1 Kings 16:1-8
1. Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu—This is the only incident recorded in the life of this prophet. His father was also a prophet (2Ch 16:7).
2. Forasmuch as I exalted thee—The doom he pronounced on Baasha was exactly the same as denounced against Jeroboam and his posterity. Though he had waded through slaughter to his throne, he owed his elevation to the appointment or permission of Him "by whom kings reign."
over my people Israel—With all their errors and lapses into idolatry, they were not wholly abandoned by God. He still showed His interest in them by sending prophets and working miracles in their favor, and possessed a multitude of faithful worshippers in the kingdom of Israel.7. also by the hand of the prophet Jehu—This is not another prophecy, but merely an addition by the sacred historian, explanatory of the death of Baasha and the extinction of his family. The doom pronounced against Jeroboam (1Ki 14:9), did not entitle him to take the execution of the sentence into his own hands; but from his following the same calf-worship, he had evidently plotted the conspiracy and murder of that king in furtherance of his own ambitious designs; and hence, in his own assassination, he met the just reward of his deeds. The similitude to Jeroboam extends to their deaths as well as their lives—the reign of their sons, and the ruin of their families.
8. began Elah the son of Baasha to reign—(compare 1Ki 15:33). From this it will appear that Baasha died in the twenty-third year of his reign (see on 1Ki 15:2), and Elah, who was a prince of dissolute habits, reigned not fully two years.
1Ki 16:9-22. ZIMRI'S CONSPIRACY.