King Omri

November 30, 2017

They example of northern Israel (Mic 6:16-6:16)

“You have kept

The statutes of Omri.

You have kept

All the works

Of the house of Ahab.

You have followed

Their counsels.

Therefore,

I will make you

A desolation.

I will make your inhabitants

An object of hissing.

Thus,

You shall bear

The scorn of my people.”

The statutes of King Omri (885-874 BCE) and King Ahab (874-853 BCE), the kings of northern Israel, favored the Baal worship and various injustices in Samaria.  They had followed the bad counsels of these northern kings of Israel.  Thus, Yahweh was going to make them a desolation.  The people of the north would become an object of hissing, as they bore the scorn of Yahweh’s people.

September 26, 2017

The son of Hosea is called Jezreel (Hos 1:3-1:5)

“Gomer conceived.

She bore him a son.

Yahweh said to him,

‘Name him Jezreel!

In a little while,

I will punish

The house of Jehu

For the blood of Jezreel.

I will put an end

To the kingdom

Of the house of Israel.

On that day,

I will break

The bow of Israel

In the valley of Jezreel.’”

Gomer then conceived and bore a son. Yahweh, spoke directly to Hosea. He told him to name his son, Jezreel, meaning that God sows. All the children of this union between Hosea and Gomer will have symbolic prophetic names. In a little while, Yahweh was going to punish the house of Jehu, who had been king nearly a century earlier in 841-814 BCE. The current king of Israel, King Jeroboam II (783-743 BCE) was a descendant of King Jehu. Jezreel was also the name of the royal palace where King Jehu had killed the descendants of King Omri (885-874 BCE). The dynasty of King Jehu actually ended with the son of King Jeroboam II, King Zachariah in 743 BCE, after the death of King Jeroboam. Yahweh also said that the house of Israel would come to an end, which it did in 724 BCE. Thus, Yahweh was going to break the bow of Israel in Jezreel, the northern royal palace. Jezreel was also the name of the valley of Megiddo. The so-called history of the northern Israelite kings, especially King Jehu, can be found in 2 Kings, chapters 9-10.

December 30, 2014

King Ahaziah (2 Chr 22:1-22:4)

“The inhabitants of Jerusalem made the youngest son of King Jehoram Ahaziah king as his successor. The troops who came with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons. So King Ahaziah son of King Jehoram reigned as king of Judah. King Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel. He also walked in the ways of the house of King Ahab, because his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly. He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as the house of King Ahab had done. After the death of his father they were his counselors, to his ruin.”

Once again, this is loosely based on 2 Kings, chapter 8. King Ahaziah, the son of King Jehoram of Judah, was the nephew of King Jehoram of Israel. Thus he was the great grandson of King Omri of Israel, since his mother was Athaliah, the sister of King Jehoram of Israel and daughter of King Ahab of Israel. This King Ahaziah of Judah had the same name as King Ahaziah of Israel, who was his uncle. He may have been named after him. They both had short reigns as kings. Therefore, he walked in the evil ways of the house of King Ahab. However, there are 2 problems with King Ahaziah besides his short reign of 1 year. First, he was called Jehoahaz in the preceding chapter as the only son left after the killing of all the sons of Jehoram. The reference is to the same person. The 2nd problem is his age. Here he is 42 years old, which makes no sense since his father died at the age of 40. In 2 Kings, he was 22, which means that he probably was an older son of King Jehoram since he was born when King Jehoram was 18. In any case, he is young and wicked. He following the advice of the Israelite family of King Ahab since his mother had some influence on him. This would seem to indicate the younger age.