And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the citadel of the king's house, and burned the king's house over him with fire;
Zimri seized Israel's throne by murder and held it for one week. When Omri's army broke into Tirzah, he set fire to the royal palace and died inside it. His end raises two hard questions. Why did the collapse come so fast? And does a short reign of evil mean a lighter account with God?
Commentators read the burning palace as the last move of a man with no way out. Zimri had the crown, but he never had the country.
By his treason Zimri gained the dubious honour of reigning for seven days (v.15). But he had little following. Omri came with the armies of Israel and besieged Tirzah. Zimri had established himself there (v.17). Zimri knew his case was hopeless, so he committed suicide by burning down his house while he was inside.
Seven days is not a reign; it is a verdict on his reputation. Zimri's own people refused him before Omri's siege ever started.
"The triumphing of the wicked is short." Zimri's case showed it sharply — just one week. He appears to have had no support from the people, who knew his character and did not want his rule. News of his taking the crown reached the army at Gibbethon. At once they rejected his claims and proclaimed their commander-in-chief, Omri, king.
Tirzah itself proved as weak as his position. Its failure under siege later pushed Omri to move the capital.
Omri was a man of military genius. He wanted a seat of government with greater strategic value than Tirzah. Tirzah had not proved strong when Zimri tried to hold it. It could not survive even a week's siege! (1 Kings 16:18).
A brief reign did not mean a small record.
Zimri carried out this work of extermination in a few days, for he reigned seven days at Tirzah (v. 15). And these seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of Jehovah, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin" (v. 19). When a man's heart is estranged from God, every one of his deeds carries the mark of it. That is how a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in so short a time.
Writers see spite in the act. If the palace could not be his, it would be nobody's.
Zimri was besieged in his capital city, Tirzah. When it fell, he took his own life, burning the citadel of the palace over his own head. If he could not have it, no one else could have it either! What a frightful end to the life of this rash, impulsive man! But the flames he lit, which brought his life to its fiery end, were nothing compared to those in which he will suffer forever in the torments of hell.
The pattern runs deeper than one bad week. Violence that runs out of other targets turns on the one who carries it.
Murderers are usually desperate characters. When it is no longer in their power to destroy the lives of others, they often destroy their own, as wretched Zimri did. Satan "was a murderer from the beginning," and he knows how to drive them on to their destruction — body and soul.
Zimri did not vanish from memory. His name turned into an insult for traitors.
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point to him and say, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?" Someone has said, "Treason is punished by treason, and the slayer is slain." … Let Zimri's end warn deliberate king-killers and traitors.
The speed of Zimri's fall is not an argument against God's fairness. What settled his case was what God had already seen.
The heart-knowing God knew Zimri's heart well. He owes us no apologies. Zimri "died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of Jehovah." God had seen them all. The Judge of all the earth will always do right. Whether He allows a man to go on in his sins for many years or only a week, as in Zimri's case, makes no difference. All His ways are right and not to be questioned. Thankfully, today His offer of salvation is still open. Accept it while you can. Tomorrow may well be too late.
- Seven days. Zimri murdered his way to a throne and kept it one week — a short triumph that showed how little the people wanted him.
- No following. The army crowned Omri as soon as the news reached them; a crown taken by treachery had nothing under it to hold it up.
- Full account. A brief reign was still long enough to pile up evil, because a heart estranged from God marks every deed it does.
- Own fire. Cornered, the man who had destroyed others destroyed himself. Spite and desperation lit the palace over his own head.
- Right verdict. Fast or slow, God's judgment is just, because He has already seen the heart. And today His offer of salvation still stands open.
and he died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of Jehovah, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin.
Zimri's reign lasted one week, and the record of it closes with God's own verdict on why he died. It does not blame the army or bad timing. It names sin — and traces that sin back to a king who had died long before.
A week was all Zimri had. One writer traces how he seized the throne, and how much evil a man can pack into seven days once his heart has turned away:
Zimri, who held high rank in the army, killed King Elah at Tirzah while Elah was drinking himself drunk. Then he wiped out the whole house of Baasha, and it took only a few days, for Zimri reigned seven days at Tirzah. And those seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin." When a man's heart is far from God, every one of his deeds carries the mark of it. So a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in a very short space of time.
The verse dates Zimri's guilt by a road someone else built. Jeroboam ruled the ten tribes in the north. He feared Jerusalem. If his people kept going there to worship, he could lose them to the king in the south:
He was afraid that if he let his subjects go up to Jerusalem they would think again of their old king. They would think again of the great purposes of God tied to Jerusalem. So what does he do? He invents a religion out of his own head. "So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, 'You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'" He put it on the ground of bringing religion to their doors, of helping his people to a religion that would not be too costly or too difficult. In fact he was only seeking to make religion serve his policy.
That is "the way of Jeroboam": worship redesigned to keep a king's throne.
Why did king after king keep this worship going? One writer points to the politics behind it:
The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep it going. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have gone back to their loyalty to the LORD in Jerusalem. The calves were the great means of having another centre. Suppose Jerusalem had been the one centre for the ten tribes as well as for the two. Then the twelve tribes of Israel would have united. And if they had united in the worship of God, they would have united under the same king.
