1 Kings 15: Summary and Commentary

Verse 1

15:1-8 The author of 1 & 2 Kings describes the reign of each king of Judah in a typical pattern: the date of his accession in chronological relationship to the current king of the other kingdom (15:1), the length of his reign, the name of his mother (15:2), a spiritual evaluation of his character (15:3-5), details of his reign (15:6-7), sources where further data about him could be found (15:7), where he was buried, and his successor’s name (15:8).

15:1 Abijam (see study note on 2 Chr 13:1) reigned from 913 to 910 BC.

Verse 2

15:2 Abijam’s mother was Maacah, Rehoboam’s favorite of his eighteen wives. She was the granddaughter of Absalom. Presumably this Absalom is David’s son. Maacah, an idol worshiper, was an evil spiritual influence in Judah (15:13).

Verse 3

15:3-5 Despite Abijam’s unfaithfulness, God remained faithful to his covenant with David (2 Sam 7:12-16; Ps 89:19-29) and preserved David’s line on Judah’s throne. Each king that followed David was to be a lamp, dispensing the light of God’s grace (1 Kgs 11:36).

Verse 6

15:6 Abijam inherited the hostility between the northern and southern kingdoms. Like Rehoboam (14:30), he faced war with Jeroboam. During one notable battle (2 Chr 13:2-20), when Abijam and his outnumbered forces were surrounded by northern troops, they cried out to the Lord; God delivered them and enabled them to inflict a severe defeat on Jeroboam.

Verse 7

15:7 rest of the events: Among other details of Abijam’s reign, the Chronicler tells us that he married fourteen wives and had thirty-eight children (2 Chr 13:21).

Verse 9

15:9 Asa reigned from 910 to 869 BC.

Verse 10

15:10 forty-one years: The first ten years of Asa’s long reign were peaceful (2 Chr 14:1-7), perhaps due to his father’s decisive victory over Jeroboam.

Verse 11

15:11-13 did what was pleasing: In addition to reforms mentioned here, the Chronicler records the positive spiritual influence of God’s prophet Azariah upon the king (2 Chr 15:1-7) and Asa’s convening of a great assembly to renew the covenant with the Lord (2 Chr 15:9-15). • shrine prostitutes: See 1 Kgs 14:23-24. Asa’s efforts to restrict idolatry and pagan fertility rites even extended to Maacah, deposing her from her influential role as queen mother (15:13; 2 Chr 15:16). • The Kidron Valley became a place for reforming kings of Judah to destroy pagan idols (2 Kgs 23:4-15; 2 Chr 29:16; 30:14).

Verse 14

15:14-15 Although he allowed the pagan shrines to remain, Asa’s heart remained . . . faithful to the Lord. The pagan shrines apparently became locations for worshiping the Lord. In his latter days, Asa’s spiritual ardor appears to have diminished (2 Chr 16:7-12).

Verse 16

15:16 Baasha began to reign in Asa’s third year (15:33); when Baasha was established, Judah faced renewed hostilities with Israel. Asa also withstood an attack by Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chr 14:9-12), who was apparently a commander in the service of Pharaoh Osorkon I (924–889 BC). Asa and his troops won a great victory and took vast plunder from Zerah’s forces and from towns in the Negev that probably launched the Egyptian invasion.

Verse 17

15:17 Baasha’s southward thrust recaptured towns previously lost to Abijam (2 Chr 13:19), as well as Ramah in Judah, about four miles north of Jerusalem. This sealed the border, preventing the Israelites from defecting to Judah and confining Asa to his own territory. Ramah commanded the important north–south and east–west routes in Canaan (Judg 4:5; Isa 10:29; Jer 31:15; 40:1).

Verse 18

15:18-19 Ben-hadad . . . the king of Aram and his successors were a major factor in Aramean-Israelite relations for many years. Asa’s appeal for Ben-hadad’s help was reinforced with rich gifts taken from the Temple treasury. Despite previous enmity between the Arameans and Israel (11:23-25; 2 Sam 8:3-12; 2 Chr 8:3-4), Ben-hadad and Baasha had established a treaty. Asa understood that the Aramean king’s assistance could be purchased for the right price (1 Kgs 15:20). When God’s prophet Hanani delivered the Lord’s rebuke to Asa for approaching Ben-hadad, Asa reacted uncharacteristically and threw him into prison (2 Chr 16:7-10). Asa apparently forgot God’s previous intervention on his behalf against Zerah’s sizeable army (2 Chr 14:7-8).

Verse 20

15:20-22 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.

