The Kings of Israel and Judah
Elah
Israel · 886 – 885 BC · 2 years · 1 Kings 16:8 – 14
His Story
Son of Baasha, whose two years are summed up in a drinking bout. His reign exists in Scripture chiefly to show the rot of the house God had sentenced.
His Sin — How He Displeased the LORD
He continued the sins of his fathers, and added drunken carelessness: he was “drinking himself drunk” in his steward’s house while the army was in the field and conspiracy at the door.
The Good He Did
Scripture records none.
The LORD’s verdict
“For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.”1 Kings 16:13 (KJV)
How His Reign Ended
His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, came in and killed him as he drank, then wiped out Baasha’s whole house the same season — Jehu’s prophecy fulfilled to the letter.
Lessons for Believers Today
- Drunkenness is not a small sin in a ruler — it unguards the gate. “Wine is a mocker” (Proverbs 20:1).
- A man may inherit a throne and inherit a judgment with it; only repentance separates the two.