• Ahab
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • and streets in Damascus would be assigned to Ahab, evidently for the establishment of resident Israelite commissioners who would look out for the commercial and political interests of Ahab’s kingdom in that Syrian capital. (20:31-34) Similar to Saul, Ahab was condemned by Jehovah for this, with future calamity foretold for him and his people.—20:35-43.

      MURDER OF NABOTH, AND CONSEQUENCES

      During a three-year interval of peace, Ahab turned his attention to the acquisition of the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel, a piece of land much desired by Ahab because it bordered his residential palace grounds there. When Naboth refused the request on the basis of God’s law regarding the inviolability of hereditary possessions, Ahab petulantly withdrew to his house, where he lay on his couch with his face to the wall, refusing to eat. Learning the cause of his dejection, pagan Jezebel arranged the murder of Naboth under guise of a trial for blasphemy, using letters written in Ahab’s name. When Ahab went to take possession of the coveted plot of ground he was met by Elijah, who scathingly denounced him as a murderer and as one who sold himself to do wickedness at the constant prodding of his pagan wife. As the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood so dogs would lick up Ahab’s blood, and Jezebel herself and Ahab’s descendants would become food for dogs and scavenger birds. These words hit home, and in deep grief Ahab fasted in sackcloth, alternately sitting and pacing the floor in despondence. On this basis a measure of mercy was extended to him as regards the time when the calamity would come on his house.—1 Ki. 21:1-29.

      Ahab’s relations with Judah to the S were strengthened through a marriage alliance in which Ahab’s daughter Athaliah was married to King Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram. (1 Ki. 22:44; 2 Ki. 8:18, 26; 2 Chron. 18:1) During a friendly visit by Jehoshaphat to Samaria, Ahab induced him to support him in an effort to retake Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians, who evidently had not carried out to the the full the terms of the covenant made by Ben-hadad. While a body of false prophets chorused their assurances of success, at Jehoshaphat’s insistence the prophet Micaiah, hated by Ahab, was called and predicted certain calamity. Ordering Micaiah’s arrest, Ahab stubbornly went ahead with the attack, though taking the precaution to disguise himself, but he was hit by a Syrian archer so that he slowly died. His body was brought to Samaria for burial and when “they began to wash off the war chariot by the pool of Samaria . . . the dogs went licking up his blood.” A large artificial basin has been excavated on the N side of the spacious palace courtyard in Samaria, and this may be the location of this fulfillment of prophecy.—1 Ki. 22:1-38.

      MOABITE AND ASSYRIAN INSCRIPTIONS

      Mention is made of the rebuilding of Jericho during Ahab’s reign, perhaps as part of a program for strengthening Israel’s control over Moab. (1 Ki. 16:34; compare 2 Chronicles 28:15.) The Moabite Stone by King Mesha of Moab speaks of the domination of Moab by King Omri and his son (Ahab).

      Assyrian inscriptions describing the battle waged between Shalmaneser III and a coalition of twelve kings at Qarqar include the name A-ha-ab-bu as a member of the coalition. This is generally accepted by most scholars as a reference to King Ahab of Israel; however, for evidence showing that such identification is subject to question, see the article on SHALMANESER.

      2. The son of Kolaiah and a false prophet among the exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah predicted that this immoral and lying prophet and his associate would be roasted in the fire by Nebuchadnezzar.—Jer. 29:21-23.

  • Ahasuerus
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • AHASUERUS

      (A·has·u·eʹrus) [the chief of rulers].

      The name or title applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to three different rulers.

      1. The father of Darius the Mede mentioned at Daniel 9:1. Some, on the basis of Greek historian Xenophon’s writings, would identify him with Astyages, the last king of the Median Empire. This identification, however, finds no other support. The Bible record does not state whether Darius’ father was a king or of the royal line. According to Herodotus and Ctesias (of the fifth century C.E.), Astyages died leaving no male heir. Hence, it is not presently possible to make any conclusive identification of Ahasuerus, the father of Darius the Mede, with any person in secular history.

      2. The Ahasuerus of Ezra 4:6 in the beginning of whose reign an accusation was written against the Jews by their enemies may have been Cambyses, the successor of Cyrus the conqueror of Babylon and liberator of the Jews. Cambyses reigned from 529 to 522 B.C.E.

      3. The Ahasuerus of the book of Esther is believed to be Xerxes I, the son of the Persian Darius Hystaspes by his wife Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus. The city of Shushan was his capital during major portions of his rule. His reign covered the years 486-474 B.C.E., according to the most reliable historians for that period, including Thucydides.—See ARTAXERXES No. 3; CHRONOLOGY.

      In the account of Esther, Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) is shown as ruling over 127 jurisdictional districts, from India to Ethiopia. (Esther 1:1, 2) In the third year of his reign, at a sumptuous banquet, he ordered lovely Queen Vashti to present herself and display her beauty to the people and princes. Her refusal caused his anger to flare up and he thereafter dismissed her as his wife. (Esther 1:3, 10-12, 19-21) Later, he selected Esther, a Jewess, as his choice out of the many virgins brought in as prospects to replace Vashti. (Esther 2:1-4, 16, 17) The fact that Ahasuerus’ selection of Esther as queen did not take place until the seventh year of his reign (four years later) is doubtless due to his absence while prosecuting war against the Greeks. In 490 B.C.E. Xerxes’ father, Darius Hystaspes, had suffered a defeat at Marathon and Xerxes now sought revenge. He marshaled a huge army from the entire empire and moved against Greece in the spring of 480 B.C.E. Following a costly victory at Thermopylae and the destruction of Athens, his forces met defeat at Salamis and later at Plataea, causing Xerxes to return to Persia. Apparently it was at this point that he now turned his attention to selecting a successor to Vashti. In the twelfth year of his reign he allowed his prime minister Haman to use the king’s signet ring to sign a decree that would result in a genocidal destruction of the Jews. This scheme was thwarted by Esther and her cousin Mordecai, Haman was hanged, and a new decree was issued allowing the Jews the right to fight their attackers.—Esther 3:1-8, 11; 8:3-14; 9:5-10.

      Xerxes I also appears to be the “fourth [king]” mentioned at Daniel 11:2, the three preceding ones being Cyrus the Great, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspes. While seven other kings followed Xerxes on the throne of the Persian Empire, Xerxes was the last