ahab Summary and Overview

father's brother. (1.) The son of Omri, whom he succeeded as the seventh king of Israel. His history is recorded in 1 Kings 16-22. His wife was Jezebel (q.v.), who exercised a very evil influence over him. To the calf-worship introduced by Jeroboam he added the worship of Baal. He was severely admonished by Elijah (q.v.) for his wickedness. His anger was on this account kindled against the prophet, and he sought to kill him. He undertook three campaigns against Ben-hadad II., king of Damascus. In the first two, which were defensive, he gained a complete victory over Ben-hadad, who fell into his hands, and was afterwards released on the condition of his restoring all the cities of Israel he then held, and granting certain other concessions to Ahab. After three years of peace, for some cause Ahab renewed war (1 Kings 22:3) with Ben-hadad by assaulting the city of Ramoth-gilead, although the prophet Micaiah warned him that he would not succeed, and that the 400 false prophets who encouraged him were only leading him to his ruin. Micaiah was imprisoned for thus venturing to dissuade Ahab from his purpose. Ahab went into the battle disguised, that he might if possible escape the notice of his enemies; but an arrow from a bow "drawn at a venture" pierced him, and though stayed up in his chariot for a time he died towards evening, and Elijah's prophecy (1 Kings 21:19) was fulfilled. He reigned twenty-three years. Because of his idolatry, lust, and covetousness, Ahab is referred to as pre-eminently the type of a wicked king (2 Kings 8:18; 2 Chr. 22:3; Micah 6:16). (2.) A false prophet referred to by Jeremiah (Jer. 29:21), of whom nothing further is known.

(uncle). 1. Son of Omri, seventh king of Israel, reigned B.C. 919-896. He married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of Tyre; and in obedience to her wishes, caused temple to be built to Baal in Samaria itself; and an oracular grove to be consecrated to Astarte. See #1Ki 18:19| One of Ahab's chief tastes was for splendid architecture which he showed by building an ivory house and several cities. Desiring to add to his pleasure-grounds at Jezreel the vineyard of his neighbor Naboth, he proposed to buy it or give land in exchange for it; and when this was refused by Naboth in accordance with the Levitical law, #Le 25:23| a false accusation of blasphemy was brought against him, and he was murdered, and Ahab took possession of the coveted fields. #2Ki 9:26| Thereupon Elijah declared that the entire extirpation of Ahab's house was the penalty appointed for his long course of wickedness. [ELIJAH] The execution, however, of the sentence was delayed in consequence of Ahab's deep repentance. #1Ki 21:1| ... Ahab undertook three campaigns against Ben-hadad II. king of Damascus, two defensive and one offensive. In the first Ben-hadad laid siege to Samaria, but was repulsed with great loss. #1Ki 20:1-21| Next year Ben-hadad again invaded Israel by way of Aphek, on the east of Jordan; yet Ahab's victory was so complete that Ben-hadad himself fell into his hands, but was released contrary to God's will, #1Ki 20:22-34| on condition of restoring the cities of Israel, and admitting Hebrew commissioners into Damascus. After this great success Ahab enjoyed peace for three years, when he attacked Ramoth in Gilead, on the east of Jordan, in conjunction with Jehoshaphat king of Judah, which town he claimed as belonging to Israel. Being told by the prophet Micaiah that he would fall, he disguised himself, but was slain by "a certain man who drew a bow at a venture." When buried in Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood as a servant was washing his chariot; a partial fulfillment of Elijah's prediction, #1Ki 21:19| which was more literally accomplished in the case of his son. #2Ki 9:26| 2. A lying prophet, who deceived the captive Israelites in Babylon, and was burnt to death by Nebuchadnezzar. #Jer 29:21|

