Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha (v. 1). This prophet Jehu is not the later king Jehu (2 Kings 9:2). Chronicles shows Jehu the son of Hanani the seer rebuking Jehoshaphat years later (2 Chronicles 19:2), and Hanani the seer rebuking Asa (2 Chronicles 16:7); father and son, it seems, both carried hard words to kings. Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust — Baasha, who seized the throne by murder, is still told that God raised him. The phrase recalls Hannah's song: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust (1 Samuel 2:8).

And made thee prince over my people Israel — the words spoken to Jeroboam (14:7). Baasha destroyed Jeroboam's house and then walked in the way of Jeroboam. I will take away the posterity of Baasha... and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (v. 3), and the dogs and fowls of 14:11 return almost word for word (v. 4). The instrument of judgment becomes its object, because he copied the sin he had punished. Romans 2:1 names the pattern: wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.

The narrator repeats the word against Baasha and adds one more reason: and because he killed him. Baasha's slaughter of Jeroboam's house had fulfilled Ahijah's word (15:29), yet it is counted against him. The study holds this carefully: God announced the end of Jeroboam's house, but the text never says He commissioned Baasha's conspiracy or approved his ambition. Hosea 1:4 says something similar of Jehu, whose bloodshed at Jezreel would be avenged on his house, though 2 Kings 10:30 records the LORD's commendation of what Jehu did. Readers have long wrestled with that pairing, and the study does not force it.

Isaiah says the same of Assyria, the rod of mine anger: Howbeit he meaneth not so... but it is in his heart to destroy (Isaiah 10:5, 7). A person may serve God's purposes while acting from selfish motives, and remain responsible for those motives. Jesus spoke of His own betrayal this way: The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed (Matthew 26:24). God's sovereignty never turns human sin into virtue.

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 (v. 8). Tirzah was then the royal city of the north. The army is in the field at Gibbethon (v. 15), but the king is at home, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of his house. Proverbs 31:4-5 warns, it is not for kings to drink wine... Lest they drink, and forget the law. A drunken king made an easy target for his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots.

Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him... and reigned in his stead (v. 10). At once 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 (v. 11), according to the word of the LORD... by Jehu the prophet (v. 12). For the second time in Asa's reign a royal house of Israel is wiped out. Their vanities (v. 13) is a word often taken to mean breath or emptiness, used of idols (Deuteronomy 32:21): they had served what could not save them.

In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah (v. 15). The army besieging Gibbethon — the same Philistine town where Baasha had killed Nadab (15:27) — hears the news and made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp (v. 16). The crown now passes between generals by the sword. Omri marches on Tirzah, and when Zimri sees the city taken, he goes into the palace and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died.

Verse 19 says he died for his sins which he sinned... in walking in the way of Jeroboam. Seven days left little time to shape worship; many read the verdict as covering his whole life and the path he chose. His name became a byword: years later Jezebel taunted Jehu, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? (2 Kings 9:31). Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts, half following Tibni the son of Ginath, half Omri (v. 21). So Tibni died, and Omri reigned (v. 22); the text does not say how Tibni died.

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 (v. 23). The figures are a known puzzle, since Ahab begins in Asa's thirty-eighth year (v. 29). Many explain that Omri's twelve years count from Zimri's fall in Asa's twenty-seventh year, overlapping the struggle with Tibni, and that verse 23 marks when he became sole king. The study notes the explanation without pressing it; the ancient ways of reckoning reigns are not fully known.

He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city... Samaria — after Shemer, the owner of the hill. Samaria remained the capital of the northern kingdom until its fall (2 Kings 17:5-6), so that prophets could speak of the kingdom itself as Samaria (Hosea 8:5; Amos 3:9). Excavations on the hill have uncovered royal buildings that many date to this dynasty; the study notes this without resting anything on it.

But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him. The verse begins with But: whatever Omri built, the verdict concerns his worship. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (v. 26). Of his might that he shewed (v. 27) Kings says almost nothing, pointing instead to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Micah 6:16 later uses his name as a byword for corrupt ways: the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab.

Outside the Bible Omri is better attested than many kings of Israel. The Moabite inscription known as the Mesha stele names Omri as king of Israel and says he oppressed Moab, and Assyrian records refer to Israel as the land or house of Omri, one monument commonly being read as calling Jehu, of another family, a son of Omri. The study offers this as external evidence that Omri was a powerful, well-known ruler; it speaks to his standing among the nations, not to his heart. By God's measure, a king famous abroad did worse than all. Fame and faithfulness are not the same.

Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years (v. 29) and did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him (v. 30). As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam — the calves of Bethel and Dan were grievous enough, but Ahab went further. He took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians. Like Solomon's marriages (11:1-4), this was likely a political alliance, here with the Phoenician coast; Josephus, citing older sources, describes Ethbaal as a king of Tyre.

And went and served Baal, and worshipped him. Baal means lord or master; in Canaanite and Phoenician religion it was the title of a storm god honoured as the giver of rain and fertility. With Ahab the worship of Baal moves to the centre of the court. Where Jeroboam had set up images claimed for the God of the exodus (12:28), Ahab served another god outright. The marriage brought a religion with it, as Deuteronomy 7:4 had warned: they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.

He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria (v. 32). The capital now had a temple for Baal, built by the king himself. And Ahab made a grove — an Asherah, the wooden pole or image linked with the goddess Asherah, whom the Bible often names alongside Baal (Judges 3:7); 18:19 will speak of the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. The study describes these as the text does — rival worship that drew Israel from the LORD — without mockery.

Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. The verdicts have climbed: Jeroboam done evil above all that were before thee (14:9), Omri worse than all (v. 25), Ahab more... than all. Each king set the floor for the next, and Ahab became the measure for later evil (2 Kings 21:3). Yet into this darkest reign the LORD sends Elijah (17:1). God answers the deepest apostasy not with silence but with a prophet.

In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho — a man of Bethel, the town of Jeroboam's altar. The site was not wholly empty before: Judges 3:13 mentions the city of palm trees, and David's envoys were told to Tarry at Jericho (2 Samuel 10:5); so many take build to mean refounding it as a walled city with foundations and gates. Joshua had laid a curse: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it (Joshua 6:26). The narrator records it fulfilled, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.

He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub. How the sons died the text does not say. Some think Hiel offered them as foundation sacrifices, a practice some suggest was known in the ancient Near East; others think the sons died during the work as the curse took effect. The study presents both readings and does not decide. Set at the close of Ahab's introduction, the verse makes its point: in this reign a word of the LORD spoken long before still stood. Elijah's first words in the next chapter will claim the same for his own.