King of Israel
?–853 BCE · Biblical · Northern Kingdom (Samaria)
Achav son of Omri ruled the northern kingdom of Israel from Samaria for twenty-two years (1 Kings 16:29). The book of Kings judges him harshly. It says he married Izevel, daughter of the king of the Sidonians, and built a temple and altar to Baal in Samaria (16:31-33). His reign is the setting for the prophet Eliyahu's confrontations, including the contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (ch. 18). Navot of Jezreel refused to sell him his ancestral vineyard, so Izevel had Navot falsely accused and killed, and Achav took the vineyard. Eliyahu pronounced doom on him. Achav fasted in sackcloth, and the text says the disaster was postponed to his son's days (21:1-29). He died of an arrow wound in battle at Ramot Gilead (22:34-37). Kings also remembers his 'ivory house' and the towns he fortified (22:39). Outside the Bible, an Assyrian inscription names 'Ahab the Israelite' with a large chariot force in 853 BCE. The Mishnah lists him among the kings with no share in the World to Come (Sanhedrin 10:2). Yet the Talmud also records that he was generous with his wealth and supported Torah scholars (Sanhedrin 102b).
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Northern Kingdom (Samaria)Israelite kingdoms
What they did here
He reigned from Samaria and built a temple and altar to Baal there (1 Kings 16:29-32). Ben-Hadad of Aram besieged him there (20:1), and he was buried there (22:37).
About Northern Kingdom (Samaria)
Samaria (Shomron) was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, established by King Omri in the ninth century BCE; its site lies in the hill country north of Shechem (in the northern West Bank). In the biblical narrative it was the setting for the activity of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who confronted the kings of Israel.
In Northern Kingdom (Samaria) at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with King of Israel’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
King of Judah, Eliyahu HaNavi, Elisha HaNavi, Queen of Israel
Works
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