1 Kings 16:11

1Ki 16:11 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.

Ver. 11. As soon as he sat on his throne.] He laid about him lustily: for the seven days’ space only of his reign.

Neither of his kinsfolks nor of friends.] As resolving to leave never a rub to lie in the way that might binder the true running of his bowl.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 16:11-13. He slew all the house of Baasha, &c. — He not only destroyed all that were descended from Baasha, as Baasha had destroyed the families of Jeroboam, but he extended the destruction, and increased it, as Abarbinel speaks, for he killed all that were of kin to Baasha, with all his friends, which Baasha did not when he seized the kingdom from Jeroboam. According to the word of the Lord — Thus fulfilling the divine threatening, but undesignedly by him, and merely for his own ends. In provoking the Lord to anger with their vanities — Idols, called vanities, because they are but imaginary deities, and mere nothings, having no power to do either good or hurt.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE KINGS OF ISRAEL FROM ZIMRI TO AHAB

1Ki_16:11-34

As far as we can understand from our meager authorities-and we have no independent source of information-we infer that Elah, son of the powerful Baasha, was a self-indulgent weakling. The army of Israel was encamped against Gibbethon-originally a Levitical town of the Kohathites, in the territory of Dan-which they hoped to wrest from the Philistines. It was during the interminable and intermittent siege of this town that Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, had been murdered. Whatever may have been his sins, he was in his proper place leading the armies of Israel. Elah was not there, but in his beautiful palace at Tirzah. It was probably contempt for his incapacity and the bad example of Baashas successful revolt, that tempted Zimri to murder him as he was drinking himself drunk in the house of his chamberlain Arza. Zimri was a commander of half the chariots, and probably thinking that he could secure the throne by a coup de main he slew not only Elah, but every male member of his family. To extinguish any possibility: of vengeance, he even massacred all who were known to be friends of the royal house. It was a consummate crime, and it was followed by swift and condign judgment. Through that sea of blood Zimri only succeeded in wading to one weeks royalty, followed by a shameful and agonizing death. We are told that he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following the sin of Jeroboams calf-worship. The phrase must be here something of a formula, for in seven days he could hardly have achieved a religious revolution, and every other king of Israel, some of whom have long and prosperous reigns, maintained the unauthorized worship. But Zimris atrocious revolt had been so ill-considered that it furnished a proverb of the terrible fate of rebels. {2Ki_9:31} He had not even attempted to secure the assent of the army at Gibbethon. No sooner did the news reach the camp than the soldiers tumultuously refused to accept Zimri as king, and elected Omri their captain. Omri instantly broke up the camp, and led them to besiege the new king in Tirzah. Zimri saw that his cause was hopeless, and took refuge in the fortress (birah) attached to the palace. When he saw that even there he could not maintain himself, he preferred speedy death to slow starvation or falling into the hands of his rival. He set fire to the palace, and, like Sardanapalus, perished in the flames.

The swift suppression of his treason did not save the unhappy kingdom from anarchy and civil war. However popular Omri might be with the army, he was unacceptable to a large part of the people. They chose as their king a certain Tibni, son of Ginath, who was supported by a powerful brother named Joram. For four years the contest was continued. At the end of that time Tibni and Joram were conquered and killed, and Omri began his sole reign, which lasted eight years longer.

He founded the most conspicuous dynasty of Israel, and so completely identified his name with the Northern Kingdom that it was known to the Assyrians as Beit-Khumri, or "the House of Omri." They even speak of Jehu the destroyer of Omris dynasty, as "the son of Omri."

Incidental allusions in the annals of his son show that Omri was engaged in incessant wars against Syria. He was unsuccessful, and Benhadad robbed him of Ramoth Gilead and other cities, enforcing the right of Syrians to have streets of their own even in his new capital of Samaria. On the other hand, he was greatly successful on the southeast against the Moabites and their warrior-king Chemosh-Gad, the father of Mesha.

