1 Kings 16:15

_AND ZIMRI WENT IN AND SMOTE HIM, AND KILLED HIM, IN THE TWENTY AND SEVENTH YEAR OF ASA KING OF JUDAH, AND REIGNED IN HIS STEAD._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-28 When men forsake God, they will be left to plague one another. Proud aspiring men ruin one another. Omri struggled with Tibni some years. Though we do not always understand the rules by which God governs nations and individuals in his providence, we may learn useful lessons from the history before us. When tyrants succeed each other, and massacres, conspiracies, and civil wars, we may be sure the Lord has a controversy with the people for their sins; they are loudly called to repent and reform. Omri made himself infamous by his wickedness. Many wicked men have been men of might and renown; have built cities, and their names are found in history; but they have no name in the book of life....

Verse 1 Kings 16:15. _THE PEOPLE WERE ENCAMPED AGAINST GIBBETHON_] It appears that, at this time, the Israelites had war with the Philistines, and were now besieging Gibbethon, one of their cities. This army, hearing that Zimri had rebelled and killed Elah, made Omri, their general, king, who immediately raised the siege of Gibbethon, and went to attack Zimri in the royal city of Tirzah; who, finding his affairs desperate, chose rather to consume himself in his palace than to fall into the hands of his enemies....

EXPOSITION This division of chapters, immediately after the commencement of the narrative of the reign of Baasha, is somewhat unfortunate, inasmuch as it obscures the close connexion between the sin of Baasha and the prophecy which it provoked. The idea the historian would convey is clearly this—the analogy between the dynasty of Jeroboam and that which supplanted it, (1) in their sin, (2) in the denunciation of each by a prophet, and (3) in the punishments which followed their sins an analogy so close that the prophet Jehu almost employs the _ipsissima verba _of his predecessor, Ahijah. 1 KINGS 16:1 THEN THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JEHU, THE SON OF HANANI [Hanani is mentioned in...

IN THE TWENTY AND SEVENTH YEAR OF ASA KING OF JUDAH DID ZIMRI REIGN SEVEN DAYS IN TIRZAH, c] Until the army under Omri came and took the palace, and destroyed him: AND THE PEOPLE WERE ENCAMPED AGAINST GIBBETHON, WHICH BELONGETH TO THE PHILISTINES it was besieged in Nadab's time, but upon his death, by Baasha, the siege was raised; or however, if then taken, it was recovered by the Philistines, and now besieged again by the Israelites, see 1 Kings 15:27....

4. KINGS OF ISRAEL Chapter S 15:25-16 _ 1. Nadab, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:25)_ 2. Baasha, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:34; 1 Kings 16:1) 3. Elah, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:8) 4. Zimri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:15) 5. Divisions (1 Kings 16:21) 6. Omri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:23) 7. Ahab ...

1 KINGS 15:33 TO 1 KINGS 16:34. BAASHA'S DYNASTY. RISE OF THE HOUSE OF OMRI. Nothing is told us of Baasha except the usual annalistic details, and, that a prophet named Jehu foretold the destruction of his whole house. His son Elah was at war with the Philistines (1 Kings 16:15), but remained at Tirzah (p. 30), which at this time was the chief residence of the kings of Israel. Zimri slew him and reigned but seven days, and was then attacked by the army under Omri, and burned himself in his house. For four years, (_cf._ 1 Kings 16:15 with 1 Kin

Zimri king of Israel. Omri proclaimed king by the army (Not in Chronicles) 15. _In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah_ The chronological note is omitted by the LXX. _And_[R.V. NOW] _the people_were _encamped against Gibbethon_ The LXX. explains -the people" by ἡ παρεμβολὴ = the camp. It was, of course, only the army and camp-followers who were away in the land of the Philistines. Apparently the attempt to wrest Gibbethon from the Philistines had continued from the time of Nadab. But the vicissitudes of the northern kingdom had been many, and such as to hinder the prosecution of any campaign....

D. THE SEVEN-DAY REIGN OF ZIMRI 16:15-20 TRANSLATION (15) In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were on an expedi tion against Gibbethon which belonged to the Philistines. (16) And the people who were on the expedition heard, saying, Zimri has conspired, and also he has smitten the king, And all Israel proclaimed Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel in that day in the camp. (17) And Omri went up and all Israel with him from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. (18) And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and he set fire to the king's house over him, and he died, (19) because of his sins which he had committed, to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, and to walk in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin. (20) And the rest...

THE REIGNS OF ELAH, ZIMRI, AND OMRI 1. Jehu the son of Hanani] Hanani is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 16:7. Jehu's denunciation of Baasha is similar to Ahijah's denunciation of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:7)....