought foreign help with the temple's gold.
The book is training its readers to grade kings by one standard, did he walk as David walked, and to notice that even the good ones leave something standing that later ruins the country.
Sources cited
- Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
Connections
Where this chapter reaches into the rest of Scripture, with the verse each connection stands on.
v. 11 · A repeating formula
Regnal-evaluation formula benchmarked to David; the yardstick that legitimizes Hezekiah's breaking of Nehushtan as covenant faithfulness.
2 Kings 18:3→And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
Where this chapter leads
On this page
Studies1
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Kings 15. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 10 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Aphrahat the Persian Sage, DEMONSTRATION 6.3; F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 2.21; John Gill; John Wesley; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry.