1. The Lord spoke his word to Jehu, Hanani’s son, against Baasha.
2. He said, “I raised you from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel. But you have lived like Jer o boam. You have led my people to sin, and their sins make me furious.
3. So I will destroy Baasha and his family. I will make his family like the family of Jer o boam (Nebat’s son).
4. Dogs will eat anyone from Baasha’s ⌊family⌋ who dies in the city. Birds will eat anyone from his ⌊family⌋ who dies in the country.”
5. Isn’t everything else about Baasha—what he did and his heroic acts—written in the official records of the kings of Israel?
6. Baasha lay down in death with his ancestors and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah succeeded him as king.
7. In addition, the Lord spoke his word to the prophet Jehu, Hanani’s son, against Baasha and his family because of all the things Baasha did which the Lord considered evil. Baasha’s actions, which made the Lord furious, were like ⌊the sin of⌋ Jer o boam’s family. The Lord was also furious because Baasha destroyed Jer o boam’s family.
8. Elah, son of Baasha, began to rule Israel in Asa’s twenty-sixth year as Judah’s king. He ruled in Tirzah for two years.
9. But Zimri, the general who commanded half of Elah’s chariots, plotted against him. Elah was getting drunk in Tirzah at Arza’s house. (Arza was in charge of the palace in Tirzah.)
10. Zimri entered Arza’s house, attacked Elah, and killed him in Asa’s twenty-seventh year as king of Judah. Zimri succeeded Elah as king ⌊of Israel⌋.
11. At the beginning of Zimri’s reign, as soon as he was on his throne, he killed Baasha’s entire family. He didn’t spare any of Baasha’s male relatives or friends.
12. So Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, as the Lord had spoken through the prophet Jehu.
13. This was for all the sins committed by Baasha and his son Elah. They sinned, led Israel to sin, and made the Lord God of Israel furious because of their worthless idols.
14. Isn’t everything else about Elah—everything he did—written in the official records of the kings of Israel?
15. In Asa’s twenty-seventh year as Judah’s king, Zimri ruled for seven days in Tirzah while the army was camped near the Philistine city of Gibbethon.