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Ahab and Zedekiah Used God's Name to Get Into a Bedroom

Two false prophets use matched lies to seduce women in exile. When they try the scheme on Nebuchadnezzar's wife, the furnace becomes their verdict.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Scheme That Required Two Voices
  2. The Furnace They Invoked
  3. They Tried to Borrow Joshua's Merit
  4. Jeremiah Had Named Them First

The Scheme That Required Two Voices

Ahab ben Kolaya and Zedekiah ben Maaseiah had been running the same scheme in Jerusalem before the exile, and they kept running it in Babylon. One would go to a woman and tell her that God had commanded her to yield to the other. The other would deliver the same message in reverse. Two witnesses, two divine commands, one mutual arrangement.

The trick required repetition. Used once, it might be doubted. Used consistently, against enough households, the pattern became its own authority. These men spoke in God's name constantly. They called themselves prophets. In the confusion of exile, when every institution of Jewish life had been disrupted and there was no Temple court to check credentials, the title carried weight.

Midrash Tanchuma says they had been doing this for years, each pimp for the other's sin, before the catastrophe that ended them.

The Furnace They Invoked

They brought the scheme to the wrong household. Zedekiah went to Nebuchadnezzar's wife with his divine message. Ahab went after him with his. The princess reported both men to her father.

Nebuchadnezzar called them before him and gave them the most direct test available: if you are true prophets, walk into the furnace. He had done this before, after all, with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Those three had survived. The two false prophets could not claim to be their equals. They admitted it openly. "We are not righteous like those three," they said. "We might need a righteous man with us."

The admission is everything. They have just told the king that they know they are unrighteous. They have asked him to provide a righteous man to accompany them through the fire as if his proximity could substitute for their own integrity. It cannot. Nebuchadnezzar calls the test what it is, and the furnace takes them.

They Tried to Borrow Joshua's Merit

Before they died, Ahab and Zedekiah made one more request. "Let Joshua the High Priest walk into the furnace with us," they said. His righteousness might balance the scale.

In Ginzberg's telling, Joshua son of Jehozadak was known to have married a woman whose ancestry was compromised. The tradition notes that his own sons had done things that should have cost them their priestly standing. The Pesikta de-Rav Kahana records that God testified against the two false prophets directly, citing them as examples of the kind of wickedness He will witness against: adultery, false prophecy, deception carried out under divine authority.

The furnace is not random. It is the same furnace where Jewish faith was proven by Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Ahab and Zedekiah are placed in it not merely as a punishment but as a test that measures them against the standard they had been borrowing. They claimed the same divine mandate as every true prophet. The furnace clarifies the claim.

Jeremiah Had Named Them First

None of this is a surprise in Jewish memory, because Jeremiah had already named these men. In Jeremiah 29, he addresses the exiles in Babylon and tells them specifically: "Ahab ben Kolaya and Zedekiah ben Maaseiah have spoken lies in my name. Nebuchadnezzar will roast them in fire, and their names will become a curse among all the exiles."

The prophecy is precise. The names are in the text. The method of death is specified. The tradition of later sources filling in the scene is not invention. It is the expansion of what Jeremiah compressed into two verses: two men, false prophets both, who used the divine Name as a key to open doors it had no business opening, and who were finally burned in the furnace that their own borrowed rhetoric had described as the proof of prophetic truth.

ProphecyFireNebuchadnezzarFurnaceJeremiah
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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXIVChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Two false prophets in Babylon, Ahab ben Kolaya and Zedekiah ben Maaseyah, used their religious authority to commit adultery and fraud. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, Ahab went to Nebuchadnezzar's daughter and told her that God had commanded her to submit to Zedekiah, promising that kings and prophets would descend from her. Zedekiah came with the same message about Ahab. The princess reported both men to her father.

Nebuchadnezzar summoned the two prophets and demanded proof of their claims. "If you are true prophets," he said, "you will survive the fiery furnace, just as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah survived when I cast them in." Ahab and Zedekiah protested: those three were righteous, while "we are only two." Nebuchadnezzar offered them a compromise. "Choose someone to be tested alongside you." They chose Joshua ben Jehozadak, the High Priest, knowing his merit was so great it might protect them too.

All three were thrown into the furnace. Ahab and Zedekiah were consumed by the flames. Joshua the High Priest walked out alive, though his garments carried the faint smell of smoke. Nebuchadnezzar noticed immediately. "How is it that your clothes were touched by fire, when Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah came out completely untouched?"

Joshua's answer was devastating in its honesty. "They were three righteous men together. I was one righteous man standing between two wicked ones." He compared it to a parable: two dry torches and one moist torch placed in the same fire. The dry torches ignite the moist one. The wicked men's guilt had been so powerful that even standing near them exposed Joshua to judgment. His garments smelled of fire because proximity to sin has consequences, even for the righteous.

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayikra 10:2Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayikra

Rav Isaac bar Samuel bar Martha said: There were two roads before him, one long and one short. The short one was full of pebbles, and the long one had no pebble in it. He left the long one and went by the short one on the Sabbath. Concerning him it is said, "And one who hastens with his feet is a sinner" (Proverbs 19:2).

Our Rabbis taught: One commandment draws another commandment after it, and one transgression draws another transgression after it. A person should not be distressed over a transgression he committed unwittingly, but rather that an opening has been made for him to sin, even unwittingly, even deliberately. And a person should not rejoice over a commandment that has come to his hand, but rather that many commandments are destined to come to him. Therefore, if he sinned unwittingly, this is not a good sign; if he sinned deliberately, how much the more so. Concerning him it is said, "And one who hastens with his feet is a sinner."