This is why the verse adds "making Israel to sin." Zimri did not only walk the road — he kept it open for everyone behind him.
The chapter has already told us how Zimri died: besieged in Tirzah, he burned the palace down over himself. But verse 19 gives the real cause of death:
His death was repayment from the Lord for his own sin in walking in the way of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin against God. But the judgment in his case was swifter and more abrupt than for those before him. Yet whether the time is short or long, those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. This history of the kings declares that God is not mocked. Whatever one sows, he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).
Another writer sees a grim logic in how he ended:
Most murderers are desperate characters. When they can no longer destroy the lives of others, they often destroy their own — as wretched Zimri did. Satan "was a murderer from the beginning," and he knows how to drive them on to their destruction — body and soul.
Zimri took the throne by murdering his master. Long after his death, people still threw his name at other traitors:
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point back to him and say, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?" As one writer said, "Treason punishes treason, and the slayer is slain." Let Zimri's end be a warning to anyone who deliberately murders a king, and to traitors.
- Seven days. A week was long enough for a full record of evil. A heart turned from God marks every deed it produces.
- Borrowed road. Zimri walked "in the way of Jeroboam" — a religion one king invented to keep his people from going up to Jerusalem.
- Cheap religion. Jeroboam sold the calves as worship made easy and close to home. It was really worship made to serve his policy, and it kept the kingdom split.
- His own sins. He did not die for Jeroboam's sin, but "for his sins that he committed" — whatever a man sows, he reaps.
- A byword. Zimri killed his master and then died himself. His name became a warning against the next traitor.
And the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his conspiracy which he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Zimri reigned seven days. When his record closes, the one thing named beside "the rest of his acts" is the conspiracy that put him on the throne. It points to a national record book that no longer exists. So what record of a life does survive, and who writes it?
Zimri held power for a shorter time than any other king here. Even so, the verse sums up his "acts." One writer traces how much wrong a man can pack into a single week.
Elah, the son of Baasha, reigns two years. Zimri, who had a high rank in the army, kills him at Tirzah while Elah was drinking himself drunk… Zimri wiped out the whole house of Baasha in a few days, for he reigned seven days at Tirzah. And these seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin." When a man's heart is far from God, every deed he does carries that mark. So a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in a very short time.
The verse does not soften what Zimri did. It puts his treason on his public record, and Israel did not forget it.
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point at him and ask, "Was there peace for Zimri, who killed his master?" As someone has said, "Treason is punished by treason, and the slayer is slain."… Let Zimri's end be a warning to anyone who plans to kill a king or betray his ruler.
His plot did not happen in a vacuum. In the same chapter the army puts its own commander on the throne. One writer reads the whole sequence as a symptom.
On the day Zimri seized power, the people were camped outside the town of Gibbethon. They chose Omri, the captain of the army, as their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When a people is without God, they count His will as nothing. They sweep away what He set up at the beginning. Whoever has power reigns, and since power lies in the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on one side, a soldiers' revolution on the other.
The book named here is not the Bible's own Chronicles. One writer explains what these royal record books were, and why their loss costs the reader nothing.
These books refer quite often to the chronicles of the kings of Israel, or to those of the kings of Judah. Men wrote these chronicles during the reign of every ruler of those times… They have nothing to do with the Word of God. They contain what the Lord did not choose to record or explain. These chronicles have been lost… The believer has no need of any of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds everything necessary for him, as well as the divine assessment of people, events, and things. Writings that are not inspired may record certain deeds, even with great accuracy. But those deeds never carry anything more than a human verdict.
Those state records are gone. That loss says something about the book that mentions them.
Now that they have disappeared, they have no other witness than the mention of them in the sacred writings. Amid the ruin and disappearance of these things the Word of God remains, the only monument, the only document that cannot be shaken!
This closing question repeats at the death of king after king. One writer, meeting it again, gives it a direct answer.
Yes, and they, along with the wicked acts recorded here, are written in God's books above. Those books are not merely "the chronicles of the kings of Israel." They hold the deeds and doings of every man's life, whether good or evil. Solemn facts for us all!
Zimri's rule ended almost as soon as it began. Does that short run change God's verdict?
God, who knows the heart, knew Zimri's heart well. He owes us no apologies. Zimri "died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD." God had seen them all. The Judge of all the earth will always do right. Whether He allows a man to go on in his sins for many years or only a week, as in Zimri's case, makes no difference. All His ways are right and not to be questioned. Thankfully, today His offer of salvation is still open. Accept it while you can. Tomorrow may well be too late.
- Deed — Seven days on the throne were enough for a full record of evil. A heart turned from God stamps every action, so wrongdoing piles up fast.
- Treason — Scripture keeps his conspiracy on the record. His treachery became a byword, and the slayer was slain.
- Decline — A plot in the palace and a coup in the army mark a nation that no longer counts God's will for anything. Whoever holds power takes the throne.
- Register — The royal chronicles were a human record, and they are lost. Only Scripture carries God's own assessment of people and events. Only Scripture cannot be shaken.
- Verdict — God keeps His own record, and every life is in it. Decades or one week makes no difference: the Judge of all the earth does right. His offer of salvation is open today.