The Story of Jezebel

Jezebel means ‘Where is the prince?’ The ‘prince’ referred to is the god Baal. When Baal was in the underworld or Land of the Dead, vegetation on the earth’s surface died (winter in the cycle of the seasons). Baal's followers chanted ‘Where is the prince?’ as a prayer to encourage the onset of spring and the return of vegetation. Jezebel was unflinchingly loyal to Baal, and went to her death wearing the ritual make-up and headdress of a high priestess of Baal.

Ahab means ‘brother of the father’.
Elijah means ‘My god is Jah’.
Jehu means ‘It is he, Jah’.
Elisha means ‘God has helped’.

What the story is about:
The story of Jezebel is set in the turbulent period of the divided kingdoms, as various dynasties struggled to hold on to political power.
Jezebel became queen of the northern kingdom of Israel, ruling with her husband, Ahab. The stories about Jezebel relate to two issues:

The story of Jezebel contains three episodes:
1 The conflict between worshippers of Yahweh and Baal (1 Kings 16:29-34, 18:17-40, 19:1-3).
The conflict between the followers of Yahweh and Baal descended into open warfare. Jezebel supported Baal/Anat. Her husband Ahab tried to steer a middle course, encouraging tolerance between the two belief systems. Elijah supported Yahweh.
2 The episode of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21:1-16).
Ahab, Jezebel’s husband, wanted to own a vineyard near his villa at Jezreel. The owner, Naboth, would not sell. Jezebel arranged the death of Naboth, and ownership of the vineyard passed to Ahab.
3 The death of Jezebel and her family (1 Kings 22:29-40, 2 Kings 9:21-28, 9:30-37).
Jezebel and all the members of her family were killed during a coup d’etat led by Jehu. She died with courage, dressed royally as a queen and a priestess of Baal.

CONFLICT BETWEEN WORSHIPPERS OF YAHWEH AND BAAL
1 Kings 16:29-34, 18:17-40, 19:1-3

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, a daughter of the king and queen of the rich coastal city-state of Sidon. She was brought up in a cultured and luxurious environment. Her people, the Phoenicians, were cosmopolitan and sophisticated, and controlled large areas of the eastern Mediterranean.

When Jezebel was old enough, a marriage was arranged for her with Ahab, King of Israel.
‘He (Ahab) took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.’
Jezebel’s parents were high priests in the worship of Baal, in Sidon. Jezebel herself was probably a priestess of Baal. She was trained to lead and to command. Brought up as a Phoenician, she saw it as her duty to guard the worship of Baal and Asherah. She believed these gods regulated the fertility of the country she now lived in and ruled.
(Read 1 Kings 16:29-34.)

Many of the people in the northern province of Israel shared her beliefs. They worshipped a number of gods including Yahweh, Baal and Asherah. But others believed they could give your loyalty to only one god, and that this god was Yahweh. The worshippers of Yahweh were the ones who wrote the story and of course they tell the story to emphasize the power of their own god Yahweh.

At some time during Ahab's reign there was a terrible drought throughout Israel and Judah. It is hard for a modern person to appreciate what drought meant to these people, because none of us are likely to die as a result of famine. To ancient people, it was a different matter. As food grew scarce, the old and the very young began to die, then the adults, until only the young, strong adults were left. This was the situation in Jezebel's kingdom at that time. As the drought worsened, so did the desperation of the people. Every entreaty was made to the gods - to any god who might listen. A contest developed between the people who worshipped Baal, and those who worshipped Yahweh. It was a contest that would end with the death of many people.

‘Then Elijah said to the people “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given to us. Let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire is indeed God.” All the people answered “Well spoken!”’
(Read 1 Kings 18:17-40)

According to the biblical text, the priests of Baal lost the contest in a spectacular way, with fire exploding from the sky. All four and hundred and fifty were slaughtered by the followers of Elijah. The text records the end of the severe drought that had gripped the land.
When Jezebel heard that the priests of Baal had been murdered, she made a vow to avenge their deaths.
‘Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life…..’
(Read 1 Kings 19:1-3)
Elijah knew that Jezebel would make a fearsome enemy, so he fled.

NABOTH’S VINEYARD
(1 Kings 21:1-16)

During their 20-year reign, Jezebel and Ahab built a new capital city at Samaria. It contained an opulent palace and a temple to Baal and Asherah.
The palace was a two-storey building surrounding a grand, ceremonial courtyard. It was called the Ivory House because of the number of carved ivory decorations on its walls and furniture. Archaeologists have unearthed many of the ivory plaques that decorated the walls and furniture of this palace.

