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How Bad Was Jezebel?
Read Janet Howe Gaines's full article about Jezebel in the Bible and later depictions as it appeared in Bible Review
Janet Howe Gaines March 22, 2022 311 Comments 293553 views
Who Was Jezebel?
Israel'south most accursed queen carefully fixes a pinkish rose in her red locks in John Byam Liston Shaw's "Jezebel" from 1896. Jezebel's reputation equally the most dangerous seductress in the Bible stems from her last appearance: her husband King Ahab is dead; her son has been murdered by Jehu. Equally Jehu's chariot races toward the palace to impale Jezebel, she "painted her optics with kohl and dressed her pilus, and she looked out of the window" (2 Kings 9:30). Image: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK/Bridgeman Art Library.
For more than than two chiliad years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation as the bad girl of the Bible, the wickedest of women. This aboriginal queen has been denounced every bit a murderer, prostitute and enemy of God, and her name has been adopted for lingerie lines and World War Ii missiles alike. Only just how depraved was Jezebel?
In contempo years, scholars have tried to reclaim the shadowy female figures whose tales are often only partially told in the Bible. Rehabilitating Jezebel's stained reputation is an backbreaking task, however, for she is a difficult adult female to like. She is not a heroic fighter like Deborah, a devoted sis like Miriam or a cherished wife like Ruth. Jezebel cannot even exist compared with the Bible's other bad girls—Potiphar's wife and Delilah—for no proficient comes from Jezebel's deeds. These other women may be bad, but Jezebel is the worst.one
Yet there is more than to this complex ruler than the standard interpretation would permit. To attain a more than positive cess of Jezebel'southward troubled reign and a deeper agreement of her office, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen. Furthermore, we must reread the narrative from the queen's vantage point. As we piece together the world in which Jezebel lived, a fuller motion-picture show of this fascinating woman begins to emerge. The story is non a pretty one, and some—perhaps about—readers volition remain disturbed by Jezebel'due south deportment. But her character might not be equally dark as nosotros are accustomed to thinking. Her evilness is non always as obvious, undisputed and unrivaled equally the Biblical author wants it to appear.
Ahab and Jezebel in the Bible
The story of Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab of Israel, is recounted in several brief passages scattered throughout the Books of Kings. Scholars by and large identify i and two Kings every bit office of the Deuteronomistic History, attributed either to a single writer or to a grouping of authors and editors collectively known as the Deuteronomist. One of the principal purposes of the entire Deuteronomistic History, which includes the seven books from Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, is to explain Israel's fate in terms of its betrayment. As the Israelites settle into the Promised Country, establish a monarchy and separate into a northern and a southern kingdom afterwards the reign of Solomon, God's chosen people continually go off-target. They sin against Yahweh in many means, the worst of which is by worshiping alien deities. The kickoff commandments from Sinai demand monotheism, but the people are attracted to foreign gods and goddesses. When Jezebel enters the scene in the ninth century B.C.E., she provides a perfect opportunity for the Bible writer to teach a moral lesson about the evil outcomes of idolatry, for she is a foreign idol worshiper who seems to be the power behind her hubby. From the Deuteronomist's viewpoint, Jezebel embodies everything that must be eliminated from Israel so that the purity of the cult of Yahweh will non be further contaminated.
The legacy of Jezebel. "In the last days, the daughters of Jezebel shall rule over nations," warns the scrawling inscription that surrounds the confront of Jezebel in this 1993 painting by American folk creative person Robert Roberg. The apocalyptic message seems to associate the Biblical queen with the "mother of whores and of abominations" who "rules over the kings of the earth" and who has committed fornication with them (Revelation 17:2, 5, 18).
Jezebel'south proper noun appears once in the New Attestation Book of Revelation, where it is attached to an unrepentant prophetess who has beguiled the people "to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols" (Revelation 2:20).
