Zimri

Zimri may refer to:

Zimri (king)

Zimri or Zambri (Hebrew: זִמְרִי, Zimrī ; praiseworthy; Latin: Zambri) 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.

In the Bible

He was the chariot commander who murdered king Elah and all his family members at Tirzah, as Elah was drinking in the house of Arza, his steward. Zimri succeeded Elah 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 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.

Zimri (prince)

Zimri (Arabic: السامري‎) son of Salu was the Prince or leader of a family within the Tribe of Simeon during the time of the Israelites' Exodus in the wilderness at the time when they were approaching the Promised Land. At Abila or Shittim he took part in the Heresy of Peor, taking as a paramour 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. Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, killed them both by impaling them on a spear (Numbers 25:6-15).

The Israelites subsequently launched an attack on the Midianites.

According to a midrash, Zimri was the same person as Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.

In Islam, Zimri appears under the name Samiri. Islam assigns to him also a major role in the earlier affair of the Golden Calf, which is not attested in the Bible. The Islamic account attributes to Zimri/Samiri many of the actions which the Bible assigns to Aharon - thus exonerating the latter, Islam's Propehet Harun, from involvement in the sinful worship of the Calf.