Bible Strands
1 Kings 16:13
This happened because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their worthless idols.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator explains the cause of Zimri’s destruction of Baasha’s household. The statement follows the fulfillment of a prophetic judgment recorded in the preceding verse.
The words — The Hebrew preposition אֶל ('el) literally means "because of," establishing direct causality. The noun חַטֹּאות (chatto't) denotes "sins," specifically identifying the transgressions committed by Baasha and his son Elah.
The thread — The causal structure mirrors 1 Kings 15:30, which attributes national judgment to the sins of a king. The warning against worthless idols echoes Deuteronomy 32:21 and 1 Samuel 12:21.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that a ruler’s idolatry directly provokes divine anger against the nation. It requires readers to trace historical consequences back to specific covenant violations rather than abstract misfortune.
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
For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- 1 Samuel 12:21 Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- 1 Kings 15:30 because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he had provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger.
- Isaiah 41:29 See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Jeremiah 10:15 They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- 2 Kings 17:15 They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
- Jeremiah 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Jonah 2:8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.