Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 16:15-28
Solomon observes (Pro 28:2) that for the transgression of a land many were the princes thereof (so it was here in Israel), but by a man of understanding the state thereof shall be prolonged - so it was with Judah at the same time under Asa. When men forsake God they are out of the way of rest and establishment. Zimri, and Tibni, and Omri, are here striving for the crown. Proud aspiring men ruin one another, and involve others in the ruin. These confusions end in the settlement of Omri; we must therefore take him along with us through this part of the story.
I. How he was chosen, as the Roman emperors often were, by the army in the field, now encamped before Gibbethon. Notice was soon brought…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 16:25
But Omri wrought evil--The character of Omri's reign and his death are described in the stereotyped form used towards all the successors of Jeroboam in respect both to policy as well as time.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 16:25
Did worse than all - before him - Omri was,
1. An idolater in principle;
2. An idolater in practice;
3. He led the people to idolatry by precept and example; and, which was that in which he did worse than all before him,
4. He made statutes in favor of idolatry, and obliged the people by law to commit it. See Mic 6:16, where this seems to be intended: For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab.
John Gill on 1 Kings 16:25
But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord,.... Openly and publicly, as if it were in defiance of him:
and did worse than all that were before him; taking no warning by the judgments inflicted on them, which aggravated his sins; and besides, he not only worshipped the calves, as the rest, and drew Israel by his example into the same, as they did, but he published edicts and decrees, obliging them to worship them, and forbidding them to go to Jerusalem, called "the statutes of Omri", Micah 6:16.