Verse 23

15:23 feet became diseased: The nature of Asa’s malady is uncertain; the Talmud conjectures that it was gout. During his severe illness, Asa depended only on his physicians rather than seeking the Lord’s help (2 Chr 16:12).

Verse 25

15:25-31 The writer of 1 Kings presents Nadab’s biography following the standard format (see study note on 15:1-8).

Verse 27

15:27-29 Baasha . . . assassinated . . . Nadab and slaughtered all the descendants of . . . Jeroboam, thus terminating Israel’s first dynasty. Baasha’s father was named Ahijah, who is not to be confused with the prophet who predicted the demise of Jeroboam’s dynasty (11:29-39). Baasha’s coup d’etat was the first of several in Israel’s history (e.g., 16:9-10).

Verse 30

15:30-31 Jeroboam had provoked the Lord’s condemnation and judgment. His sins were perpetuated by his son Nadab, and Baasha’s accession inaugurated a new dynasty that further weakened Israel’s spiritual condition (15:34).

Verse 32

15:32-34 Baasha established his capital at Tirzah, the royal retreat of earlier kings (14:17).

Verse 1

We have here a short account of the short reign of Abijam the son of Rehoboam king of Judah. He makes a better figure, 2 Chr. 13, where we have an account of his war with Jeroboam, the speech which he made before the armies engaged, and the wonderful victory he obtained by the help of God. There he is called Abijah - My father is the Lord, because no wickedness is there laid to his charge. But here, where we are told of his faults, Jah, the name of God, is, in disgrace to him, taken away from his name, and he is called Abijam. See Jer 22:24.

I. Few particulars are related concerning him. 1. Here began his reign in the beginning of Jeroboam's eighteenth year; for Rehoboam reigned but seventeen, Kg1 14:21. Jeroboam indeed survived Rehoboam, but Rehoboam's Abijah lived to succeed him and to be a terror to Jeroboam, while Jeroboam's Abijah (whom we read of Kg1 14:1) died before him. 2. He reigned scarcely three years, for he died before the end of Jeroboam's twentieth year, Kg1 15:9. Being made proud and secure by his great victory over Jeroboam (Ch2 13:21), God cut him off, to make way for his son Asa, who would be a better man. 3. His mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom, that is, Absalom, David's son, as I am the rather inclined to think because two other of Rehoboam's wives were his near relations (Ch2 11:18), one the daughter of Jerimoth, David's son, and another the daughter of Eliab, David's brother. He took warning by his father not to marry strangers; yet thought it below him to marry his subjects, except they were of the royal family. 4. He carried on his father's wars with Jeroboam. As there was continual war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, not set battles (these were forbidden, Kg1 12:24), but frequent encounters, especially upon the borders, one making incursions and reprisals on the other, so there was between Abijam and Jeroboam (Kg1 15:7), till Jeroboam, with a great army, invaded him, and then Abijam, not being forbidden to act in his own defence, routed him, and weakened him, so that he compelled him to be quiet during the rest of his reign, Ch2 13:20.

II. But, in general, we are told, 1. That he was not like David, had no hearty affection for the ordinances of God, though, to serve his purpose against Jeroboam, he pleaded his possession of the temple and priesthood, as that upon which he valued himself, Ch2 13:10-12. Many boast of their profession of godliness who are strangers to the power of it, and plead the truth of their religion who yet are not true to it. His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. He seemed to have zeal, but he wanted sincerity; he began pretty well, but he fell off, and walked in all the sins of his father, followed his bad example, though he had seen the bad consequences of it. He that was all his days in war ought to have been so wise as to make and keep his peace with God, and not to make him his enemy, especially having found him so good a friend in his war with Jeroboam, Ch2 13:18. Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness, Isa 26:10. 2. That yet it was for David's sake that he was advanced, and continued upon the throne; it was for his sake (Kg1 15:4, Kg1 15:5) that God thus set up his son after him; not for his own sake, nor for the sake of his father, in whose steps he trod, but for the sake of David, whose example he would not follow. Note, It aggravates the sin of a degenerate seed that they fare the better for the piety of their ancestors and owe their blessings to it, and yet will not imitate it. They stand upon that ground, and yet despise it, and trample upon it, and unreasonably ridicule and oppose that which they enjoy the benefit of. The kingdom of Judah was supported, (1.) That David might have a lamp, pursuant to the divine ordination of a lamp for his anointed, Psa 132:17. (2.) That Jerusalem might be established, not only that the honours put upon it in David's and Solomon's time might be preserved to it, but that it might be reserved to the honours designed for it in after-times. The character here given of David is very great - that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the exception is very remarkable - save only in the matter of Uriah, including both his murder and the debauching of his wife. That was a bad matter; it was a remaining blot upon his name, a bar in his escutcheon, and the reproach of it was not wiped away, though the guilt was. David was guilty of other faults, but they were nothing in comparison of that; yet even that being repented of, though it be mentioned for warning to others, did not prevail to throw him out of the covenant, nor to cut off the entail of the promise upon his seed.

