Ahaziah of Israel: 852-851 BC

A Failed Maritime Adventure  ∙  The Moabite Rebellion  ∙  An Untimely Fall  ∙  The Riddle of 

Baal-zebub  ∙  Elijah’s Last Mission  ∙  Thunderbolts From heaven 

an artist's rendition of King Ahaziah

Ahab's son Ahaziah took the throne following the death of his father in 852 BC. Though the Bible states that he reigned two years, his reign was more likely compressed into a single year stretching between 852 and 851; Hebrew reckoning of years counted each year involved, even if was only for a couple months of that particular year. Ahaziah tolerated Israel’s calf worship and served Baal; the Queen Mother Jezebel retained a great deal of power and probably exerted undue influence on Ahaziah. 

Israel’s new king renewed his father’s alliance with Jehoshaphat of Judah, and the two kings linked hands in a joint maritime venture to try and reclaim the commercial prestige of the Solomonic Empire. The venture came to nothing: the ships built in harbor at the Red Sea were dashed to pieces in a storm. Ahaziah blamed their destruction on a lack of skill in the Judean mariners; he wanted to replace them with Israelite sailors who had the sailing expertise of the neighboring Phoenicians. Jehoshaphat declined, as a prophet of God declared the disaster to be a work of God. Ahaziah no doubt fumed at Jehoshaphat’s refusal, but there was nothing he could do: he had to cross through Judah in order to reach the Red Sea, and with Judah out of the picture, his ambitions were foiled. 

King Mesha of Moab rebelled against their Israelite overlords when Ahaziah took the throne. The Moabites had been under heavy tribute to Israel since the days of Ahaziah’s grandfather Omri; Mesha dared not rebel during the days of Ahab, for Ahab’s military strength and expertise would’ve made a successful rebellion nigh impossible. Mesha hoped that Ahaziah was made of ‘lesser stuff’ than his father and orchestrated a revolt in which Moab secured its independence and captured the tableland north of the Arnon Gorge as far as Medeba, Nebo, and Bezer at the expense of the northern Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuben. Ahaziah may have had the ability to push Moab back and bring Mesha to heel, but he wouldn’t have the opportunity: early in his reign he fell through the lattice that enclosed the upper chamber of his palace and sustained awful wounds that consigned him to his bed. Samarian excavations have revealed that the royal palace of the time had a second story; the palace’s architectural style featured open areas, and the lattice would’ve been a wooden grid offering both shade and air circulation. Bedridden, the newly-minted king sought a prognosis on his condition from a god of the Baal-Melqart cult; because he didn’t turn to Yahweh, God vowed that he would die in the bed in which he lie.

ancient remains of Ekron, a Philistine city

The last mission of Elijah's ministry was to pronounce judgment on the apostatized Ahaziah (remember that Elijah was still active during Ahaziah’s short reign). Lingering upon his bed and hovering between life and death, Ahaziah dispatched messengers to Baal-zebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, hoping for a favorable word; were the prophets of Baal-zebub to speak favorably, the god would intervene on his behalf. That Ahaziah would prefer to seek counsel with a prophet of the Baals rather than Yahweh isn’t surprising given Israel’s current religious state and the nature of his upbringing under Jezebel’s domineering hand; what is surprising is the god he chose. Nothing is known of Baal-zebub, whose name means ‘lord of the flies.’ Perhaps Baal-zebub had a reputation for granting favorable oracles? Some have suggested that the commercial city of Ekron – which, in Ahaziah’s day, was heavily fortified and boasted over a hundred olive oil refineries – was the closest Baal shrine to Samaria; however, Ekron was sixty miles from Israel’s capital city, lying twenty miles southwest of Jerusalem and fifteen miles from the Mediterranean on the border of the Shephelah and the Central Hill Country in the frontier area separating Judah and Philistia. In other words, it’s extremely likely there were closer shrines – and we know there was even one in Samaria! Another theory is that Baal-zebub, as ‘lord of the flies,’ was a minor deity that supposedly had the ability to drive away flies who carried disease and infection; if Ahaziah’s wounds were festering, he may have chosen to petition the ‘lord of the flies’ as his best hope for curbing the infection. Some scholars argue that the deity he petitioned wasn’t Baal-zebub at all but Baal-zebul, ‘Chief Baal’; according to this theory, the orthodox Israelite author of the biblical narrative changed the spelling to ridicule the deity (just as was done with corrupting Jezebal’s name to Jezebel). 

