So Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
Israel's army was camped against the Philistine town of Gibbethon. It now turns and marches on its own capital, led by a general the troops have just crowned, with a week-old king shut inside the walls. Two questions drive the chapter: who makes a king in Israel, and what happens to a throne seized by murder?
The Real Enemy Abandoned
Israel had been fighting the Philistines. The moment a crown was at stake, that fight stopped and the weapons turned inward. One writer sees the same habit among Christians:
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.How tragic to see Israelites fighting their fellow Israelites! The war against the Philistines, the real enemies of God's people, now stopped. Instead the people of Israel followed leaders they chose for themselves. Nothing is said of any effort to find out the will of God in the matter. Sad to say, don't we often see similar things among God's people today? The highly gifted Corinthians were choosing sides among those whom God was using in that day. "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ," were their battle cries (1 Cor. 1:12). Our real battle is abandoned while we fight one another!
Might Makes the King
Omri did not go up to Tirzah as God's anointed. He went up because the troops had shouted for him, and because he commanded them. One commentator traces this pattern wherever empires decline:
H. L. RossierThe people were camped before Gibbethon on the day Zimri seized the crown. They choose Omri, the captain of the army, for their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When a nation is without God, His will counts for nothing. The nation does away with what He established at the beginning. Whoever has power reigns. Power lies in the army, so the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on one side, a soldiers' revolution on the other.
A later writer compares Israel's long line of usurpers with the kings of Judah:
William KellyMany men, one after another, overturned the kingdom in Israel. It is remarkable that Jehu is the only one of them who was anointed. In Judah the Lord Himself approved the anointing... but not so in Israel.
A Week-Old Throne with No Following
Zimri had killed his master and taken the crown, but he had taken nothing else. The siege exposes how empty his position was from the start:
Leslie M. GrantBy his treason Zimri gained the doubtful honour of reigning for seven days (v.15). But he had little following. When the people of Israel heard that Zimri had killed Elah, they chose to make Omri king (v.16). He was the commander of the army, so there was little chance that Zimri could survive. Omri, with the armies of Israel, came and besieged Tirzah, where Zimri had established himself (v.17). Zimri knew his case was hopeless, so he killed himself by setting fire to his house with himself inside.
Treason Answered by Treason
Zimri's crime outlived him by years:
C KnappZimri'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?" As someone has said, "Treason gets treason as its punishment, and the slayer is slain."
Another writer compares Zimri's end with the ends of the kings before him:
Leslie M. GrantHis death was also repayment from the Lord for his own sin. He walked in the way of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin against God. But the judgment in his case was more swift and abrupt than that of those who went 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).
What the Siege Taught Omri
Tirzah fell fast. Omri drew a practical lesson from that, and it shaped the rest of his reign:
W. W. FeredayHe was a man of military skill. He wanted a capital with more strategic value than Tirzah, which had failed when Zimri tried to hold it. Tirzah could not survive even a week's siege! (1 Kings 16:18)... Firm rule and a new, modern capital may look desirable in men's eyes. But it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts with God. Omri became a more wicked ruler than even the bad kings before him.
Summary
- Abandoned. Israel drops the siege of Gibbethon to besiege Israel. The real enemy goes free while God's people fight each other.
- Unasked. No one asks what God wants. Where His will counts for nothing, the man with the army takes the crown.
- Unsupported. Zimri's seven days collapse. A throne taken by murder rests on nothing, and the people who knew him wanted none of him.
- Repaid. Treason gets treason as its punishment. Whether judgment comes fast or slow, what a man sows he reaps.
- Unlearned. Omri's answer to a fallen capital was a stronger capital, not a changed heart — and he ruled worse than all before him.