1 Kings 16:18
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 burnt the king’s house over him with fire, and died, 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 burnt the king’s house over him with fire, and died,
Zimri was a captain who murdered his master Elah and seized the throne of Israel, but reigned only seven days before he was supplanted by Omri. When the army proclaimed Omri king and came in force against the capital at Tirzah, Zimri saw that the city was taken and went into the royal palace and burned it over himself with fire and died in the flames. His brief reign stands in the steady decline of the northern kingdom after its revolt under Jeroboam, as its kings led the people away from the worship of the living God to the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, a course that reached its climax under Ahab the son of Omri. His end is one of the very few instances of self-murder in Scripture, breaking God's commandment against killing by despising the gift of life to escape suffering or disgrace and rushing uncalled into God's tribunal with the guilt of unrepented sins upon him.
Zimri's Reign and Death
The verse belongs to the history of the northern kingdom after the division under Rehoboam and the revolt of the ten tribes, listing Zimri among the kings of Israel with Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Omri and Ahab, while Abijah and Asa reigned in Judah. It belongs to the biblical history of the northern kingdom before its final overthrow in 721 B.C.
The succession runs from the house of Jeroboam ending with Nadab after two years, to Baasha who slew him and reigned twenty-four years, to the house of Baasha dying with his son Elah when his drunken two-year reign ended, to Zimri the captain who slew Elah and reigned only seven days before being supplanted by Omri, from whom sprang the wicked Ahab. Zimri, the murderer of Elah and traitor, reigned only seven days. After the army declared Omri, captain of Israel's host, king and came in force to the capital at Tirzah, Zimri saw that the city was taken and understood what it meant. He went into the royal palace of the king's house at Tirzah, burned it over himself with fire, and died in the flames, thus slain through Omri's rising against him and described as his suicide.
His death was one of a series of violent deaths among Israel's kings and would-be kings in a period of turmoil, repeating brief reigns ended by violent hands in a steady going from bad to worse from Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. All these wicked reigns fell inside the one long good reign of Asa king of Judah, which spanned them. After slaying Zimri, Omri became the strongest influence among the Ten Tribes, meeting opposition for a little time that was soon crushed out.
The burning damaged the beauty of Tirzah, and Omri chose a new site for the royal residence, probably because Tirzah could not be fortified well enough to withstand a siege. The verse belongs to a short biblical history of Israel's kings that can be illuminated by buried records, with the Moabite Stone preserving historical accounts of the reigns of Omri and Ahab and the king of Moab.
Apostasy and Self-Murder
1 Kings 16:18 belongs to the account in 1 Kings 15 and 16 of the apostasy of Israel, in which the kings led the nation to forsake the worship of the living God and the God-given plan of worship which pointed to Christ and revealed the way of salvation from sin. They turned to what was impure, untrue and degrading, the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, the worship of the creature instead of the Creator. The events of the sixteenth chapter come to a climax when Ahab son of Omri ascended the throne and did more to provoke God than all before him by marrying Jezebel and serving Baal.
It introduces the setting in which Elijah served, when the weak king Ahab and his Baal-worshiping wife Jezebel led Israel into idolatry and disobedience to God's commandments.
The verse records one of the very few instances of self-murder in Scripture, showing that suicide very rarely occurred in Israel. Among Greeks and Romans and other Gentiles it was counted virtue and never ascribed to insanity. Zimri's character with the other suicides confirms the enormous guilt and direful consequences of the crime. His death breaks God's commandment against killing by despising God's gift of life to escape temporal suffering or disgrace, from madly presuming on God's mercy or despairing of it, rushing uncalled into God's tribunal by direct rebellion against His authority and proud defiance of His justice with the guilt of all unrepented crimes on his head.