Conspiracy and answered prophecy fill this chapter. The house of Jeroboam ends (1 Kings 14:14, 1 Kings 16:2-4) with the death of Elah, son of Baasha, at the hands of his chariot commander, Zimri. Zimri kills himself after seven days of being king when the commander of the Israelite army, Omri, lays siege to the city. Upon his death, Omri's son, Ahab, succeeds him. The evil the kings commit gets worse as the regimes change. The Lord's Word is becoming true as Hiel of Bethel attempts to rebuild Jericho. He looses his two sons: the eldest at the building of the foundations and the youngest when the gates were set up (Joshua 6:26). Evil builds upon evil; without the Lord's direction, people grow more evil and distant.
