“But his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against Elah. When Elah was at Tirzah, drinking to get drunk in the house of Arza, who was in charge of the palace at Tirzah, Zimri came in and struck him down. He killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa of Judah. Zimri succeeded Elah. When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he killed all the house of King Baasha. He did not leave a single male of his kindred or his friends. Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of King Baasha, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke against King Baasha by the prophet Jehu. All the sins of King Baasha and his son Elah that they committed, plus what they had caused Israel to commit, provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel to anger because of their idols. Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?”

Zimri was the commander of half the chariots for King Elah. I wonder who had the other half. He conspired against King Elah. One night when Elah and Arza, the guy in charge of the palace were over indulging in drink, Zimri killed Elah. Zimri immediately took over. He then killed all the males in the household of King Baasha, so that there could not be any heirs in that family. Of course, this was because the prophet Jehu speaking for Yahweh had prophesized so earlier in this chapter. The idol worship of Baasha, his son Elah, and what they had made Israel do had provoked the anger of Yahweh. Thus Zimri was only fulfilling the prophecy of Jehu that Yahweh had given him. If you want to know more about Elah, the lost “Book of the Annals of the kings of Israel” was available.