Ahab
Encyclopedia
Ahab or Ach'av or Achab in Douay-Rheims was king of Israel and the son and successor of Omri
according to the Hebrew Bible
. His wife was Jezebel
.
Ahab became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah
, and reigned for twenty-two years. William F. Albright
dated his reign to 869 – 850 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 874 – 853 BC. Michael D. Coogan dates his reign to 871-852 BCE.
(Ahab's father and founder of the short lived Omri Dynasty) seems to have been a successful military leader being reported within the text of the Moabite Mesha Stele
to have "oppressed Moab for many days". Ahab was succeeded by Ahaziah
and Jehoram
who reigned over Israel until Jehu's revolt of 842 BC. Ahab married Jezebel
, the daughter of the King of Tyre, and the alliance was doubtless the means of procuring political support. Jezreel
has been identified as Ahab's fortified chariot and cavalry base. 1 Kings chapters 16-22 tells the story of Ahab and Jezebel, and indicates that Jezebel was a bad influence on Ahab.
During Ahab's reign, Moab
, which had been conquered by his father, remained tributary; Judah
, with whose king, Jehoshaphat
, he was allied by marriage, was probably his vassal; only with Aram Damascus
is he believed to have had strained relations.
is mentioned in extra-biblical records, and was perhaps at Apamea
where Shalmaneser III
of Assyria
fought a great confederation of princes from Cilicia
, Northern Syria
, Israel, Ammon
, and the tribes of the Syrian desert (853 BC), including Ahab (A-ha-ab-bu mat) (Adad-'idri).
Ahab's contribution was reckoned at 2,000 chariot
s and 10,000 men. In reality, however, the number of chariots in Ahab's forces was probably closer to number in the hundreds (this due to archaeological excavations of the area and the foundations of stables that had been found). If, however, the numbers are referring to allies it could possibly include forces from Tyre, Judah, Edom
, and Moab
. The Assyrian king claimed a victory, but his immediate return and subsequent expeditions in 849 BC and 846 BC against a similar but unspecified coalition seem to show that he met with no lasting success. According to the Tanakh
, however, Ahab with 7,000 troops had previously overthrown Ben-hadad and his thirty-two kings, who had come to lay siege to Samaria, and in the following year obtained a decisive victory over him at Aphek, probably in the plain of Sharon at Antipatris
(1 Kings 20). A treaty was made whereby Ben-hadad restored the cities which his father had taken from Ahab's father (that is, Omri, but see 15:20, 2 Kings
13:25), and trading facilities between Damascus and Samaria were granted.
The first encounter has to do with Elijah, whom Ahab refers to as "the troubler of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17), in which Elijah predicts a drought (1 Kings 17:1). This encounter ends with Elijah victorious over the official Baal
prophets of Israel in a contest held for the sake of the Israelites and their king, Ahab. The contest ends when Elijah's God consumes the offering which the Baal worshipers could not induce their god to touch, after which Elijah slaughters the Baal prophets (1 Kings 18:17-40). The second encounter is between Ahab and two unnamed prophets in 1 Kings 20:22. The third is when Elijah confronts Ahab over Ahab and Jezebel
's execution of Naboth
and usurpation of his land in 1 Kings 21. The fourth encounter is with Micaiah
, the prophet who, when asked for advice on a military campaign, first assures Ahab he will be successful and ultimately gives Ahab a glimpse into God's plan for Ahab to die in battle (1 Kings 22).
, who was one of the most "powerful and notorious women of monarchic times" yet who died of a similarly seemingly random death like her husband, and his capital of Samaria was said to follow Canaanite gods. Ahab was succeeded by his sons, Ahaziah
and Jehoram
.
throughout as well as various consequences because of his marriage to Jezebel, because of his worship of Baal, disobedience to prophetic warnings and words, and also because of the murder of Naboth. The murder of Naboth
(see Jezebel), an act of royal encroachment, stirred up popular resentment just as the new cult aroused the opposition of certain of the prophets (Elijah, Micaiah
, and a few unnamed prophet
s). Indeed, he is referred to, for this and other things as being "more evil than all the kings before him" (1 Kings 16:30). The followers of Yahweh found their champion in Elijah, whose story reflects the prophetic teaching of more than one age. His denunciation of the royal dynasty of Israel, and his emphatic insistence on the worship of Yahweh and Yahweh alone, illustrated by the contest between Yahweh and Baal on Mount Carmel
, as told in 1 Kings 18, form the keynote to a period which culminated in the accession of Jehu
, an event in which Elijah's chosen disciple Elisha
was the leading figure.
Omri
Omri was a king of Israel, successful military campaigner and first in the line of Omride kings that included Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram.He was "commander of the army" of king Elah when Zimri murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, and he led them to...
according to the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. His wife was Jezebel
Jezebel
Jezebel may refer to:* Jezebel, wife of King Ahab*Jezebel, in the Book of Revelation 2:20 a prophetess in the church of Thyatira* Jezebel , starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda* Jezebel , a blog aimed at women...
.
