| Zimri - zimri International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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| (זמרי,
zimrī;
Septuagint
Ζαμβρεί,
Zambreí,
Ζαμβρί,
Zambrí):
The 5th king of Israel, but who occupied the throne only seven days (1Ki_16:9-20).
Zimri had been captain of half the chariots under Elah, and, as it
seems, made use of his position to conspire against his master. The
occasion for his crime was furnished by the absence of the army, which,
under the direction of Omri, was engaged in the siege of the Philistine
town Gibbethon. While Elah was in a drunken debauch in the house of his
steward Arza, who may have been an accomplice in the plot, he was foully
murdered by Zimri, who ascended the throne and put the remnant of Elah's
family to death, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jehu concerning the
house of Baasha. However, the conspiracy lacked the support of the
people, for word of the crime no sooner reached Gibbethon, than the army
raised Omri to the throne of Israel. Omri at once hastened to Tirzah and
captured the place, which as it seems offered little resistance. Zimri
resolved to die as king, and accordingly set fire to the palace with his
own hands, and perished in the flames that he had kindled. Thus came to
an ignominious end the short reign which remained as a blot even upon
the blood-stained record of the deeds of violence that ushered in the
change of dynasties in the Northern Kingdom, for the foul crime was
abhorred even among arch plotters. When Jehu entered Jezreel he was met
with Jezebel's bitter taunt, “Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master's
murderer?” (2Ki_9:31).
The historian too, in the closing formula of the reign, specially
mentions “his treason that he worked.”
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Taken from: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia by James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor |
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