“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.