Ahab became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah
Asa of Judah
Asa was the third king of the Kingdom of Judah and the fifth king of the House of David. He was the son of Abijam, grandson of Rehoboam, and great-grandson of Solomon. The Hebrew Bible gives the period of his reign as 41 years. His reign is dated between 913-910 BCE to 873-869 BCE. He was...
, and reigned for twenty-two years. William F. Albright
William F. Albright
William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...
dated his reign to 869 – 850 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 874 – 853 BC. Michael D. Coogan dates his reign to 871-852 BCE.
Family
OmriOmri
Omri was a king of Israel, successful military campaigner and first in the line of Omride kings that included Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram.He was "commander of the army" of king Elah when Zimri murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, and he led them to...
(Ahab's father and founder of the short lived Omri Dynasty) seems to have been a successful military leader being reported within the text of the Moabite Mesha Stele
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is a black basalt stone bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC ruler Mesha of Moab in Jordan....
to have "oppressed Moab for many days". Ahab was succeeded by Ahaziah
Ahaziah
Ahaziah "; Douay-Rheims: Ochozias) was the name of two kings:*Ahaziah of Israel*Ahaziah of Judah...
and Jehoram
Jehoram of Israel
Jehoram was a king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of Ahab and Jezebel.According to , in the fifth year of Joram of Israel, Jehoram became king of Judah, when his father Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, indicating a co-regency...
who reigned over Israel until Jehu's revolt of 842 BC. Ahab married Jezebel
Jezebel
Jezebel may refer to:* Jezebel, wife of King Ahab*Jezebel, in the Book of Revelation 2:20 a prophetess in the church of Thyatira* Jezebel , starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda* Jezebel , a blog aimed at women...
, the daughter of the King of Tyre, and the alliance was doubtless the means of procuring political support. Jezreel
Jezreel (city)
Jezreel was an ancient Israelite city and fortress originally within the boundaries of the Tribe of Issachar, and later within the northern Kingdom of Israel. According to the Book of Kings, the royal palace of King Ahab in Jezreel was adjacent to the vineyard of Naboth...
has been identified as Ahab's fortified chariot and cavalry base. 1 Kings chapters 16-22 tells the story of Ahab and Jezebel, and indicates that Jezebel was a bad influence on Ahab.
Ahab's reign
Moab
Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over...
, which had been conquered by his father, remained tributary; Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
, with whose king, Jehoshaphat
Jehoshaphat
Jehoshaphat was the fourth king of the The Kingdom of Judah, and successor of his father Asa. His children included Jehoram, who succeeded him as king...
, he was allied by marriage, was probably his vassal; only with Aram Damascus
Aram Damascus
Aram Damascus was an Aramaean state around Damascus in Syria, from the late 12th century BCE to 734 BCE.Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories: Assyrian annals, Aramaean texts, and the Hebrew Bible....
is he believed to have had strained relations.
Battle of Qarqar
The Battle of QarqarBattle of Qarqar
The Battle of Qarqar was fought in 853 BC when the army of Assyria led by king Shalmaneser III encountered an allied army of 12 kings at Qarqar led by Hadadezer of Damascus and King Ahab of Israel...
is mentioned in extra-biblical records, and was perhaps at Apamea
Apamea (Syria)
Apamea was a treasure city and stud-depot of the Seleucid kings, was capital of Apamene, on the right bank of the Orontes River. . Its site is found about to the northwest of Hama, Syria, overlooking the Ghab valley...
where Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria , and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II....
of Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
fought a great confederation of princes from Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...
, Northern Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Israel, Ammon
Ammon
Ammon , also referred to as the Ammonites and children of Ammon, was an ancient nation located east of the Jordan River, Gilead, and the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan. The chief city of the country was Rabbah or Rabbath Ammon, site of the modern city of Amman, Jordan's capital...
, and the tribes of the Syrian desert (853 BC), including Ahab (A-ha-ab-bu mat) (Adad-'idri).
Ahab's contribution was reckoned at 2,000 chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
s and 10,000 men. In reality, however, the number of chariots in Ahab's forces was probably closer to number in the hundreds (this due to archaeological excavations of the area and the foundations of stables that had been found). If, however, the numbers are referring to allies it could possibly include forces from Tyre, Judah, Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
, and Moab
Moab
Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. The land lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by numerous archeological findings, most notably the Mesha Stele, which describes the Moabite victory over...
. The Assyrian king claimed a victory, but his immediate return and subsequent expeditions in 849 BC and 846 BC against a similar but unspecified coalition seem to show that he met with no lasting success. According to the Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
, however, Ahab with 7,000 troops had previously overthrown Ben-hadad and his thirty-two kings, who had come to lay siege to Samaria, and in the following year obtained a decisive victory over him at Aphek, probably in the plain of Sharon at Antipatris
Antipatris
Antipatris, one of two places known as Tel Afek , was a city built by Herod the Great, and named in honour of his father, Antipater II of Judea...
(1 Kings 20). A treaty was made whereby Ben-hadad restored the cities which his father had taken from Ahab's father (that is, Omri, but see 15:20, 2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
13:25), and trading facilities between Damascus and Samaria were granted.
