Jezebel

(a name of Phoenician origin) (1 Kgs 16:31; 18:4; 2 Kgs 9:37) - daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, wife of Ahab, the seventh king of Israel. Ahab's marriage to Jezebel marked the beginning of the fall of the kingdom of Israel, and Jezebel's harmful influence spread even to the kingdom of Judah through her daughter Athaliah. She immediately introduced into Israel the worship of the Phoenician deity Baal, the sun god, which her credulous and impious husband readily accepted and permitted.

Jezebel then exerted every effort to destroy all God's prophets, although she did not achieve her evil purpose, for Obadiah, governor of Ahab's house, hid one hundred prophets of the LORD in caves and fed them with bread and water (1 Kgs 18:1-4). On the other hand, at her own expense she maintained 450 priests of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, called prophets of the groves (v. 19). In all Israel only seven thousand men remained who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kgs 19:18).

She then threatened Elijah with death in revenge for his slaughter of her false prophets at the brook Kishon. But this corrupt woman appears before us most vividly in the affair between Ahab and Naboth concerning Naboth's vineyard. After Naboth's murder, Kings says little of Jezebel, although she outlived her husband and two of his successors, Ahaziah and Joram. Yet Jehu's bitter answer to Joram's question, 'Is it peace, Jehu?' shows plainly what manner of life she continued to lead: 'What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?' (2 Kgs 9:22).

Jehu then shot Joram with an arrow and went to Jezreel. Hearing of this, Jezebel painted her face, according to an Eastern custom, adorned her head, and looked from a palace window as Jehu entered the gate, asking, 'Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?' Jehu ordered that she be thrown from the window; 'and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot' (2 Kgs 9:30-33). Several hours later that day, Jehu ordered that 'this cursed woman' be found and buried, 'for she is a king's daughter'; but nothing was found of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of the hands.

In fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy the dogs ate her body, and 'the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel,' the sacred writer remarks (2 Kgs 9:37). The very name Jezebel became synonymous with every kind of impiety and corruption. It is used in this sense in Revelation 2:20, in the Lord's words to the angel of the church in Thyatira; whether a particular person or some sect, such as the Nicolaitans, is meant there is unknown.