29 Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth e year of Asa king of Judah , and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two e years . 30 Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. 31 It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat , that he married e Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians , and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. 32 So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria . 33 Ahab also made the Asherah . Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34 In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho ; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn , and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub , according to the word of the Lord , which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Kings 16:29-34
Commentary on 1 Kings 16:29-34
(Read 1 Kings 16:29-34)
Ahab did evil above all that reigned before him, and did it with a particular enmity both against Jehovah and Israel. He was not satisfied with breaking the second commandment by image-worship, he broke the first by worshipping other gods: making light of lesser sins makes way for greater. Marriages with daring offenders also imbolden in wickedness, and hurry men on to the greatest excesses. One of Ahab's subjects, following the example of his presumption, ventured to build Jericho. Like Achan, he meddled with the accursed thing; turned that to his own use, which was devoted to God's honour: he began to build, in defiance of the curse well devoted to God's honour: he began to build, in defiance of the curse well known in Israel; but none ever hardened his heart against God, and prospered. Let the reading of this chapter cause us to mark the dreadful end of all the workers of iniquity. And what does the history of all ungodly men furnish, what ever rank or situation they move in, but sad examples of the same?