LESSON XXVII

THE HOUSE OF OMRI

THERE was no such loyalty to their rulers on the part of the people of the northern kingdom as was felt by the subjects of the southern kingdom for the Davidic dynasty. As a result there were constant usurpations of the throne, usually by military leaders, with the assassination of the reigning king. Most of these kings are only names to us, having left no mark upon history. During the first twenty-five years after the death of Jeroboam there were four weak kings, and the kingdom constantly lost ground. Damascus began encroaching on Israel's territory, and the country was weakened by civil wars.

The reign of Omri.-In 887, after the usurper, Zimri, had killed the king in a drunken brawl and had himself perished after reigning one week, the army proclaimed their commander-in-chief, Omri, as king. Omri, after a struggle of four years against a rival, became the founder of the most important dynasty of Israel. During his reign Assyria first came in contact with Israel, and he is the first Hebrew king mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions. Indeed, he was known to the Assyrians as the founder of the kingdom of Israel, and in their annals written thirty years after his death that kingdom is referred to "as the house of Omri." On the famous Moabite stone,1 Mesha,

1 The Moabite stone was erected by Mesha to commemorate the successful revolt of Moab against Israel. It is a slab 31⁄2 by 2 feet and was found in 1868 in the ruins of ancient Dibon. It is now in the Louvre.

who was king of Moab during Ahab's reign, says, "Omri was king of Israel, and he afflicted Moab many days because Chemosh was angry with his land." (Chemosh was the god of Moab.) Moab remained

under the dominion of Israel forty years.

The founding of Samaria. Omri has been called the David of the northern kingdom. One of the chief events of his reign was the building of a new capital for Israel. He began his reign at Tirzah, which seems to have been given up because of the difficulty of fortifying it. Omri chose a hill northwest of Shechem, rising precipitously on three sides from a wide and fertile valley. On the top of the hill he built Samaria. That he chose well is shown by the fact that one hundred and fifty years later it took the Assyrian army three years to reduce the city to subjection.

Ahab's marriage to Jezebel. Very disastrous to Israel's future was the alliance made between Omri and Ethbaal, king of Tyre, and cemented by the marriage of Omri's son Ahab to Ethbaal's daughter, Jezebel. The need felt for this alliance on the part of Omri arose from the menace of Damascus and Assyria. According to a statement in 1 Kings 20. 34, Omri was obliged to yield certain cities to Damascus and to grant certain trading rights to the Aramæans. Assyria was growing constantly more powerful and her armies were gradually moving down toward Palestine.

In spite of the importance of Omri's reign, it is dismissed by the author of the book of Kings with only a few verses. He closes with the condemnation pronounced upon practically all the kings of Israel. "And Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. . . . For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made

Israel to sin." The following formula also is found at the close of the description of his reign, showing that a more complete history of the period was known to the people for whom the book was written: "Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?" The account of the reign of each of Israel's kings closes in practically this same way.

The reign of Ahab.-Omri's son, Ahab, succeeded him in 876. The chief event of his reign was the titanic contest with the Phoenician Baalism. It was Ahab's ambition to build up a magnificent court, like that of Solomon, and he went about it in much the same way that Solomon had done, by making marriage alliances with the surrounding nations. His foreign princesses were allowed to establish the worship of their gods at his court, in accordance with the custom of the times. The practice was regarded merely as a courtesy extended to a friendly nation, somewhat similar to the courtesies shown by modern nations to the ambassadors of other countries. The great progress in religious sentiment is seen in the fact that there were prophets in Ahab's time who condemned him, while we hear of none who criticized Solomon for the same things. Ahab himself does not seem to have deserted Jehovah for Baal, and the fact that the names of three of his children2 each contain a syllable from the name "Jehovah," is evidence that Ahab considered himself loyal to Jehovah.

It was the marriage of Ahab with the infamous

1 The reason for the condemnation of all the kings of Israel is stated in Lesson XXXIX, in a discussion of the book of Deuteronomy.

2 The names of Ahab's children: Ahaziah, "Jehovah is strong"; Jehoram, "Je-. hovah is exalted"; Athaliah, "Jehovah is great.'

Jezebel that precipitated the contest. Her father had been a priest of Baal, and had murdered the king and seized the throne. Jezebel was a remarkable woman, absolutely without conscience and of indomitable will and boundless energy. She was not satisfied to have her religion merely one of those represented at court; it must be the leading one. She gradually increased the number of Baal prophets until four hundred and fifty ate at her table, and the splendors of Baal worship far overshadowed the worship of Jehovah. Now, indeed, the religion of Jehovah was menaced as it never had been before.

What Phoenician Baalism meant.-The worship of foreign deities by the Israelites was not a new thing. When they came into Canaan they found the land full of shrines "on every high hill and under every green tree." They believed that these local Canaanite gods controlled all the blessings pertaining to field and vineyard, hence to ignore them might mean failure of crops and other disasters. The common name of all these gods was Baal, meaning "Lord." It was but slowly that the Hebrews as a whole came to a belief in one God. While they worshiped Jehovah as their tribal god, and considered him above all other gods, they yet believed in the reality of others. Chemosh was the god of Moab, Milcom the god of Ammon, etc.

The result had been a confusion in the minds of the people, and they sometimes even called their own god the Hebrew Baal. In naming their children they frequently used compounds containing the name "Baal," just as they did compounds containing "Jah" for Jehovah. Both Saul and Jonathan did this (Ishbaal, Meribaal), though they were true Jehovah worshipers. The introduction of Baal and Ashtart, the Phoenician

gods, was recognized as a dangerous innovation. Their worship was accompanied by licentious and obscene. practices which were abhorrent to the best moral sense of the Hebrews, and it raised anew the whole issue between the religion of Jehovah and other religions in Israel. These immoral practices had crept in to some extent from the Canaanite rites, but their danger had been much less insidious. Jezebel's form of worship now obtained in Israel all the prestige that her high position and commanding ability could secure for it. There was also a political danger. Phoenicia was a powerful rival of Israel. If the Israelites should become worshipers of the Phoenician gods, the next step might easily be their political dependence upon Phoenicia.

At this juncture a mighty champion of the religion of Jehovah appeared upon the scene in the form of Elijah the prophet.

BIBLICAL SOURCES: The first book of Kings.

The reign of Omri, 16. 8-28.

Ahab's accession and marriage to Jezebel, 16. 29-33.

QUESTIONS

1. Where and by whom was the city of Samaria founded? Locate on map and describe its site.

2. In what ways was Omri's reign important?

3. In what respects did Ahab resemble Solomon?

4. Discuss Jezebel's influence upon the religion of Jehovah. 5. Show how natural it was that the Hebrews should at first worship the local gods of Canaan.

6. Why was the Phoenician Baalism more dangerous to the Hebrews than the Canaanite Baalism?

7. Give marks of definite religious progress since the time of Solomon.