A'HAB ( father's brother). 1 . Seventh king of" Israel, b. c. 919-896. 1 Kgs 16:29. Son and successor of Omri. He reigned twenty-two years. His capital was Samaria. He married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, who had been priest of Astarte, but had seized the throne of his brother. Being a weak man, he was ruled by his ambitious and daring wife. Idolatry was set up in Israel. Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria, and Jezebel maintained at her own cost 400 prophets of Astarte. These were allowed to become the relentless persecutors of the servants of Jehovah, so that true religion was almost extinct. In punishment God sent three years of drought. Elijah had prophesied this event, and at its termination appeared before the king, challenged the false prophets to a trial of power, demonstrated their feebleness, amd caused them to be slain. Ahab was deeply impressed, and might have yielded, were it not for Jezebel, who threatened the life of Elijah, and by her energy prevented a reaction in favor of Jehovah. See Elijah. Ahab had a taste for splendid architecture; this he showed by building an ivory palace and several cities. But it was on the city of Jezreel he seems to have spent the most attention. The desire to beautify it led to the affair of Naboth's vineyard. This he coveted, that he might add it to his pleasure-grounds in Jezreel. But Naboth refused to part with the land for money or in exchange, for he was forbidden by the Levitical law. Lev 25:23. Ahab took the refusal to heart. But the scheming Jezebel secured Naboth's murder under orders marked with Ahab's seal. And thus the land passed into his hands. See Naboth. The Lord by Elijah denounced Ahab and Jezebel, and foretold the extinction of their house. But Ahab's remorse and repentance secured the postponement of the sentence. 1 Kgs 21. Ahab fought three wars or campaigns with Ben-hadad II., king of Syria, in the first two of which, only a year apart, both defensive, he was victorious. The second victory put Ben-hadad into his hands, and he was able to exact very favorable terms of peace -- viz. that all the Israelitish cities lost should be restored, and in Damascus Jewish officials should be permanently settled in their own houses, in order that they might look after the interests of Ahab and his subjects. This is what is meant by making "streets" in Damascus. 1 Kgs 20:34. For letting Ben-hadad go he was strikingly rebuked by a prophet, and the failure of his hopes prophesied. It was indeed foolish, since no pledge had been given by Ben-hadad; and ungrateful, because God, who had given the victory, was not consulted. For the next three years the kingdom had peace. But then Ahab in conjunction with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, his son-in-law, fought Ben-hadad the third time, in order to recover Ramoth-gilead, which Ahab claimed belonged to him. Lying prophets encouraged him in his enterprise, but at Jehoshaphat's request Micaiah, the prophet of Jehovah, was called, who foretold his death. Ahab in anger imprisoned Micaiah, but still was so impressed that he took the precaution to disguise himself; but a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote him, so that at eventide he died. His body was carried to Samaria; the dogs licked up his blood as a servant washed it from the chariot. Thus the prophecy of Elijah was partially fulfilled, but more exactly in the case of his son. Ahab left three children by Jezebel, all of whom died violent deaths; also, by other wives, seventy sons, who were slain by Jehu. 1. Ahab, a false prophet, who deceived the captive Israelites in Babylon, and was burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 594. Jer 29:22.

