Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Kings 16:11 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 11. 11And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech: “And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Zimri destroys Baasha's house.”
Zimri destroys Baasha's house as soon as he sits
This verse is one part of that explanation in 1 Kings 16:11–14. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- 1 Kings 16:11–14
Read 1 Kings 16:11 with 16:11–14. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Uses the KJV's coarse male idiom while describing Zimri's killing of Baasha's kin and allies; refers readers to the northern annals for Elah's other acts.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “Zimri destroys Baasha's house,” 1 Kings 16:11 opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech through the wording “And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 1 Kings 16:8–10 establishes this prior movement: Dates Elah's accession and two-year reign at Tirzah; reports Zimri killing Elah and taking the throne. 1 Kings 16:11–14 escalates the unresolved conflict and its human cost; that demonstrated relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 1 Kings 16:11–14 together
Why these verses belong together: Zimri destroys Baasha's house is the complete reviewed scene, prayer, oracle, list, or regnal notice bounded at 16:11–16:14.
Verse 11. 11 And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his friends.
Verse 12. 12 Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet,
Verse 13. 13 For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
Verse 14. 14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
What Remains True
Power remains accountable for every person exposed, silenced, displaced, injured, or killed even when the narrative also reports fulfillment or victory. This unit tests that truth through uses the KJV's coarse male idiom while describing Zimri's killing of Baasha's kin and allies; refers readers to the northern annals for Elah's other acts. In 1 Kings 16:11, the concrete line “And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne…” keeps that truth accountable to the narrated evidence.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read 1 Kings 16:11–14 — Zimri destroys Baasha's houseSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 1 Kings 16:11–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording and morphology used for lexical, grammatical, name, clause, and older-English checks; this is not a critical apparatus or historical proof.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 16:11–14
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 1 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only printed unit-level translation, lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and verse-numbering notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 1 Kings PDF, printed pp. 616–618, translation and translator notes for 16:11–14
Open source ↗