A second royal house was built near Jezreel. It was a villa, overlooking rolling hills and lush vineyards.
Near the villa at Jezreel was the vineyard of Naboth. Ahab needed to amalgamate this land into the land owned by the royal villa, to grow crops to feed the administrative and military staff living there. He made a fair offer to Naboth, but Naboth did not wish to sell.

There was a long-standing tradition that inherited property should not be sold to anyone outside the family, if it had been continuously occupied by the one family since the settlement of Canaan. Naboth held stubbornly to this tradition, defying the king.

‘He (Ahab) lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat. His wife Jezebel came to him and said “Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?” He said to her “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him “Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it”, but he answered “I will not give you my vineyard”. His wife Jezebel said to him “Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food and be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite”.’

Ahab was an Israelite, and he understood Naboth’s reasoning. He also understood that the Israelite kings did not have unlimited power, as kings in surrounding countries had. Jezebel, on the other hand, came from Sidon, where her royal parents had unlimited power. She was scornful of the way Ahab let his own subjects get the better of him.
(Read 1 Kings 21:1-16.)

The key to Jezebel’s character is that she behaved like a Phoenician princess, not like an Israelite woman. She saw the monarch as having absolute power, and was contemptuous of the limitations that the old Hebrew Law put on her. Like other Middle Eastern monarchs of the time, she believed that the monarch made the law.

Jezebel took matters into her own hands. She had Naboth and his sons accused of treason, on false evidence, and they were duly convicted and executed. The vineyard, being the property of convicted traitors, reverted to state ownership. Ahab had his vineyard.

This story shows royal power being misused. It is similar to the story of David, Uriah and Bathsheba.
It asks the questions: how should power be used, and what limits should there be so that it cannot be abused?

Decorative ivory plaques similar to ones excavated at the site of the
Palace at Samaria, built during the reign of Jezebel and her husband Ahab

THE MURDER OF JEZEBEL AND HER FAMILY
(1 Kings 22:29-40, 2 Kings 9:21-28, 9:30-37)

Ahab, husband of Jezebel, made a military alliance with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. Together they warred against the king of Aram, to gain territory that they claimed as their own. In the battle between the two armies, Ahab disguised himself so that the opposing army would not concentrate their attack on him.

Depending on your point of view, Ahab acted in either a cunning or a cowardly way. In any event, he was mortally wounded in the battle.
‘But a certain man drew his bow and unknowingly struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate; so he said to the driver of his chariot “Turn around, and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded”.’
Read 1 Kings 22:29-40.

In the aftermath of the battle, the prophecy of Elijah in 1 Kings 21:19 came true. Ahab had fallen and died in his chariot. His blood seeped over the boards of the chariot floor, and when it was taken back to Samaria, some dogs licked at the blood before the chariot could be washed.

Ahab was succeeded by his son Ahaziah, whose reign lasted only two years. He was injured in a fall that may or may not have been a bizarre accident, and died soon after. His brother Joram then became king. Both these young men were sons of Jezebel.

At this stage, Jehu enters the story. He was an ambitious army officer favored by the prophet Elisha, who anointed Jehu as king even while the reigning king Joram of Israel still lived. (9:1-3, 14). Jehu planned a coup d’etat against the dynasty of Ahab.
He saw his chance when King Joram was wounded in a battle against the Arameans. Joram went to the walled villa at Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and there he was visited by King Ahaziah of Judah. Jehu set a trap for both the young kings, luring them out of the safety of the walls of Jezreel, and then he murdered them both.

The slaughter did not stop there. The success of Jehu’s coup depended on the death of every member of the royal family. Jehu continued on to Jezreel, and his soldiers broke through the villa's defences. When Jezebel heard what has happened to son, she knew immediately what lay in store for her. She did not flinch for a moment. She dressed herself in the full regalia of a queen, with the ornate ritual make-up and head-dress of a priestess of Baal and Asherah. She went out onto the balcony of the courtyard to face Jehu as he approached. She called him ‘Zimri’, the name of a murderer and usurper of a previous king. She accused him of murdering his anointed king.

‘When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. She painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window. As Jehu entered the gate, she said “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” He looked up to the window and said “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. Some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her. Then Jehu went in and ate and drank. He said “See to that cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” But when they came to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and palms of her hands.’
Read 2 Kings 9:21-37.

Jezebel died as a queen should die: magnificent and defiant, hurling insults at her murderers to the last moment of her life.
Jehu let marauding dogs eat her flesh, so that there was nothing left to bury. Then he murdered every one of the male children of her family, about seventy in all, ordering that their severed heads be sent to him in baskets (2 Kings 10).

