1 Kings 15:29

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN HE REIGNED, THAT HE SMOTE ALL THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM; HE LEFT NOT TO JEROBOAM ANY THAT BREATHED, UNTIL HE HAD DESTROYED HIM, ACCORDING UNTO THE SAYING OF THE LORD, WHICH HE SPAKE BY HIS SERVANT AHIJAH THE SHILONITE:_ 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 (1 Kings 14:10)....

25-34 During the single reign of Asa in Judah, the government of Israel was in six or seven different hands. Observe the ruin of the family of Jeroboam; no word of God shall fall to the ground. Divine threatenings are not designed merely to terrify. Ungodly men execute the just judgments of God upon each other. But in the midst of dreadful sins and this apparent confusion, the Lord carries on his own plan: when it is fully completed, the glorious justice, wisdom, truth, and mercy therein displayed, shall be admired and adored through all the ages of eternity....

Verse 29. _HE SMOTE ALL THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM_] This was according to Ahijah's prophetic declaration; see 1 Kings 14:10; 1 Kings 14:14. Thus God made use of one wicked man to destroy another....

EXPOSITION THE REIGNS OF NADAB, BAASHA, ELAH, ZIMRI, AND OMRI, KINGS OF ISRAEL.—After bringing up the history of the kings of Judah, which has engaged his pen since 1 Kings 14:21, to the date of the death of Asa, our author goes back some forty years to record the contemporary history of the kingdom of Israel, with which the rest of this book, the last thirteen verses alone excepted, is occupied. On the other hand, none of these reigns are even noticed by the chronicler, who only refers to the history of Israel, so far as it is inextricably connected with the object of his work; in other words, so far as is necessary to explain or illustrate the reigns of the kings of Judah

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN HE REIGNED, THAT HE SMOTE ALL THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM,.... That he might have no rival, or any that could pretend any title to the crown: HE LEFT NOT JEROBOAM ANY THAT BREATHED, UNTIL HE HAD DESTROYED HIM, ACCORDING TO THE SAYING OF THE LORD, WHICH HE SPAKE BY HIS SERVANT AHIJAH THE SHILONITE; not that his intention in destroying Jeroboam's family was to fulfil that prophecy, but so it was eventually; see 1 Kings 14:10....

4. KINGS OF ISRAEL Chapter S 15:25-16 _ 1. Nadab, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:25)_ 2. Baasha, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:34; 1 Kings 16:1) 3. Elah, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:8) 4. Zimri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:15) 5. Divisions (1 Kings 16:21) 6. Omri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:23) 7. Ahab ...

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

THAT BREATHED. Hebrew. _neshamah._ App-16. THE SAYING. Compare 1 Kings 14:7....

_when he reigned,_that _he smote_ R.V. THAT AS SOON AS HE WAS KING HE SMOTE. Being an usurper he would desire to make his power secure by removing at once everyone who might become a rival. This is expressed in the original, and the R.V. seems to bring it out fully. Thus God used the policy of Baasha to fulfil the prophecy against Jeroboam. _by his servant_ The Hebrew says BY THE HAND OF HIS SERVANT, and as this mode of expression is not uncommon in the Old Testament, the R.V. has given the full form. For the threat against Jeroboam and the reason, see 1 Kings 14:9-11....

II. THE KINGS OF ISRAEL 15:25-16:34 (910-870 B.C.) Chronologically 1 Kings 15:25 to 1 Kings 16:34 is parallel to 1 Kings 15:9-24. To state the matter differently, the reigns of Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and the early years of Ahab were synchronological with the lengthy reign of Asa of Judah. The reigns of the first five successors of Jeroboam are related only briefly inasmuch as these reigns had little bearing on _religious_ history of Israel. From 1 Kings 15:25 through 2 Kings 10 the historian has focused almost entirely upon the