Baasha's reign

Twenty-four years, which is a long reign by northern standards, and the verdict on it is that he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the ways of Jeroboam.

The irony of that is stated openly by the prophet who confronts him. Jehu son of Hanani brings him a message that begins with what he was given: I lifted you up from the dust and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. It then names what he did with it: you followed the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin. And it ends with a sentence that is difficult and is left standing without softening: because of this I am about to wipe out Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat, because you destroyed it.

He is condemned both for continuing Jeroboam's religion and for having destroyed Jeroboam's family, which he did as the instrument of a judgement announced beforehand. Nothing resolves that tension. The same pattern recurs later when Jehu is commended for destroying the house of Ahab and then condemned through a prophet for the bloodshed at Jezreel.

Twenty-four years is worth putting in perspective. Of the nineteen kings the northern kingdom produces, only three reign longer, and two of those are at the very end of the period. A quarter of a century of stability in the north is unusual enough that it needs no other explanation for why his family was expected to hold the throne.

Militarily his reign is defined by pressure on the south. He fortifies Ramah, only about eight kilometres north of Jerusalem, in order to cut the road and stop movement in either direction, which is a serious escalation and the closest an Israelite army comes to Jerusalem in this period. It fails when Asa buys an Aramean invasion of Galilee and Baasha has to abandon the works and go north, and the stone and timber he had assembled are carted away by his enemy.

That episode is the first appearance of a triangle that shapes the next century and a half. Israel and Judah are hostile to each other, Aram-Damascus is stronger than either, and whichever of the two Israelite kingdoms is under pressure buys Aramean help against the other. It ends with both of them weakened and Damascus dominant until Assyria arrives and removes all three from the board.

He dies in his bed, which is unusual in the north. His son Elah succeeds him and lasts two years, and the judgement announced on the house of Baasha is carried out by an officer of his own chariot corps.

Twenty-four years is a long reign by northern standards and almost nothing is recorded from it except the war with Asa and the fortification of Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem, which was an attempt to close the road and stop people moving south.

Baasha came from the tribe of Issachar and was an army officer, which is the standard route to the throne in the north: not descent, but command of troops.

The judgement announced against his house is delivered by a prophet named Jehu son of Hanani, and the wording used of it is almost identical to the wording used against Jeroboam, which is the writer's way of showing that nothing had changed except the family name.