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<hr class="sect_35" /> <h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="3">III.</abbr> ASA AND BAASHA, ELAH, ZIMRI, OMRI. <abbr title="First">1</abbr> Kings <abbr title="chapters 15, 16">xv. xvi.</abbr>   <abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapters 14 through 16">xiv.–xvi.</abbr>   B.C. 955<abbr title="through">–</abbr>918.</h3> THE reign of Nadab was very brief, lasting only two years. As he was besieging Gibbethon, a town allotted to Dan (<abbr title="Joshua">Josh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 19">xix.</abbr> 44), and afterwards given to the Kohathite Levites (<abbr title="Joshua">Josh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 21">xxi.</abbr> 23), but which was now in the hands of the Philistines, Baasha, the son of Abijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him, and, usurping the throne, smote all the house of Jeroboam till he left none that breathed, thus fulfilling the words of Ahijah, and destroying the first Israelitish dynasty, B.C. 953. Between the new king and Asa constant hostilities were maintained. The latter, mindful of the conditions on which he held the kingdom, no sooner ascended the throne, than he commenced a general religious reform throughout his dominions. He removed the idols his father had set up, the high places, the images, and the groves; nor did he spare the idolatrous ritual even of his grandmother Maachah, who held the special dignity of queen-mother; he removed the symbol of her religion, and flung the ashes into the brook Kidron. Having thus restored the worship of Jehovah to something of its former purity, he strengthened his kingdom by fortifying the frontier towns, and raised and equipped a large army. He was thus in a condition to confront the enormous host with which his realm was invaded by Zerah, the Ethiopian, probably Osorkon <abbr title="the Second">II.</abbr>348, the successor of Shishak, and the inheritor of his quarrel with Rehoboam. The Egyptian host penetrated as far as Mareshah in the low country of Judah, where they were confronted by Asa, whose confidence in his God was rewarded by a complete victory, and the Egyptian host fell back routed as far as Gerar, leaving immense spoils in the hands of the men of Judah (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 14">xiv.</abbr> 9<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15). After this signal success, encouraged by the assurances of the prophet Azariah, Asa resolved to continue his religious reforms, and on his arrival at Jerusalem convoked an assembly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as of the strangers sojourning amongst them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and in the <abbr title="third">3rd</abbr> month of the <abbr title="fifteenth">15th</abbr> year of his reign, renewed with solemn sacrifices a national Covenant. With a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets, the assembly swore fealty to their God and king, and vowed to put to death all who proved unfaithful to Jehovah (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 15">xv.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>15). The peace which his kingdom now enjoyed was soon disturbed by the hostility of Baasha, who marched against Asa, and having recovered the territory which he had lost, fortified Ramah, about 6 miles north of Jerusalem, not only to annoy his enemy, and stop the tide of emigration from his own kingdom into that of Judah, but also to cut off Asa’s communications with the central portion of Israel. On this that monarch resolved to purchase the aid of the king of Syria, Benhadad <abbr title="the First">I.</abbr>349, and persuade him to break off his alliance with his rival. Sending, therefore, all the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the Temple to the Syrian monarch, he succeeded in inducing him to fling an army into northern Palestine, which smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-Maachah, Cinneroth, and all the land of Naphtali. This forced Baasha to withdraw his forces, and retire to Tirzah; whereupon Asa summoned all Judah, and having destroyed the works at Ramah, used the stones and timber to fortify two towers, Geba and Mizpeh, as checks to any similar attempts in future. This is the first instance of a Hebrew king courting an alliance with a heathen power in a great crisis of the national fortunes, and it did not pass unnoticed by the prophetical order. Hanani the seer denounced such faithless leaning on an arm of flesh, and foretold that from henceforth he should have wars. The outspoken rebuke roused the anger of Asa. He flung the bold prophet into prison, and oppressed some of the people, who probably sympathised in his denunciations. In other respects he had ruled his kingdom with energy, loyalty, and piety, and after a severe attack of gout, died in the <abbr title="forty-first">41st</abbr> year of his reign, and was committed to the tomb amidst general sorrow, bequeathing his throne to his son Jehoshaphat (<abbr title="Second Chronicles">2 Chr.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 16">xvi.</abbr> 7<abbr title="through">–</abbr>14), B.C. 914. Meanwhile there had been great vicissitudes in the kingdom of Israel. After destroying the whole house of Jeroboam, Baasha made the beautiful city of Tirzah350 his capital, and in spite of the warnings of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 16">xvi.</abbr> 1<abbr title="through">–</abbr>7), persisted in walking in the ways of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin. His reign of 24 years was chiefly distinguished by his persistent hostility to his rival Asa, which cost him, as we have seen, several cities in the northern part of his dominions, in consequence of Asa’s alliance with Benhadad. He was succeeded in the year B.C. 930 by his son Elah; who had barely reigned for the brief space of a year, when on the occasion of a riotous feast in the house of his steward at Tirzah, he was assassinated by Zimri, the captain of half his chariots, B.C. 929. The usurper signalized his accession by ruthlessly murdering every member of the family of Baasha, but had barely occupied the throne for seven days, when Omri, captain of the army then besieging Gibbethon, attacked him at Tirzah. Despairing of aid Zimri anticipated the wishes of his rival by firing the palace over his head, and perished in the flames. But the claims of the usurper to his blood-stained throne were not universally acknowledged. Half the people sided with him, and half with another aspirant, Tibni the son of Ginath (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 16">xvi.</abbr> 21). For 5 years the latter reigned as rival king, and the land was desolated with civil discord. At length the faction of Omri prevailed, and Tibni dying, he became sole king of Israel, and founder of its third dynasty. For 6 years he made Tirzah, though now in ruins, his capital, and then in spite of its proverbial beauty (<abbr title="Canticles or Song of Solomon">Cant.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 6">vi.</abbr> 4) determined to remove his residence elsewhere. About 6 miles north-west of Shechem was “an oval-shaped isolated hill, rising by successive terraces 600 feet above the surrounding plateau, and combining in union not elsewhere found in Palestine, strength, beauty, and fertility.” This hill Omri purchased of Shemer, its owner, for two talents of silver, and on its “long flat top” built a city, which instead of naming after himself, he called after the name of its owner Shomrôn, “the city of Shemer,” afterwards corrupted into the Chaldee Shemrin, and thence into the Greek Samaria351. In his new capital Omri reigned 6 years more. A vigorous and unscrupulous ruler, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord more than all his predecessors on the throne. He not only courted an alliance with Benhadad <abbr title="the First">I.</abbr> and surrendered to him some border towns (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 20">xx.</abbr> 34), and admitted a resident Syrian embassy352 into Samaria, but gave his son and successor Ahab in marriage to Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon (<abbr title="First Kings">1 K.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 16">xvi.</abbr> 31), thus introducing the worship of Baal as the recognised religion of his kingdom. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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