Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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 worshiped him.
31. 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, and when Jezebel became queen of Israel she ruled her husband and the nation, and established the worship to which her family was so devoted. After the death of her husband, as queen-mother, she maintained her influence in the court of her son, and through her daughter Athaliah, who was married to the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, she wrought much evil in the southern kingdom and all but exterminated the royal race. The doings of Jezebel form a great part of the history till her death, which is related in 2 Kings 9. The various scenes in which she appears and the evil influence which she exercised will be best noticed as the history goes on.
went and served Baal ] This was very different from the sin of Solomon who out of indulgence to his foreign wives permitted temples for their gods to be set up in his land, but himself took no share in the idolatrous worship. Jezebel had a greater and worse influence over Ahab.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 1Ki 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 lasted 32 years, and he established a dynasty which continued on the throne at least 62 years longer. The family-tree of the house may be thus exhibited:
| Lineage of Eth-Baal | |||||||
| Eth-baal | |||||||
| | | ||||||
| | | | | ||||
| Badezor | Jezebel | ||||||
| | | | | ||||
| Matgen (Belus of Virgil) | | ||||||
| | | | | ||||
| | | | | | | ||
| Pygmalion | Dido (founder of Carthage) | | |||||
Hence, Jezebel was great-aunt to Pygmalion and his sister Dido.
Served Baal – The worship of Baal by the Phoenicians is illustrated by such names as IthoBAL, HanniBAL, etc. Abundant traces of it are found in the Phoenician monuments.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 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, 1Kg 16:33, have transformed into a grove; yet so well known was the hostility of Jezebel to all good, that his marrying her was esteemed the highest pitch of vice, and an act the most provoking to God, and destructive to the prosperity of the kingdom.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As if it had been a light thing for him; as if that sin were not big enough to express his contempt of God; as if he thought it below his wit and dignity to content himself with such a vulgar fault. But the Hebrew runs thus, Was it a light thing, &c.? i.e. was this but a small sin, that therefore he needed to add more abominations? where the question, as is usual among the Hebrews, implies a strong denial; and intimates that this was no small sin, but a great crime, and might have satisfied his wicked mind without any additions. Jezebel; a woman infamous for her idolatry, and cruelty, and sorcery, and filthiness. See 1Ki 18:4; 21:8; 2Ki 9:22; Rev 2:20.
Ethbaal, called Ithobalus, or Itobalus, in heathen writers.
King of the Zidonians; so she was of a heathenish and idolatrous race, and such whom the kings and people of Israel were expressly forbidden to marry.
Baal, i.e. the idol which the Zidonians worshipped, which is thought to be Hercules, or false gods, for this name is common to all such. And this idolatry was much worse than that of the calves; because in the calves they worshipped the true God, but in these, false gods or devils, as is evident from 1Ki 18:21.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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, Re 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. Apion. l. 1. c. 21. Diodor. Sicul. apud Junium in loc. i Ad Autolye. l. 3. p. 132.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(31) Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians.The mention of Ethbaal, clearly the Eithobalus of Menander (see Jos. against Apion i. 18), affords another comparison of Israelite with Tyrian history. He is said to have assassinated Pheles, king of Tyre, within fifty years after the death of Hiram, and to have founded a new dynasty. He was a priest of Astarte, and it is notable that he is called, not, like Hiram, king of Tyre, but king of the Sidonians, thus reviving the older name of the great Zidon, which had been superseded by Tyre. His priestly origin, and possibly also this revival of the old ideas and spirit of the Phnician race, may account for the fanatic devotion to Baal visible in Jezebel and Athaliah, which stands in marked contrast with the religious attitude of Hiram (1Ki. 5:7; 2Ch. 2:12). The marriage of Ahab with Jezebel was evidently the fatal turning-point in the life of a man physically brave, and possibly able as a ruler, but morally weak, impressible in turn both by good and by evil. The history shows again and again the contrast of character (which it is obvious to compare with the contrast between Shakespeares Macbeth and Lady Macbeth), and the almost complete supremacy of the strong relentless nature of Jezebel.