However the Volume of Kings offers no hint of sexual venial on Queen Jezebel's part, argues author Gaines. She is, if anything, a too-devoted wife, willing even to commit murder in order to help her husband maintain his authority every bit king. Epitome: Robert Roberg
Equally the Books of Kings recount, the princess Jezebel is brought to the northern kingdom of Israel to wed the newly crowned King Ahab, son of Omri (1 Kings 16:31). Her father is Ethbaal of Tyre, king of the Phoenicians, a group of Semites whose ancestors were Canaanites. Phoenicia consisted of a loose confederation of urban center-states, including the sophisticated maritime merchandise centers of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. The Bible writer's antagonism stems primarily from Jezebel'south religion. The Phoenicians worshiped a swarm of gods and goddesses, principal among them Baal, the general term for "lord" given to the head fertility and agricultural god of the Canaanites. As king of Phoenicia, information technology is likely that Ethbaal was too a high priest or had other important religious duties. According to the get-go-century C.E. historian Josephus, who drew on a Greek translation of the now-lost Annals of Tyre, Ethbaal served as a priest of Astarte, the primary Phoenician goddess. Jezebel, as the king'southward daughter, may accept served equally a priestess as she was growing upwards. In whatsoever example, she was certainly raised to award the deities of her native land.
When Jezebel comes to Israel, she brings her foreign gods and goddesses—especially Baal and his espoused Asherah (Canaanite Astarte, ofttimes translated in the Bible as "sacred postal service")—with her. This seems to have an immediate issue on her new hubby, for just as presently as the queen is introduced, we are told that Ahab builds a sanctuary for Baal in the very heart of State of israel, within his uppercase city of Samaria: "He took as married woman Jezebel daughter of Rex Ethbaal of the Phoenicians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a 'sacred post'"a (1 Kings 16:31–33).2
Jezebel does not accept Ahab's God, Yahweh. Rather, she leads Ahab to tolerate Baal. This is why she is vilified by the Deuteronomist, whose goal is to stamp out polytheism. She represents a view of womanhood that is the opposite of the ane extolled in characters such every bit Ruth the Moabite, who is also a foreigner. Ruth surrenders her identity and submerges herself in Israelite means; she adopts the religious and social norms of the Israelites and is universally praised for her conversion to God. Jezebel steadfastly remains true to her own beliefs.
Jezebel'due south marriage to Ahab was a political alliance. The union provided both peoples with military protection from powerful enemies likewise equally valuable merchandise routes: Israel gained access to the Phoenician ports; Phoenicia gained passage through Israel's central loma state to Transjordan and especially to the King's Highway, the heavily traveled inland road connecting the Gulf of Aqaba in the south with Damascus in the north. But although the spousal relationship is sound foreign policy, it is intolerable to the Deuteronomist because of Jezebel's idol worship.
The Bible does non annotate on what the young Jezebel thinks about marrying Ahab and moving to Israel. Her feelings are of no involvement to the Deuteronomist, nor are they germane to the story's didactic purpose.
To learn more about Biblical women with slighted traditions, accept a look at the Bible History Daily characteristic Scandalous Women in the Bible, which includes articles on Mary Magdalene and Lilith.
We are not told whether Ethbaal consults his daughter, if she departs Phoenicia with trepidation or enthusiasm, or what she expects from her role every bit ruler. Similar other blue-blooded daughters of her time, Jezebel is probably a pawn, packed off to the highest applicant.
Israel'southward topography, community and religion would certainly be very unlike from those of Jezebel's native land. Instead of the lushness of the moist seacoast, she would find Israel to be an arid, desert nation.
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Furthermore, the Torah shows the Israelites to be an ethnocentric, xenophobic people. In Biblical narratives, foreigners are sometimes unwelcome, and prejudice against intermarriage is seen since the day Abraham sought a adult female from his own people to ally his son Isaac (Genesis 24:4). In dissimilarity to the familiar gods and goddesses that Jezebel is accustomed to petitioning, Israel is dwelling to a state organized religion featuring a solitary, masculine deity. Possibly Jezebel optimistically believes that she can encourage religious tolerance and give legitimacy to the worship habits of those Baalites who already reside in Israel. Perhaps Jezebel sees herself every bit an ambassador who could help unite the two lands and bring about cultural pluralism, regional peace and economic prosperity.
What spurs Jezebel to action is unknown and unknowable, but the motives of the Deuteronomist come up through plainly in the text. Jezebel is a bold and impious interloper who has to be stopped. From her own betoken of view, yet, she is no backslider. She remains loyal to her religious upbringing and is determined to maintain her cultural identity.
According to the Deuteronomist, however, Jezebel's desire is not merely bars to achieving ethnic or religious parity. She likewise seems driven to eliminate Israel's faithful servants of God. Show of Jezebel'south cruel desire to wipe out Yahweh worship in Israel is reported in 1 Kings 18:iv, at the Bible's second mention of her name: "Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord."
