| I Kings 16:31
| Nor was it enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat: but he also took to wife Jezabel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. And he went, and served Baal, and adored him.
| Jezabel, whose name is become proverbial, to designate a proud, lewd, cruel, and impious woman, Apocalypse 2:20. Grotius compares her with Tullia, Fulvia, and Eudoxia, the respective wives of Tarquin, Anthony, and Arcadius. She was the chief promoter of all the evils of Achab's reign. He did not insist that she should embrace the true religion, when he married her; as it is supposed former kings had done, when they espoused women who had been brought up in idolatry. (Calmet) --- He even introduced her country's idols, and thus enhanced upon the wickedness of his predecessors. (Haycock) --- Ethbaal. Menander (following Josephus, contra Apion i.) calls him Ithobaal, and remarks that his reign was memorable for a year's drought; probably that of three years, under Achaz, 3 Kings 17:1. Ethbaal was king of Tyre, and ruled over the Sidonians likewise, 3 Kings 5:6.
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