Bible Strands
1 Kings 16:32
First, Ahab set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records this event during King Ahab’s reign, immediately after he married Jezebel and began serving Baal. The account addresses the readers with a factual report of Ahab’s religious architecture in Samaria.
The words — The text highlights `מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach)`, meaning an altar, and `בֵּית הַבַּעַל (beit habbaal)`, meaning the house of Baal. These terms specify the exact structure Ahab erected to formalize foreign worship.
The thread — This Baal temple appears later in 2 Kings 10:21 when Jehu gathers all Baal worshippers, and in 2 Kings 10:26 when its sacred pillar is removed and burned. The narrative tracks the temple’s establishment under Ahab and its subsequent destruction during the dynastic purge.
Why it lands — The verse documents the deliberate institutionalization of idolatry by Israel’s king. It requires the reader to recognize how political power was used to build state-sponsored worship and provoke divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 10:21 Then Jehu sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; there was not a man who failed to show. They entered the temple of Baal, and it was filled from end to end.
- 2 Kings 10:26 They brought out the sacred pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it.