The threat of Jezebel is so great that afterwards in the same chapter, the mythic prophet Elijah summons the acolytes of Jezebel to a tournament on Mt. Carmel to determine which deity is supreme: God or Baal.
Whichever deity is capable of setting a sacrificial balderdash on fire will be the winner, the one true God. It is only and then that we learn only how many followers of Jezebel'southward gods and goddesses are near her at court. Elijah challenges them: "Now summon all Israel to join me at Mountain Carmel, together with the four hundred and l prophets of Baal and the 4 hundred prophets of Asherah who swallow at Jezebel's table" (1 Kings 18:19). Whether the grand total of 850 is a symbolic or literal number, information technology is impressive.
| Glass jewels and glitter adorn the veiled crown of Jezebel and twisted branches speckled with paint form the queen'southward body in this sculpture by Bessie Harvey. Photograph by Ron Lee, The Silver Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA | Detail of veiled crown of Jezebel (compare with photo of veiled crown of Jezebel). Photo by Ron Lee, The Argent Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA. |
Yet their superior numbers can do nothing to ensure victory; nor can petitions to their god. The prophets of Baal "performed a hopping dance about the altar" and "kept raving" (ane Kings xviii:26, 29) all solar day long in a vain try to rouse Baal. They even gash themselves with knives and whoop it upwards in a heightened emotional land, hoping to incite Baal to unleash a cracking fire. Just Baal does not reply to the ecstatic ranting of Jezebel's prophets. At the end of the day, it is Elijah'southward unmarried plea to God that is answered.
Learn near the excavations at Jezreel in "Jezreel Expedition 2016: You Don't Accept to Be an Archeologist to Dig the Bible" and "Jezreel Expedition Sheds New Light on Ahab and Jezebel's City."
Continuing lone earlier Jezebel'southward host of visionaries, Elijah cries out: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! Let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have washed all these things at Your behest. Answer me, O Lord, reply me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God; for You lot have turned their hearts backward" (1 Kings 18:36–37). At once, "fire from the Lord descended and consumed the burnt offering, the forest, the stones and the earth;…When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on their faces and cried out: 'The Lord alone is God, the Lord alone is God!'" (1 Kings 18:38–39). Elijah'due south solitary entreaty to Yahweh serves as a foil to the hours of appeals fabricated by Baal's followers.
Jezebel herself is absent-minded during this all-male issue. Nevertheless, her presence is felt and the Deuteronomist'southward message is clear. Jezebel'southward deities and the huge number of prophets loyal to her are powerless against the omnipotent Yahweh, who is proven by the tournament to exist ruler of all the forces of nature.
Ironically, at the conclusion of the Carmel episode, Elijah proves capable of the same murderous inclinations that have previously characterized Jezebel, though it is but she that the Deuteronomist criticizes. After winning the Carmel competition, Elijah immediately orders the assembly to capture all of Jezebel's prophets. Elijah emphatically declares: "Seize the prophets of Baal, let not a single ane of them get away" (one Kings 18:forty). Elijah leads his 450 prisoners to the Wadi Kishon, where he slaughters them (1 Kings 18:40). Though they will never meet in person, Elijah and Jezebel are engaged in a hard-fought struggle for religious supremacy. Hither Elijah reveals that he and Jezebel possess a similar religious fervor, though their loyalties differ greatly. They are as well equally determined to eliminate one another's followers, even if it ways murdering them. The difference is that the Deuteronomist decries Jezebel's killing of God'south servants (at 1 Kings 18:4) but now sanctions Elijah'due south decision to massacre hundreds of Jezebel'south prophets. Indeed, in one case Elijah kills Jezebel'southward prophets, God rewards him by sending a much-needed pelting, catastrophe a iii-year drought in Israel. There is a definite double standard hither. Murder seems to be accustomed, even venerated, as long equally it is washed in the name of the correct deity.
After Elijah'due south triumph on Mt. Carmel, King Ahab returns domicile to give his queen the news that Baal is defeated, Yahweh is the undisputed master of the universe and Jezebel's prophets are expressionless. Jezebel sends Elijah a menacing bulletin, threatening to slaughter him just as he has slaughtered her prophets: "Thus and more may the gods practice if by this time tomorrow I accept not made yous like one of them" (ane Kings 19:2). The Septuagint, a third- to second-century B.C.E. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, prefaces Jezebel's threat with an additional insult to the prophet. Here Jezebel establishes herself as Elijah'south equal: "If you lot are Elijah, then I am Jezebel" (one Kings 19:2b).3 In both versions the queen'southward significant is unmistakable: Elijah should fright for his life.
