1 Kings 16:29-31 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In the thirty and eighth year of Asa, &c. Asa saw six kings of Israel buried, while Judah flourished under him, the length of whose reign was doubtless a great advantage to them. Began Ahab the son of Omri to reign Of whom we have more particulars recorded than of any of the other kings of Israel, and almost all of an infamous nature. For he did evil above all that were before him He exceeded all his predecessors in wickedness, and reigned over Israel twenty-two years Long enough to do a deal of mischief. He had seen the ruin of other wicked kings and their families; yet, instead of taking warning, his heart was hardened and enraged against God. As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam To break the second commandment, by worshipping God through the medium of images of Jeroboam's invention; as if that sin had not been heinous enough to express his contempt of God; as if he thought it below his genius and dignity to content himself with so vulgar a fault; he would set aside the first commandment too, by avowedly introducing other gods, the gods of his heathenish and idolatrous wife Jezebel. But the Hebrew, ויהי הנקל, vajehi hanakel, is more properly rendered, was it a light thing, &c., that is, was this but a small sin, that therefore he needed to add more abominations? the question, as is usual among the Hebrews, implying a strong denial, and intimating that this was no small sin, but a great crime, and might have satisfied his wicked mind, without any additions. He took to wife Jezebel A woman infamous for her idolatries, cruelties, sorceries, and abominations of all kinds. The daughter of Ethbaal Called Ithobalus, or Itobalus in heathen writers. So she was of a heathenish and idolatrous race, such as the kings and people of Israel were expressly forbidden to marry. And went and served Baal The idol which the Sidonians worshipped, which some think to have been Hercules. But the word in Hebrew signifies lord, and in the plural lords, and was a name common to all false gods. And this idolatry was much worse than that of the calves; because in the calves they intended to worship the true God, through such images and representations, but in these, false gods or devils.