Lesson
The Kings of Israel
Every northern king, from Jeroboam to Hoshea, with the long stories of Ahab, Elijah, and Jehu told in full and the short reigns told together.
October 7, 2026
The northern kingdom lasts about two centuries, from the split to 722. Its kings are buried, when they are buried, without the phrase the book keeps for David. Not one of them turns from the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. That sentence is the refrain. The differences are how they die, and whether a prophet is standing in the room.
From Jeroboam to Omri
Jeroboam reigns about twenty-two years, the calves staying in place, his hand withered and healed in the same scene at the altar, his child dying as Ahijah said. Nadab his son reigns two years and is struck down by Baasha, who kills the whole house. Baasha reigns about twenty-four years and walks in the same sin. Elah his son lasts two years and is drunk in his steward's house when Zimri kills him and the whole house. Zimri reigns seven days in Tirzah, and when Omri's army closes in he burns the king's house over himself.
The people are divided. Half follow Tibni, half follow Omri. Tibni dies. Omri reigns, buys the hill of Samaria, and builds the capital there. The Bible gives him a short chapter and a worse grade than all before him. Outside, his name lasts longer than his chapter. Assyria will still call the kingdom the house of Omri after his dynasty is gone. Mesha of Moab, on a stele from about 840, says Omri afflicted Moab many days. The ground note is in the scroll with the other stones.
Ahab, and the prophets
Ahab son of Omri takes Jezebel of Sidon and serves Baal. He builds a house and an altar for Baal in Samaria and makes an Asherah. Elijah tells him there will be neither dew nor rain except by his word. At Carmel, Elijah sets the contest. The prophets of Baal cry all day. Elijah repairs the LORD's altar, soaks the wood, and prays. Fire falls. The people say the LORD, He is God. The rain comes. Jezebel threatens him. He runs to Horeb and is told to anoint Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha. He casts his cloak on Elisha.
Naboth will not sell his vineyard. Jezebel writes letters in Ahab's name, and Naboth is stoned on a false charge of cursing God and the king. Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard. In the place where dogs licked Naboth's blood, dogs will lick Ahab's. Ahab humbles himself, and the full end of his house is delayed. He dies in battle at Ramoth-gilead, shot by an archer who draws at random, and dogs lick the blood washed from his chariot.
Ahaziah reigns two years, falls through a lattice, and sends to Baal-zebub to ask if he will live. Elijah intercepts the messengers. Ahaziah dies. Joram his brother reigns about twelve years. He puts away the pillar of Baal, and he clings to Jeroboam's sin. Elisha's stories fill these years: a widow's oil, a Shunammite's son, Naaman the Syrian, chariots of fire around a frightened servant, a siege of Samaria lifted when the LORD makes the Syrians hear an army that is not there. The kindness to a Syrian general, and the feeding of enemy soldiers, are as much the text as the fire.
In 853 BC Shalmaneser III of Assyria fights a coalition at Qarqar that includes Ahab the Israelite. The Bible does not tell that battle. The Kurkh monolith does. It shows Ahab alive in 853, with chariots enough to be worth naming. That is why his dates, about 874 to 853, are marked as a record lining up, not only as a sum of regnal years.
Jehu, and the rest
Elisha sends a son of the prophets to anoint Jehu. Jehu drives to Jezreel, kills Joram, and has Ahaziah of Judah shot. Jezebel paints her eyes and is thrown from the window. He kills Ahab's seventy sons in Samaria and then gathers the worshipers of Baal into Baal's house and kills them. He turns the house into a latrine. And he does not turn from the calves. The Black Obelisk shows a king of Israel, a "son of Omri," bowing with tribute to Shalmaneser. The usual identification is Jehu, about 841. The dynasty on the stone is Omri's name, used as the country's name, even though Jehu has just wiped Omri's bloodline out. Propaganda is not always precise. The kneeling king is real.
After him the reigns can be told together, because the book itself hurries.
Jehoahaz, about 814 to 798, is given into the hand of Syria, and he seeks the LORD and is heard, and yet he does not depart from the calves. Jehoash, about 798 to 782, visits the dying Elisha and is told to strike the ground with arrows. He strikes three times and stops, and he is angry that he stopped. He beats Syria three times. He also goes to Jerusalem, breaks the wall, and takes temple gold. Jeroboam II, about 793 to 753, a long overlap with his father, restores the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea, as Jonah had said. The book gives the prosperity in a few verses. Amos and Hosea say what the prosperity was made of.
Then the throne eats its holders. Zechariah, six months, struck by Shallum. Shallum, one month, struck by Menahem. Menahem, about 752 to 742, pays Pul of Assyria, Tiglath-pileser, a thousand talents of silver by taxing the wealthy, so that the Assyrian will confirm him. Pekahiah, two years, killed by Pekah his captain. Pekah, whose years overlap because he seems to have held power in Gilead while Menahem ruled in Samaria, reigns in the book's count and is killed by Hoshea. Hoshea, about 732 to 722, is the last. The fall of his city is its own lesson.
Every name above is in the text. The short ones are short there. Grouping them here is not skipping them. It is refusing to invent a long story the book did not tell.
Three stones outside the Bible name kings of Israel: the record of the battle of Qarqar, the Black Obelisk, and the Mesha stele. Each says something, and each leaves something unsaid.
This lesson's home is Timeline.