ACHAB (Hebr. “brother of the father”; Assyr. A-ha-ab-bu). — King of Israel from 875 to 853 B.C. His history is narrated in I Kings 16:29–22:40. From his father Omri he inherited a prosperous and feared kingdom. The close alliance with the Phoenicians, which had facilitated exchanges and commerce, was concretized in a marriage: A. IEZABEL (v.) as his wife, daughter of the king of Tyre, an authoritarian woman who dominated him and led him into apostasy. A. “did evil in the sight of the Lord above all those who were before him” (ibid. 16:30–33). He granted his wife the worship of the god of Tyre, Baal Melqart, for whom a temple was erected in the capital. Idolatry spread among the popular classes, inflaming the zeal of the prophet Elijah, who announced divine punishment: drought ravaged the country for three and a half years. A. might perhaps have yielded to the man of God, especially during the memorable events on Carmel (v. ELIA), but Jezabel was implacable.
A.’s building activity was noteworthy: he restored cities, enlarged the royal palace of Samaria, as is evident from the excavations of 1908–10 that brought it to light again, and built the “ivory house” (ibid. 22:39), some ivory ornaments from which were discovered in 1932–33 (illustrated by the married couple J. W. and G. M. Crowfoot, Early Ivories from Samaria, London 1938).
In his foreign relations, he was at peace with the kingdom of Judah and kept the Moabites subject. With Damascus he alternated between friendship and war. He joined the Syrian coalition and, together with eleven other allied kings from the maritime coast, fought at Qarqaru on the Orontes against Salmanasar III (v.), who prevailed (854). During the expedition to reconquer Ramoth in Gilead, he was struck by an arrow and bled to death.