1 Kings 16:31

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS IF IT HAD BEEN A LIGHT THING FOR HIM TO WALK IN THE SINS OF JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT, THAT HE TOOK TO WIFE JEZEBEL THE DAUGHTER OF ETHBAAL KING OF THE ZIDONIANS, AND WENT AND SERVED BAAL, AND WORSHIPPED HIM._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

29-34 Ahab did evil above all that reigned before him, and did it with a particular enmity both against Jehovah and Israel. He was not satisfied with breaking the second commandment by image-worship, he broke the first by worshipping other gods: making light of lesser sins makes way for greater. Marriages with daring offenders also imbolden in wickedness, and hurry men on to the greatest excesses. One of Ahab's subjects, following the example of his presumption, ventured to build Jericho. Like Achan, he meddled with the accursed thing; turned that to his own use, which was devoted to God's honour: he began to build, in defiance of the curse well devoted to God's honour: he began to build, in defiance of the curse well known in Israel; but none ever hardened his heart against God, and prospered. Let the reading of this chapter cause us to mark the dreadful end of all the workers of iniqu...

Verse 1 Kings 16:31. _HE TOOK TO WIFE JEZEBEL_] This was the head and chief of his offending; he took to wife, not only a _heathen_, but one whose hostility to the true religion was well known, and carried to the utmost extent. 1. She was the idolatrous daughter of an idolatrous king; 2. She practised it openly; 3. She not only countenanced it in others, but protected it, and gave its partisans honours and rewards; 4. She used every means to persecute the true religion; 5. She was hideously cruel, and put to death the prophets and priests of God; 6. And all this she did with the most zealous perseverance and relentless cruelty. Notwithstanding Ahab had built a temple, and made an altar for Baal, and set up the worship of _Asherah_, the Sidonian _Venus_, which we,...

AS IF IT HAD BEEN A LIGHT THING FOR HIM TO WALK IN THE SINS OF JEROBOAM - Idolatries are not exclusive. Ahab, while he detested the pure worship of Yahweh, and allowed Jezebel to put to death every “prophet of the Lord” whom she could find 1 Kings 18:4, readily tolerated the continued worship of the “calves,” which had no doubt tended more and more to lose its symbolic character, and to become a thoroughly idolatrous image-worship. ETH-BAAL - Identified with the Ithobalus of Menander, who reigned in Tyre, probably over all Phoenicia, within 50 years of the death of Hiram. This Ithobalus, whose name means “With him is Baal,” was originally priest of the great temple of Astarte, in Tyre. At the age of 36 he conspired against the Tyrian king, Pheles (a usurping fratricide), killed him, and seized the throne. His reign last

EXPOSITION THE REIGN OF AHAB.—With the accession of Ahab a new main section of our history begins—the section which has its close in the destruction of the house of Omri by Jehu, as related in 2 Kings 10:1. And this reign is recorded at unusual length; in fact, it occupies nearly all the remaining portion of this volume, whereas the reigns of preceding kings have in several instances been dismissed in a few verses. It owes this distinction to the ministry of the great prophet Elijah by which it was marked, and, indeed, was profoundly influenced; but this ministry, it must be remembered, was necessitated by the critical circumstances of the time. It may be that "every age thinks itself a crisis," but no one can fail to see that this was one of the veritable turning points of Jewish history. One of the real ...

AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS IF IT HAD BEEN A LIGHT THING FOR HIM TO WALK IN THE SIN OF JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT,.... To worship the golden calves he set up: THAT HE TOOK TO WIFE JEZEBEL THE DAUGHTER OF ETHBAAL KING OF THE ZIDONIANS; who is called Ithobalus and Itobalus king of the Tyrians, by Heathen historians h; and, by Theophilus of Antioch i, Juthobalus, priest of Astarte; for Tyre and Zidon were under one king. This woman was not only of another nation, and an idolater, but a very filthy woman, and is made the emblem of the whore of Rome, Revelation 2:20 AND WENT AND SERVED BAAL, AND WORSHIPPED HIM that is, went to Zidon and Tyre, and worshipped his wife's gods, which were either Jupiter Thalassius, the god of the Zidoaians, or Hercules, whom the Tyrians worshipped. h Menander apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 8. c. 13. sect. 1, 2. contr. A

4. KINGS OF ISRAEL Chapter S 15:25-16 _ 1. Nadab, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:25)_ 2. Baasha, King of Israel (1 Kings 15:34; 1 Kings 16:1) 3. Elah, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:8) 4. Zimri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:15) 5. Divisions (1 Kings 16:21) 6. Omri, King of Israel (1 Kings 16:23) 7. Ahab ...

1 KINGS 15:33 TO 1 KINGS 16:34. BAASHA'S DYNASTY. RISE OF THE HOUSE OF OMRI. Nothing is told us of Baasha except the usual annalistic details, and, that a prophet named Jehu foretold the destruction of his whole house. His son Elah was at war with the Philistines (1 Kings 16:15), but remained at Tirzah (p. 30), which at this time was the chief residence of the kings of Israel. Zimri slew him and reigned but seven days, and was then attacked by the army under Omri, and burned himself in his house. For four years, (_cf._ 1 Kings 16:15 with 1 Kin

JEZEBEL, daughter of. regicide and fratricide (Josephus _c. Apion_ 1, 18, _Antiquities_ viii. 3, 1), priest of the Phoenician goddess Astarte....

_as if it had been a light thing_ i.e. He was unwarned by all the visitations which had befallen the kings before him for their worship of the calves. He went further than this and introduced the worship of a false god into the land. _he took_to _wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians_ It was perhaps the taste for building, which manifested itself both in Omri and in Ahab, that brought them into closer alliance with Zidon; but no doubt an intercourse had been kept up ever since the days of Solomon between the two nations. But this marriage of Ahab was most fatal both to Israel and Judah. The family of Jezebel were devoted to the worship of Baal and Astarte. Josephus (cont. Apion. i. 18) mentions Eithobalus (i.e. Ethbaal) as -the priest of Astarte" as well as king, and Pygmalion and Dido as being contemporaries of Jezebel. There was therefore great vigour in the race,...