Elah
ELA (ē'la, Heb. ’ēlā’, terebinth). The father of Solomon’s commissary officer stationed in the tribe of Benjamin (1Kgs.4.18).
ELAH (ē'lah, Heb. ’ēlâh, terebinth)
ELA ē’ lə (אֵלָ֖א). The father of Shimei who was the administrator in Benjamin in charge of providing for King Solomon’s household (1 Kings 4:18).
ELAH ē’ lə (אֵלָ֣ה, LXX ̓Ηλα, perhaps chief, strong, divine, cf. “terebinth”; Noth, Israelitische Personennamen, pp. 38, 90). Fourth king of Israel, son of Baasha of Issachar. His reign is described briefly in 1 Kings 16:8-14. He succeeded his father in the twenty-sixth year of Asa of Judah, and was assassinated in the following year (vv. 10, 15). “Two years” (v. 8) indicates that his reign covered more than a full year; this was long enough for him to show his adherence to his father’s religious policy, in defiance of the prophecy of Jehu ben Hanani, but he seems to have lacked his father’s energy and leadership. It is recorded that he met his death while carousing with his chamberlain in Tirzah, though the army was at the time laying siege to the Philistine city of Gibbethon.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
(Ela, 1Esdras 9:27):
(1) Same as Elam (Ezr 10:26).
(2) Father of Shimei (1Ki 4:18, the King James Version "Elah").
See Elah, 2.
(’elah, "oak" or "terebinth"):
(1) A "duke" or "sheik" (head of a clan, the Revised Version (British and American) "chief") of Edom (Ge 36:41).
(2) Shimei-ben-Elah, Solomon’s commissary in Benjamin (1Ki 4:18 the King James Version).
(3) A son of Caleb the son of Jephunneh (1Ch 4:15).
(4) Father of Hoshea, last king of Israel (2Ki 15:30; 17:1).
(5) A Benjamite, son of Uzzi, one of the chiefs of the tribes when the country was settled (1Ch 9:8).
(6) King of Israel. See next article.
e’-la.
Son of Baasha, fourth king of Israel (1Ki 16:6-14).
He reigned two years, 888-887 BC. The statement that he came to the throne in the 26th year of Asa, reigned two years, and died in the 27th year of Asa, illustrates the Hebrew method of synchronizing the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah (compare 1Ki 15:33; 16:8). Elah appears to have been a debauchee. While he was drinking himself drunk in the house of Azra, his chamberlain, Zimri, one of his military leaders, conspired against him and murdered him. According to Josephus (VIII, xii, 4) he took advantage of the absence of the army, which was at Gibbethon, to kill Elah. The extirpation of the royal family followed the murder of the king. Baasha’s dynasty had its origin in a murder and it ended in a murder. The government had no stability. These revolutions illustrate the truth that "they who take the sword shall perish with the sword."