King Ahaziah (Israel)

Ahaziah, son of Ahab and Jezebel, reigned about two years in Samaria and kept up his parents' Baal worship (1 Kings 22:51–53). Moab threw off Israel's rule after Ahab's death, and a joint fleet he built with Jehoshaphat of Judah at Ezion-geber was wrecked (2 Chronicles 20:35–37). After falling through the lattice of an upper room in his palace, he sent messengers to ask Baal-zebub, god of the Philistine city of Ekron, whether he would recover. Elijah intercepted them: "Is it because there is no God in Israel?", and declared that the king would not rise from his bed (2 Kings 1).

Recognizing Elijah from the description of "a hairy man with a leather belt," Ahaziah sent three companies of fifty soldiers to seize him; fire from heaven consumed the first two, and Elijah went with the third captain, who begged for his men's lives, to repeat the sentence to the king's face. Ahaziah died childless and was succeeded by his brother Jehoram. Baal-zebub, "lord of the flies," survives as the Beelzebub of later tradition.