1 Kings 16:13-30

¹³Baasha and his son Elah had sinned and led the Israeli people to sin. They caused Yahweh, the God whom the Israel people worshiped, to become angry, because they both urged the people to worship worthless idols.

¹⁴Everything else that Elah did is written in the scroll called ❛The History of the Kings of Israel❜.

¹⁵So Zimri became the king of Israel after Asa had been king of Judah for 27 years. But Zimri ruled in Tirzah for only seven days. The Israeli army was beseiging/surrounding Gibeah, a town which belonged to the Philistine people-group.

¹⁶The men in the Israeli army camp heard that Zimri had secretly planned to kill King Elah, and then had killed him. So on that day the soldiers chose Omri, the commander of their army, to become the king of Israel.

¹⁷The Israeli army was camped near Gibbethon city. When they heard what Zimri had done, they left there and went to Tirzah, and surrounded the city.

¹⁸When Zimri realized that the city was about to be captured, he went into his palace and set it on fire. So the palace burned down, and he died in the fire.

¹⁹He died because he had sinned by doing the things that Yahweh considered to be evil. Jeroboam had led the Israeli people to sin, and Zimri sinned just like Jeroboam had sinned.

²⁰All the other things that Zimri did, and the record of how he rebelled against King Elah, are written in the scroll called ❛The History of the Kings of Israel❜.

²¹After Zimri died, the Israeli people were divided. One group wanted Tibni, the son of Ginath, to be their king. The other group wanted Omri to be the king.

²²Those who supported Omri ◄were stronger than/defeated► those who supported Tibni. So Tibni was killed, and Omri became king.

²³Omri became king when Asa had been king of Judah for almost 31 years. Omri ruled Israel for 12 years. For the first six years he ruled in Tirzah.

²⁴Then he bought a hill from a man named Shemer and paid him about ◄150 pounds/70 kg.► of silver for it. Then Omri ordered his men to build a city on that hill, and he called it Samaria, to honor Shemer, the man who owned it previously.

²⁵But Omri did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil. He did more evil deeds than any of the kings who ruled Israel before he did.

²⁶When Jeroboam was previously the king, he had led the Israeli people to sin, and Omri committed the same kind of sins that Jeroboam did. The Israeli people caused Yahweh, the God the Israeli people had worshiped, to become very angry, because they worshiped worthless idols.

²⁷Everything that Omri did, and the record of the victories that his army won, are written in the scroll called ❛The History of the Kings of Israel❜.

²⁸After Omri died, he was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab became king.

²⁹Ahab became king of Israel when Asa had ruled Judah for almost 38 years. Ahab ruled in Samaria city for 22 years.

³⁰Ahab did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil. He did more evil things than any of the kings who ruled Israel before he did.