Verse 9

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.

II. The general good character of it (Kg1 15:11): Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and that is right indeed which is so in God's eyes; those are approved whom he commends. He did as did David his father, kept close to God, and to his instituted worship, was hearty and zealous for that, which gave him this honourable character, that he was like David, though he was not a prophet, or psalmist, as David was. If we come up to the graces of those that have gone before us it will be our praise with God, though we come short of their gifts. Asa was like David, though he was neither such a conqueror nor such an author; for his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days (Kg1 15:14), that is, he was both cordial and constant in his religion. What he did for God he was sincere in, steady and uniform, and did it from a good principle, with a single eye to the glory of God.

III. The particular instances of Asa's piety. His times were times of reformation. For,

1. He removed that which was evil. There reformation begins; and a great deal of work of that kind his hand found to do. For, though it was but twenty years after the death of Solomon that he began to reign, yet very gross corruption had spread far and taken deep root. Immorality he first struck at: He took away the sodomites out of the land, suppressed the brothels; for how can either prince or people prosper while those cages of unclean and filthy birds, more dangerous than pest-houses, are suffered to remain? Then he proceeded against idolatry: He removed all the idols, even those that his father had made, Kg1 15:12. His father having made them, he was the more concerned to remove them, that he might cut off the entail of the curse, and prevent the visiting of that iniquity upon him and his. Nay (which redounds much to his honour, and shows his heart was perfect with God), when he found idolatry in the court, he rooted it out thence, Kg1 15:13. When it appeared that Maachah his mother, or rather his grandmother (but called his mother because she had the educating of him in his childhood), had an idol in a grove, though she was his mother, his grandmother, - though, it is likely, she had a particular fondness for it, - though, being old, she could not live long to patronise it, - though she kept it for her own use only, yet he would by no means connive at her idolatry. Reformation must begin at home. Bad practices will never be suppressed in the country while they are supported in the court. Asa, in every thing else, will honour and respect his mother; he loves her well, but he loves God better, and (like the Levite, Deu 33:9) readily forgets the relation when it comes in competition with his duty. If she be an idolater, (1.) Her idol shall be destroyed, publicly exposed to contempt, defaced, and burnt to ashes by the brook Kidron, on which, it is probable, he strewed the ashes, in imitation of Moses (Exo 32:20) and in token of his detestation of idolatry and his indignation at it wherever he found it. Let no remains of a court-idol appear. (2.) She shall be deposed, He removed her from being queen, or from the queen, that is, from conversing with his wife; he banished her from the court, and confined her to an obscure and private life. Those that have power are happy when thus they have hearts to use it well.

2. He re-established that which was good (Kg1 15:15): He brought into the house of God the dedicated things which he himself had vowed out of the spoils of the Ethiopians he had conquered, and which his father had vowed, but lived not to bring in pursuant to his vow. We must not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well, not only cast away the idols of our iniquity, but dedicate ourselves and our all to God's honour and glory. When those who, in their infancy, were by baptism devoted to God, make it their own act and deed to join themselves to him and vigorously employ themselves in his service, this is bringing in the dedicated things which they and their fathers have dedicated: it is necessary justice - rendering to God the things that are his.

VI. The policy of his reign. He built cities himself, to encourage the increase of his people (Kg1 15:23) and to invite others to him by the conveniences of habitation; and he was very zealous to hinder Baasha from building Ramah, because he designed it for the cutting off of communication between his people and Jerusalem and to hinder those who in obedience to God would come to worship there. An enemy must by no means be suffered to fortify a frontier town.

