In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah,.... Which is repeated, partly to observe that the whole kingdom submitted to him, though an usurper and murderer, and the place where he kept his court, as also the time of his reign, as follows:

twenty four years; which were as long as both Jeroboam and his son reigned.

The Reign of Baasha is described very briefly according to its duration (two years) and its spirit, namely, the attitude of Baasha towards the Lord (1 Kings 15:34); there then follow in 1 Kings 16:1-4 the words of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani (2 Chronicles 16:7), concerning the extermination of the family of Baasha; and lastly, in 1 Kings 16:5-7, his death is related with the standing allusion to the annals of the kings. The words of Jehu concerning Baasha (1 Kings 16:1-4) coincide exactly mutatis mutandis with the words of Ahijah concerning Jeroboam.

(Note: "There was something very strange in the perversity and stolidity of the kings of Israel, that when they saw that the families of preceding kings were evidently overthrown by the command of God on account of the worship of the calves, and they themselves had overturned them, they nevertheless worshipped the same calves, and placed them before the people for them to worship, that they might not return to the temple and to Asa, king of Jerusalem; though prophets denounced it and threatened their destruction. Truly the devil and the ambition of reigning blinded them and deprived them of their senses. Hence it came to pass, through the just judgment of God, that they all were executioners of one another in turn: Baasha was the executioner of the sons of Jeroboam; Zambri was the executioner of the sons of Baasha; and the executioner of Zambri was Omri." - _C. a Lapide.)

The expression "exalted thee out of the dust," instead of "from among the people" (1 Kings 14:7), leads to the conjecture that Baasha had risen to be king from a very low position. גּבוּרתו (his might) in 1 Kings 16:5 refers, as in the case of Asa (1 Kings 15:23), less to brave warlike deeds, than generally to the manifestation of strength and energy in his government.

In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in {m} Tirzah, twenty and four years.

(m) Which was the place where the kings of Israel remained.

15:25-34 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.