No one of them was marked by signal ability, unless it were Omri, who built the city of Samaria on a high hill, and so strongly fortified it that it remained the capital until the fall of the kingdom.

To cement this political alliance, Omri married his son Ahabthe heir-apparent to the throneto a daughter of the Tyrian king, afterward so infamous as a religious fanatic and persecutor, under the name of Jezebel,one of the worst women in history.

He is not designated as the power to effect the great revolution which should root out idolatry and destroy the house of Omri; but Jehu, an unscrupulous yet jealous warrior, was to found a new dynasty, and the king of Syria was to punish and afflict the ten tribes, and Elisha was to be the mouth-piece of the Almighty in the court of kings.

With her also perished the seventy sons of Ahab, all indeed that survived of the royal house of Omri.

[Footnote 2: Omri.]

"In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah, began Omri to reign over Israel."Ib., xvi, 23.

"In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, began Omri to reign over Israel.