AHAB (in Heb. 'ah'(ib, "

See also:

• FATHER

father's

See also:

• BROTHER

brother ")  , king of Israel, the son and successor of Omri, • ascended the throne about 875 B.C . (I Kings xvi . 29-34)• He married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon, and the affiance was doubtless the means of procuring him great riches, which brought pomp and luxury in their train . We read of his building an ivory palace and founding new cities, the effect perhaps of a share in the flourishing commerce of Phoenicia.' The material prosperity of his reign, which is comparable with that of Solomon a century before, was overshadowed by the religious changes which his marriage involved . Although he was a worshipper of Yahweh, as the names of his children prove (cp. also xxii . 5 seq.), his wife was firmly attached to the worship of the Tyrian Baal, Melkart, and led by her he gave a great impulse to this cult by building a temple in honour of Baal in Samaria . This roused the indignation of those prophets whose aim it was to purify the worship of Yahweh (see ELIJAH) . 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 Damascus is he said to have had strained relations . The one event mentioned by external sources is the battle at Karlar (perhaps Apamea), where Shalmaneser II. of Assyria fought a great confederation of princes from Cilicia, N . Syria, Israel, Ammon and the tribes of the Syrian desert (854 B.c.) . Here Aliabbu Sir'lai (Ahab the Israelite) with Baasha, son of Rubub (Kebob) of Ammon and nine others are allied with Bir-'idri (Ben-hadad), Ahab's contribution being reckoned at 2000 chariots and 10,00o men . The numbers are comparatively large and possibly include forces from Tyre, Judah, Edom and Moab .

The

Assyrian king claimed a victory, but his immediate return and subsequent expeditions in 849 and 846 against a similar but unspecified coalition seem to show that he met with no lasting success . According to the Old Testament narratives, however, Ahab with 7000 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 remarkable victory over him at Aphek, probably in the plain of Sharon (r Kings xx.) . A treaty was made whereby Ben-hadad restored the cities which his father had taken from Ahab's father (i.e . Omri, but see xv . 20, 2 Kings xiii . 25), and trading facilities between Damascus and Samaria were granted . A late popular story (xx . 35-42, akin in tone to xii . 33-xiii . 34) condemned Ahab for his leniency and foretold the destruction of the king and his land . Three years later, war broke out on the east of Jordan, and Ahab with Jehoshaphat of Judah went to recover Ramoth-Gilead and was mortally wounded (xxii.) . He was succeeded by his sons (Ahaziah and Jehoram) .

It is very difficult to obtain any clear

idea of the order of these events (LXX. places i Kings xxi. immediately after xix.) . How the hostile kings of Israel and Syria came to fight a common enemy, and how to correlate the Assyrian and Biblical records, are questions which have perplexed all recent writers . The reality of the difficulties will be apparent from the fact that it has been suggested that the Assyrian scribe wrote " Ahab " for his son " Jehoram " (Kamphausen, Chronol. d. hebr . Kon., Kittel), and that the very identification of the name with Ahab of Israel has been questioned (Horner, Proc . Soc . Bibl . Arch., 1898, p . 244).2 Whilst the above passages in 1 Kings view Ahab not unfavourably, there are others which give a less friendly picture . The tragic 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 . The latter found their champion in Elijah, whose history reflects the prophetic teaching of more than one age . (See KINGS.) His denunciation of the royal dynasty, and his emphatic insistence on the worship of Yahweh and Yahweh alone, 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 . The allusions to the statutes and works of Omri and Ahab in Mic. vi .

16 may point to legislative

measures of these kings, and the reference to the incidents at the building of Jericho (1 Kings xvi . 34) may be taken to show that foundation sacrifices, familiar ' Ahab's ivory palace found its imitators (t Kings xxii . 39; Am. iii . 15) . The ivory was probably brought by the Phoenicians from Cyprus or from one of the works on the coast of Asia Minor . ' See the discussions by Cheyne, Ency . Bib. col . 91 seq., and by Whitehouse, Dict . Bib. i . 53.in nearly all parts of the world, were not unknown in Israel at this period .3 This has in fact been confirmed by excavation in Palestine . Another Ahab is known only as an impious prophet in the time of the Babylonian exile (Jer. xxix . 21) .

(S . A . C.) 'AHAI, of Sabha, an 8th-century Talmudist of high renown . He was author of Quaestiones (Sheiltoth), a collection of homilies (at once learned and popular) on Jewish

law and ethics . This is recorded to have been the first work written by a Jewish scholar after the completion of the Talmud .