1 Kings 15:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

1 KINGS CHAPTER 15 Abijam followeth his father's sins; God however keepeth promise: he dieth, and Asa his son succeedeth him, 1 Kings 15:1-8. His good reign, 1 Kings 15:9-15. Baasha wareth against him: he maketh a league with Ben-hadad, 1 Kings 15:16-22. He dieth, and Jehoshaphat succeedeth him, 1 Kings 15:23,24. Nadab's wicked reign: Baasha slayeth him; destroyeth his father's house, and succeeds him: his wicked reign, 1 Kings 15:25-34. Object. How can this be, when he reigned three years, 1 Kings 15:2, and Asa his successor began his reign in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 15:9 ? Answ. Parts of years are commonly called and accounted years, both in the Old and New Testament, and in profane writers. So his reign began with Jeroboam's eighteenth year, and continued his whole nineteenth year, and ended within his twentieth year, in which also Asa's reign began. And thus one and the same year may well be, as it frequently is, attributed to two several persons.