Ahab

Ahab was king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel from around 871 to 852 BC. He followed in the footsteps of his father Omri, and provided economic prosperity. According to the Bible, Ahab was a bad king, because he served the fertility god, Baal.

The name Ahab means “the brother has become a father”, which shows how proud his father was when Ahab was born. Ahab succeeds his father Omri as king and reigns in Samaria over the Northern Kingdom for 22 years.
Ahab marries Princess Jezebel from Sidon. She encourages him to serve the Canaanite god Baal, instead of the God of Israel.

God sends the prophet Elijah to Ahab. Elijah announces that for three years no rain will fall and the land will suffer drought. After those three years, Elijah comes back to King Ahab and wants him to organise a competition between the prophets of Baal and himself. Both sides must build an altar and make a sacrifice to their god and ask him to light the sacrificial fire. There is no response from Baal to the pleadings of his prophets, but the God of Israel lights the sacrifice of Elijah with fire from heaven.

Apart from the Bible references, we find Ahab mentioned in other ancient documents. Shalmaneser III, an Assyrian king, records Ahab as one of his opponents at the Battle of Qarqar (853 BC).
On the Mesha Stele, King Mesha of Moab writes that, “Ahab, the son of Omri, like his father, oppresses the Moabites”. According to 2 Kings 3:4-5, King Mesha rebelled against the Israelites after the death of Ahab.

According to 1 Kings 22, Ahab died in the war with the Arameans. Because the prophet Micaiah, the son of Imlah, warned him of this beforehand, Ahab dresses up as an ordinary soldier so that the Arameans will not recognise him in the battle.
But a soldier from the Aramean army draws his bow and by chance his arrow strikes Ahab between the plates of his armour. He is seriously wounded and cannot leave the battlefield, so he slowly bleeds to death at the end of the day.