Omri עמרי
king of Israel for twelve years; he founded Samaria
Omri came out of the army and won the throne in a civil war: half the people followed Tibni son of Ginath and half followed him, and «those who followed Omri prevailed». He reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.
His chief work was a new capital. He bought a hill from a man named Shemer for two talents of silver, built a city on it and called it Samaria after the hill's owner (1 Kings 16:24). The site was chosen so well that it fell only to a three-year siege — and that to Assyria. Kings gives him six verses and says he «did worse than all before him», but his neighbours remembered otherwise: Assyrian inscriptions still called Israel «the house of Omri» a century later, and the stele of Mesha king of Moab names him as the one who oppressed Moab.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I (1 Kings) 16:15–28 — the civil war with Tibni, the purchase of the hill from Shemer, and the founding of Samaria
Documents of the period
- Mesha Stele — the ninth-century BCE Moabite inscription names Omri as the oppressor of Moab
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.