Knox Bible

1

To this Baasa the Lord sent a message by Jehu, son of Hanani:

2

Was it for this I raised thee up out of the dust, and made thee ruler of my people Israel, that thou shouldst follow the ways of Jeroboam, teaching my people Israel to sin, and by their sins to defy my anger?

3

See if I do not sweep away every trace of Baasa and Baasa’s line, treating thy race as I treated the race of Jeroboam son of Nabat.

4

Die they in the city, they shall be food for the dogs, die they in the open country, they shall be food for all the birds of heaven.

5

What else Baasa did, all his history and the record of all his battles, is to be found in the Annals of the kings of Israel.

6

So he was laid to rest with his fathers, with Thersa for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Ela.

7

(It was through the prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, that the Lord pronounced sentence upon Baasa and his line, and on all the provocations by which he had earned the Lord’s displeasure, following the example of Jeroboam’s race; and Baasa, for that reason, put the prophet Jehu to death.✻ )

8

It was in the twenty-sixth year of Asa that Baasa’s son Ela came to the throne of Israel; and when he had reigned two years at Thersa,

9

his own servant Zambri, that led half his cavalry, rebelled against him. Ela was at Thersa, drinking himself drunk at the house of Arsa, that was prefect of the city,

10

when Zambri rushed in and gave him a mortal blow, taking the throne for himself, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Juda.

11

Once he was king, and settled on the throne, he struck down all Baasa’s descendants, leaving no male among them alive, his kinsfolk, too, and his friends.

12

When Zambri thus made an end of Baasa’s race, the sentence which the Lord had passed on Baasa through the prophet Jehu was carried out;

13

they must atone for their guilt, Baasa and his son Ela, that sinned and taught Israel to sin, defying the Lord God of Israel with their false worship.

14

What else Ela did, all his history, is to be found in the Annals of the kings of Israel.

15

So, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, Zambri reigned in Thersa for seven days. The army of Israel were then laying siege to the Philistine city of Gebbethon;

16

and when news reached them of Zambri’s conspiracy and the king’s death, they chose, by common consent, a king of their own. This was Amri, who was then in command of the Israelite forces, and was present there in the camp.

17

So Amri with all his men left Gebbethon and laid siege to Thersa;

18

and Zambri, seeing that the city must needs fall, retired into the palace and burned it over his own head. So he died,

19

in all the guilt of defying the Lord by following the example of Jeroboam; in all the guilt, too, he had brought on Israel by teaching them to sin.

20

What else Zambri did, the story of his plot and of his tyranny, are to be found in the Annals of the kings of Israel.

21

Thereupon the Israelite people divided itself into two factions; half of them espoused the cause of Thebni, son of Gineth, and would have made a king of him, the other half followed Amri.

22

But Amri’s party gained the victory over Thebni’s; so Thebni came to his death, and Amri to a throne.

23

It was in the thirty-first year of Asa that Amri began his reign over Israel, which lasted twelve years. For the first six, his capital was at Thersa;

24

then, for two talents of silver, he bought the hill of Samaria from Somer, and built on it a city which he called Samaria, after Somer’s name.

25

This Amri defied the Lord’s will more recklessly than any king before him,

26

following the wicked ways of Jeroboam, son of Nabat, that taught Israel to sin, and provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with his false worship.

27

What else Amri did, the record of all the battles he fought, is to be found in the Annals of the kings of Israel.

28

So Amri was laid to rest with his fathers, with Samaria for his burying-place, and the throne passed to his son Achab.

29

It was in the thirty-eighth year of Asa that Achab, son of Amri, came to the throne of Israel; and for twenty-two years he reigned over Israel at Samaria.

30

This Achab, son of Amri, defied the Lord’s will as no other had done before him;

31

not content with following the evil example of Jeroboam, son of Nabat, he married Jezabel, daughter of the Sidonian king Ethbaal, and thenceforward enslaved himself to Baal’s worship.

32

To Baal he built a temple, to Baal he raised an altar, in Samaria;

33

planted, too, a sacred wood, and did more to earn the Lord’s displeasure than any king of Israel in earlier times.

34

It was in his days that Hiel, a man of Bethel, rebuilt Jericho; the foundation of it cost him his eldest son Abiram, and the gates of it his youngest son Segub; such was the doom pronounced by Josue, son of Nun, in the Lord’s name.✻