1 Kings 16 Study Notes

16:1-4 The preceding condemnation of Baasha’s sin (15:34) did not sufficiently communicate his evil, so this judgment from Jehu the prophet reinforced that condemnation. If Jehu’s father was the Hanani who criticized Asa (2Ch 16:7) and Jehu was the Judean chronicler (2Ch 20:34), then another southern prophet was condemning a northern king (1Kg 13:1). The oracle of judgment was similar to the second half of the judgment on Jeroboam (14:11). Ironically, we learn more about Baasha from Asa’s record (15:16-20) than we do from Baasha’s record (see note at 22:41-44).

16:5-6 Since Baasha died naturally, he receives a full formal closer.

16:7 Baasha’s wickedness was so great that even after his closing formula, a third condemnation was added, again by the prophet Jehu. In Hebrew literary style, repetition indicates emphasis.

16:8-14 Another formal opener introduces Elah. The record of the coup that deposed him reveals three facts about Israel’s new army: (1) It was a chariot army; the coup leader, Zimri, was a chariot officer. (2) Revenues were sufficient to support such an expensive army. (3) The officers of this force were Hebrews who qualified to seize the throne. Zimri’s bloody purge fulfilled the prophecy against Baasha (vv. 3-4).

16:15-22 The formal record for Zimri begins here. His revolution was formally part of the record of Elah. Omri, a capable battlefield commander, led the troops to Tirzah, captured the city, and Zimri committed suicide after ruling only seven days. Omri then fought a five-year civil war with Tibni son of Ginath. When Tibni died, Omri became king.

16:23-28 Since Omri’s power and wealth were partly based on an economic and marriage alliance with Ethbaal of Tyre, it is useful to review Phoenician mercantile power. At this time, the Phoenicians controlled Mediterranean trade. They had already established colonies as far away as North Africa and Spain, although the greatest Phoenician colony, Carthage, was yet to be founded. They produced manufactured goods for export throughout the Mediterranean. Omri’s military skill and greatness made him a worthy ally for this maritime trade empire. The Phoenician merchants enhanced Hebrew prosperity by cooperating with Israel’s trade just as they had cooperated with Solomon.

The greatest impact of Omri’s dynasty was in religion. Omri’s daughter-in-law was Jezebel. Jezebel’s Baal was not a typical Palestinian Baal. Rather, he was Baal-melkart, the King of the City (Tyre), the patron deity for more than half of the contemporaneous trade wealth of the Mediterranean. Ahab introduced this deity into Israel, creating a spiritual crisis. The next fifty years of Hebrew history and about seventeen chapters of Kings (1Kg 16:23-2Kg 11:3) are devoted to this crisis; it was the occasion for the miraculous ministries of Elijah and Elisha.

16:23 The formal opener for Omri is unremarkable for such a great political figure.

16:24 The purchase of a new capital, Samaria, was Omri’s outstanding achievement. Omri, like David, exercised personal ownership of his new capital.

16:25 Omri followed the pattern of Jeroboam’s false cult, which led Israel into false worship. Omri’s full, negative impact became clear only with the introduction of Baal-melkart (see note at vv. 23-28) into Israel. Despite his encouragement of idolatry, Omri established the power that restored wealth and empire to the two good kings of Judah.

16:26-28 These verses are Omri’s closer, but again, they give an incomplete picture of Omri’s spiritual importance. All the attention given to Ahab and the career of Elijah in the following chapters is an indirect reaction to Omri. Ahab and Jezebel were the rulers whom Elijah opposed, but the setting in which he opposed them and their Baalism was the product of Omri’s policies. In God’s economy, all of Omri’s secular greatness amounted to nothing.

16:29-22:40 This section focuses on the reign of Ahab. Despite his succumbing to Jezebel’s influence, Ahab was a capable warrior. His military career was marked by amazing highs and lows. At one time he was so firmly under the domination of Ben-hadad of Damascus (chap. 20) that only divine intervention delivered him from destruction, but then Assyrian records reveal that Ahab led the largest contingent of chariots against Assyria at the battle of Qarqar (853 BC), where the regional allies turned back a serious Assyrian invasion.

16:29-30 Ahab’s opener makes two points: the date when he became king and how long he ruled. The evaluation reports that Ahab was the worst king Israel had up until that time. Jeroboam had set up an illegal cultic apparatus for serving the Lord, and this was enough to make him the archetypal representative of a bad king.

16:31-33 Ahab was even worse than Jeroboam. He not only followed Jeroboam’s false worship, he, with Jezebel, went beyond Jeroboam in introducing into Israel the worship of Baal-melkart (see note at vv. 23-28). The altar for Baal and the Asherah pole, the symbol of his female consort, brought this powerful fertility cult to Israel.

16:34 Recording the rebuilding or refortifying of Jericho at this point identified it as a work of Ahab. This in turn illustrated the long reach of Ahab’s foreign policy. A probable goal of this operation was to rebuild the fortifications, both of Jericho and of points further south in the Arabah, that protected the trade routes from Eloth. There is no evidence that either Omri or Ahab pushed these trade connections any further south. The deaths of the sons of Hiel could have been viewed as either the impact of an effective curse (Jos 6:26) or a human sacrifice to neutralize the curse.