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Ahab
Ahab , d. c.853 BC, king of Israel (c.874-c.853 BC), son and successor of Omri 1. Ahab was one of the greatest kings of the northern kingdom. He consolidated the good foreign relations his father had fostered, and Israel was at peace during much of his reign. His marriage with Jezebel helped his friendship with Tyre, and his alliance with Jehoshaphat 1, king of Judah, made Ahab sure of his less powerful neighbor to the south. Ahab's prestige is seen in Assyrian inscriptions mentioning his alliance against Shalmaneser III (see Shalmaneser I ), who won an indecisive victory (c.854 BC) at Karkar on the Orontes. After this campaign Ahab and Benhadad 2 of Damascus went to war over the country E of the Jordan. Ahab was killed in battle. The biblical account of Ahab's reign is most interesting in its religious aspects. To the devout, Ahab's foreign wife, with her Tyrian cults and behavior, represented evil. Besides, she was a willful woman and entertained exalted ideas of royal prerogative. She met her match in Elijah , the champion of Israel's God. He was an important factor in the discontent that began to develop in Israel at this period. Ahab was succeeded by his sons, first Ahaziah, then Jehoram. The ruins of his palace have been excavated at Samaria . The Ahab of Jer. 29.21,22 is a different person, a lying prophet. |
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"Ahab." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Ahab." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Ahab.html "Ahab." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Ahab.html |
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Ahab
Ahab King of Israel (c.869–850 BCE), son of Omri and husband of Jezebel, a Sidonian princess. He defeated the armies of Damascus and came into conflict with Assyria. The Deuteronomic historian recounts his running battle with the prophet Elijah over Jezebel's inclination to Baal worship; the prophets of Baal were routed in a spectacular contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs. 18). Ahab was also humiliated by Elijah for having concurred in the execution, by order of Jezebel, of Naboth, whose vineyard Ahab wished to appropriate. For the biblical writer Ahab was the archetypal villain but on other criteria might be judged an able and successful ruler.
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W. R. F. BROWNING. "Ahab." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. W. R. F. BROWNING. "Ahab." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Ahab.html W. R. F. BROWNING. "Ahab." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Ahab.html |
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Ahab
Ahab a king of ancient Israel who persecuted the prophets, husband of Jezebel, who allowed her persecution and arranged killing of Naboth; Ahab was warned by the prophet Elijah that his sin would bring disaster on his dynasty.
Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick (1851), the whaling captain whose leg has been bitten off by the white whale, Moby Dick, and who is monomaniacally determined on revenge; his obsession leads, after a three-day pursuit, to the destruction of his ship, the Pequod, and the deaths of all but one (see Ishmael) of her crew. |
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ahab." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ahab." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Ahab.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Ahab." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Ahab.html |
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Ahab
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Ahab." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Ahab." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Ahab.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Ahab." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Ahab.html |
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