Commentary on 1 Kings 16:29–33 (Summary)

1 Kings 16:29 gives the reader the date of the ascension of King Ahab to the throne (the thirty-eighth year of King Asa in Judah), the place (Samaria), and the number of years of his reign (twenty-two). Ahab was the last king of Israel to reign when Asa was king in Judah. Yet consider how many kings and dynasties had come and gone in Israel with Asa still on the throne in Judah. Of the kings we have Jeroboam (the end of his reign), Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri (and Tibni, if we want to count him), and Ahab.

What should we make of this? Possibly, we might wonder why the people of the northern kingdom did not question the reason for the relative instability of their kings in comparison to the king who reigned in Judah. A possible answer to that question is that they had no real understanding, despite the prophets that had proclaimed it, that the Lord was a judge of men and nations.

The Bible tells a lot about Ahab. He was king of the ten-tribe kingdom for twenty-two years. But the description immediately opens with the statement that his behaviour was even worse than that of his predecessors. The writer in fact mentions twice that Ahab was more wicked than his predecessors, once before the list of sins and once after he has recorded those things. Ahab was so evil that it was necessary to mention it twice. Previousl we noted about the evaluation of the rule of Omri that, although the author says that that king did greater evil than all that were before him, he did not mention the manner in which Omri’s wickedness excelled his predecessors. The same cannot be said concerning the evaluation of Ahab’s reign. Like Omri, Ahab excelled in evil those who had gone before, but in Ahab’s case he gives us reasons for such an evaluation.

The phrase that the writer used to indicate the extent of Ahab’s evil comparative to the wickedness of Jeroboam is as if it were a light thing. The Hebrew root translated light can mean trivial, small, insignificant, and other such related concepts. This phrase we might say is a contrary-to-fact phrase. Jeroboam’s sins were not really insignificant, but Ahab’s greater evil made them seem that way.

The writer’s first accusation against Ahab concerns his choice of a wife. Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon was the one. This would have been an arranged marriage, a union for political reasons. In the political context of those years, it was important for small states to strengthen themselves together against the great powers of Egypt and Assyria. A marriage between a king and a princess from two neighbouring royal houses speaks of unity, stronger together.

But with Jezebel, the idolatry for Baal also entered the land of Israel. The worship of Baal was a fertility religion. This deity gave the rain and the sunshine in time. You depended on this god for a good harvest. A lot of sacrifices were needed to appease him for that. The most extreme thing this Baal religion demanded is the sacrifice of children. In the eyes of the God of Israel, this is an abomination, repugnant. We also read about a temple and an altar for Baal and about an Asherah pole. Asherah is the name of a female goddess, the equivalent of the male god Baal. Sometimes Asherah is also mentioned as the mother of Baal. The male and female elements also indicate another aspect of the Baal religion: sexual fertility, reproduction. Temple prostitution was also common in this religion. The Baal religion was full of sexual innuendos and acts, thus representing desire and divine-human passion.

The writer coupled the charge about Ahab's taking Jezebel as wife with the fact that Ahab turned away from the worship of the Lord to become a Baal worshiper. The coupling of the two matters is not accidental. The writer clearly implies that the marriage to the Sidonian princess led to Ahab’s apostasy. The law provided that the people of Israel were not to marry foreign persons. And it obviously forbade the worship of foreign gods.

Ahab’s commitment to the worship of Baal was not casual and nominal. He built a temple for Baal in Samaria and placed an altar within it. In addition, the writer says that Ahab built an Asherah for the worship of the female counterpart of Baal. This foreign worship would include the practice of ritual prostitution.