1. Son of Omri; seventh king of the northern kingdom of Israel, second of his dynasty; reigned 28 years, from 919 to 897 B.C. Having occasional good impulses (1 Kings 21:27), but weak and misled by his bad wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, i.e. Phoenicia in general. The Tyrian historians, Dius and Menander, mention Eithobalus as priest of Ashtoreth. Having murdered Pheles, he became king of Tyre. Menander mentions a drought in Phoenicia; compare 1 Kings 17. He makes him sixth king after Hiram of Tyre, the interval being 50 years, and Eithobalus' reign 32; thus he would be exactly contemporary with Ahab (Josephus c. Apion, 1:18.) Ahab, under Jezebel's influence, introduced the impure worship of the sun-god Baal, adding other gods besides Jehovah, a violation of the first commandment, an awful addition to Jeroboam's sin of the golden calves, which at Dan and Bethel (like Aaron's calves) were designed (for state policy) as images of the one true God, in violation of the second commandment; compare 2 Kings 17:9; "the children of Israel did secretly things Hebrew covered words that were not right Hebrew so against the Lord," i.e., veiled their real idolatry with flimsy pretexts, as the church of Rome does in its image veneration. The close relation of the northern kingdom with Tyre in David's and Solomon's time, and the temporal advantage of commercial intercourse with that great mart of the nations, led to an intimacy which, as too often happens in amalgamation between the church and the world, ended in Phoenicia seducing Israel to Baal and Astarte, instead of Israel drawing Phoenicia to Jehovah; compare 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Ahab built an altar and temple to Baal in Samaria, and "made a grove," i.e. a sacred symbolic tree (asheerah), the symbol of Ashtoreth (the idol to whom his wife's father was priest), the moon-goddess, female of Baal; else Venus, the Assyrian Ishtar (our "star".) Jehovah worship was scarcely tolerated; but the public mind seems to have been in a halting state of indecision between the two, Jehovah and Baal, excepting 7000 alone who resolutely rejected the idol; or they thought to form a compromise by uniting the worship of Baal with that of Jehovah. Compare Hosea 2:16; Amos 5:25-27; Amos 5:1 Kings 18; 19. Jezebel cut off Jehovah's prophets, except 100 saved by Obadiah. So prevalent was idolatry that Baal had 450 prophets, and Asherah ("the groves") had 400, whom Jezebel entertained at her own table. God chastised Israel with drought and famine, in answer to Elijah's prayer which he offered in jealousy for the honor of God, and in desire for the repentance of his people (1 Kings 17; James 5:17-18). When softened by the visitation, the people were ripe for the issue to which Elijah put the conflicting claims to Jehovah and Baal at Carmel, and on the fire from heaven consuming the prophet's sacrifice, fell on their faces and exclaimed with one voice, "Jehovah, He is the God; Jehovah, He is the God." Baal's prophets were slain at the brook Kishon, and the national judgment, through Elijah's prayers, was withdrawn, upon the nation's repentance. Ahab reported all to Jezebel, and she threatened immediate death to Elijah. Ahab was pre-eminent for luxurious tastes; his elaborately ornamented ivory palace (1 Kings 22:39; Amos 3:15), the many cities he built or restored, as Jericho (then belonging to Israel, not Judah) in defiance of Joshua's curse (1 Kings 16:34), his palace and park at Jezreel (now Zerin), in the plain of Esdraelon, his beautiful residence while Samaria was the capital, all show his magnificence. But much would have more, and his coveting Naboth's vineyard to add to his gardens led to an awful display of Jezebel's unscrupulous wickedness and his selfish weakness. "Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? ... I will give thee the vineyard." By false witness suborned at her direction, Naboth and his sons (after he had refused to sell his inheritance to Ahab, Leviticus 25:23) were stoned; and Ahab at Jezebel's bidding went down to take possession (1 Kings 21; 2 Kings 9:26). This was the turning point whereat his doom was sealed. Elijah with awful majesty denounces his sentence, "in the place where dogs licked Naboth's blood, shall dogs lick thine" (fulfilled to the letter on Joram his offspring, 2 Kings 9, primarily also on Ahab himself, but not "in the place" where Naboth's blood was shed); while the king abjectly cowers before him with the cry, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" All his male posterity were to be cut off, as Jeroboam's and Baasha's, the two previous dynasties, successively had been (See ELIJAH). Execution was stayed owing to Ahab's partial and temporary repentance; for he seems to have been capable of serious impressions at times (1 Kings 20:43); so exceedingly