The Downfall of the House of Omri

As a continuation of my recent post on the rise of Omri and the special trait of his house, I noticed that this is how Yehu killed the descendants of Achav: Divide and conquer. In Kings 2:9:21-24, Yehu approaches both King Yehoram, son of Achav and King Achazyah, son of Atlayah, daughter or sister of Achav and Yehoram, son of Yehoshafat. It may be understood from the verses that Yehu first barged towards Yehoram, cursing him, as though he did not notice Achazyah. This makes Yehoram conclude that Achazyah was betraying him and shouts at him "Treason, Achazyah!" before he is slaughtered by Yehu. Yehu then gives chase to Achazyah and slaughters him as well (ibid. 27). Next he slays the 70 other sons of Achav (ibid. 10:1-11). Finally, he kills the 42 kinsmen of Achazyah (ibid. 10:13-14). All of this spilling of blood was appranetly caused by one man. The various branches of the House of Achav could have taken him on, but they were ill-prepared and divided (in some cases, geographically, and in other cases, metaphorically).

One other interesting thing to notice is that Achazyah, who was, as mentioned above, also a descendant of Omri, was caught by Yehu at a place called Beit Ha'Gan. Many modern scholars identify it with Jenin, but the symbolism here is very interesting: As discussed in the prior post, Omri rose by defeating Tivni ben Ginat, whose name means "straw, son of garden" and Beit Ha'Gan means "house of garden". The House of Omri rose by uniting against the unkemptness and dividedness of the garden and fell at the garden when they lost sight of their unity.


Yehu driving like a crazy person in Shay Charka's יהוצפן א'
(highly recommended!)


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