V. The faults of his reign. In both the things for which he was praised he was found defective. The fairest characters are not without some but or other in them. 1. Did he take away the idols? That was well; but the high places were not removed (Kg1 15:14); therein his reformation fell short. He removed all images which were rivals with the true God or false representations of him; but the altars which were set up in high places, and to which those sacrifices were brought which should have been offered on the altar in the temple, those he suffered to stand, thinking there was no great harm in them, they having been used by good men before the temple was built, and being loth to disoblige the people, who had a kindness to them and were wedded to them both by custom and convenience; whereas in Judah and Benjamin, the only tribes under Asa's government which lay so near Jerusalem and the altars there, there was less pretence for them than in those tribes which lay more remote. They were against the law, which obliged them to worship at one place, Deu 12:11. They lessened men's esteem of the temple and the altars there, and were an open gap for idolatry to enter in at, while the people were so much addicted to it. It was not well that Asa, when his hand was in, did not remove these. Nevertheless his heart was perfect with the Lord. This affords us a comfortable note, That those may be found honest and upright with God, and be accepted of him, who yet, in some instances, come short of doing the good they might and should do. The perfection which is made the indispensable condition of the new covenant is not to be understood of sinlessness (then we were all undone), but sincerity. 2. Did he bring in the dedicated things? That was well; but he afterwards alienated the dedicated things, when he took the gold and silver out of the house of God and sent them as a bribe to Benhadad, to hire him to break his league with Baasha, and, by making an inroad upon his country, to give him a diversion from the building of Ramah, Kg1 15:18, Kg1 15:19. Here he sinned, (1.) In tempting Benhadad to break his league, and so to violate the public faith. If he did wrong in doing it, as certainly he did, Asa did wrong in persuading him to do it. (2.) In that he could not trust God, who had done so much for him, to free him out of this strait, without using such indirect means to help himself. (3.) In taking the gold out of the treasury of the temple, which was not to be made use of but on extraordinary occasions. The project succeeded. Benhadad made a descent upon the land of Israel, which obliged Baasha to retire with his whole force from Ramah (Kg1 15:20, Kg1 15:21), which gave Asa a fair opportunity to demolish his works there, and the timber and stones served him for the building of some cities of his own, Kg1 15:22. But, though the design prospered, we find it was displeasing to God; and though Asa valued himself upon the policy of it, and promised himself that it would effectually secure his peace, he was told by the prophet that he had done foolishly, and that thenceforth he should have wars; see Ch2 16:7-9.

VI. The troubles of his reign. For the most part he prospered; but, 1. Baasha king of Israel was a very troublesome neighbour to him. He reigned twenty-four years, and all his days had war, more or less, with Asa, Kg1 15:16. This was the effect of the division of the kingdoms, that they were continually vexing one another, and so weakened one another, which made them both an easier prey to the common enemy. 2. In his old age he was himself afflicted with the gout: He was diseased in his feet, which made him less fit for business and peevish towards those about him.

VII. The conclusion of his reign. The acts of it were more largely recorded in the common history (to which reference is here had, Kg1 15:23) than in this sacred one. He reigned long, but finished at last with honour, and left his throne to a successor no way inferior to him.

Verse 25

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 Jeroboam, according to the word of the Lord by Ahijah. His son Nadab succeeded him. If the death of his brother Abijah had had a due influence upon him to make him religious, and the honour done him at his death had engaged him to follow his good example, his reign might have been long and glorious; but he walked in the way of his father (Kg1 15:26), kept up the worship of his calves, and forbade his subjects to go up to Jerusalem to worship, sinned and made Israel to sin, and therefore God brought ruin upon him quickly, in the second year of his reign. He was besieging Gibbethon, a city which the Philistines had taken from the Danites, and was endeavouring to re-take it; and there, in the midst of his army, did Baasha, with others, conspire against him and kill him, (Kg1 15:27), and so little interest had he in the affections of his people that his army did not only not avenge his death, but chose his murderer for his successor. Whether Baasha did it upon a personal pique against Nadab, or to be avenged on the house of Jeroboam for some affront received from them, or whether under pretence of freeing his country from the tyranny of a bad prince, or whether merely from a principle of ambition, to make way for himself to the throne, does not appear; but he slew him and reigned in his stead, Kg1 15:28. And the first thing he did when he came to the crown was to cut off all the house of Jeroboam, that he might the better secure himself and his own usurped government. He thought it not enough to imprison or banish them, but he destroyed them, left not only no males (as was foretold, Kg1 14:10), but none that breathed. Herein he was barbarous, but God was righteous. Jeroboam's sin was punished (Kg1 15:30); for those that provoke God do it to their own confusion; see Jer 7:19. Ahijah's prophecy was accomplished (Kg1 15:29); for no word of God shall fall to the ground. Divine threatenings are not bugbears. 2. The elevation of Baasha. He shall be tried awhile, as Jeroboam was. Twenty-four years he reigned (Kg1 15:33), but showed that it was not from any dislike to Jeroboam's sin that he destroyed his family, but from malice and ambition; for, when he had rooted out the sinner, he himself clave to the sin, and walked in the way of Jeroboam (Kg1 15:34), though he had seen the end of that way; so strangely was his heart hardened with the deceitfulness of sin.