2. The Baal here referred to is, of course, the Zidonian god, worshipped as the productive principle in nature, in conjunction with Astarte, the female or receptive principle. The name itself only signifies Lord (in which sense, indeed, it is applied, in Hos. 2:16, to Jehovah Himself), and is marked as being a mere title, by the almost invariable prefix of the article. Being, therefore, in no sense distinctive, it may be, and is, applied to the supreme god of various mythologies. Thus we find that in Scripture the plural Baalim is first used, of the gods many and lords many of Canaanitish worship (see Jdg. 2:11; Jdg. 3:7; Jdg. 10:6; 1Sa. 7:4); and we have traces of the same vague use in the Baal-peor of Numbers 25, the Baal-berith of Jdg. 8:33; Jdg. 9:4, the Baal-zebub of 2Ki. 1:2-3, and in the various geographical names having the prefix Baal. The worship of the Phnician Baalvariously represented, sometimes as the Sun, sometimes as the planet Jupiter, sometimes half-humanised as the Tyrian Herculeswas now, however, introduced on a great scale, with profuse magnificence of worship, connected with the Asherah (grove), which in this case, no doubt, represented the Phnician Astarte, and enforced by Jezebel with a high hand, not without persecution of the prophets of the Lord. The conflict between it and the spiritual worship of Jehovah became now a conflict of life and death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. As if a light thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam With him “it was nothing to break the second commandment by image-worship; he would set aside the first also by introducing other gods; his little finger should fall heavier upon God’s ordinances than Jeroboam’s loins.” Henry.
Jezebel From which name comes the modern Isabella. This is the first recorded instance of an Israelitish king choosing his chief with from among the Canaanites, and her marriage with Ahab has well been called a turning point in the history of Israel. Her character, as portrayed in the following chapters, is an embodiment of all that is most awful and terrible in the Clytemnestra of the Greek tragedians, and in the Lady Macbeth of Shakspeare.
Ethbaal Probably identical with Eithobalus, priest of Astarte, of whom Menander, the Ephesian, speaks in Josephus, Apion 1Ki 1:18. He assassinated Pheles, the reigning king, usurped the throne, and reigned thirty-two years. His position as priest of Astarte, whose worship was similar to that of Baal, may serve to explain the zeal which his daughter showed in introducing Phenician idolatry into the kingdom of Israel.
Zidonians This term seems to have been used among the Hebrews with as much latitude as was the term Phenicians among the Greeks. According to 1Ki 5:6, Hiram, king of Tyre, controls the Zidonian workmen, and Josephus calls Ethbaal king of the Tyrians and Zidonians. It is probable that both Tyre and Zidon, with the adjacent towns, were often under one government.
Served Baal As Solomon’s heathen wives turned his heart after strange gods, (1Ki 11:4,) so Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel leads him into Baal-worship. Baal was the chief male divinity among the Phenicians, as Ashtoreth was their female divinity. See on Jdg 2:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ki 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.
Ver. 31. He took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal. ] Whom Diodorus Siculus calleth Jeobalus. The very name of this king and his daughter ending in Bel and Baal, show how greatly they were addicted to that idolatry.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jezebel, daughter of a regicide and fratricide (Josephus c. Apion 1, 18, Antiquities viii. 3, 1), priest of the Phoenician goddess Astarte.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
as if it had been a light thing: Heb. was it a light thing, Gen 30:15, Num 16:9, Isa 7:13, Eze 8:17, Eze 16:20, Eze 16:47, Eze 34:18
took to wife: Gen 6:2, Deu 7:3, Deu 7:4, Jos 23:12, Jos 23:13, Neh 13:23-29
Jezebel: 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:19, 1Ki 19:1, 1Ki 19:2, 1Ki 21:5-14, 1Ki 21:25, 2Ki 9:30-37, Rev 2:20
the Zidonians: 1Ki 11:1, Jdg 10:12, Jdg 18:7
and went: 1Ki 11:4-8
served Baal: 1Ki 21:25, 1Ki 21:26, Jdg 2:11, Jdg 3:7, Jdg 10:6, 2Ki 10:18, 2Ki 17:16
Reciprocal: 1Ki 11:2 – surely 1Ki 14:9 – hast done 1Ki 16:25 – did worse 1Ki 16:30 – above 1Ki 22:53 – he served Baal 2Ki 3:2 – Baal 2Ki 3:3 – which made 2Ki 3:18 – a light 2Ki 9:34 – she is a king’s 2Ki 16:3 – he walked 2Ki 17:8 – walked 2Ki 21:3 – he reared 2Ki 23:4 – Baal 2Ch 17:4 – not after 2Ch 18:1 – joined affinity 2Ch 28:2 – For he walked Psa 1:1 – walketh Pro 14:1 – the foolish Eze 23:5 – Aholah Hos 2:13 – the days Hos 8:4 – of Hos 8:14 – and buildeth Hos 9:10 – separated Hos 11:2 – they sacrificed Mic 1:13 – she Rom 11:4 – Baal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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 {m} to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
(m) By whose influence he fell into wicked and strange idolatry and cruel persecution.