Jeroboam's son Nadab succeeded his father but was overthrown by a rebel, Baasha. Baasha killed everyone in Jeroboam's family and then ruled for twenty-four years. When he died his son succeeded him but he was murdered in a military coup d'etat by an army officer, who killed everyone in Baasha's family, but was then rejected by the Israelite army as the new king. The officer, Zimri, killed himself by burning down his fortress, and another officer, Omri, was proclaimed king of Israel by the army. Not surprisingly, Israel was left in a state of serious instability by these events, but Omri proved to be a strong king although the writer of the book of Kings sees no good in him. 'Omri sinned against the LORD more than any of his predecessors' (1 Kings 16: 25). But if we look at verses such as 1 Kings 15:27-30,15:33-34,16:11-13, we find that the writer has nothing good to say about any king of Israel, and this attitude continues right until the final record of the last king of the northern kingdom. It is clear that the writer sees the first king, Jeroboam I, as taking a wrong direction which all the other kings followed. Jeroboam's sin, and the sin of all the other kings, was in allowing Canaanite influences to enter the religion of Israel. The true covenant faith was no longer upheld by the ruler, who himself was not of the dynasty of David, and who no longer met with Israel at the sanctuary of Jerusalem. The writer sees God's punishment coming in various ways on the rulers of Israel, as they die or are overthrown. These rulers are taking all their people in the wrong direction and therefore deserve punishment.

There are frequent references to the historical sources which the writer used, and with regard to Israel he used The History of the Kings of Israel. He used his sources selectively and we cannot now know how detailed these sources were, but there was likely to be very much more information in them about each king than the writer gives us. Amongst the very brief information given to us about Omri, we are told that he bought the hill of Samaria, fortified it and built a city there. This city became Omri's capital. Outside the Bible, a Moabite monument records the freeing of the Moabites from Israelite domination, and this reveals that Omri was the king of Israel who subjugated Moab. Archaeological excavations at the site of Samaria have shown that Omri began to build a very strong fortified city in which there was a fine palace for the king. These facts alone about Omri indicate that he was a strong king despite a fairly short reign (876-869 B.C.).