Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 15:25–end
We are now to take a view of the miserable state of Israel, while the kingdom of Judah was happy under Asa's good government. It was threatened that they should be as a reed shaken in the water (Kg1 14:15), and so they were, when, during the single reign of Asa, the government of their kingdom was in six or seven different hands, as we find in this and the following chapter. Jeroboam was upon the throne in the beginning of his reign and Ahab at the end of it, and between them were Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Tibni, and Omri, undermining and destroying one another. This they got by deserting the house both of God and of David. Here we have, 1. The ruin and extirpation of the family of Jeroboa…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 15:29
when he reigned, he smote all the house of Jeroboam--It was according to a barbarous practice too common in the East, for a usurper to extirpate all rival candidates for the throne; but it was an accomplishment of Ahijah's prophecy concerning Jeroboam (Kg1 14:10-11).
Next: 1 Kings Chapter 16
Adam Clarke on 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.
John Gill on 1 Kings 15:34
And he did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... As Nadab did, whom he slew:
and walked in the way of Jeroboam; whose family he destroyed:
and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin; in worshipping the golden calves; so that it was not out of dislike to idolatry, but out of malice and ambition, that he slew the family of Jeroboam.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 15:33–end
The Reign of Baasha is described very briefly according to its duration (two years) and its spirit, namely, the attitude of Baasha towards the Lord (Kg1 15:34); there then follow in Kg1 16:1-4 the words of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani (Ch2 16:7), concerning the extermination of the family of Baasha; and lastly, in Kg1 16:5-7, his death is related with the standing allusion to the annals of the kings. The words of Jehu concerning Baasha (Kg1 16:1-4) coincide exactly mutatis mutandis with the words of Ahijah concerning Jeroboam.
(Note: "There was something very strange in the perversity and stolidity of the kings of Israel, that when they saw that the families of preceding kings were ev…
