Zimri (Hebrew: , Zīmrī, , also transliterated as Zambri due to a Greek corruption of Omri), was the fifth king of Israel. His reign lasted only seven days. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 876 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the date 885 BCE.Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). , 9780825438257 His story is told in 1 Kings, Chapter 16.
Ancestry
According to Louis Ginzberg, Zimri was the only monarch born from the Tribe of Simeon. Reportedly, this Tribe never received a blessing from Moses, and did not have an impact in the royal successions of Israel.Ginznberg (1998), p. 155
In Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902), J. H. Allen suggested that Zimri was a descendant of Zerah. Zerah is a character in the Book of Genesis, one of the twin sons of Judah and Tamar. Zerah was the twin brother Perez, and one of the founding members of the Tribe of Judah.Allen (1997), pp. 199–207 Allen's speculation was based on the Books of Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles 2:6, another character called "Zimri" is listed among the five sons of Zerah:
Allen thought it likely that Zimri, son of Zerah was a namesake ancestor of King Zimri.
Tomoo Ishida suggested instead that the narrative of dynastic instability in the Kingdom of Israel suggests an underlying rivalry among tribes for its throne.Ishida (1977), pp. 171–183 In the biblical narrative, the House of Jeroboam was from the Tribe of Ephraim, while the House of Baasha was from the Tribe of Issachar. The Omrides are connected in this narrative with the city of Jezreel, where they maintained a second palace. According to the Book of Joshua, Jezreel was controlled by the Tribe of Issachar. Ishida views the narrative as suggesting that the Omrides themselves were members of the Tribe of Issachar. The assassinated king Elah and Omri thus shared a "common tribal origin", and were possibly kinsmen. Omri and the Tribe of Issachar's opposition to Zimri indicates that Zimri was not a member of their tribe.
Ishida views both Zimri and his successor Tibni as likely members of the Tribe of Ephraim, its candidates in an attempt to reclaim the throne. But he also suggests another hypothesis, that Tibni originated from the city of Gina (also known as Beth-haggan) mentioned in the Amarna letters (14th century BC). In the Biblical narrative, this city was under the control of the Tribe of Manasseh. So Tibni could instead be the Tribe of Manasseh's candidate for the throne.
Similarly, genealogist David Hughes speculated that Zimri and Tibni were members of the Tribe of Ephraim, and siblings to each other. He further speculated that they were descendants of Hoshea, son of Azaziah, one of the rulers of the Tribe of Ephraim. Hoshea and Azaziah are characters briefly mentioned in the Books of Chronicles (I Chronicles 27:20), where Hoshea is a contemporary of David:
Reign
He was the chariot commander who murdered king Elah and all his family members at Tirzah, as Elah was drinking in the house of Arza, his steward. Zimri succeeded Elah as king. However, Zimri reigned only seven days, because the army elected Omri as king. With their support, Omri laid siege to Tirzah. Finding his position untenable, Zimri set fire to the palace, killing himself. Omri solidified his reign only after four years of war with Tibni, another claimant to the throne.
Analysis
In the biblical text, Zimri is introduced as the military commander who leads half of the chariotry in the army of Elah, King of Israel. The text offers no background information on Zimri, focusing entirely on the assassination of Elah by Zimri, and the subsequent extermination of the House of Baasha which Zimri orchestrated. According to Marvin A. Sweeney, this lack of detail is a consequence of the ephemerality of Zimri's reign, which reportedly lasted only seven days. Other than his extermination of the House of Baasha, Zimri apparently had no historical impact.
The motivation behind Zimri's coup d'état is not stated in the biblical text, though it is "readily intelligible" from its context in the narrative. in the late years of his reign, Baasha of Israel had faced a military alliance against him, formed by the Kingdom of Judah and the Arameans. The northernmost areas of the Kingdom of Israel were under the threat of an Aramean invasion, and Baasha had been forced to abandon his control over the city of Ramah in Benjamin. In other words, Israel was facing a military and political disaster, which likely undermined the political support for the reigning House of Baasha.
According to the biblical text, Elah was assassinated in the city of Tirzah. Zimri attacked him within the residence of Arza, who was apparently the royal steward. The sparse narrative offers no other information on Arza. The narrative does mention that Elah was suffering from alcohol intoxication at the time of the assassination.
During his short reign, Zimri reportedly managed to exterminate the entire House of Baasha, along with their kinspeople and their supporters. The narrative claims that Zimri was following an oracle, given by a diviner called Jehu. Zimri reportedly left the corpses of his victims, the members of the House of Baasha, unburied. The corpses were used as food by the local dogs and birds.
The biblical text then mentions that the army of Israel was far from Tirzah at the time of the assassination. The army was besieging Gibbethon, a city controlled by the Philistines. The implication here is that Zimri was free to act, because the absent army could not defend king Elah. Presumably Zimri hoped that he could secure his place on the throne before the army could react to his coup.
