saw that the city was
taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the
king's house over him with fire, and died."[444]

Omri's claim to the throne was disputed by a rival named Tibni. "But
the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that
followed Tibni, son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned."[445]

Omri was the builder of Samaria, whither his Court was transferred
from Tirzah towards the close of his six years reign. He was followed
by his son Ahab, who ascended the throne "in the thirty and eighth
year of Asa king of Judah.... And Ahab ... did evil in the sight of
the Lord above all that were before him." So notorious indeed were
father and son that the prophet Micah declared to the backsliders of
his day, "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the
house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsel; that I should make thee a
desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall
bear the reproach of my people".[446]

Ahab was evidently an ally of Sidon as well as a vassal of Damascus,
for he married the notorious princess Jezebel, the daughter of the
king of that city State. He also became a worshipper of the Phoenician
god Baal, to whom a temple had been erected in Samaria. "And Ahab made
a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger
than all the kings of Israel that were before him."[447] Obadiah, who
"feared the Lord greatly", was the governor of Ahab's house, but the
outspoken prophet Elijah, whose arch enemy was the notorious Queen
Jezebel, was an outcast like the hundred prophets concealed by Obadiah
in two mountain caves.[448]

Ahab became so powerful a king that Ben-hadad II of Damascus picked a
quarrel with him, and marched against Samaria. It was on this occasion
that Ahab sent the famous message to Ben-hadad: "Let not him that
girdeth on his harness (armour) boast himself as he that putteth it
off". The Israelites issued forth from Samaria and scattered the
attacking force. "And Israel pursued them: and Ben-hadad the king of
Syria escaped on a horse with the horseman. And the king of Israel
went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with
a great slaughter." Ben-hadad was made to believe afterwards by his
counsellors that he owed his defeat to the fact that the gods of
Israel were "gods of the hills; therefore they are stronger than we".
They added: "Let us fight against them in the pl