The House of Jeroboam Cut Off: Nadab and Baasha
Jeroboam's son reigns two years and falls at the walls of a Philistine town by the hand of his own commander. The victor wipes out his predecessor's whole line — and in doing so fulfils what the prophet had said.
Nadab son of Jeroboam came to the throne in the second year of Asa king of Judah and reigned two years. He was besieging Gibbethon, a Philistine town, when Baasha son of Ahijah of the tribe of Issachar conspired against him and struck him down in the camp, in the sight of all Israel.
The new king's first act was to destroy the entire house of Jeroboam: "he left not any that breathed." Scripture does not leave this unexplained — it fulfilled the word spoken through the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh, who had once torn his garment into twelve pieces and given Jeroboam ten, and afterwards foretold the end of his house.
Here the law of the whole Northern Kingdom becomes visible. In Judah the throne passes to a son of David — in three hundred and seventy years no coup ever changed the dynasty there. In Israel a house holds the throne exactly as long as it has the strength: nine dynasties, four of which lasted less than a generation. Baasha, who destroyed the house of Jeroboam, reigned twenty-four years in Tirzah — and his own house would end in precisely the same way.
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I 15:25–28 — Nadav, his two-year reign, and Baasha's conspiracy at Gibbethon
- Melachim I 15:29–30 — the destruction of the house of Yarovam by the word of Achiya of Shilo
- Melachim I 15:33 — Baasha's twenty-four years in Tirtzah
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.