A stray dog eating a corpse in Iraq. In the time of Jezebel, as now, this was seen as a shocking desecration of the dead.

Summary
Throughout the centuries, Jezebel has been attacked as a whore, and her name has been used to describe a woman of promiscuous behavior. But there is nothing in Jezebel’s story to suggest that she was ever unfaithful to Ahab. In fact, she seems to have been fiercely loyal to him and her sons, even in adversity.
Jezebel was powerful, a woman and a foreigner. These qualities made her a target for the prophets of Yahweh. In the long run, she backed the wrong gods. She ruled with arbitrary power, which went against the Israelite ideal of kingship. But she was a woman of tremendous ability and intelligence, strong-willed, courageous and loyal.

THE TWO KINGDOMS, ISRAEL AND JUDAH

When Solomon died in 926BCE, Israel was overextended both economically and politically. Moreover, the people were not reconciled to the idea of a monarch, nor to the higher taxes they had to pay to support a king. Worse still, monarchy clashed with the ideal of Yahweh as sole ruler of Israel, and the northern tribes in particular felt they were being excluded from power. When Solomon was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, the ten northern tribes refused to accept him as their king.

So the united kingdom of Solomon split into two: Israel in the north, Judah in the south. The ten tribes of Israel elected Jeroboam, an army officer who had led a revolt against Solomon, as their king. His slogan was ‘Back to your tents, O Israel’, and his popularity showed that many Israelites longed for a return to the tribal structures of the pre-monarchy period.

Divided as they were, the two separate kingdoms could not hold on to the extra territories that David won, and most of the land he had conquered was lost. Over a period of several hundred years, there were continual struggles for the throne, and the Book of Kings records intermittent fighting between Israel and Judah.

In fact, the independence of Israel during the glory days of David and Solomon had only been possible because of the power vacuum that existed in the Middle East at that time. Now, while the two kingdoms fought among themselves, the power of an empire to the north-east was growing. The Assyrians from northern Mesopotamia began to emerge as a force to be reckoned with.

At first, the Assyrians made only sporadic incursions into Israelite territory. But as they consolidated their power, the struggle intensified. Neither Judah nor Israel gave up without a fight. Many of their kings were engaged, either singly or with other nations, in holding the Assyrian forces at bay.

The most notable of these kings was Ahab, husband of Jezebel. In 853BCE he combined forces with the Egyptians and the Syrians to defeat the Assyrians at the great battle of Qarqar. But Ahab was followed by weaker kings, and eventually the northern kingdom of Israel was overcome. In 721BC the Assyrians conquered Israel, making it one of their provinces. The people of the northern kingdom, captured by the Assyrians and deported to Mesopotamia, disappeared from history. They were the ‘ten lost tribes if Israel’.

In the south, Judah had a variety of kings and leaders. Eventually, in 586BC, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar overcame Jerusalem, pulled down its walls and destroyed the Temple. Nebuchadnezzar removed all members of the educated and affluent classes to Babylon, so that the people were without leaders. This made rebellion less likely.

WOMEN'S LIVES IN THIS ERA

The period of the divided kingdoms was marked by political instability. For women of the nobility or the elite classes, like Jezebel, and for women attached to the army, it was an uncertain and dangerous period.

For the average peasant farming family working in the countryside, life probably remained much the same. Crops still had to be planted and harvested, children born and raised, and taxes paid.

During this time, worship of the ancient gods of the weather and the harvest continued, side by side with worship of Yahweh. In the northern kingdom of Israel, there were large groups of Canaanites who continued to worship their traditional deities. There was some pressure on the Israelites to conform to exclusive worship of Yahweh, but they resisted it because

From the number of references in the Bible to Asherah and Baal, it seems that veneration of these deities was widespread and popular. We know the stories of these gods from a library of clay tablets dug up in the northern city of Ugarit. The tablets tell us what the deities were like, and what their stories were. There were four main gods:

Women in particular seem to have held on tenaciously to the ancient religious practices. Written at the end of this period, Ezekiel 8:14 gives us a glimpse of women involved in worship of the god Tammuz. He was the essence of fertility in vegetation, the invisible force that made everything grow. Each year in his life cycle he was born (in spring), lived a strong and healthy young life (in the flowering of summer), had a full and fruitful maturity (in the harvests of autumn), and then died (as vegetation disappeared in winter). In a ritual that showed the overwhelming importance of this cycle in their lives, women wept together at the beginning of winter as if they were mourning the death of a real person - to them, Tammuz was real.

Later prophets, trying to discern the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, criticized this form of worship. They divided the kings of this period into good and bad according to their religious allegiance, either to Yahweh (good) or Baal/Asherah (bad).