1 Kings 16

Zimri, perhaps, in his command, as captain of half his chariots. And half followed Omri. As already advanced to the royal dignity; and a greater man than Tibni; being captain of the whole host.

1 Kings 16:22

And the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath. For Omri had the advantage of having tho army on his side. So Tibni died.’] In this civil war (into which they fell by God’s just judgment upon them) many of the people, in all likelihood, died together with him. And Omri reigned.] Without competitor. The Jews in Seder Olam Rabba, whom Rasi and others follow, say it contributed much to his advancement, that Asa king of Judah married his son Jchoshaphat to Omri’s daughter. For which they have no other ground, but that it is said, 2 Chron. xviii. 1. he joined in affinity with Ahab.

1 Kings 16:23

In the thirty and first year of Asa king ofJudah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years. These twelve years of his reign arc to be computed not from the thirtyfirst of Asa’s reign; for it is evident he began to reign in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, (ver. 15.) and his son began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, (ver. 29.) Therefore the twelve years are to be computed from the beginning of Omri’s reign: which was, as I said, the twentyseventh of Asa’s. From which time (as Abarbinel observes) the contest continued between Omri and Tibni, unto the thirty-first year of king Asa. In the end of which Tibni died; and then Omri reigned over all Israel, whereas he reigned but over half the people before. And Tibni being extinct, all the foregoing years are accounted to Omri; viz. from the beginning of Asa’s scven-and-twentieth year, when Zimri died, to the end of this eight-and-thirtieth year, which make twelve years. Six years reigned he in Tirzah.’] Half of his time he made this his royal seat; which was, as some think, all the time his contention with Tibni lasted, and some time after.

1 Kings 16:24

And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built upon the hill, and called the ndme of the city xvhich he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill Samaria.’] The king’s house in Tirzah being burnt, as we read ver. 18. he built a royal palace in this city, which he also built upon this hill; and called it after the name of him who was the owner of it before he bought it, viz. Shemer, from whom it had the Hebrew name of Shomcron. Which was ever after made the royal seat of the kings of Israel.

1 Kings 16:25

But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he not only walked in the way of Jeroboam, but, it is likely, began to introduce other idolatries, which his son Ahab established among them. Or, he compelled the people to worship the calves; and by severe laws restrained the people from going up to Jerusalem: which, as some think, are meant by the statutes of Omri, (Micah vi. 16.)

1 Kings 16:26

For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son ofNebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Though he had seen Elah, and all the whole house of Baasha destroyed by his predecessor for their idolatry, and Zimri himself perished in the same sin, (ver. 13. 19.) yet he persisted in their iniquity, and brought down the wrath of God upon him, and upon his family, as the foregoing kings had done.

1 Kings 16:27

Now the rest of the acts of Omri xvhich he did, and his might which he shewed, are they not written in tlie book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?. It seems he was a valiant man, which Elah was not; concerning whoso might there is no mention, as I noted upon ver. 14.

1 Kings 16:28

So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria. Which now began, as I said, to be the royal city of the kingdom of Israel, as Jerusalem was of Judah. And Ahab his son reigned in his stead.] Who was so eminent upon several accounts, that we have a long account of him in the following part of this book.

1 Kings 16:29

And in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. In this space of time Asa saw six kings of Israel buried; whilst Judah flourished under one and the same king: which no doubt was a great advantage to them.

1 Kings 16:30

And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. Was more idolatrous than his father Omri: for he brought in the worship of Baal (as it follows in the next verse), that is, of the sun, and of all the host of heaven.

1 Kings 16:31

And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing to him to walk in the way of Jeroboam the son ofNebat. He was not satisfied with the worship which Jeroboam had invented, though highly displeasing to God. For so the words are in the Hebrew, was it a light thing? As much as to say, It was a most heinous crime; and yet Ahab resolved to be more wicked. For Jeroboam did not quite forsake the Lord God of Israel, but worshipped him by a representation of his own invention: and this more out of policy than any love to this kind of worship. But Ahab, out of pure love to strange gods, forsook the Lord; without any such reason for it as Jeroboam had; the people being now sufficiently estranged from Jerusalem. Tliat he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Eth-baalJ Called in profane writers Ithobalus. King of the Zidonians.] Who had been old idolaters. And saved Baal, and worshipped him.] That god, whom the Chaldeans and Babylonians ealled Bel, the Phoenicians (of whom the Zidonians were a part) called Baal: which in Hebrew signifies lord. Which anciently.was the name of tho true God, as Mr. Selden observes; but when the world grew wicked, was given to the sun by the Phoenicians: who, as Philo-Byblius tells us, reputed the sun to be fi6vov ovpavov %tov, the only god of heaven. And at last this name was given to other stars, and to their dead kings, whose memory was dear to them. And various rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices were devised in their honour, as that great man observes, (Syntag. de DiisSyris, ii. cap.l.) who understands these words of the Phoenician Belus or Baal, who was the very same with the European Jupiter: and Zidon being situated on the sea, their Baal was called by the Grceks’the Sea Jupiter. So Hesychius, Qakaamoe Zivq iv SiSJvi TtfxaTt, the Sea Jupiter is worshipped at Sidon. But our Mr. Mede is very confident, that the Baal whoso worship Jezebel brought with her from Zidon was a deified king of tho Phoenicians: as Baal was the first king of Babel who was deified after his death. Whence all the souls of men who were canonized after death were