1 Kings 15:27
And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.
The remainder of 1 Kings after the first eleven chapters on Solomon gives the history of the kings after the division of the kingdom at Solomon's death into Israel and Judah, during the time the two kingdoms continued together until Israel was obliterated in 721 B.C. Within that larger history this verse belongs to the account of the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel covering about eighty years from the revolt of the ten tribes to Jehoshaphat's death and the reigns of several kings. It shows Baasha as one of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel after the division into Israel and Judah, following Nadab and standing in the succession with Elah, Zimri, Omri and the wicked Ahab, while Abijah and Asa reigned in Judah, in a time of war and strife between the two divisions.
Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against Nadab and killed him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. Nadab was the son and successor of Jeroboam, and he had reigned only two years when Baasha slew him and reigned in his place. The killing ended the house of Jeroboam, for Baasha then killed the rest of Jeroboam's household and the people accepted his rule. It marked Baasha's seizure of the throne and the beginning of Baasha's house, which succeeded Nadab's line and lasted two generations before Omri's reign, with Baasha himself reigning twenty-four years.
The verse belongs to Israel's continuing downward course and sad historical record of decline in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, following Jeroboam's idolatry and God's rebuke of him. In the account of Israel's apostasy it marks the succession of another king whose rule belongs to the period of the nation's turning from God. It is one step in Israel's steady going from bad to worse from Jeroboam onward, since Baasha did no better but followed in the way of Jeroboam. The killing fulfilled Ahijah's prophecy against the house of Jeroboam. It begins a fifty-year course in which the kingdom that was to relieve Israel from oppression staggered through seas of blood, with four kings or would-be kings dying by violence.
The history to which the verse belongs teaches important lessons as an object lesson in the fruits of backsliding and sin. It shows the responsibility of leaders: when leaders were faithful to God they strongly influenced the people, but when they failed to lead rightly the people failed with them. Together with its context in 1 Kings 15:25-28, the verse shows that the Bible can count an incomplete portion of a time period as a whole when reckoning the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel, as an example of inclusive counting in which beginning and ending fractions are counted as whole units.