1 Kings 16:15-20

D. THE SEVEN-DAY REIGN OF ZIMRI 16:15-20

TRANSLATION

(15) In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were on an expedi tion against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines. (16) And the people who were on the expedition heard, saying, Zimri has conspired, and also he has smitten the king, And all Israel proclaimed Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel in that day in the camp. (17) And Omri went up and all Israel with him from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. (18) And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and he set fire to the king's house over him, and he died, (19) because of his sins which he had committed, to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, and to walk in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. (20) And the rest of the deeds of Zimri and the conspiracy which he made, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Fifth King of Israel
ZIMRI
826 B.C.
(Courageous, mighty)

1 Kings 16:9-20

Synchronism
Zimri = Asa 26

Whoso walks uprightly shall be saved; but be that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once. Proverbs 28:18

COMMENTS

Zimri was only able to hold the throne of Israel for one week. The army was involved in another campaign to recover Gibbethon[394] at the time Zimri assassinated Elah (1 Kings 16:15). When the army in the field heard the report that Zimri had slain the king, the troops immediately declared their general to be king (1 Kings 16:16). It is not at all surprising that the army refused to recognize Zimri's authority. First, he was an inferior officer who was not even present on the great campaign at Gibbethon. Furthermore, when Zimri murdered Elah's friends, he doubtlessly made many enemies throughout the army. It is, therefore, natural that the troops turned to the popular general Omri.[395]

[394] This same city had been besieged by the armies of Israel some twenty-four years earlier (see on 1 Kings 15:27). It is not known whether it had changed hands during this period, or whether the siege was continuous or intermittent.

[395] The fact that the lineage of Omri is omitted has been taken to mean that the general was of Canaanite extraction or that he was a foreign mercenary. See Gray, OTL, pp. 364-65. It is highly unlikely, however, that in either case he could have gained sufficient support to make good his bid for the throne.

Omri was not hesitant about accepting the office thrust upon him by his troops. He immediately broke off the siege of Gibbethon and led the army back up through the mountain passes to Tirzah the capital. In a show of force he deployed his troops about the capital and no doubt ordered Zimri to surrender (1 Kings 16:17). Seeing that his position was hopeless, Zimri went into the fortress of the palaceone of the innermost roomsand committed suicide by setting the place afire (1 Kings 16:18). Even though Zimri died by his own hand, yet the historian regards his death as being the result of divine retribution. It is obvious that in his brief reign Zimri could not have done much to show his sympathy for the calf worship in the North. Perhaps before he became king he had indicated his zeal for the counterfeit religion introduced by Jeroboam.[396] But it is more likely that the historian in 1 Kings 16:19 is trying to drive home the point that all the anarchy in the North was the bitter fruit of Jeroboam's apostasy. Further information about the conspiracy of Zimri and other events of his action packed week of rule were recorded in the prophetic annals of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kings 16:20).

[396] It is possible that the condemnation applies also to the period when he was captain of the king's chariots. On the other hand, the author may mean no more than that there was no correlation between Zimri's revolt and a desire to repudiate the previous religious policy.