These are the commencement words the Deuteronomist records from Jezebel, and they are filled with venom. Different the many voiceless Biblical wives and concubines whose muteness reminds united states of the powerlessness of women in ancient Israel, Jezebel has a tongue. While her exact acuity shows that she is more daring, clever and contained than most women of her time, her withering words also demonstrate her sinfulness. Jezebel transforms the precious instrument of language into an evil device to blaspheme God and defy the prophet.
So frightened is Elijah by Jezebel's threatening words that he flees to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). Despite what he has witnessed on Carmel, Elijah seems to stammer in his faith that the Almighty volition protect him. Equally a literary device, Elijah's sojourn at Horeb gives the Deuteronomist an opportunity to imply parallels betwixt the careers of Moses and Elijah, thus reinforcing Elijah's exalted reputation. Nevertheless, the timing of Elijah's flight south makes him look suspiciously like he is afraid of a mere woman.
Jezebel indeed shows herself as a person to be feared in the next episode. The story of Naboth, an Israelite who owns a plot of land adjacent to the royal palace in Jezreel, provides an excellent occasion for the Deuteronomist to advise that Jezebel is not only the foe of Israel's God, but an enemy of the government.
In ane Kings 21:ii, Ahab requests that Naboth requite him his vineyard: "Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it as a vegetable garden, since information technology is right side by side to my palace." Ahab promises to pay Naboth for the country or to provide him with an fifty-fifty better vineyard. But at one Kings 21:3, Naboth refuses to sell or merchandise: "The Lord foreclose that I should requite up to yous what I have inherited from my fathers!" The king whines and refuses to swallow subsequently Naboth's rebuff: "Ahab went home dispirited and sullen because of the answer that Naboth the Jezreelite had given him…He lay down on his bed and turned away his confront, and he would not eat" (1 Kings 21:iv). Apparently perturbed by her husband's political impotence and sulking demeanor, Jezebel steps in, proudly asserting: "Now is the time to prove yourself king over Israel. Rise and consume something, and be cheerful; I will get the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for yous" (1 Kings 21:7).
Naboth is fully inside his rights to hold onto his family plot. Israelite law and custom dictate that his family should maintain their land (nachalah) in perpetuity (Numbers 27:five–11). As a Torah-leap male monarch of Israel, Ahab should empathize Naboth'southward legitimate desire to go along his inheritance. Jezebel, on the other hand, hails from Phoenicia, where a monarch's whim is often tantamount to law.iv Having been raised in a land of accented autocrats, where few dared to question a ruler's wish or decree, Jezebel might naturally experience badgerer and frustration at Naboth's resistance to his sovereign's proposal. In this context, Jezebel'south reaction becomes more understandable, though perhaps no more admirable, for she behaves co-ordinate to her upbringing and expectations regarding purple prerogative.
Elijah's challenge of "the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel'due south table" (i Kings 18:xix) is depicted in two scenes on the walls of the third-century C.East. synagogue at Dura-Europos in modernistic Syria. Co-ordinate to one Kings eighteen, Elijah proposed that both he and the prophets of Baal lay a single bull on an altar and then pray to their respective deities to ignite the sacrificial animal. Whichever deity responded would exist accounted the more powerful and the one true God. In the painting shown hither, the priests of Baal gather around their altar, crying out, "O, Baal, answer us," only their cede remains untouched. The small man standing inside the altar in this painting does not announced in the Biblical story, but rather in a later midrash. According to this midrash, when the prophets of Baal realized they would fail, a man named Hiel agreed to hibernate within the altar to ignite the heifer from beneath. The Israelite God foiled their plan by sending a snake to seize with teeth Hiel, who afterwards died. Prototype: E. Goodenough, Symbolism in the Dura Synogogue (Princeton Univ. Printing)
Without Ahab's straight knowledge, Jezebel writes letters to her townsmen, enlisting them in an elaborate ruse to frame the innocent Naboth. To ensure their compliance, she signs Ahab'due south name and stamps the letters with the king's seal. Jezebel encourages the townsmen to publicly (and falsely) charge Naboth of blaspheming God and king. "And then have him out and rock him to death," she commands (1 Kings 21:10). So Naboth is murdered, and the vineyard automatically escheats to the throne, equally is customary when a person is establish guilty of a serious criminal offense. If Naboth has relatives, they are now in no position to protest the passing of their family land to Ahab.
