21 At that time, the people of Israel were divided concerning their leadership—half of them supported Ginnat’s son Tivni as king, and the other half supported Omri, 22 but those supporting Omri prevailed, so Tivni was executed and Omri remained in power. 23 Omri became king in the thirty-first years of King Asa’s reign over Yehudah, and reigned over Israel for twelve years—six of them from Tirtsah. 24 He bought a hill from a man named Shemer for seventy kilograms of silver, then built his capital city on it. He named it Shomron (Samaria) in honour of Shemer who’d owned the hill.

25 Omri did what Yahweh had said was evil—in fact he did more evil things than all those kings who preceded him. 26 He followed (Nabat’s son) Yarobam’s behaviour including causing Israel to sin by provoking Israel’s God Yahweh to get angry with their idols. 27 Everything else that Omri did, including his military victories, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Israel. 28 Then Omri died and was buried in Shomron, and his son Ahav (Ahab) replaced him as king.