Zimri (King of Israel)

Biblical Account

The story of Zimri appears in 1 Kings 16:9–20. He was a servant of Elah, king of Israel, and commanded half of the king's chariots. While Elah was drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, the steward of his household, in the capital, Tirzah, Zimri conspired against him, killed the king, and took the throne. The text dates this event to the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah (1 Kings 16:10).

Once he became king, Zimri killed every male of the house of Baasha, Elah's father, sparing none of his kinsmen or his friends. The text explains that this fulfilled the word that the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani had spoken against the house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:1–4; 16:12).

Zimri's reign, however, ended after seven days. At that time the army of Israel was besieging Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. When the soldiers heard of Zimri's conspiracy, they made Omri, the commander of the army, king that same day in the camp. Omri led the army against Tirzah and besieged it. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he "went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died" (1 Kings 16:15–18, KJV). The text judges that he sinned "in walking in the way of Jeroboam" and adds that the rest of his acts are written in "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel" (1 Kings 16:19–20). After his death, Israel was divided between those who followed Omri and those who followed Tibni, and Omri ultimately became king (1 Kings 16:21–22).

Significance Within Scripture

Zimri's seven-day reign is the shortest of any king of Israel recorded in the Bible. The episode illustrates the unstable political situation in the northern kingdom after the division of the kingdom, when dynasties were repeatedly overthrown by conspiracy.

His name reappears later in 2 Kings 9:31. When Jehu, having killed King Joram, entered Jezreel, Jezebel said to him, "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?" (KJV; on Jezebel, see Ahab and Jezebel). The remark is understood as a taunt that invokes Zimri's image as a traitor who killed his master and as a king who quickly fell. Zimri is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretations and Issues

• Assessment of the seven-day reign: Interpreters differ on why a king who reigned only seven days is said to have walked "in the way of Jeroboam." Some regard it as a stock formula that the books of Kings apply to the kings of northern Israel generally. Others regard it as an assessment that also takes into account his conduct before he became king.
• Instrument of judgment and object of judgment: Zimri fulfilled the prophecy against the house of Baasha, yet he himself, as a traitor, soon perished. Some interpreters read this as an example of how God's judgment can be carried out through human wickedness without relieving the perpetrator of responsibility.
• Manner of death: Because he set the palace on fire and died in it by his own act, he is sometimes discussed among the cases of suicide in the Bible. The text, however, offers no separate assessment of the death itself.
• Distinction from others of the same name: Zimri the son of Salu, a prince of the tribe of Simeon who was killed together with a Midianite woman in Numbers 25:14, is a different person from this Zimri. The several men named Zimri in Chronicles are also different individuals.

In Korean Churches

In Korean Protestant churches, Zimri is rarely treated as a subject in his own right. He is mainly mentioned in expository preaching on Kings or in Bible-reading programs when explaining the succession of northern Israel's kings and its frequent changes of dynasty. He is also sometimes cited as an example of fleeting power and a futile end.