Yet the details of Jezebel'due south underhanded plot against Naboth exercise not always ring true. The Bible maintains that "the elders and nobles who lived in [Naboth'due south] town…did as Jezebel had instructed them" (one Kings 21:11). If the trickster queen is able to enlist the support of so many people, none of whom betrays her, to kill a man whom they accept probably known all their lives and whom they realize is innocent, and then she has astonishing power.
The fantastical tale of Naboth's decease—in which something could get wrong at any moment but somehow does not—stretches the reader's credulity. If Jezebel were as hateful equally the Deuteronomist claims, surely at to the lowest degree 1 nobleman in Jezreel would accept refused to aid in the nefarious scheme. Surely one individual would have had the courage to expose the detestable deed and become the Deuteronomist's hero by spoiling the plan.v
Shown hither, Elijah and his followers take easily conjured up a blazing fire, which engulfs their white bull. Seeing the flames, the Israelites phone call out, "Yahweh alone is God, Yahweh alone is God" (1 Kings 18:39).
Jezebel herself is not present during the issue. And yet Elijah'south contest is a direct challenge to the queen who has brought the worship of Baal to the forefront in Israel by inviting the infidel prophets to the palace (compare with painting of the priests of Baal). Prototype: The Jewish Mesuem, NY/Art Resource, NY.
Perchance the Biblical compiler is using Jezebel equally a scapegoat for his outrage at her influence over the rex, pregnant that she herself is being framed in the tale. Traditionally thought to be a narrative virtually how innocent Naboth is falsely accused, the story could instead be an exaggeration of fact, fabricated to demonstrate the Deuteronomist's continued wrath against Jezebel.
As a result of this incident, Elijah reappears on the scene. Outset Yahweh tells Elijah how Ahab volition die: "The discussion of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 'Go down and confront King Ahab of Israel who [resides] in Samaria. He is now in Naboth'southward vineyard; he has gone downwardly in that location to take possession of it. Say to him, "Thus said the Lord: Would you murder and take possession? Thus said the Lord: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Naboth'due south blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too"'" (1 Kings 21:17–19). But when Elijah confronts Ahab, the prophet predicts instead how the queen will dice: "The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the field of Jezreel" (one Kings 21:23).c Poetic justice, as the Deuteronomist sees it, demands that Jezebel terminate up as dog food. Aback of what has happened and fearful of the future, Ahab humbles himself by assuming outward signs of mourning, fasting and donning sackcloth. Prayer accompanies fasting, whether the Bible explicitly says so or not, so nosotros may presume that Ahab raises his penitential voice to a forgiving Yahweh. For once, Jezebel does non speak; her lack of repentance is implicit in her silence.
Later the Death of Ahab: The Ill Repute of Jezebel in the Bible
When Jezebel's name is mentioned again, the Bible author makes his most alarming accusation confronting her. Ahab has died, as has the couple's eldest son, who followed his father to the throne. Their 2d son, Joram, rules. Simply even though State of israel has a sitting monarch, a servant of the prophet Elisha crowns Jehu, Joram's military commander, king of Israel and commissions Jehu to eradicate the Business firm of Ahab: "I anoint you rex over the people of the Lord, over Israel. You shall strike down the House of Ahab your master; thus will I avenge on Jezebel the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of the other servants of the Lord" (2 Kings 9:6–7).
Four paleo-Hebrew letters—ii but beneath the winged sun disk at eye, 2 at bottom left and right—spell out the name YZBL, or Jezebel, on this seal. The Phoenician design, the dating of the seal to the 9th or early on eighth century B.C.E. and, of grade, the name, take led scholars to speculate that the Biblical queen may once have used this grayness opal to seal her documents. In the Phoenician language, Jezebel's name may have meant "Where is the Prince?" which was the cry of Baal's subjects. Just the spelling of the Phoenician name has been altered in the Hebrew Bible, perhaps in society to read equally "Where is the excrement (zebel, manure)?"—a reference to Elijah's prediction that "her carcass shall exist like dung on the footing" (2 Kings ix:36). Collection Israel Museum/Photograph Zev Radovan.
