1 Kings 16:22 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But the people that followed Omri prevailed Partly because they had the army on their side; and principally by the appointment of God, giving up the Israelites to him who was much the worse man, 1 Kings 16:25-26. So Tibni died A violent death, it seems, in battle: and doubtless many of the people died with him. But why, inquires Sir Walter Raleigh, (see his History of the World, 50:2, c. 19, § 6,) in all these confusions, and revolutions of the kingdom of Israel, did they never think of returning to the house of David? Probably, observes he, because the kings of Judah assumed a more absolute power over their subjects than the kings of Israel. It was the heaviness of the yoke which they complained of, when they first revolted from the house of David. And it is not unlikely but the dread of that made them averse to it ever after.