⁸Elah, son of Baasha, began to rule Israel in Asa’s twenty-sixth year as Judah’s king. He ruled in Tirzah for two years. ⁹But Zimri, the general who commanded half of Elah’s chariots, plotted against him. Elah was getting drunk in Tirzah at Arza’s house. (Arza was in charge of the palace in Tirzah.) ¹⁰Zimri entered Arza’s house, attacked Elah, and killed him in Asa’s twenty-seventh year as king of Judah. Zimri succeeded Elah as king ⸤of Israel⸥. ¹¹At the beginning of Zimri’s reign, as soon as he was on his throne, he killed Baasha’s entire family. He didn’t spare any of Baasha’s male^arelatives or friends. ¹²So Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, as the Lord had spoken through the prophet Jehu. ¹³This was for all the sins committed by Baasha and his son Elah. They sinned, led Israel to sin, and made the Lord God of Israel furious because of their worthless idols. ¹⁴Isn’t everything else about Elah—everything he did—written in the official records of the kings of Israel?

King Zimri Rules for Seven Days

¹⁵In Asa’s twenty-seventh year as Judah’s king, Zimri ruled for seven days in Tirzah while the army was camped near the Philistine city of Gibbethon. ¹⁶When the army heard that Zimri had plotted ⸤against the king⸥ and killed him, the Israelite troops in the camp made Omri, the commander of the army, king of Israel.

¹⁷Omri and the Israelite troops with him left Gibbethon and attacked Tirzah. ¹⁸When Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went into the stronghold in the royal palace and burned down the palace over his own head. He died ¹⁹because of the sins he had committed—the things the Lord considered evil. Zimri lived like Jeroboam and led Israel to sin. ²⁰Isn’t everything else about Zimri and his plot written in the official records of the kings of Israel?

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Footnotes

a 16:11 Hebrew uses a coarse term for “male” here.