1. Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord this message predicting Baasha’s downfall:
2. “I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel. Yet you followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged my people Israel to sin; their sins have made me angry.
3. So I am ready to burn up Baasha and his family, and make your family like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat.
4. Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”
5. The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, including his accomplishments and successes, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
6. Baasha passed away and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah replaced him as king.
7. The prophet Jehu son of Hanani received from the Lord the message predicting the downfall of Baasha and his family because of all the evil Baasha had done in the sight of the Lord. His actions angered the Lord (including the way he had destroyed Jeroboam’s dynasty), so that his family ended up like Jeroboam’s.
8. In the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha’s son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years.
9. His servant Zimri, a commander of half of his chariot force, conspired against him. While Elah was drinking heavily at the house of Arza, who supervised the palace in Tirzah,
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.
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.
12. Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, just as the Lord had predicted to Baasha through Jehu the prophet.
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.