1 Kings 15:20 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Kings 15:20
So Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king
הַמֶּ֣לֶךְha.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Asa
אָסָ֗א'a.Sa'
H609
Asa · proper noun, a man's name
sent
וַ֠יִּשְׁלַחVai.yish.lach
H7971
to send away · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
captains
שָׂרֵ֨יsa.Rei
H8269
a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural construct
hosts
הַחֲיָלִ֤יםha.cha.ya.Lim
H2428
probably a force · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
cities
עָרֵ֣י'a.Rei
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
smote
וַיַּךְ֙vai.yaKh
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Ijon
עִיּ֣וֹןi.Yon
H5859
Ijon · proper noun, a place name
Dan
דָּ֔ןDan
H1835
Dan · proper noun, a place name
Abel-beth-maachah
אָבֵ֣ל'a.Vel
H62
Abel of Beth-maakah · proper noun, a place name
Cinneroth
כִּנְר֔וֹתkin.Rot
H3672
Kinneroth or Kinnereth · proper noun, a place name
land
אֶ֥רֶץ'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular construct
Naphtali
נַפְתָּלִֽיnaf.ta.Li
H5321
Naphtali · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and…
Judges 18:29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Lai…
Joshua 11:2 And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Do…
Joshua 12:3 And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshi…
2 Samuel 20:14-15 And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Beth-maachah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went…
1 Kings 12:29 And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan.
Genesis 14:14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 15:9-24
We have here a short account of the reign of Asa; we shall find a more copious history of it Ch2 14:1-15, 15, and Ch2 16:1-14. Here is,
I. The length of it: He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem, Kg1 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. Length of days is in Wisdom's right hand. Honour thy father, much more thy heavenly Father, that thy days may be long…
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 (Ch2 16:7). In this emergency Asa solicited the powerful aid of the king of Damascene-Syria; and to bribe him to break off his alliance with Baasha, he transmitted to him the treasure lying in the temple and palace. The Syrian mercenaries were gained. Instances are to be found, both in the ancient and modern history of the East, of the violation of treaties equally sudden and unscrupulous, through the presentation of some tempting bribe. Ben-hadad poured an army into the northern provinces of Israel, and having captured some cit…
Ijon, and Dan, etc. - He appears to have attacked and taken those towns which constituted the principal strength of the kingdom of Israel.
John Gill on 1 Kings 15:20
So Benhadad hearkened unto King Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel,.... He broke off his alliance with the king of Israel; and as he had a standing army, with proper officers, he sent them directly to take the cities of Israel:
and he smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali; places which lay on the northern part of Israel, the nearest to Syria. Ijon some place in the tribe of Naphtali, others in Asher; it seems to be on the extreme border of the land northward, as Dan also was; hence the phrase from Dan to Beersheba, i.e. from north to south. Abelbethmaachah is the same with Abelmaim, 2 Chronic…
Dictionary and topics
Abel-beth-maachah — Meadow of the house of Maachah, a city in the north of Palestine, in the neighbourhood of Dan and Ijon, in the tribe of Naphtali. It was a place of considerable strength and importance. It is called…
Abelbethmaachah — (meadow of the house of oppression), a town of some importance, (2 Samuel 20:15) in the extreme north of Palestine, which fell an early prey to the invading kings of Syria, (1 Kings 15:20) and…
Baasha — Bravery, the third king of the separate kingdom of Israel, and founder of its second dynasty (1 Kings 15; 16; 2 Chr. 16:1-6). He was the son of Ahijah of the tribe of Issachar. The city of Tirzah he…
Chinnereth — Lyre, the singular form of the word (Deut. 3:17; Josh. 19:35), which is also used in the plural form, Chinneroth, the name of a fenced city which stood near the shore of the lake of Galilee, a little…
Cinnereth — A harp, one of the “fenced cities” of Naphtali (Josh. 19:35; comp. Deut. 3:17). It also denotes, apparently, a district which may have taken its name from the adjacent city or lake of Gennesaret,…
Cinneroth — (1 Kings 15:20) This was possibly the small enclosed district north of Tiberias, and by the side of the lake, afterwards known as “the plain of Gennesareth.”
Damascus — Activity, the most ancient of Oriental cities; the capital of Syria (Isa. 7:8; 17:3); situated about 133 miles to the north of Jerusalem. Its modern name is Esh-Sham; i.e., “the East.” The situation…
Ijon — A ruin, a city of Naphtali, captured by Ben-hadad of Syria at the instance of Asa (1 Kings 15:20), and afterwards by Tiglath-pileser of Assyria (2 Kings 15:29) in the reign of Pekah; now el-Khiam.
Naphtali, Tribe of — On this tribe Jacob pronounced the patriarchal blessing, “Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words” (Gen. 49:21). It was intended thus to set forth under poetic imagery the future…
Rama — (Matt. 2:18), the Greek form of Ramah. (1.) A city first mentioned in Josh. 18:25, near Gibeah of Benjamin. It was fortified by Baasha, king of Israel (1 Kings 15:17-22; 2 Chr. 16:1-6). Asa, king of…
Reign of Asa (cf., 2 Chron 14-16). - As Asa ascended the throne in the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam, his father Abijam, who began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam (Kg1 15:1), can only have reigned two years and a few months, and not three full years.
Kg1 15:10
Asa reigned forty-one years. "The name of his mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom." This notice, which agrees verbatim with Kg1 15:2, cannot mean that Abijam had his own mother for a wife; though Thenius finds this meaning in the passage, and then proceeds to build up conjectures concerning emendations of the text. We must rather explain it, as Ephr. Syr., the Rabbins, and others have done, as signifying th…
As a result of King Asa’s request, the war with Baasha quickly turned to Asa’s advantage. Ben-hadad swiftly captured several sections of northern Israel and secured important northern trade routes, forcing Baasha to cease operations in Ramah in order to meet the emergency on his northern frontier. Asa retook Ramah and used its building materials to fortify other strategic border towns against further moves by Baasha.
Rashi on 1 Kings 15:14
[However] the [private] altars he did not remove. The private altars upon which they had become accustomed to sacrifice to Heaven since Shiloh had been destroyed until the Beis [Hamikdosh] was built, when private altars were permissible, were not removed now, even though they were forbidden once the Beis [Hamikdosh] was built, and they were punished by premature death because of it.
Ramothgilead — (heights of Gilead), one of the great fastnesses on the east of jordan, and the key to an important district. (1 Kings 4:13) It was the city of refuge for the tribe of Gad, (4:43; Joshua 20:8; 21:38)…
Abel-Beth-Maachah · Taken by Benhadad — Taken by Benhadad
Asa · 1. King of — 1. King of
Baasha · King of Israel — King of Israel
Ben-Hadad · 1. King of Syria — 1. King of Syria
Dan · . — .
Galilee · Conquered by the Syrians — Conquered by the Syrians
Kings · Who reigned over Judah: Asa — Who reigned over Judah: Asa
Naphtali · .Against — .Against
Naphtali, The Tribe Of · Land of, ravaged by Benhadad — Land of, ravaged by Benhadad
Ramah · Asa — Asa
Syria · Asa sought aid of, against Israel — Asa sought aid of, against Israel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
