God's Word Translation

1 Kings 16:4-22 God's Word Translation (GW)

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.

16. When the army heard that Zimri had plotted ⌊against the king⌋ and killed him, the Israelite troops in the camp made Omri, the commander of the army, king of Israel.

17. Omri and the Israelite troops with him left Gibbethon and attacked Tirzah.

18. When Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went into the stronghold in the royal palace and burned down the palace over his own head. He died

19. because of the sins he had committed—the things the Lord considered evil. Zimri lived like Jer o boam and led Israel to sin.

20. Isn’t everything else about Zimri and his plot written in the official records of the kings of Israel?

21. Then the army of Israel was divided into two factions. Half of the army followed Tibni, son of Ginath, and wanted to make him king. The ⌊other⌋ half followed Omri.

22. But the half which followed Omri was stronger than the half which followed Tibni, Ginath’s son. Tibni died, and Omri became king.