Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Kings 16:15 - 16:22
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Rule of Zimri in Israel
v. 15. In the twenty and seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah, so long he was in undisturbed possession of the throne. And the people, the army of Israel, were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, and which Nadab had already tried to recover from the hands of the enemy.
v. 16. And the people that were encamped heard say, the rumor or the report came to the army, Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king; wherefore all Israel, as represented in the army, the military party, made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp, they proclaimed him ruler over the northern nation.
v. 17. And Omri went up from Gibbethon and all Israel with him, he went on a campaign against the usurper of the throne, and they besieged Tirzah.
v. 18. And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, it being impossible for him to hold out against the besieging force, that he went into the palace of the king's house, the citadel, the highest and strongest of the buildings included in the royal palace, and burned the king's house over him with fire and died, preferring this death to that at the hands of the victorious army,
v. 19. for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin; for even in these few days he had shown that he had no intention of doing away with the calf-worship introduced by Jeroboam.
v. 20. Now, the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he wrought, the manner in which he planned the removal of Baasha, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
v. 21. Then were the people of Israel, the entire northern nation, divided into two parts, the faction represented by the army and the party of the people: half of the people, the nonmilitary party, followed Tibni, the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half, the military party, followed Omri.
v. 22. But the people that followed Omri prevailed, his party gained the ascendancy, against the people that followed Tibni, the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, either by assassination or in battle, and Omri reigned, the opposition having no other man to take his place. All men who are blinded by sin act like the kings of Israel here described. They have warning examples in great number before their eyes, but they obstinately continue on their way to their own destruction.