Male monarch Joram and General Jehu meet on the battlefield. Unaware that he is about to be usurped by his military commander, Joram calls out: "Is all well, Jehu?" Jehu responds: "How tin all be well as long as your mother Jezebel carries on her endless harlotries and sorceries?" (two Kings 9:22). Jehu then shoots an arrow through Joram's heart and, in a moment of stinging irony, orders the body to be dumped on Naboth's state.
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From these words alone—uttered by the human who is about to kill Jezebel'due south son—stems Jezebel's long-continuing reputation every bit a witch and a whore. The Bible occasionally connects harlotry and idol worship, equally in Hosea i:3, where the prophet is told to ally a "wife of whoredom," who symbolically represents the people who "stray from following the Lord" (Hosea ane:three). Lusting later on false "lords" can be seen every bit either adulterous or idolatrous. Still throughout the millennia, Jezebel's harlotry has not been identified as mere dolatry. Rather, she has been considered the slut of Samaria, the carnal married woman of a pouting potentate. The 1938 motion-picture show Jezebel, starring Bette Davis as the destructive temptress who leads a man to his death, is evidence that this ancient judgment against Jezebel has been transmitted to this century. Even so, the Bible never offers evidence that Jezebel is unfaithful to her husband while he is alive or loose in her morals subsequently his decease. In fact, she is always shown to be a loyal and helpful spouse, though her brand of assist is deplored by the Deuteronomist. Jehu's charge of harlotry is unsubstantiated, merely it has stuck anyway and her reputation has been egregiously damaged by the allegation.
When Jezebel herself finally appears again in the pages of the Bible, information technology is for her expiry scene. Jehu, with the blood of Joram however on his hands, races his chariot into Jezreel to continue the insurrection by assassinating Jezebel. Ironically, this is her finest hour, though the Deuteronomist intends the queen to appear haughty and imperious to the stop. Realizing that Jehu is on his manner to kill her, Jezebel does not disguise herself and abscond the city, as a more cowardly person might do. Instead, she calmly prepares for his arrival by performing three acts: "She painted her optics with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window" (2 Kings nine:30). The traditional interpretation is that Jezebel primps and coquettishly looks out the window in an endeavor to seduce Jehu, that she wishes to win his favor and become part of his harem in order to salvage her own life, such treachery indicating Jezebel's dastardly betrayal of deceased family members. According to this reading, Jezebel sheds familial loyalty as hands as a snake sheds its skin in an endeavor to ensure her connected pleasure and rubber at court.
| This ivory comes from Arslan Tash, in northern Syria. The most common motif establish on Phoenician ivories, the woman at the window may stand for the goddess Astarte (Biblical Asherah) looking out a palace window. Perhaps this widespread imagery influenced the Biblical writer'southward description of Jezebel, a follower of Astarte, looking out the palace window as Jehu approached (two Kings 9:xxx). Photograph: Erich Lessing | Ivory fragment discovered in Samaria (compare with photograph of ivory from Arslan Tash). Photograph: Israel Antiquities Authority. |
Applying eye makeup (kohl) and brushing one'southward hair are often continued to flirting in Hebraic thinking. Isaiah 3:16, Jeremiah four:xxx, Ezekiel 23:40 and Proverbs vi:24–26 provide examples of women who bat their painted eyes to lure innocent men into adulterous beds. Blackness kohl is widely incorporated in Bible passages every bit a symbol of feminine charade and trickery, and its utilise to paint the area to a higher place and below the eyelids is generally considered part of a woman'south armory of bamboozlement. In Jezebel's case, however, the cosmetic is more than simply an attempt to accentuate the eyes. Jezebel is donning the female version of armor as she prepares to practise battle. She is a adult female warrior, waging war in the only mode a woman can. Whatever fear she may have of Jehu is camouflaged by her war pigment.
Her grooming continues as she dresses her hair, symbol of a woman's seductive power. When she dies, she wants to look her queenly best. She is in command here, choosing the manner in which her attacker will last run across and remember her.
