Bible Strands
1 Kings 22:53
Ahaziah served and worshiped Baal, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Ahaziah’s reign immediately after recording 1 Kings 22:52, placing his actions within the ongoing cycle of royal apostasy in Israel.
The words — וַֽ/יַּעֲבֹד (va/i.ya.'a.Vod) means “and he served,” and וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה (va/i.yish.ta.cha.Veh) means “and he bowed down,” describing Ahaziah’s active cultic devotion to Baal.
The thread — This pattern of royal idolatry provoking Yahweh’s anger echoes 1 Kings 16:30, where Ahab’s evil is noted as surpassing all predecessors, and continues the narrative thread of covenant violation found in 1 Kings 16:7.
Why it lands — The text states that Ahaziah’s worship provoked Yahweh to anger, demanding recognition that covenant faithfulness requires exclusive allegiance to Yahweh and that repeated royal rebellion inevitably triggers 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
For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 16:30 However, Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him.
- Judges 2:1 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
- 1 Kings 16:7 Moreover, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil he had done in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands and becoming like the house of Jeroboam, and also because Baasha had struck down the house of Jeroboam.
- 1 Kings 21:29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”
- 2 Kings 1:2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
- 2 Kings 3:2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as his father and mother had done. He removed the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.
- Psalms 106:29 So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
- Isaiah 65:3 to a people who continually provoke Me to My face, sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on altars of brick,
- Ezekiel 8:3 He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.
- Ezekiel 18:14 Now suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father has committed, considers them, and does not do likewise: