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 16:11
He slew all the house of Baasha - He endeavored 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 neighboring houses, that the memory of such a person may perish from the earth.
John Gill on 1 Kings 16:11
And it came to pass when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne,.... Perhaps the very first day,
that he slew all the house of Baasha; his whole family, all the children that he had, that there might be none to make pretensions to the throne:
he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends; not any that might avenge the blood of his family, that might have a right or inclination to do it.
Keil & Delitzsch
