Baasha (, ''Baʿšāʾ'') was, according to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of

Ahijah Ahijah ( ''ʾĂḥīyyā'', "brother of Yahweh, Yah"; Latin and Douay–Rheims Bible, Douay–Rheims: Ahias) is a name of several biblical individuals: # Ahijah the Shilonite, the Biblical prophet who divided the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. # One ...

of the

Tribe of Issachar According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar () was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and one of the ten lost tribes. In Jewish tradition, the descendants of Issachar were seen as being dominated by religious scholars and influential in ...

. Baasha's story is told in .

Reign

Baasha became king of Israel in the third year of Asa, king of Judah. ()

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 – September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars ...

has dated his reign to 900–877 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 909–886 BCE. Baasha came to power by murdering the previous king, Nadab, at

Gibbethon Gibbethon or Gibbeton was a biblical city in the land of Canaan. In the Hebrew Bible According to the record in the Hebrew Bible, Gibbeton was occupied by the Tribe of Dan after the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land and was then given ...

, followed by the entire House of

Jeroboam Jeroboam I (; Hebrew language, Hebrew: ''Yārŏḇʿām''; ), frequently cited Jeroboam son of Nebat, was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel following a Jeroboam's Revol ...

(Nadab's father and predecessor). Baasha had previously been a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in Nadab's own army. Like many military leaders, he appears to have risen from obscurity. The

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

suggests that because he came from the

tribe of Issachar According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar () was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and one of the ten lost tribes. In Jewish tradition, the descendants of Issachar were seen as being dominated by religious scholars and influential in ...

, "he may have represented a local faction"."Baasha", ''Jewish Encyclopedia''
/ref> Over the course of his 24-year reign, Baasha was at war with Asa, king of Judah. He allied Israel with Aram and endeavored to strangle Judah's trade by fortifying Ramah, a city five miles north of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.Barnes' Notes on 1 Kings 15
accessed 26 October 2017 King

Asa of Judah Asa (; ; ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the Kingdom of Judah and the fifth king of the Davidic line, House of David. Based on the Biblical chronology, Biblical scholars suggest that he reigned from the late 10th to earl ...

then bribed King Ben-hadad of

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

to switch sides and attack Israel, prompting the loss of extensive territory in Dan and

Naphtali According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the sixth son of Jacob, the second of his two sons with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali. Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ma ...

northwest of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

. Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah. Asa of Judah utilized the materials of the abandoned fort for the fortification of his own frontier towns, Geba and Mizpah. Though Baasha remained in power for life, he was not without his opponents. The prophet

Jehu Jehu (; , meaning "Jah, Yah is He"; ''Ya'úa'' 'ia-ú-a'' ) was the tenth king of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), northern Kingdom of Israel since Jeroboam I, noted for exterminating the house of Ahab. He was the son of Jehoshaphat (father ...

, the son of

Hanani The word Hanani ( ''Ḥănānî'') means "God has gratified me" or "God is gracious". Hanani is the name of five men mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: * One of the sons of Heman (1 Chronicles 25:4, 25). * A "seer" or prophet who was sent to rebuke ...

, foretold the destruction of his dynasty, which came to pass with the

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

of Baasha's son Elah.

References

{{Authority control 10th-century BCE kings of Israel 9th-century BCE kings of Israel House of Baasha Israelite regicides