Few details of either war have come down to us. {1Ki_20:34} We learn, however, from the famous Moabite stone that he began his assault on Moab by the capture of Mediba, several miles south of Heshbon, overran the country, made the king a vassal, and imposed on Moab the enormous annual tribute of 100,000 sheep and 100,000 rams. {2Ki_3:4} Mesha in his inscription records that Omri "oppressed Moab many days," and attributed this to the fact that Chemosh was angry with his chosen people. He stamped his impress deep upon his subjects. It must have been to him that the alliance with the Tyrians was due, which in his sons reign produced consequences so momentous. He "did worse we are told than all the kings that were before him." {1Ki_16:25} Although he is only charged with walking in the way of Jeroboam, the indignant manner in which the prophet Micah speaks of "the statutes of Omri" as still being kept, {Mic_6:16} seems to prove that his influence on religion was condemned by the prophetic order on special grounds. It is clear that he was a sovereign of far greater eminence and importance than we might suppose from the meagerness of his annals as here preserved; indeed, for thirty-four years after his accession the history of the Southern Kingdom becomes a mere appendix to that of the Northern. One conspicuous service he rendered to his subjects by providing them with the city which became their permanent and famous capital. This he did in the sixth year of his reign. The burning of the fortress-palace of Tirzah, and the rapidity with which the town had succumbed to its besiegers, may have led him to look out for a site, which was central, strong, and beautiful. His choice was so prescient that the new royal residence superseded not only Penuel and Tirzah, but even Shechem. It was, says Dean Stanley, "as though Versailles had taken the place of Paris, or Windsor of London?" He fixed his eye on an oblong hill, with long flat summit, which rose in the midst of a wide valley encircled with hills, near the edge of the plain of Sharon, and six miles northwest of Shechem. Its beauty is still the admiration of the traveler in Palestine. It gave point to the apostrophe of Isaiah: "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under foot: and the fading flower of his glorious adornment, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall become as a fading flower and as an early fig." {Isa_28:1-4} All around it the low hills and rich ravines were clothed with fertility. They recall more nearly than any other scene in Palestine the green fields and parks of England

It commanded a full view of the sea and the plain of Sharon on the one band, and of the vale of Shechem on the other. The town sloped down from the summit of this hill; a broad wall with a terraced top ran round it. "In front of the gates was a wide open space or threshing floor, where the kings of Samaria sat on great occasions. The inferior houses were built of white brick, with rafters of sycamore, the grandeur of hewn stones and Isa_9:9-10. Its soft, rounded, oblong platform was, as it were, a vast luxurious couch, in which the nobles securely rested, propped and cushioned up on both sides, as in the cherished corner of a rich divan."

Far more important in the eyes of Omri than its beauty was the natural strength of its position. It did not possess the impregnable majesty of Jerusalem, but its height and isolation, permitting of strong fortifications, enabled it to baffle the besieging hosts of the Aramaeans in B.C. 901 and in B.C. 892. For three long years it held out against the mighty Assyrians under Sargon and Shalmanezer. Its capture in B.C. 721 involved the ruin of the whole kingdom in its fall, {1Ki_20:1; 2Ki_6:24} Nebuchadnezzar took it in B.C. 554 after a siege of thirteen years. In later centuries it partially recovered. Alexander the Great took it, and massacred many of its inhabitants B.C. 332. John Hyrcanus, who took it after a years siege, tried to demolish it in B.C. 129. After various fortunes it was splendidly rebuilt by Herod the Great, who called it Sebaste, in honor of Augustus. It still exists under the name of Sebastiyeh.

When Omri chose it for his residence it belonged to a certain Shemer, who, according to Epiphanius, was a descendant of the ancient Perizzites or Girgashites. The king paid for this hill the large sum of two talents of silver, and called it Shomeron. The name means "a watch tower," and was appropriate both from its commanding position and because it echoed the name of its old possessor.

The new capital marked a new epoch. It superseded as completely as Jerusalem had done the old local shrines endeared by the immemorial sanctity of their traditions; but as its origin was purely political it acted unfavorably on the religion of the people. It became a city of idolatry and of luxurious wealth; a city in which Baal-worship with its ritual pomp threw into the shade the worship of Jehovah; a city in which corrupted nobles, lolling at wine feasts on rich divans in their palaces inlaid with ivory, sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes. Of Omri we are told no more. After a reign of twelve years he slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city which was to be for so many centuries a memorial of his fame.

