Zimri

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Zimri ("praiseworthy") is a name shared by two characters in the Hebrew Bible.

[edit] Prince of the Tribe of Simeon

Zimri was the Prince of the Tribe of Simeon during the time of the Israelites in the desert. At Shittim (Num. 25:6-15) he took part in the Heresy of Peor, taking as a concubine a Midianite woman, Cozbi. Zimri openly defied Moses before the people who were standing at the entrance of the Tabernacle by going in to the Midianite, but Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, killed them both by impaling them on a spear.

Zimri was also known as Shelumiel son of Tzurishadai.

[edit] King of Israel

Zimri was a king of Israel for seven days. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 876 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the date 885 BCE. His story is told in 1 Kings, Chapter 16.

He was a chariot commander who murdered king Elah at Tirzah, and succeeded him as king. However, Zimri reigned only seven days, because the army elected Omri as king, and with their support laid siege to Tirzah. Finding his position untenable, Zimri set fire to the palace and perished.

Omri became king only after four years of fierce war with Tibni, another claimant to the throne of Israel.

The name Zimri became a byword for a traitor who murdered his master. When Jehu led a bloody military revolt to seize the throne of Israel, killed both Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah, and entered the citadel of Jezreel to execute Queen Jezebel, she greeted him with the words: "Is it peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?" (2 Kings 9:31). In John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, the character of Zimri stands for the Duke of Buckingham.