And likewise it says, "These six things does the LORD hate, etc.: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, etc., feet swift in running to evil" (Proverbs 6:16-18). This is Ahab ben Kolaiah and Zedekiah ben Maaseiah, who were sinning in Jerusalem. And this was not enough for them, but when they were exiled to Babylon they added sin. And what did they do in Jerusalem? They were false prophets, and they did not abandon their craft in Babylon; and they would procure for one another. Ahab would enter to one of the great ones of the kingdom and say to him, "I am so-and-so, a prophet; the Holy One, blessed be He, has sent me to say a thing to your wife." And he would say to him, "Here she is before you, enter." And he would seclude himself with her and say to her, "The Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to raise up prophets from you; only go and lie with Zedekiah and bear prophets from him." And he would come and lie with her. And likewise Zedekiah would procure for Ahab. And this was their craft for several years.

Come and see how wicked they were. They made themselves a name in Babylon that they were great prophets. There was a certain woman who was pregnant, and she would see one of them and say to him, "Prophet, what is in my womb, a male or a female?" He would say, "A male." And he would go to her neighbors and say, "So-and-so will bear a female." If she bore a male, she would say, "So-and-so the prophet told me." If it was a female, the neighbors would say, "Thus did so-and-so the prophet tell us, but he did not want to distress you." And they kept doing thus until it reached the chamber of Nebuchadnezzar's wife. Zedekiah entered and said to her, "Thus says the LORD: Make Ahab listen," etc.

What caused these wicked ones to be burned? Because they ran with their feet after the transgressions. Therefore it is said, "And one who hastens with his feet is a sinner." And nevertheless, "Also, a soul without knowledge is not good" (Proverbs 19:2). Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Say to Israel, "A soul, when it sins unwittingly" (Leviticus 4:2).

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Pesikta DeRav Kahana 24:15Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yose the Galilean said: Israel said before the Holy One, "Master of the worlds, if we repent, who will testify on our behalf?" He said to them, "For harm I will become a witness for you, but for good I will not become a witness for you." For harm I will become a witness for you: "And I will come near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness" (Malachi 3:5). But for good I will not become a witness for you.

Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah were false prophets, and they would commit adultery with the wives of their fellows, as it is written, "Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and committed adultery with their neighbors' wives" (Jeremiah 29:23). And what would they do? One of them would go to a woman and say, "I have seen in my prophecy that your fellow [Zedekiah] will come to you, and you will raise up a prophet in Israel." And this one would act as go-between for that one, and that one for this one. And when their time came to fall, they went to the wife of Nebuchadnezzar. They said to her thus and so. She said, "I can do nothing without the king's knowledge." And when Nebuchadnezzar came, she told him thus and so. He said, "Is it possible? The God of this nation hates lewdness. Rather, I will test them as I tested Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. If they are saved, well; and if not, they are false prophets."

What did he do? He made for them a kind of bronze frying pan, full of holes, and put them into it and kindled a fire beneath them. And when they saw that their trouble was real, they associated Joshua son of Jehozadak the High Priest with them, saying, "Perhaps by his merit we will be saved." What did the Holy One do to them? They were burned and he was saved, "Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" (Zechariah 3:2). This is what is written, "And from them shall be taken up a curse for all the captivity of Judah" (Jeremiah 29:22) - it does not say "whom the king of Babylon burned," but "whom the king of Babylon roasted (kalam) in the fire" (Jeremiah 29:22) - roasted like these roasted grains (kelayot).

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Legends of the Jews 10:100Legends of the Jews

It wasn't just the non-Jews, the "heathen," who were struggling in those days. Even among the Jewish people, there were those deeply immersed in sin. And among them, two figures stood out for their wickedness: Ahab and Zedekiah, both false prophets.

The story, as told in Legends of the Jews, centers around a truly scandalous episode involving Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. Ahab, posing as a divine messenger, approached the princess and instructed her to "yield" to Zedekiah. Zedekiah, in turn, delivered the same message, only substituting Ahab's name.

Even though Nebuchadnezzar was not righteous – Ginzberg's Legends tells us he was known for some pretty depraved behavior, even forcing captive kings into degrading situations (a miracle was even needed to protect the pious of Judah!) – he wasn't oblivious to the moral code of the Jewish people. He knew that the God of Israel detested immorality.

So, the princess, rightfully suspicious, told her father everything. Nebuchadnezzar, disturbed by these claims of divine commands, turned to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – the three companions of Daniel, known for their unwavering faith. He questioned them, asking if such a message could truly originate from God. Their response was emphatic: absolutely not.

Ahab and Zedekiah, however, refused to retract their statements. Nebuchadnezzar, in a move that seems almost theatrical, decided to subject them to the same fiery test he had prepared for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He even offered them a chance to choose a third person, a pious individual, to share their fate. Perhaps thinking they could game the system, Ahab and Zedekiah requested Joshua, who would later become the high priest, hoping his merits would save them all.

But their plan backfired. Joshua emerged from the furnace unharmed, but his garments were singed. Ahab and Zedekiah? They were consumed by the flames.

Why the singed garments? Joshua explained it as being due to his direct exposure to the flames, but the real reason, as we are told, was that he had to atone for the sins of his sons, who had married women unworthy of their lineage. According to this telling, his near-death experience was a consequence of his sons' misdeeds. He escaped death, but only after the fire had purged him, in a way, of their transgressions.

This story, found in Legends of the Jews, isn't just a thrilling tale of fire and brimstone. It's a reminder that even those who claim to speak for the divine can be corrupted, and that even the most pious among us can be touched by the consequences of others' actions. It leaves us pondering: What price do we pay, not just for our own sins, but for the sins of those connected to us? And what does it truly mean to be a vessel of divine truth?

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