1 Kings 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter runs through four reigns. In Judah, Abijam rules three years and follows his father's sins; his son Asa rules forty-one years, removes idols and shrine prostitutes, demotes his own mother from her position, and buys Syrian help against Baasha of Israel. In Israel, Jeroboam's son Nadab rules two years before Baasha kills him and destroys Jeroboam's whole family, which the chapter says fulfills what the LORD had spoken through the prophet Ahijah. Baasha then rules Israel for twenty-four years and does evil like Jeroboam before him.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.
   • Jeroboam was the son of Nebat.
2. 15:2
   • Abijam reigned three years in Jerusalem.
   • Abijam's mother was named Maachah.
   • Maachah was the daughter of Abishalom.
3. 15:3
   • Abijam walked in all the sins his father had committed before him.
   • Abijam's heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God.
   • Abijam's heart was not like the heart of David his father.
4. 15:4
   • For David's sake the LORD his God gave Abijam a lamp in Jerusalem.
   • The purpose was to raise up his son after him.
   • The purpose was to establish Jerusalem.
5. 15:5
   • David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
   • David did not turn aside from anything the LORD commanded him all the days of his life.
   • The one exception was the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
   • Uriah was a Hittite.
6. 15:6
   • There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
7. 15:7
   • The rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
   • There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8. 15:8
   • Abijam slept with his fathers.
   • They buried Abijam in the city of David.
   • Asa his son reigned in his place.
9. 15:9
   • In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah.
   • Jeroboam was king of Israel.
10. 15:10
    • Asa reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem.
    • His mother was named Maachah.
    • Maachah was the daughter of Abishalom.
11. 15:11
    • Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
    • Asa did as David his father had done.
12. 15:12
    • Asa removed the male cult prostitutes from the land.
    • Asa removed all the idols his fathers had made.
13. 15:13
    • Asa also removed Maachah his mother from being queen mother.
    • The reason was that she had made a horrid image for the Asherah.
    • Asa cut down her image.
    • Asa burned the image at the brook Kidron.
14. 15:14
    • The high places were not removed.
    • Asa's heart was fully devoted to the LORD all his days.
15. 15:15
    • Asa brought into the house of the LORD the things his father had dedicated.
    • Asa brought in the things he himself had dedicated.
    • These things were silver, gold, and vessels.
16. 15:16
    • There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
    • Baasha was king of Israel.
17. 15:17
    • Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah.
    • Baasha built Ramah.
    • Baasha's purpose was to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.
    • Asa was king of Judah.
18. 15:18
    • Asa took all the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
    • Asa took the treasuries of the king's house.
    • Asa delivered them into the hand of his servants.
    • King Asa sent his servants to Benhadad.
    • Benhadad was the son of Tabrimon.
    • Tabrimon was the son of Hezion.
    • Benhadad was king of Syria.
    • Benhadad dwelt at Damascus.
    • Asa sent a message with them.
19. 15:19
    • Asa said there was a league between him and Benhadad.
    • Asa said there was a league between his father and Benhadad's father.
    • Asa said he had sent Benhadad a present of silver and gold.
    • Asa told Benhadad to break his league with Baasha king of Israel.
    • Asa said the purpose was that Baasha would depart from him.
20. 15:20
    • Benhadad listened to king Asa.
    • Benhadad sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel.
    • They struck Ijon.
    • They struck Dan.
    • They struck Abelbethmaachah.
    • They struck all Cinneroth.
    • They struck all the land of Naphtali.
21. 15:21
    • When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah.
    • Baasha dwelt in Tirzah.
22. 15:22
    • King Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah.
    • No one was exempted.
    • They carried away the stones of Ramah.
    • They carried away the timber of Ramah.
    • Baasha had built with those stones and timber.
    • King Asa built Geba of Benjamin with them.
    • King Asa built Mizpah with them.
23. 15:23
    • The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities he built are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
    • In his old age Asa was diseased in his feet.
24. 15:24
    • Asa slept with his fathers.
    • Asa was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father.
    • Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.
25. 15:25
    • Nadab son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah.
    • Nadab was the son of Jeroboam.
    • Nadab reigned over Israel two years.
26. 15:26
    • Nadab did evil in the sight of the LORD.
    • Nadab walked in the way of his father.
    • Nadab walked in his father's sin, by which he made Israel sin.
27. 15:27
    • Baasha son of Ahijah conspired against Nadab.
    • Baasha was of the house of Issachar.
    • Baasha struck Nadab down at Gibbethon.
    • Gibbethon belonged to the Philistines.
    • Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon.
28. 15:28
    • Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah.
    • Baasha reigned in Nadab's place.
29. 15:29
    • When Baasha began to reign, he struck down all the house of Jeroboam.
    • Baasha left to Jeroboam no one that breathed.
    • Baasha destroyed them entirely.
    • This happened according to the word of the LORD.
    • The LORD spoke that word by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite.
    • Ahijah was a Shilonite.
30. 15:30
    • This was because of the sins Jeroboam sinned.
    • This was because of the sins by which Jeroboam made Israel sin.
    • This was because of the provocation by which Jeroboam provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.
31. 15:31
    • The rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
32. 15:32
    • There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
33. 15:33
    • In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah.
    • Baasha was the son of Ahijah.
    • Baasha reigned twenty-four years.
34. 15:34
    • Baasha did evil in the sight of the LORD.
    • Baasha walked in the way of Jeroboam.
    • Baasha walked in Jeroboam's sin, by which he made Israel sin.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

15:1

Since the death of Solomon the nation had split in two: ten northern tribes kept the name Israel, ruled here by Jeroboam, while the southern kingdom of Judah, centered on Jerusalem, stayed with David's family. From here on the book tells the two stories side by side, dating each king by the regnal year of his counterpart in the other kingdom.