Verse 2

Three years reigned he—(compare Kg1 15:1 with Kg1 15:9). Parts of years are often counted in Scripture as whole years. The reign began in Jeroboam's eighteenth year, continued till the nineteenth, and ended in the course of the twentieth.

his mother's name was Maachah—or Michaiah (Ch2 13:2), probably altered from the one to the other on her becoming queen, as was very common under a change of circumstances. She is called the daughter of Abishalom, or Absalom (Ch2 11:21), of Uriel (Ch2 13:2). Hence, it has been thought probable that Tamar, the daughter of Absalom (Sa2 14:27; Sa2 18:18), had been married to Uriel, and that Maachah was their daughter.

Verse 3

his heart was not perfect with the Lord . . . , as the heart of David his father—(Compare Kg1 11:4; Kg1 14:22). He was not positively bad at first, for it appears that he had done something to restore the pillaged treasures of the temple (Kg1 15:15). This phrase contains a comparative reference to David's heart. His doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord (Kg1 15:5) is frequently used in speaking of the kings of Judah, and means only that they did or did not do that which, in the general course and tendency of their government, was acceptable to God. It furnishes no evidence as to the lawfulness or piety of one specific act.

Verse 4

for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp—"A lamp" in one's house is an Oriental phrase for continuance of family name and prosperity. Abijam was not rejected only in consequence of the divine promise to David (see on 1Ki. 11:13-36).

Verse 10

ASA'S GOOD REIGN. (Kg1 15:9-22)

his mother's name was Maachah—She was properly his grandmother, and she is here called "the king's mother," from the post of dignity which at the beginning of his reign she possessed. Asa, as a constitutional monarch, acted like the pious David, laboring to abolish the traces and polluting practices of idolatry, and in pursuance of his impartial conduct, he did not spare delinquents even of the highest rank.

Verse 13

also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen—The sultana, or queen dowager, was not necessarily the king's natural mother (see Kg1 2:19), nor was Maachah. Her title, and the privileges connected with that honor and dignity which gave her precedency among the ladies of the royal family, and great influence in the kingdom, were taken away. She was degraded for her idolatry.

because she had made an idol in a grove—A very obscene figure, and the grove was devoted to the grossest licentiousness. His plans of religious reformation, however, were not completely carried through, "the high places were not removed" (see Kg1 3:2). The suppression of this private worship on natural or artificial hills, though a forbidden service after the temple had been declared the exclusive place of worship, the most pious king's laws were not able to accomplish.

Verse 15

he brought in the things which his father had dedicated—Probably the spoils which Abijam had taken from the vanquished army of Jeroboam (see Ch2 13:16).

and the things which himself had dedicated—after his own victory over the Cushites (Ch2 14:12).

Verse 16

there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days—Asa enjoyed a ten years' peace after Jeroboam's defeat by Abijam, and this interval was wisely and energetically spent in making internal reforms, as well as increasing the means of national defense (Ch2 14:1-7). In the fifteenth year of his reign, however, the king of Israel commenced hostilities against him, and, invading his kingdom, erected a strong fortress at Ramah, which was near Gibeah, and only six Roman miles from Jerusalem. Afraid lest his subjects might quit his kingdom and return to the worship of their fathers, he wished to cut off all intercourse between the two nations. Ramah stood on an eminence overhanging a narrow ravine which separated Israel from Judah, and therefore he took up a hostile position in that place.

Verse 18

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 cities in Galilee, on the borders of Syria, compelled Baasha to withdraw from Ramah back within his own territories.

Ben-hadad—(See on Kg1 11:14).

Verse 22

Then king Asa made a proclamation—The fortifications which Baasha had erected at Ramah were demolished, and with the materials were built other defenses, where Asa thought they were needed—at Geba (now Jeba) and Mizpeh (now Neby Samuil), about two hours' travelling north of Jerusalem.

Verse 23

in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet—(See on Ch2 16:12, where an additional proof is given of his religious degeneracy.)

Verse 25

NADAB'S WICKED REIGN. (Kg1 15:25-34)

Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign—No record is given of him, except his close adherence to the bad policy of his father.

Verse 27

Baasha smote him at Gibbethon—This town, within the tribe of Dan, was given to the Levites (Jos 19:44). It lay on the Philistine borders, and having been seized by that people, Nadab laid siege to recover it.

Verse 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