Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 16:1-14
Here is, I. The ruin of the family of Baasha foretold. He was a man likely enough to have raised and established his family - active, politic, and daring; but he was an idolater, and this brought destruction upon his family.
1. God sent him warning of it before. (1.) That, if he were thereby wrought upon to repent and reform, the ruin might be prevented; for God threatens, that he may not strike, as one that desires not the death of sinners. (2.) That, if not, it might appear that the destruction when it did come, whoever might be instruments of it, was the act of God's justice and the punishment of sin.
2. The warning was sent by Jehu the son of Hanani. The father was a seer, or prophet, at…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 16:9
ZIMRI'S CONSPIRACY. (Kg1 16:9-22)
Zimri . . . conspired against him--"Arza which was over his house." During a carousal in the house of his chamberlain, Zimri slew him, and having seized the sovereignty, endeavored to consolidate his throne by the massacre of all the royal race.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 16:9
Captain of half his chariots - It is probable that Zimri, and some other who is not here named, were commanders of the cavalry.
John Gill on 1 Kings 16:10
And Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him,.... When in his drunken fit: and this was
in the twenty seventh year of Asa; when Elah had not reigned two full years:
and reigned in his stead; that is, Zimri; his reign was short indeed, but seven days, 1 Kings 16:15.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 16:8-14
The Reign of Elah. - As Baasha reigned from the third to the twenty-sixth year of Asa, i.e., not quite twenty-four years, but only twenty-three years and a few months, so his son Elah reigned from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-seventh year of Asa, i.e., not quite two years.
Kg1 16:9-11
Zimri, the commander of the half of his war-chariots, conspired against him, and not only slew him, when he was intoxicated (שׁכּור שׁתה) at a drinking bout in the house of Arza, the prefect of his palace, but after ascending the throne exterminated the whole family of Baasha to the very last man. The prefect of the palace was no doubt a party to the conspiracy, and had probably arranged the drinking bout in…