Ahab and the Prophets
In the Biblical text, Ahab has four important encounters with prophets.The first encounter has to do with Elijah, whom Ahab refers to as "the troubler of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17), in which Elijah predicts a drought (1 Kings 17:1). This encounter ends with Elijah victorious over the official Baal
Baal
Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
prophets of Israel in a contest held for the sake of the Israelites and their king, Ahab. The contest ends when Elijah's God consumes the offering which the Baal worshipers could not induce their god to touch, after which Elijah slaughters the Baal prophets (1 Kings 18:17-40). The second encounter is between Ahab and two unnamed prophets in 1 Kings 20:22. The third is when Elijah confronts Ahab over Ahab and Jezebel
Jezebel
Jezebel may refer to:* Jezebel, wife of King Ahab*Jezebel, in the Book of Revelation 2:20 a prophetess in the church of Thyatira* Jezebel , starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda* Jezebel , a blog aimed at women...
's execution of Naboth
Naboth
Naboth "the Jezreelite," is the central figure of a story from the Old Testament. According to the story, Naboth was the owner of a plot on the eastern slope of the hill of Jezreel...
and usurpation of his land in 1 Kings 21. The fourth encounter is with Micaiah
Micaiah
Micaiah son of Imlah is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. He is not the same as the titular prophet of the Book of Micah, also called "The Morasthite" to distinguish him from Micaiah. Today Micaiah is a rare name and it is still debated if it is unisex or for men only.-Micaiah's prophecy:The events...
, the prophet who, when asked for advice on a military campaign, first assures Ahab he will be successful and ultimately gives Ahab a glimpse into God's plan for Ahab to die in battle (1 Kings 22).
Death of Ahab
Three years later, war broke out on the east of the Jordan River, and Ahab with Jehoshaphat of Judah went to recover Ramoth-Gilead. During this battle Ahab disguised himself, but was mortally wounded by an unaimed arrow (ch. 22). The Hebrew Bible says that dogs licked his blood, according to the prophecy of Elijah. But the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) adds that "pigs" also licked his blood. Israelites of course abstained from pork, but Ahab was married to a Phoenician/Tyrian princess JezebelJezebel (Bible)
Jezebel was a princess, identified in the Hebrew Book of Kings as the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, king of north Israel. According to genealogies given in Josephus and other classical sources, she was the great-aunt of Dido, Queen of Carthage.The Hebrew text portrays...
, who was one of the most "powerful and notorious women of monarchic times" yet who died of a similarly seemingly random death like her husband, and his capital of Samaria was said to follow Canaanite gods. Ahab was succeeded by his sons, Ahaziah
Ahaziah of Israel
Ahaziah or Ochozias was king of Israel and the son of Ahab and Jezebel.William F. Albright has dated his reign to 850-849 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 853-852 BC...
and Jehoram
Jehoram of Israel
Jehoram was a king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of Ahab and Jezebel.According to , in the fifth year of Joram of Israel, Jehoram became king of Judah, when his father Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, indicating a co-regency...
.
Legacy
While the above passages from 1 Kings do not view Ahab unfavourably, there are others which are less friendly. Essentially, 1 Kings 16:29 through 20:40 is the story of Ahab's reign. This reign is one which faces opposition from several prophets of YahwehYahweh (Canaanite deity)
The hypothesis of a Canaanite deity named Yahweh or Yahwi is accepted by some Ancient Near Eastern scholars, although no direct evidence from archeology has been found. The name Yahwi may possibly be found in some male Amorite names...
throughout as well as various consequences because of his marriage to Jezebel, because of his worship of Baal, disobedience to prophetic warnings and words, and also because of the murder of Naboth. The murder of Naboth
Naboth
Naboth "the Jezreelite," is the central figure of a story from the Old Testament. According to the story, Naboth was the owner of a plot on the eastern slope of the hill of Jezreel...
(see Jezebel), an act of royal encroachment, stirred up popular resentment just as the new cult aroused the opposition of certain of the prophets (Elijah, Micaiah
Micaiah
Micaiah son of Imlah is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. He is not the same as the titular prophet of the Book of Micah, also called "The Morasthite" to distinguish him from Micaiah. Today Micaiah is a rare name and it is still debated if it is unisex or for men only.-Micaiah's prophecy:The events...
, and a few unnamed prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s). Indeed, he is referred to, for this and other things as being "more evil than all the kings before him" (1 Kings 16:30). The followers of Yahweh found their champion in Elijah, whose story reflects the prophetic teaching of more than one age. His denunciation of the royal dynasty of Israel, and his emphatic insistence on the worship of Yahweh and Yahweh alone, illustrated by the contest between Yahweh and Baal on Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
, as told in 1 Kings 18, form the keynote to a period which culminated in the accession of Jehu
Jehu
Jehu was a king of Israel. He was the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson of Nimshi.William F. Albright has dated his reign to 842-815 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 841-814 BC...
, an event in which Elijah's chosen disciple Elisha
Elisha
Elisha is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.-Biblical biography:...
was the leading figure.