Useful Bible Studies > 1 Kings Commentary > chapter 16
In many ways, Omri was an extremely successful king who ruled northern and central Israel well. He ended Zimri’s revolution. After the troubles with Tibni, he managed to unite the people over whom he ruled. He made the nation stronger when he built its new capital city, Samaria.
However, God saw the evil things that Omri was doing. In God’s opinion, Omri was even worse than the kings who ruled before him.
Omri’s son Ahab would introduce new religions, which were very wicked, into Israel. It seems that Omri himself still followed Jeroboam’s religion. However Omri was, perhaps, preparing his people for the false religions that Ahab would introduce. That may be why God considered Omri more evil than the kings before him.
Northern and central Israel never had a good king in all the years that it had its own kings. None of its kings ever remained loyal to the true God. However, they were not all as evil as each other. Some of them carried out more wicked acts, and followed more evil religions. Generally, the nation became worse with the progress of time. Omri was more evil than the kings before him; Ahab was even worse than Omri. In the end, the nation became so evil that God would not permit its people to remain in their own country.
Next part: The rule and death of King Omri (1 Kings 16:27-28)
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