Kings of Israel and Judah

Zimri
Israel (Northern Kingdom)
Ruled seven days. The army, angered by his treason, proclaimed Omri king and surrounded the capital. Zimri set fire to the palace and let it collapse on him.

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Tibni
Israel (Northern Kingdom)
Rival claimant to Omri, reigned for several years. Death: Was apparently killed while assailed by the soldiers of Omri – his death is recorded, but the circumstances surrounding it go unexplained.

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Omri
Israel (Northern Kingdom)
From a human viewpoint, Omri was an effective king. He made peace with Judah and won back Moab and other lost territories. To cement ties with Tyre, he married his son Ahab to Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre. She introduced Baal worship to Israel. Because of this Omri was denounced by the prophets.

However he brought peace and prosperity to the northern kingdom and established a strategically located new capital, Samaria, to guard the Via Maris and to rival Jerusalem. Omri died after only 12 years on the throne but he so impressed contemporary leaders that Israel was afterward known as the Land of Omri.

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The Jewish kings ruled over vastly different kingdoms in different periods of history. Starting in the early iron age with Saul, several kings ruled over an expanding, "United Kingdom." After the death of Solomon a fissure developed, with ten tribes separating into the Northern Kingdom of "Israel..."

( see table )

and the tribes of Benjamin and Judah continuing the Davidic line in the Southern Kingdom of "Judah."

( see table )

After the north was conquered by Assyria and the south by Babylon, a Jewish kingdom did not reappear until the second century BC with the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans were then followed in the first century BC by the Herodian rulers, this final group being clients of Rome, (and actually Idumean).