15:2

Abishalom is a longer form of Absalom, David's son, so Maachah may have been his granddaughter. In Hebrew usage "daughter of" often means simply "descendant of." The mother of a Judean king is named at the start of nearly every reign in these books, because her position at court was an official one.

15:3

"His heart was not perfect with the LORD" is not a complaint that he fell short of being flawless. The Hebrew word behind "perfect" means whole or undivided, so the charge is that his loyalty was split between the LORD and other gods.

15:4

"A lamp" is a standing Hebrew image for a surviving heir who keeps a family line burning rather than letting it go dark. The promise is about the dynasty continuing, not about an actual light.

15:5

The reference is to the account in 2 Samuel 11: David took Uriah's wife Bathsheba and then had Uriah placed where he would be killed in battle. Some ancient copies of Kings omit this exception clause entirely.

15:6

The Hebrew names Rehoboam here, though Rehoboam had already died at the end of the previous chapter; some ancient copies read "Abijam" instead. "All his life" is correspondingly unclear as to whose life is meant.

15:7

This is a royal archive kept by the court of Judah, now lost. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which were written much later. The narrator repeatedly points readers to it as the fuller record he is summarizing.

15:8

"Died and joined his ancestors" is a standard formula for a peaceful death and burial in the family tomb. The City of David is the oldest, southeastern ridge of Jerusalem, the part David captured, where the kings were buried.

15:10

Maachah is named as the mother of both Abijam and his son Asa. She was most likely Asa's grandmother; the Hebrew word covers both, and the title went with the office rather than strictly with parentage.

15:12

The Hebrew word refers to men attached to a shrine for sexual rites connected with fertility worship; the King James "sodomites" reflects a later interpretation rather than the word's own sense. The "idols" are literally "dung-images," a deliberately insulting term.

15:13

Queen mother was a formal court rank in Judah, with real influence, which is why it could be taken away. Asherah was a goddess worshiped across Canaan, and the image was probably a carved wooden pole set up beside an altar. The Kidron is the ravine running along the east side of Jerusalem, the city's usual place for disposing of defiling things.

15:14

High places were open-air worship sites, typically on hilltops, with an altar and a standing stone or pole. They were used for sacrifice to the LORD as well as to other gods; the writer of Kings judges every ruler partly by whether he shut them down in favor of the Jerusalem temple.

15:15

Objects "set apart" were spoils of war and vows given permanently to the sanctuary, forming the temple treasury. The point is that Asa restocked reserves that had been stripped in the previous generation.

15:17

Ramah stood about five miles north of Jerusalem on the main road running through the hill country. Fortifying it let Baasha throttle all traffic in and out of Judah's capital, a blockade rather than an invasion.

15:18

Syria here is Aram, the kingdom centered on Damascus, north-east of Israel and the strongest of Judah's and Israel's neighbors in this period. Benhadad is a throne name meaning "son of the god Hadad."

15:19

"Agreement" translates a word for a formal treaty between kings, often inherited from one generation to the next; Asa is claiming such an inherited tie. The "gift" is understood on both sides as a substantial payment to buy military action.

15:20

Every place listed lies in the far north of Israel: Ijon, Dan and Abel-beth-maachah near the top of the Jordan valley, Cinneroth the district beside the Sea of Galilee, and Naphtali the tribal territory around them. Losing them forced Baasha to abandon his southern campaign and defend his own back.

15:21

Tirzah, in the hills north-east of Shechem, served as the northern kingdom's capital before Samaria was built.

15:22

The order was a labor levy: every able-bodied man was conscripted, with none of the usual exemptions. Geba and Mizpah were border towns a few miles north of Jerusalem, so Asa reused Baasha's own building materials to fortify the frontier against him.

15:23

The Hebrew says only that the disease was "in his feet." "Feet" is sometimes a polite substitute for the genitals or the lower body generally, so the nature of the illness is uncertain.

15:25

Regnal years are counted loosely in this book: a king who took the throne late in one year and died early in the next could be credited with two years. That is why a two year reign here runs only from Asa's second year to his third.

15:26

The sin Jeroboam led Israel into is described in chapter 12. He set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan so his people would worship there rather than traveling to the temple in Jerusalem, which now lay inside the rival kingdom. Every northern king from here to the end of the book is measured against that decision.

15:27

The Philistines were a people settled on the coastal plain to Israel's south-west, long-standing rivals for control of the lowlands. Gibbethon lay on the disputed border, and Israel's kings repeatedly tried to take it. A siege meant surrounding a walled town to starve it out, which left the besieging king camped in one place for months and exposed to a plot.

15:29

Wiping out the previous king's whole family was normal practice for a usurper, since any surviving male could claim the throne. Ahijah, a prophet from the sanctuary town of Shiloh, had announced this outcome to Jeroboam's wife in chapter 14.

15:30

"The sin Jeroboam led Israel into" refers throughout these books to one specific act: setting up rival gold calf shrines at Bethel and Dan so that northerners would not travel to the Jerusalem temple.

15:31

There were two separate record books, one for the kings of Judah in the south and one for the kings of Israel in the north.

15:32

This verse repeats verse 16 almost word for word. The writer works through a fixed set of summary formulas for each reign, and the note about the war with Baasha belongs both to the end of Asa's section and to the opening of Baasha's, so it gets printed twice.

15:33

The figures do not line up neatly (Nadab's two years and Baasha's accession are both placed in Asa's second and third years) because reigns were counted by calendar years, so a few months could be reckoned as a whole year at each end.