Bible Strands
1 Kings 16:11
As soon as Zimri began to reign and was seated on the throne, he struck down the entire household of Baasha. He did not leave a single male, whether a kinsman or friend.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the immediate aftermath of Zimri’s coup against King Elah, documenting Zimri’s first official act upon securing the throne.
The words — הִכָּה (hi.Kah) means “he struck down” and כָל (kol) means “all,” structuring the sentence to emphasize total eradication rather than selective punishment.
The thread — This dynastic purge repeats the pattern in 1 Kings 15:29, where Baasha eliminates Jeroboam’s house, fulfills the declaration in 1 Kings 16:3, and mirrors the lethal vow in 1 Samuel 25:22.
Why it lands — The text reports a political extermination that executes a prior prophetic judgment, requiring the reader to track how royal violence functions as the narrative’s mechanism for covenant enforcement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:22 May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”
- 1 Kings 15:29 As soon as Baasha became king, he struck down the entire household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone who breathed, but destroyed them all according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite,
- 1 Kings 16:3 So now I will consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat:
- Judges 1:7 Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.
- 1 Samuel 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”
- 1 Kings 14:10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!