1 Kings 16:3-4
Context16:3 So I am ready to burn up 1 Baasha and his family, and make your family 2 like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16:4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family 3 who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”
1 Kings 16:10-13
Context16:10 Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king. 4 16:11 When he became king and occupied the throne, he killed Baasha’s entire family. He did not spare any male belonging to him; he killed his relatives and his friends. 5 16:12 Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, just as the Lord had predicted to Baasha 6 through Jehu the prophet. 16:13 This happened because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and which they made Israel commit. They angered the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols. 7
1 tn The traditional view understands the verb בָּעַר (ba’ar) to mean “burn.” However, an alternate view takes בָּעַר (ba’ar) as a homonym meaning “sweep away” (HALOT 146 s.v. II בער). In this case one might translate, “I am ready to sweep away Baasha and his family.” Either metaphor emphasizes the thorough and destructive nature of the coming judgment.
2 tc The Old Greek, Syriac Peshitta, and some
3 tn Heb “the ones belonging to Baasha.”
4 tn Heb “and he became king in his place.”
5 tn Heb “and he did not spare any belonging to him who urinate against a wall, [including] his kinsmen redeemers and his friends.”
6 tn Heb “according to the word of the
7 tn Heb “angering the