1 Kings 15:17

_AND BAASHA KING OF ISRAEL WENT UP AGAINST JUDAH, AND BUILT RAMAH, THAT HE MIGHT NOT SUFFER ANY TO GO OUT OR COME IN TO ASA KING OF JUDAH._ Built Ramah - i:e., fortified it (cf. 1 Kings 17:22); erected a strong fortress at Ramah (of Benjamin er-Ram), which was near Gibeah, toward Beth-el (Beitin), on the east of the Nabulus road (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, pp. 315-317; 'Handbook of Syria,' pp. 326, 346), 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 contact 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....

9-24 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. That is right indeed which is so in God's eyes. Asa's times were times of reformation. He removed that which was evil; there reformation begins, and a great deal he found to do. When Asa found idolatry in the court, he rooted it out thence. Reformation must begin at home. Asa honours and respects his mother; he loves her well, but he loves God better. Those that have power are happy when thus they have hearts to use it well. 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. Asa was cordially devoted to the service of God, his sins not arising from presumption. But his league with Benhadad arose from unbelief. Even true believers find it hard, in times of urgent danger, to trust in the Lord with all their heart. Unbelief m...

Verse 1 Kings 15:17. _AND BAASHA - BUILT RAMAH_] As the word signifies a _high_ _place_, what is here termed _Ramah_ was probably a _hill_, (commanding a _defile_ through which lay the principal road to Jerusalem,) which Baasha fortified in order to prevent all intercourse with the kingdom of Judah, lest his subjects should cleave to the house of David. Ramah was about _two_ leagues northward of Jerusalem....

Ramah (perhaps “Er-Ram;” marginal reference) was situated halfway between Bethel and Jerusalem. Its distance from Jerusalem was no more than five miles so that its occupation was a menace to that capital. Baasha’s seizure of Ramah implies a previous recovery of the towns taken by Abijam from Jeroboam, namely, Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephrain 2 Chronicles 13:19, and was a carrying of the war into the enemy’s country. Could his conquest have been maintained, it would have crippled Judah seriously, and have almost compelled a transfer of the capital to Hebron. THAT HE MIGHT NOT SUFFER ANY TO GO OUT OR COME IN - Baasha, in seizing Ramah, professed to be acting on the defensive. His complaint seems to have been well founded (compare...

EXPOSITION THE REIGNS OF ABIJAM AND ASA, KINGS OF JUDAH. _The Reign of Abijam_. 1 KINGS 15:1 NOW IN THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR OF KING JEROBOAM, THE SON OF NEBAT, REIGNED ABIJAM [see note on 1 Kings 14:31. It is implied in 2 Chronicles 11:20-14 that he was not the firstborn among Rehoboam's twenty-eight sons, but the eldest son of the favourite wife. As he left behind him thirty-eight children ...

AND BAASHA KING OF ISRAEL WENT UP AGAINST JUDAH,.... Which, in 2 Chronicles 16:1 is said to be in the thirty sixth year of Asa's reign, or rather of his kingdom; for it can never mean the year of his reign, for Baasha was dead many years before that, since his reign began in the third of Asa, and he reigned but twenty four years, and therefore must die in the twenty seventh of Asa; but it is to be understood of the kingdom of Judah, when it was divided from Israel; from that time to this were thirty six years, seventeen under Rehoboam, three under Abijam, so that this year must be the sixteenth of Asa; thus it is calculated in the Jewish chronology u, and which is followed by many of the best of our chronologers: AND BUILT RAMAH; a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:25, but

3. ABIJAM AND ASA, KINGS OF JUDAH CHAPTER 15 _ 1. Abijam of Judah (1 Kings 15:1; 2 Chronicles 13)_ 2. Asa of Judah (1 Kings 15:9; 1 Kings 2 Chronicles 14-16) Abijam is called in Chronicles Abijah; in 2 Chronicles 13:21 he is called Abijahu. Abijam was undoubtedly the older form. It is possible that on account of his great address of rebuke to Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:4) they may have called him Abijah (Jehovah is my fat

ABIJAM AND ASA OF JUDAH, AND NADAB AND BAASHA OF ISRAEL. Abijam, called Abijah (2 Chronicles 13:1), had a short and evil reign. It would appear, notwithstanding 1 Kings 15:8, that he was succeeded by his brother Asa, as both are said to have had the same mother, Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. Josephus says the granddaughter of Absalom; see 2 Chronicles 11:20). Except that Asa could not remove the high places he is said to have done right during his long reign of forty-one years. Asa deposed Maacah from the position of queen-mother for her idolatry. She had made (1 Kings 15:13) an abominable image (Heb. a horror o

RAMAH. the modern _er Ram,_ five miles north of Jerusalem, which it was intended to menace. See 2 Chronicles 16:1. GO OUT OR COME IN. But in vain. See 1Ki 12:27. 1 Kings 15:9, &c....

_went up against Judah and built Ramah_ This act of Baasha's shews us that Israel must by this time have recovered some of the power and territory which had been taken from them in Jeroboam's reign (2 Chronicles 13:19). Ramah, though lying in the hill country of Ephraim, was among the places allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:25), so that it must have been very near to Jerusalem, and to make a fortress of it, as Baasha was now doing, was like making a blockade of Jerusalem, a condition which is described in the words which immediately follow....