Kings Behaving Badly
- A guy named Jehu prophesies that because Baasha's being just as bad as his dad was, his posterity is going to die and get eaten by dogs and birds.
- Sure enough, after Baasha dies and his son Elah takes over, one of Elah's captains, Zimri, kills him when he's drunk in a city called Tirzah.
- Then Zimri kills all of the males in Elah's family. He even kills all of his friends. Harsh, dude.
- Zimri acts as king for seven days in Tirzah, but when word of what he's done reaches the people, they make Omri, the captain of the host, their king.
- Omri leads his armies against Zimri in Tirzah, and when Zimri sees that he's lost the battle, he sets the palace on fire and burns himself to death inside.
- But not everyone wants Omri to be king, and a division arises, with half of the people following Omri and half following a guy named Tibni.
- But Tibni loses, so Omri's king after all.
- During his reign, Omri buys a hill and builds a city there called Samaria.
- Omri is more evil than anyone that came before him, and when he dies his son Ahab becomes king.
- And Ahab is even worse than his dad. Uh-oh.
- Ahab marries Jezebel, an idolatrous Sidonian princess, and he worships Baal, building altars and monuments dedicated to him.