Eth-baal

Eth-baal (meaning with Baal or Baal is with him) was the king of Sidon and father of Jezebel, whose marriage to Ahab king of Israel introduced Baal worship as a state religion into the northern kingdom (1 Kings 16:31). Josephus identifies him as a priest of Astarte who seized the Sidonian throne by murdering his predecessor, and names him Ithobalus. His daughter Jezebel's ruthless promotion of Baal and Asherah worship and her persecution of the prophets of the LORD made the Eth-baal connection one of the most consequential foreign political alliances in Israel's history, setting the stage for Elijah's ministry and the subsequent religious crises of the north.