The third action Jezebel takes before Jehu arrives is to sit at her upper window. The Deuteronomist may be deliberately conjuring upwardly images to associate Jezebel with other disfavored women. For case, contained within Deborah's victory ode is the story of the unfortunate female parent of the enemy full general Sisera. Waiting at home, Sisera's unnamed mother looks out the window for her son to return: "Through the window peered Sisera's mother, behind the lattice she whined" (Judges 5:28). Her ladies-in-waiting express the hope that Sisera is detained because he is raping Israelite women and collecting haul (Judges v:29–thirty). In truth, Sisera is already dead, his skull shattered past Jael and her tent peg (Judges 5:24–27). King David's married woman Michal also looks through her window, watching her husband dance around the Ark of the Covenant equally it is triumphantly brought into Jerusalem, "and she despised him for it" (2 Samuel half-dozen:16). Michal does non sympathise the people'south euphoria over the arrival of the Ark in David's new majuscule; she can merely feel anger that her married man is dancing about like ane of the "riffraff" (2 Samuel vi:20). Generations later, Jezebel besides appears at her window, conjuring upward images of Sisera'due south mother and Michal, two unpopular Biblical women.
The image of the woman at the window too suggests fertility goddesses, abominations to the Deuteronomist and well known to the general public in ancient State of israel. Ivory plaques, dating to the Iron Age and depicting a adult female peering through a window, accept been discovered in Khorsabad, Nimrud and Samaria, Jezebel's 2nd home.6 The connection between idol worship, goddesses and the woman seated at the window would not have been lost on the Deuteronomist's audition.
Sitting at her window, Jezebel is seemingly rendered powerless while the active patriarchal world functions across her reach.seven But a more sympathetic reading of the situation suggests that Jezebel has adamant the superior bending from which she will exist viewed by Jehu, thus giving the queen mastery of the situation.
Positioned at the balcony window, the queen does non remain silent equally the usurper Jehu arrives into town. She taunts him by calling him Zimri, the name of the unscrupulous predecessor of Omri, Jezebel's male parent-in-law. Zimri ruled Israel for only seven days later on murdering the king (Elah) and usurping the throne. "Is all well, Zimri, murderer of your master?" Jezebel asks Jehu (2 Kings 9:31). Jezebel knows that all is non well, and her sarcastic, sharp-tongued insult of Jehu disproves any interpretation that she has dressed in her finest to seduce him. She has contempt for Jehu. Unlike many Biblical wives, who remain silent, Jezebel has a distinct vocalism, and she is unafraid to clear her view of Jehu as a renegade and regicide.
To demonstrate his dominance, Jehu orders Jezebel'southward eunuchs to throw her out of the window: "They threw her downward; and her claret spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her. Then [Jehu] went inside and ate and drank" (two Kings 9:33–34). In this highly symbolic political action, the once mighty Jezebel is shoved out of her high station to the ground below. Her ejection from the window represents an eternal demotion from her proper place as one of the Bible'southward most influential women.
Jezebel's trunk is left in the street as Jehu celebrates his victory. Later, perhaps because the new monarch does not wish to begin his reign with such a disrespectful act against a woman, or perhaps because he realizes the danger in setting a precedent for sick treatment of a expressionless ruler's remains, Jehu orders Jezebel's burial: "Attend to that cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king's daughter" (2 Kings ix:34). Jezebel is not to be remembered as a queen or even as the wife of a king. She is only the daughter of a foreign despot. This is intended as another blow by the Deuteronomist, an attempt to marginalize a formidable woman. When the king'southward men come to coffin Jezebel, information technology is too late: "All they institute of her were the skull, the anxiety, and the easily" (ii Kings 9:35). Jehu'southward men inform the male monarch that Elijah'southward prophecies take been fulfilled: "Information technology is just as the Lord spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: The dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel; and the carcass of Jezebel shall be like dung on the ground, in the field of Jezreel, so that none will exist able to say: 'This was Jezebel'" (two Kings 9:36–37).
How Bad Was Jezebel?
With its green hills, fecund grapevines and abundant flowers, the scene depicted in this early-17th-century silk embroidery would appear peaceful—if not for the gruesome detail at left, which shows a woman being pushed out the palace window to a pack of hungry dogs. According to 2 Kings 9, Jehu orders the palace eunuchs to throw Jezebel out a window. When he subsequently commands his men to bury her, piddling remains: "All they plant of her were the skull, the feet and the easily" (two Kings 9:35). Jehu's men inform the new rex that Elijah's prophecies accept been fulfilled: The queen'southward corpse has been devoured by dogs; her torso is mutilated across recognition, then that "none will be able to say 'This was Jezebel'" (2 Kings 9:37). Death of Jezebel/Holburne Museum, Bath, Uk/Bridgeman Art Library
While the Biblical storyteller wants the concluding images of Jezebel to memorialize her every bit a brazen hussy, a sympathetic estimation of her behavior has more than credibility. When all a person has left in life is the style she faces her death, her final actions speak volumes nearly her character. Jezebel departs this world every inch a queen. At present an aging grandmother, it is highly unlikely that she has libidinous designs on Jehu or even entertains the notion of becoming the young king'south paramour. As the daughter, wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother of kings, Jezebel would understand court politics well plenty to realize that Jehu has far more to gain by killing her than by keeping her alive. Alive, the dowager queen could e'er serve every bit a rallying point for anyone unhappy with Jehu's reign. The queen harbors no illusions about her chances of surviving Jehu's encarmine coup d'état.
