Elah

Biblical Account

Elah was the son of Baasha, king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He succeeded his father as king, and his story is told briefly in 1 Kings 16:6-14.

• Accession: He took the throne after Baasha died and was buried in Tirzah (16:6). He became king in Tirzah in the twenty-sixth year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned two years (16:8).
• Death: Elah was drinking and had become drunk in the house of Arza in Tirzah, the steward of his house (the official in charge of the royal household). At that time Zimri, the captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, killed him, and reigned in his place. This took place in the twenty-seventh year of Asa (16:9-10).
• Destruction of his house: Upon taking the throne, Zimri killed every male of the house of Baasha, leaving none. The text explains that this happened according to the word spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu (16:1-4, 11-12).
• Assessment: The text records that Baasha and Elah sinned and made Israel to sin, provoking God to anger "with their vanities," that is, with idols (16:13).
• Remaining records: The rest of Elah's acts are said to be written in "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel," a work that has not survived (16:14).

Zimri was defeated by Omri and died after reigning only seven days. Afterward the people were divided between those who followed Tibni and those who followed Omri (16:15-22).

The Bible also mentions other people with the same name:

• Elah, a chief of Edom (Genesis 36:41)
• The father of Shimei, an official under Solomon (1 Kings 4:18)
• The father of Hoshea, the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 15:30; 17:1)

The "valley of Elah," where David fought Goliath, is a place name rather than a personal name (1 Samuel 17:2; see David and Goliath).

Significance in the Bible

Elah's father, Baasha, had himself come to the throne through revolt. He killed Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, seized the throne, and destroyed the house of Jeroboam (1 Kings 15:27-29). Yet in the time of his son Elah, the house of Baasha was cut off in the same way.

The book of Kings records this as the fulfillment of a prophetic word. It also presents the episode as one illustration of the repeated revolts and dynastic changes in the northern kingdom after the division of the kingdom. Elah is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretive Issues

• Length of reign: The text dates his accession to the twenty-sixth year of Asa and his death to the twenty-seventh, yet describes his reign as "two years." A widely known explanation is that this reflects a reckoning method in which the year of accession is counted as the first year, so that his actual reign lasted little more than one year.
• Drunkenness and death: The text simply states that Elah was killed while drunk. It adds no separate assessment of, or lesson about, drinking. According to 16:15, when Zimri became king the army was encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. On this basis some interpreters read the account as describing a king feasting while his army was in the field, but this is an inference drawn from reading the passages together.
• No significant denominational differences in the interpretation of Elah are known.

In the Korean Church

Elah is discussed mainly in expository preaching on Kings or in through-the-Bible reading programs when the kings of the divided kingdom are examined in sequence. He is also sometimes cited as an example in sermons on self-control or on alcohol and tobacco.