Omri outwent his idolatrous predecessors in his zeal, reducing the calf-worship to a regular formal system, which went down to posterity (compare the marginal reference).

Did worse than all - before him - Omri was,

1. An idolater in principle;

2. An idolater in practice;

3. He led the people to idolatry by precept and example; and, which was that in which he did worse than all before him,

4. He made statutes in favor of idolatry, and obliged the people by law to commit it. See Micah 6:16, where this seems to be intended: For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab.

But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord,.... Openly and publicly, as if it were in defiance of him:

and did worse than all that were before him; taking no warning by the judgments inflicted on them, which aggravated his sins; and besides, he not only worshipped the calves, as the rest, and drew Israel by his example into the same, as they did, but he published edicts and decrees, obliging them to worship them, and forbidding them to go to Jerusalem, called "the statutes of Omri", Micah 6:16.

Omri also walked in the ways of Jeroboam, and acted worse than his predecessors upon the throne. - For 1 Kings 16:26 and 1 Kings 16:27, compare 1 Kings 16:13 and 1 Kings 16:14.

But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did {k} worse than all that were before him.

(k) For such is the nature of idolatry, that the superstition of it daily increases, and the older it is, the more abominable it is before God and his Church.

25-27. But Omri wrought evil-The character of Omri's reign and his death are described in the stereotyped form used towards all the successors of Jeroboam in respect both to policy as well as time.

16:15-28 When men forsake God, they will be left to plague one another. Proud aspiring men ruin one another. Omri struggled with Tibni some years. Though we do not always understand the rules by which God governs nations and individuals in his providence, we may learn useful lessons from the history before us. When tyrants succeed each other, and massacres, conspiracies, and civil wars, we may be sure the Lord has a controversy with the people for their sins; they are loudly called to repent and reform. Omri made himself infamous by his wickedness. Many wicked men have been men of might and renown; have built cities, and their names are found in history; but they have no name in the book of life.