How bad was Jezebel? The Deuteronomist uses every possible argument to brand the case against her. When Ahab dies, the Deuteronomist is determined to show that "there never was anyone like Ahab, who committed himself to doing what was displeasing to the Lord, at the instigation of his wife Jezebel" (i Kings 21:25). It is interesting that Ahab is not held responsible for his own actions.viii He goes astray considering of a wicked woman. Someone has to bear the author'south vituperation apropos Israel'south apostasy, and Jezebel is called for the job.
Every Biblical word condemns her: Jezebel is an outspoken woman in a time when females take little status and few rights; a greenhorn in a xenophobic country; an idol worshiper in a place with a Yahweh-based, state-sponsored religion; a murderer and meddler in political affairs in a nation of strong patriarchs; a traitor in a country where no ruler is above the police force; and a whore in the territory where the Ten Commandments originate.
Yet there is much to admire in this ancient queen. In a kinder analysis, Jezebel emerges as a fiery and determined person, with an intensity matched only by Elijah'southward. She is truthful to her native religion and community. She is even more loyal to her husband. Throughout her reign, she boldly exercises what power she has. And in the terminate, having lived her life on her own terms, Jezebel faces certain decease with dignity.
"How Bad Was Jezebel?" by Janet Howe Gaines originally appeared in Bible Review, Oct 2000. The commodity was first republished in Bible History Daily in June 2010.
Janet Howe Gaines is a specialist in the Bible every bit literature in the Department of English at the Academy of New Mexico. She recently published Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Southern Illinois Univ. Press).
Notes:
a. Asherah is the Biblical proper noun for Astarte, a Canaanite fertility goddess and espoused of Baal. The term asherah, which appears at least fifty times in the Hebrew Bible (information technology is often translated as "sacred mail service"), is used to refer to iii manifestations of this goddess: an image (probably a figurine) of the goddess (eg., ii Kings 21:7); a tree (Deuteronomy 16:21); and a tree trunk, or sacred post (Deuteronomy 7:5, 12:iii). See Ruth Hestrin, "Understanding Asherah—Exploring Semitic Iconography," BAR, September/October 1991.
b. In the Septuagint, i and ii Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are all included in Kings, which therefore has four books, 1–4 Kings.
c. A similar argument is made past the unnamed prophet who anoints Jehu king of State of israel in 2 Kings 9:ten.
1. For a fuller treatment of Jezebel, come across Janet Howe Gaines, Music in the One-time Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1999).
2. All references to the Bible, unless otherwise noted, are to Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).
3. The translation of the Greek text is my own. According to Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton (The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English language, 3rd ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990], p. 478), the translation of the entire line is "And Jezabel sent to Eliu, and said, If 1000 art Eliu and I am Jezabel, God do and then to me, and more also, if I do not make thy life by this fourth dimension tomorrow as the life of one of them."
iv. For a discussion of Phoenician community, see George Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia (London: Longmans, 1889).
5. Equally corroborating prove, come across the story of David's plot to kill Uriah the Hittite in two Samuel xi:xiv–17. Like Jezebel, David writes letters that contain details of his scheme. David intends to enlist aid from the unabridged regiment as confederates who are to "draw dorsum from" Uriah, but Joab makes a shrewd and subtle change in the plan then that it is less likely to be discovered.
half-dozen. Eleanor Ferris Beach, "The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text," Biblical Archaeologist 56:2 (1993), pp. 94–104.
vii. For an first-class, detailed discussion of Biblical imagery apropos women seated at windows, encounter Nehama Aschkenasy, Adult female at the Window (Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1998).
viii. For a reassessment of Ahab's character based on the archaeological remains of his building projects and extrabiblical texts, see Ephraim Stern, "The Many Masters of Dor, Part 2: How Bad Was Ahab?" BAR, March/April 1993.
Source: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/how-bad-was-jezebel/
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