In the thirty-eighth year of Asa, Ahab became king of Israel and he ruled twenty-two years. But he did what displeased the Lord. He took the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, for a wife, he went and prayed to Baal. He also built an altar in the temple of Baal, made an image of Asherah, so he angered God more than all the others before him.
In those days, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. It cost him his firstborn son Abiram and his youngest son when he laid the foundation and the gates were installed, according to the word of God which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.