gracious is God at the first dawning of sorrow for sin. Ahab fought three campaigns against Benhadad II., king of Damascus. The arrogance of the Syrian king, who besieged Samaria, not content with the claim to Ahab's silver, gold, wives, and children being conceded, but also threatening to send his servants to search the Israelite houses for every pleasant thing, brought on him God's wrath. A prophet told Ahab that Jehovah should deliver to him by the young men of the princes of the provinces (compare 1 Corinthians 1:27-29) the Syrian multitude of which Benhadad vaunted, "The gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me" (1 Kings 20). "Drinking himself drunk" with his 32 vassal princes, he and his force were utterly routed. Compare for the spiritual application 1 Thessalonians 5:2-8. Again Benhadad, according to the prevalent idea of local gods, thinking Jehovah a god of the hills (His temple being on mount Zion and Samaria being on a hill) and not of the plains, ventured a battle on the plains at Aphek, E. of Jordan, with an army equal to his previous one. He was defeated and taken prisoner, but released, on condition of restoring to Ahab all the cities of Israel which he held, and making streets for Ahab in Damascus, as his father had made in Samaria (i.e. of assigning an Israelites' quarter in Damascus, where their judges should have paramount authority, for the benefit of Israelites resident there for commerce and political objects). A prophet invested with the divine commission ("in the word of the Lord": Haggai 1:13) requested his neighbor to smite him; refusing, he was slain by a lion. Another, at his request, smote and wounded him. By this symbolic act, and by a parable of his having suffered an enemy committed to him to escape, the prophet intimated that Ahab's life should pay the forfeit of his having suffered to escape with life one appointed by God to destruction. This disobedience, like Saul's in the case of Amalek, owing to his preferring his own will to God's, coupled with his treacherous and covetous murder of Naboth, brought on him his doom in his third campaign against Benhadad three years subsequently. With Jehoshaphat, in spite of the prophet Micaiah's warning, and urged on by an evil spirit in the false prophets, he tried to recover Ramoth Gilead (1 Kings 22). Benhadad's chief aim was to slay Ahab, probably from personal hostility owing to the gratuitousness of the attack. Conscience made Ahab a coward, and selfishness made him reckless of his professed friendship to Jehoshaphat. Compare 2 Chronicles 18:2; feasting and a display of hospitality often seduce the godly. So he disguised himself, and urged his friend to wear the royal robes. The same Benhadad whom duty to God ought to have led him to execute as a blasphemer, drunkard, and murderer, was in retribution made the instrument of his own destruction (1 Kings 20:10; 1 Kings 20:16; 1 Kings 20:42). That false friendship which the godly king of Judah ought never to have formed (2 Chronicles 19:2; 1 Corinthians 15:33) would have cost him his life but for God's interposition (2 Chronicles 18:31) "moving them to depart from him." Ahab's treachery did not secure his escape, an arrow "at a venture" humanly speaking, but guided by God really, wounded him fatally; and the dogs licked up his blood, according to the Lord's word of which Joram's case in 2 Kings 9:25 was a literal fulfillment (1 Kings 21:19), on the very spot, while his chariot and armor were being washed (1 Kings 22:38). The Assyrian Black Obelisk mentions "Ahab of Jezreel," his ordinary residence, and that he furnished the confederacy, including Benhadad, against, Assyria 10,000 footmen and 2000 chariots, and that they were defeated. At first sight this seemingly contradicts Scripture, which makes Benhadad Ahab's enemy. But an interval of peace of three years occurred between Ahab's two Syrian wars (1 Kings 22:1). In it Ahab doubtless allied himself to Benhadad against the Assyrians. Fear of them was probably among his reasons for granting Benhadad easy terms when in his power (1 Kings 20:34). When the Assyrians came in the interval that followed, Ahab was confederate with Benhadad. Hence arose his exasperation at the terms granted to Benhadad, whereby he gained life and liberty, being violated in disregard of honor and gratitude (1 Kings 22:3). The Moabite stone mentions Omri's son; "He also said, I will oppress Moab," confirming Scripture that it was not until after Ahab's death that Moab rebelled (2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:4-5). (See DIBON.) 2. A false prophet, who deceived with flattering prophecies of an immediate return the Jews in Babylon, and was burnt to death by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 29:21-22). The names of him and Zedekiah, his fellow deceiver, were doomed to be a byword for a curse