1 Kings 16:21-28

International Children’s Bible

Omri King of Israel

²¹ The people of Israel were divided into two groups. Half of the people wanted Tibni to be king. He was the son of Ginath. The other half of the people wanted Omri. ²² But Omri’s followers were stronger than the followers of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri became king.

²³ Omri became king of Israel. This was during the thirty-first year Asa was king of Judah. And Omri ruled Israel for 12 years. Six of those years he ruled in the town of Tirzah. ²⁴ Omri bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer. He paid about 150 pounds of silver for it. Omri built a city on that hill. And he called it Samaria after the name of its earlier owner, Shemer.

²⁵ But Omri did what the Lord said was wrong. He did more evil than all the kings who were before him. ²⁶ Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused the people of Israel to sin. And Omri sinned in the same way Jeroboam had sinned. So the Israelites made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry. He was angry because they worshiped worthless idols.

²⁷ Everything else Omri did and all his successes are written down. They are all in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ²⁸ So Omri died and was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.