Hercules sports a lion-headed cloak of the sort
popular in the ancient Near East; many scholars
believe this was the sort of cloak Elijah wore. Small
wonder, then, that it was so noteworthy!

Whatever the reason for Ahaziah’s choice of the god of Ekron, the fact remains that it wasn’t Yahweh he sought after. The angel of Yahweh instructed Elijah to intercept the messengers dispatched to Ekron. The prophet did so, and he gave a message to them to carry to the king: ‘Is it because there is no God of Israel that you’re seeking consult with the god of Ekron? Because of this, you will die in the bed you lie in!’ Ahaziah’s actions were a complete denial of God; to consult a foreign oracle was to say that Yahweh was silent and couldn’t be trusted. Yahweh did, however, have a word for Ahaziah, though it was unsolicited. The king’s messengers knew Elijah and his power; when the prophet instructed them to turn around, they obeyed. Upon returning to Samaria, they informed the bedridden Ahaziah of their encounter without mentioning the prophet’s name. Ahaziah knew something was amiss, and he asked them to describe the prophet; they told him he was ‘a lord of hair’ who was wearing a leather girdle (girdles were normally made of comfortable material). The messengers may have been saying that the prophet was an enormously hairy and unkempt fellow, or they could’ve been referring to the shaggy cloak he wore (which may or may not have been crowned with a lion’s head). Ahaziah knew immediately that it was Elijah, the pesky prophet who had been such a thorn in his parents’ sides. It’s likely Ahaziah had met him before; perhaps, as a much younger prince, he’d been present at Mount Carmel with his father and witnessed the brutal slaughter of the Baal prophets. No doubt Jezebel had instructed Ahaziah to deal harshly with Elijah if the troublesome prophet reappeared, and Ahaziah took her advice straight-on and ordered Elijah’s arrest. He dispatched a unit of fifty soldiers to make the arrest; such a heavy-handed force suggests that Ahaziah was trying to protect against Elijah’s widely-known influence and power, and it was also a direct challenge to Elijah’s power and the God who gave him that power.

The captain in charge of the arrest party approached Elijah and ordered his surrender. Elijah prayed that Yahweh would vindicate his prophetic authority by destroying the band of soldiers, and Yahweh did just that as fire (likely lightning) came down from heaven to consume the soldiers sent to arrest the prophet. That God used fire was a message in itself: Baal worshipers associated Baal’s power with thunderbolts and fire, and Baal used thunderbolts and fire to enter battle against his enemies. By co-opting Baal’s methods, Yahweh showed that He had the power they associated with their god and that He was using Baal’s own tricks against those loyal to the pagan deity. Ahaziah brooded at their loss and dispatched another arrest party; the captain of this party commanded Elijah to surrender ‘quickly,’ signifying the king’s growing impatience. The second arrest party suffered the same fate as the first. A third arrest party was dispatched; the captain of this batch humbly approached Elijah alone, bowed before the prophet, and requested compassion on him and his men. He knew Elijah’s powers and was just following orders. He acknowledged that Elijah – and, by proxy, Yahweh – held his and his soldiers’ lives in his hands. He asked Elijah, at the very least, to spare his men. The captain received his wish: Elijah’s honor, and the honor of Yahweh, had been vindicated. The angel of Yahweh instructed Elijah to meet with the king.

Whatever Ahaziah intended to do to Elijah didn’t come to pass. Face-to-face with the prophet, he received the same message: because he had sought counsel with the Baals rather than seeking Yahweh, he would succumb to his wounds. The prophecy came true, and Ahaziah died absent an heir. The throne passed to his brother Jehoram, who would have to deal with another pesky prophet: Elijah’s successor Elisha.