by
Damien F. Mackey
“The
royal dynasties of
Israel and Judah are usually
designated as 'founders' houses', i.e. Saul's house, David's house, Jeroboam's house, Baasha's house, and Jehu's house.
Yet the
name Omri's house
is conspicuously missing from the Bible.
Instead, the same dynasty is always called Ahab's house, although Omri
was
the dynastic
founder and Ahab was his successor”.
T. Ishida
Suspecting yesterday morning (16th
September, 2019), once again, that there may be some degree of duplication
amongst the listings of the kings of Israel of the Divided Monarchy period,
which thought prompted me later that day to write:
and then reading through the accounts of the kings of Israel in Kings and
Chronicles, I was really surprised to find that Omri does not figure directly in
Chronicles.
That I was not mistaken or deluding myself about this
was confirmed when I read the following in Wilfred J. Hahn’s article “Omri: The
Merger King”:
King Omri
was one of the most influential kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. It would
be difficult to discern this from the Bible alone without careful study. As
only 13 verses (1 Kings 16:16-28) recount the history of this man, it would be easy
to overlook his significance. Unusually, no direct mention is even made of his
reign in the books of Chronicles, apart from referring to his son, Ahab, and grandsons
Ahaziah and Joram. The only biblical indication we get of the repute of his
legacy is found in Micah 6:16.
[End of quote]
Another famous name amongst the kings of Israel (Divided Kingdom) who is
missing from Chronicles is Jeroboam II.
Regarding this surprising omission I have noted “that some of
the most defining political and military events received little attention from
the theologically-oriented writer of the
Scriptures” ... may not necessarily be entirely true. Jeroboam so-called II may
figure more prominently in the Scriptures than is thought – but under an alter ego.
And now I am going to suggest the very same thing, that we may need to
begin to look for the - seemingly neglected in the Scriptures, but undoubtedly famous
- Omri (qua “Omri”) under the guise
of Jeroboam I.
That Omri, currently designated as the sixth king of Israel (Divided
Kingdom):
|
Jeroboam I
|
|
Nadab
|
|
Baasha
|
|
Elah
|
|
Zimri
|
|
Omri
|
needs to be located significantly earlier than this is quite apparent from
the fact that Omri was involved in war with Ben-Hadad I’s father, Tab-rimmon,
who was, in turn (it can be estimated), a contemporary of Abijah king of Judah.
I Kings 15:18: “Asa then took all the silver and
gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of
his own palace. He entrusted it to his officials and sent them to Ben-Hadad son
of Tabrimmon”. That this Tab-rimmon had warred with Ahab’s father, Omri, is
apparent from Ben-Hadad’s statement to Ahab in I Kings 20:34: “So Ben-Hadad said to [Ahab], ‘The cities which my father took from
your father I will restore; and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in
Damascus, as my father did in Samaria’.”
King
Omri of Israel, whose fame extended down even to the neo-Assyrian period - referred
to by the Assyrian kings as “House of Omri (Bīt
Humri) - did not need for the Scriptures also to mention an “Omri’s house”,
because the king already had his “Jeroboam’s house”.
Thus
Omri was actually the first, not the sixth, king of Israel (Divided Monarchy).
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