For the statutes of Omri are kept
Who of a captain of the army was made king of Israel, and proved
a wicked prince; he built Samaria, and set up idolatrous worship
there, after the example of Jeroboam, in whose ways he walked,
and, as it seems, established the same by laws and edicts; and
which were everyone of them observed by the Israelites, in the
times of the prophet, though at the distance of many years from
the first making of them, which aggravated their sin; nor would
it be any excuse of them that what they practised was enjoined by
royal authority, since it was contrary to the command of God; for
the breach of which, and their observance of the statutes of such
a wicked prince, they are threatened with the judgments of God;
see ( 1 Kings
16:16 1
Kings 16:24-26 ) ; and all the works of the house of
Ahab;
who was the son of Omri, and introduced the worship of Baal, and
added to the idolatry of the calves, which he and his family
practised; and the same works were now done by the people of
Israel: and ye walk in their counsels;
as they advised and directed the people to do in their days:
that I should make thee a desolation;
the city of Samaria, the metropolis of Israel, or the whole land,
which was made a desolation by Shalmaneser, an instrument in the
hand of God; and this was not the intention and design of their
walking in the counsels and after the example of their idolatrous
kings, but the consequence and event of so doing: and the
inhabitants thereof an hissing;
either of Samaria, or of all the land, who should become the
scorn and derision of men, when brought to ruin for their sins:
therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my
people;
that which was threatened in the law to the people of God, when
disobedient to him; or shameful punishment for profaning the name
and character of the people of God they bore; or for reproaching
and ill using the poor among the people of God; and so it is
directed to the rich men before spoken of, and signifies the
shame and ignominy they should bear, by being carried captive
into a foreign land for their sins.