The name of Omri marks a new epoch. He is the first Jewish king whose name is alluded to in Assyrian inscriptions. Assyria had emerged into importance in the twelfth century before Christ under Tiglath-Pileser I, but during the eleventh and down to the middle of the tenth century it had sunk into inactivity. Assurbanipal, the father of Shalmanezer II (884-860), enlarged his dominions to the Mediterranean westwards and to Lebanon southwards. In 870, when Ahab was king, the Assyrian warriors had exacted tribute from Tyre, Sidon, and Bibles. It is not impossible that Omri also had paid tribute, and it has even been conjectured that it was to Assyrian help that he owed his throne. The Book of Kings only alludes to the valor of this warrior-king in the one word his might; but it is evident from other indications that he had a stormy and checkered reign.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

16:11-12 Zimri’s execution of all the family . . . relatives and friends . . . of Baasha was swift and merciless. While Zimri carried out the Lord’s sentence against the dynasty of Baasha, he doubtless did so for selfish reasons: to keep them from taking revenge on him or using their power or influence to organize their own coup.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. He slew all the house of Baasha] He endeavoured to exterminate his race, and blot out his memory; and the Jews say, when such a matter is determined, they not only destroy the house of the person himself, but the five neighbouring houses, that the memory of such a person may perish from the earth.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. that he slew] R.V. smote. The verb is the same that is constantly so rendered in all these descriptions. Zimri made a complete end, he left not a single man child.

he left … house of Baasha] All this passage is left out by the LXX.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? See Kg1 16:5.

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1 Kings 16:15

kg1 16:15

kg1 16:15

kg1 16:15In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah, &c. Until the army under Omri came and took the palace, and destroyed him:

and the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belongeth to the Philistines; it was besieged in Nadab's time, but upon his death, by Baasha, the siege was raised; or however, if then taken, it was recovered by the Philistines, and now besieged again by the Israelites, see Kg1 15:27.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends - Zimri’s measures were of much more than ordinary severity. Not only was the royal family extirpated, but the friends of the king, his councillors and favorite officers, were put to death. Omri, as having been in the confidence of the late monarch, would naturally fear for himself, and resolve to take the course which promised him at least a chance of safety.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Wall. See 1 Kings xxv. 22. --- Friends, from whom he had any thing to fear. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Kinsfolks, Heb. avengers; to whom it belonged to revenge his death: see Num 35:12.

Nor of his friends; his confidants and familiar acquaintance, such as were most likely to hinder his settlement in the throne, and to avenge their friend’s quarrel.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Reign of Zimri.

And it came to pass when he began to reign, as soon as he sate on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha see note on ch. 15:29. The LXX Vat. omits the rest of this verse and the first clause ofver. 12: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall i.e., not a boy. See ch. 14:10 note, neither of Heb. and his kinsfolks The laeGO is strictly the person to whom

(1) the right of redemption (Lev_25:26; Ruth, passim) and

(2) the duty of avenging blood (Num_35:19) belonged.

And this being the next of kin, (Rth_2:12, Rth_2:13) the word came to mean near relative, kinsman, as here; cf. Rth_2:20. All the same, it discloses to us Zimri"s object, which was to destroy the avenger of blood. And it shows (in connexion with ver. 16) that none of Baasha"s children, if he had other children, had gone to the war, nor of his friends. Zimri went a step farther than Baasha had gone. He was not content with extirpating the royal family, but put to death the partizans of the house, all who would be likely to sympathize with Elah or to resent his murder.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Kinfolks - Hebrew. avengers; to whom it belonged to revenge his death.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

kinsfolks Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He did not leave alive a single male

This means that he killed all the men and boys. AT: "He did not leave even one male alive"

the word of Yahweh

"the message of Yahweh" or "Yahweh's message"

which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet

Speaking "by" a prophet represents telling a prophet to speak and the prophet speaking. AT: "that Yahweh told Jehu the prophet to speak against Baasha" (See: Idiom)

they had led Israel to sin

Leading people to do something represents influencing them to do it. AT: "they had influenced Israel to sin" (See: Metaphor)

they had led Israel to sin

Here the word "Israel" refers to the ten northern tribes of Israel. Baasha and Elah had been their king.

they provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their idols

God became angry with the people because they worshiped idols. The meaning of this can be made clear. AT: "they made Yahweh, the God of Israel, angry because they worshiped idols" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the God of Israel

Here the word "Israel" refers to all of the twelve tribes descended from Jacob.

translationWords

throne

life

Yahweh

God

Israel

false god

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Nor any of his relatives or friends. [Targum Yonoson rendered, “neither] his kinfolk nor his friends.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.