ACHAB (Hebrew “brother of the father”; Assyrian A-ha-ab-bu) — King of Israel from 875 to 853 B.C. His story is told in 1 Kings 16:29–22:40. He inherited from his father Omri a prosperous and feared kingdom. The close alliance with the Phoenicians, which had facilitated trade and commerce, was sealed by a marriage: Ahab received as his wife Jezebel (q.v.), daughter of the king of Tyre, a domineering woman who dominated him and drew him into apostasy. Ahab “did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30–33). He granted his wife the worship of the Tyrian god Baal Melqart, for whom a temple was erected in the capital. Idolatry spread among the people, inflaming the zeal of the prophet Elijah, who announced the divine punishment: a drought devastated the land for three and a half years. Ahab might have yielded to the man of God, especially during the memorable events on Mount Carmel (q.v.), but Jezebel remained implacable.
Notable was Ahab’s building activity: he restored cities, expanded the palace at Samaria, as excavations in 1908–10 brought to light, and built the “ivory house” (1 Kings 22:39), some ivory ornaments of which were recovered in 1932–33 (illustrated by J. W. and G. M. Crowfoot, Early Ivories from Samaria, London 1938).
In foreign relations, he was at peace with the kingdom of Judah and kept the Moabites in subjection. With Damascus he alternated between friendship and war. He joined the Syrian coalition and, with eleven other allied kings of the maritime coast, fought at Qarqar on the Orontes against Shalmaneser III (q.v.), who emerged victorious (854). On the expedition to retake Ramoth-gilead, struck by an arrow, he died of his wounds.