1 Kings 16:6 tells us that Baasha died and was buried. There is, of course, nothing surprising in this information, unless you wonder why his body was not either eaten by dogs or by carrion birds as Jehu had prophesied regarding the house of Baasha.
Why was Baasha, the head of the house, exempt from the prophesied dishonour? We do not know, but we do know this is not a unique situation. The same judgment was pronounced later on the house of Ahab, the most wicked of kings, but Ahab himself received an honourable burial. In Ahab’s case, the writer tells us that Ahab did in some measure humble himself in the face of the judgment pronounced (1 Kings 21:29). Perhaps the same thing occurred in the case of Baasha.
Once again, the words of the prophet Jehu are underlined. The repetition emphasizes the urgency of the warning: the sin of Jeroboam, the provocation of the Lord. A new element is subsequently added there. The execution of Jeroboam’s family had long been foretold, but Baasha’s murderous execution of that sentence is counted as a personal sin. This is reason for the Lord to address Baasha about this. His course of action is contrary to the essence of Israelite kingship. Here too the inextricable intertwining between God’s predictions of what will happen on the one hand, and the responsibility of a human being, who is held accountable by God for his wrong deeds, on the other.
6 Baescha se coucha avec ses pères, et il fut enterré à Thirtsa. Et Ela, son fils, régna à sa place.