In the Biblical narrative, the army of Israel refuses to accept Zimri as a legitimate king, and instead elects its commander Omri as a rival candidate for the throne, an anti-king. The text implies that Zimri used to be subordinate to Omri in the command hierarchy of the army, and still had more influence on the troops than Zimri.
The narrative continues with Omri and his army rapidly marching towards Tirzah, and besieging the city. Zimri apparently did not expect such a rapid response to his coup, and did not have enough time to organize the defense of the city. The city fell after a brief siege. Zimri set the royal palace on fire and died in the flames, choosing suicide by self-immolation over surrendering to Omri.
Following Zimri's death, the narrative continues with a civil war between the rival kings Omri and Tibni. The sparse text leaves it unclear whether Tibni was a supporter of Zimri who took over the leadership of Zimri's political faction, or whether he was an opportunist who was merely attempting to take advantage of the power vacuum created by Zimri.
William H. Barnes interprets the phrase "half the king's chariot" to mean that there were two chariot military formations in the army of Israel. Zimri apparently led a chariot formation stationed at the city of Tirzah itself, from where it could easily respond to military attacks by the Kingdom of Judah. The other formation, which is not mentioned in the text, was likely stationed at the city of Megiddo.
Barnes suggests that Elah was attending a private party at the time of his assassination. The writers of the Books of Kings used this occasion to express their disapproval of political or military leaders drinking to excess. Not directly stated is that Zimri took advantage of the party, to strike at Elah while his guard was down. The host of the party, Arza, was the supervisor of the palace. Making his position equivalent to that of a majordomo or prime minister.
Zimri's elimination of all members of the previous reigning family was a then-"typical procedure", in order to avoid reprisals from Elah's heirs.
Despite holding a high-ranking position in the military, Zimri never receives a patronymic in the biblical narrative. This likely indicates that this monarch's ancestry was humble or obscure. The name 'Zimri" has been suggested to derive from the Aramaic language. Another possible explanation is that it was a theophoric name, a shortening of the phrase "strength of Yahweh". If so, Yahweh was Zimri's tutelary deity.
Barnes calls attention to the siege of Gibbethon in the narrative of Zimri's reign. A previous siege of Gibbethon is mentioned in the First Books of Kings, taking place in the last year of the reign of Nadab of Israel, 24 years before Zimri's rise to the throne. Several writers have suggested that the implication in the text is the army of Israel had been intermittently besieging this city for 24 years, without ever managing to capture it. A testament to the military weakness of Israel under the rule of the House of Baasha.
The biblical narrative views Zimri's death in the flames as a "tragically heroic" manner of dying, indicating that suicide was not seen as a cowardly way to die. Zimri's suicide has similarities to Samson's suicide in the Book of Judges. The text describing the fire is vague enough to allow the possibility that Omri's army had set the palace on fire, instead of Zimri himself. However, the text otherwise indicates that Zimri chose the manner of his death.
The writers of the Books of Kings accuse Zimri of repeating the sins of his distant predecessor, Jeroboam. This is a standard condemnation, used in the narrative to vilify every king of Israel. Zimri did not reign long enough to emulate Jeroboam's policies, or to commit the other sins typically indicated.
While a reign of seven days is usually attributed to Zimri, there is a divergent account in the Greek-language text of the Codex Vaticanus. This variant attributes a reign of seven years to Zimri. The difference likely derives from the Hebrew term "Yamim" and how it was interpreted. It is variously translated as "days" or "years", and specifically translates to "years" in passages from the Books of Samuel.
Barnes notes that there is a discrepancy in the way the narrative depicts Zimri. He is castigated as a usurper and a traitor in nearly every passage of the narrative, yet treated as a tragic hero in the narrative of his death. Zimri's suicide by self-immolation is not unique in ancient narratives. The legendary king Sardanapalus of Assyria supposedly died in this manner, and there are similar accounts on the deaths of the historical kings Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon (reigned 667–648 BC) and Sinsharishkun of Assyria (reigned c. 627–612 BC).
Barnes notes that Zimri was the last king of Israel to use Tirzah as his capital city. His successor Omri transferred the capital to the city of Samaria.
Hillel I. Millgram draws a number of inferences, based on the available information in the sparse text. First, Zimri's coup was probably the result of "meticulous planning", and prepared in advance. Within a few days, Zimri and his unnamed supporters managed to hunt down and execute the extended royal family, along with its friends and its supporters. This suggests that the entire ruling circle of the Kingdom was swiftly executed. In Millgram's views, this suggests that Zimri had prepared a hit list which identified the intended victims. The executions were likely carried out by death squads employed by Zimri.
Zimri's swift executions seem to have had a clear purpose, to prevent the formation of a counter-revolution which would oppose his regime. He probably expected the rest of the kingdom to accept the regime change as fait accompli, miscalculating his own influence over the royal army. The news of the assassinations may have caught Omri by surprise, but likely inspired the ambitious general to claim the throne for himself. Zimri's purge likely inspired resentment among the troops, which Omri managed to use for his own purposes.