KING OF ISRAEL · TWO KINGDOMS

Ahab. Twenty-two years in Samaria.

REIGNEDi

22 years c. 874–853 BC (dates vary)

CAPITAL

Samaria

HOUSE

House of Omri 7th of 19 in Israel

VERDICT

✕ Did evil “Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him”

PROPHETS

Elijah the Tishbite · An unnamed prophet · A man of God · One of the sons of the prophets · Micaiah son of Imlah · Zedekiah son of Chenaanah

ISRAEL (THE NORTH): 19 RULERS JEROBOAM I → HOSHEA

ACCESSION

How Ahab came to power

  • “Omri slept with his fathers ... and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.” 1 Kings 16:28

SUCCESSION

The two kingdoms

THE VERDICT

How Scripture judges the reign

“Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him”

1 Kings 16:30 (KJV) →

“as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat”

1 Kings 16:31 (KJV) →

BUT ALSO

  • “There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.” 1 Kings 21:25
  • When Elijah pronounced judgement after Naboth's death, Ahab tore his clothes and fasted; the LORD said “I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days”. 1 Kings 21:27–29
  • Chronicles: after Ramoth-gilead, Jehu son of Hanani asked Jehoshaphat, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD?” 2 Chronicles 19:2

ISRAEL (THE NORTH): 19 RULERS

✓ Did right ✕ Did evil ◐ Mixed ● No verdict formula

THE KINGDOM

Samaria and the places of the reign

Israel (the north). Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • Baal worship at court: an altar and “house of Baal” in Samaria, and a grove. 1 Kings 16:32–33
  • Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred “of the groves” ate at Jezebel's table. 1 Kings 18:19
  • Yet seven thousand in Israel had not bowed to Baal. 1 Kings 19:18

PROPHETS

Prophets of the reign

  • El Elijah the Tishbite “I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD”
  • An An unnamed prophet Promised victory over the army of Ben-hadad, and warned that the king of Syria would come again.
  • Am A man of God Promised victory at Aphek because the Syrians said the LORD was “God of the hills”.
  • On One of the sons of the prophets “thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people”
  • Mi Micaiah son of Imlah “If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me”
  • Ze Zedekiah son of Chenaanah Made horns of iron: “With these shalt thou push the Syrians”.

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

ARAM (SYRIA) OF DAMASCUS

Ben-hadad

PHOENICIA (THE ZIDONIANS)

Ethbaal

ASSYRIA

Shalmaneser III

MOAB

Mesha

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · BATTLE IN SHALMANESER'S SIXTH YEAR: 853 BC IN YOUNG'S TABLES (MACK, 1915: 854)

Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III, British Museum 118884

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · ABOUT 840 BC

Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where Kings and Chronicles differ

The battle at Ramoth-gilead

1 KINGS

2 CHRONICLES

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

THIELE, AS REVISED BY MCFALL AND YOUNG

c. 874–853 BC[1]

874/873 to 853 BC

ALBRIGHT (1945)

c. 869–850 BC[24]

Printed form: c. 869–850 (p. 20); 20 years against the Hebrew text's 22 (last digit partly lost in the scan's gutter, read from the next reign's start).

TRADITIONAL (USSHER, 1658)

918–897 BC[2]

Years of the world 3086–3107 (Annals, pp. 45–47)

Hadad-ezer

D. D. Luckenbill (1926), §611

Luckenbill translates the name of the Damascus king on the Monolith as “Hadad-ezer, of Aram”.[3]

Bir-idri, that is Ben-hadad

R. W. Rogers (1912), p. 296, note 1, following Delitzsch, Winckler and (later) Zimmern

Rogers reads “Bir-idri” and says “He is the king who is called Benhadad in 1 Kings 20”; he notes that Schrader, Zimmern and Ungnad had read the name “Adad-idri or Hadad-idri”.[13]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 12

1 Kings 16 1 Kings 17 1 Kings 18 1 Kings 19 1 Kings 20 1 Kings 21 1 Kings 22 2 Chronicles 18 2 Chronicles 19 2 Kings 3 2 Kings 9 Micah 6

PASSAGES · 12

1 Kings 16:28–34 1 Kings 17:1 1 Kings 18:1–46 1 Kings 19:1–2 1 Kings 20:1–43 1 Kings 21:1–29 1 Kings 22:1–40 2 Chronicles 18:1–34 2 Chronicles 19:1–3 2 Kings 3:4–5 2 Kings 9:25–26 Micah 6:16

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • The Bible does not mention the battle of Qarqar or Ahab's part in it; that is known only from Shalmaneser's monolith.
  • Scripture gives no age for Ahab and does not name his mother.
  • Kings names “the ivory house” and “all the cities that he built” but does not say where they were.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textAhab son of Omri, king of Israel; not the false prophet Ahab son of Kolaiah (Jeremiah 29:21).
  • From the textThe site's person data links the Ben-hadad of 1 Kings 20 to the Ben-hadad of Asa's day (1 Kings 15:18); Scripture itself does not say whether they are one man. 1 Kings 20:1

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • Rodger C. Young, Chronological tables: Table 1, Chronology of the Kings of Israel; Table 3, Synchronisms, Israel to Judah (Thiele's system as revised by McFall and Young; dates cited as facts only) (undated web tables, read 2026-10-07), Tables 1 and 3.
  • James Ussher, The Annals of the World (English translation of the Annales) (1658), The fifth Age of the World, pp. 40–69 (read from the page scans).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §594 (the Monolith Inscription from Kurkh) and §611, p. 223.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §553 (the Black Obelisk) and §590, p. 211.
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §672, p. 243 (annals, 18th year).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§732, 739–740, pp. 260–263 (Adad-nirari III: reign dates; the slab from Calah).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §772, p. 276 (Tiglath-pileser III, annals).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §779, pp. 279–280 (Tiglath-pileser III).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 1 (Shalmaneser III to Tiglath-pileser III) (1926), §§815–816, p. 293 (Tiglath-pileser III, fragmentary annals text).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §4, p. 2 (Sargon's annals, year 1).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §55, p. 26 (Sargon's display inscription).
  • D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2 (Sargon onward) (1927), §1198, p. 437 (eponym list with notes, years 727–723).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 296 (Monolith, Qarqar).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 304 (Black Obelisk, with Rogers's note 2 on “mar Humri”).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 308 (Tiglath-pileser and “Pulu”).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), p. 316 (Tiglath-pileser's annals, line 150).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 319–321 (Tiglath-pileser on Pekah and Hoshea).
  • R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (1912), pp. 323, 326 and 331 (Sargon and the fall of Samaria).
  • S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (Appendix: the Inscription of Mesha) (1890), pp. lxxxvii–lxxxviii (translation), lxxxix and xciv.
  • A. H. Sayce, “Moabite Stone”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 3 (1915), p. 2072 (checked against the 1915 scan).
  • Edward Mack, “Chronology of the Old Testament”, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, vol. 1 (1915), pp. 639–640 (checked against the 1915 scan).
  • A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, Chronicle 1 (facts only; copyrighted, read in Livius's reproduction) (1975), Chronicle 1, column i, lines 27–28.
  • A. Biran and J. Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan” (1993) and “The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment” (1995), Israel Exploration Journal 43 and 45 (facts only; copyrighted) (1993, 1995), IEJ 43 (1993) 81–98; IEJ 45 (1995) 1–18.
  • W. F. Albright, "The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100 (facts only) (1945), Chronological table, pp. 20–22.

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