This verse is similar in content and form to the judgments upon Baasha (verse 7), Baasha and Elah (verse 13), and Zimri (verse 19). But of Omri, the writer says that he was “worse than all of the kings who ruled before him” (Bible en français courant). And in verse 26, the writer says that Omri “walked in all the way of Jeroboam.”

The structure of this verse, with the conjunction and joining the two parts, may be misleading. It should not be understood to indicate two different acts of committing wrong in which only the second was worse than his predecessors. Rather, the idea is that he habitually did wrong; his habitual wrongdoing was more displeasing than that of those kings who ruled before him.

All who were before him refers to the predecessors of Omri. In some languages it may be necessary to say “all those who ruled before him” or “all the kings who were before him” (International Children’s Bible; similarly New Living Translation).

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .