In First Kings, chapter sixteen, verse thirty-one, Baal was the idol that the Zidonians worshipped, which they thought to be Hercules or false gods, for this name is common to all such. And this idolatry was much worse than that of the calves: because in the calves, they worshipped the true God, but in these, false gods or devils, as is evident from First Kings eighteen, verse twenty-one.
Ahab made a choice to take Jezebel: she was of a heathenish and idolatrous race and such whom the kings and people of Israel were not to marry. Jezebel was infamous for her idolatry, cruelty, sorcery, and filthiness. Ahab did this as if that sin were not big enough to express his contempt of God, as if he thought it below his wit and dignity to content himself with such a vulgar fault. However, this sin, that therefore he needed to add more abominations? The question among the Hebrews, implies a denial: intimates that this was no small sin but a great crime and might have satisfied his wicked mind without any additions.
The marriage of Ahab with Jezebel was evidently the fatal turning-point in the life of a man physically brave and possibly able as a ruler, but morally weak, impressible in turn both by good and evil. The history shows the contrast of character, and the almost complete supremacy of the nature of Jezebel. The example of the nature of Ahab’s wife is the story of Naboth’s vinyard. Jezebel’s husband admired Naboth’s vinyard so much that it troubled him to the point of being depressed. However, when Jezebel discovered the problem with Ahab receiving rejection for requesting to buy the vinyard from Naboth, she took matters into her hands. Naboth eventually was killed for her husband to possess the vinyard.
The example shows how evil in an ungodly person who worships idols can mainifest itself in various ways against the godly, who serve the living God, that try to live righteously.