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How Bad Was Jezebel?
Read Janet Howe Gaines'south full article well-nigh Jezebel in the Bible and later depictions as it appeared in Bible Review
Janet Howe Gaines March 24, 2021 309 Comments 278187 views
Who Was Jezebel?
State of israel's most accursed queen carefully fixes a pinkish rose in her red locks in John Byam Liston Shaw'due south "Jezebel" from 1896. Jezebel's reputation as the about dangerous seductress in the Bible stems from her final appearance: her husband King Ahab is dead; her son has been murdered past Jehu. As Jehu's chariot races toward the palace to kill Jezebel, she "painted her optics with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window" (2 Kings 9:thirty). Image: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland/Bridgeman Art Library.
For more two thousand years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation equally 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 Earth 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 frequently just partially told in the Bible. Rehabilitating Jezebel's stained reputation is an arduous task, withal, for she is a hard adult female to like. She is non a heroic fighter like Deborah, a devoted sister similar Miriam or a cherished married woman like Ruth. Jezebel cannot even be compared with the Bible's other bad girls—Potiphar's wife and Delilah—for no good comes from Jezebel'south deeds. These other women may exist bad, just Jezebel is the worst.ane
Yet there is more to this complex ruler than the standard interpretation would allow. To accomplish a more positive cess of Jezebel's troubled reign and a deeper understanding of her part, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen. Furthermore, we must reread the narrative from the queen'south vantage indicate. As nosotros piece together the world in which Jezebel lived, a fuller picture of this fascinating woman begins to sally. The story is not a pretty one, and some—mayhap most—readers will remain disturbed by Jezebel's actions. But her character might non exist as nighttime as nosotros are accustomed to thinking. Her evilness is not always as obvious, undisputed and unrivaled as the Biblical author wants it to appear.
Ahab and Jezebel in the Bible
The story of Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of Male monarch Ahab of Israel, is recounted in several brief passages scattered throughout the Books of Kings. Scholars mostly identify i and 2 Kings as part of the Deuteronomistic History, attributed either to a single author or to a group of authors and editors collectively known as the Deuteronomist. One of the master purposes of the unabridged Deuteronomistic History, which includes the seven books from Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, is to explain Israel's fate in terms of its apostasy. Equally the Israelites settle into the Promised Land, institute a monarchy and separate into a northern and a southern kingdom after the reign of Solomon, God's called people continually go off-target. They sin against Yahweh in many ways, the worst of which is past worshiping alien deities. The first commandments from Sinai demand monotheism, just the people are attracted to foreign gods and goddesses. When Jezebel enters the scene in the 9th 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 strange idol worshiper who seems to be the ability behind her husband. From the Deuteronomist'south viewpoint, Jezebel embodies everything that must exist eliminated from Israel then that the purity of the cult of Yahweh will non be farther contaminated.
The legacy of Jezebel. "In the last days, the daughters of Jezebel shall dominion over nations," warns the scrawling inscription that surrounds the face of Jezebel in this 1993 painting past American folk artist Robert Roberg. The apocalyptic bulletin seems to acquaintance the Biblical queen with the "mother of whores and of abominations" who "rules over the kings of the world" and who has committed fornication with them (Revelation 17:2, 5, 18).
Jezebel's name appears once in the New Testament Volume of Revelation, where it is attached to an unrepentant prophetess who has beguiled the people "to do fornication and to consume nutrient sacrificed to idols" (Revelation 2:xx).
Nevertheless the Book of Kings offers no hint of sexual impropriety on Queen Jezebel's part, argues writer Gaines. She is, if anything, a too-devoted wife, willing even to commit murder in gild to assistance her husband maintain his authority equally king. Image: Robert Roberg
Every bit 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 city-states, including the sophisticated maritime trade centers of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. The Bible writer's antagonism stems primarily from Jezebel'south organized religion. The Phoenicians worshiped a swarm of gods and goddesses, main among them Baal, the general term for "lord" given to the head fertility and agronomical god of the Canaanites. As rex of Phoenicia, it is likely that Ethbaal was likewise a high priest or had other important religious duties. According to the first-century C.Eastward. historian Josephus, who drew on a Greek translation of the now-lost Annals of Tyre, Ethbaal served equally a priest of Astarte, the chief Phoenician goddess. Jezebel, as the male monarch's daughter, may have served as a priestess as she was growing upward. In any example, she was certainly raised to honour the deities of her native state.
When Jezebel comes to Israel, she brings her foreign gods and goddesses—peculiarly Baal and his espoused Asherah (Canaanite Astarte, often translated in the Bible as "sacred post")—with her. This seems to have an immediate effect on her new husband, for just as shortly as the queen is introduced, we are told that Ahab builds a sanctuary for Baal in the very center of Israel, inside his capital city of Samaria: "He took equally wife Jezebel daughter of Rex Ethbaal of the Phoenicians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an chantry to Baal in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab as well made a 'sacred post'"a (1 Kings 16:31–33).2
Jezebel does not take Ahab'due south 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 one extolled in characters such equally Ruth the Moabite, who is as well a foreigner. Ruth surrenders her identity and submerges herself in Israelite ways; 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'southward union to Ahab was a political alliance. The union provided both peoples with military protection from powerful enemies also every bit valuable merchandise routes: Israel gained admission to the Phoenician ports; Phoenicia gained passage through Israel's primal colina country to Transjordan and peculiarly to the Male monarch's Highway, the heavily traveled inland road connecting the Gulf of Aqaba in the south with Damascus in the due north. But although the marriage is audio foreign policy, information technology is intolerable to the Deuteronomist because of Jezebel'southward idol worship.
The Bible does not comment 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'south didactic purpose.
To acquire more most Biblical women with slighted traditions, take a look at the Bible History Daily feature 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 part as ruler. Like other highborn daughters of her time, Jezebel is probably a pawn, packed off to the highest bidder.
Israel's topography, customs and organized religion would certainly exist very dissimilar from those of Jezebel's native state. Instead of the lushness of the moist seacoast, she would observe 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 mean solar day Abraham sought a adult female from his own people to ally his son Isaac (Genesis 24:4). In contrast to the familiar gods and goddesses that Jezebel is accepted to petitioning, State of israel is home to a country faith featuring a solitary, masculine deity. Perhaps Jezebel optimistically believes that she can encourage religious tolerance and give legitimacy to the worship habits of those Baalites who already reside in Israel. Possibly Jezebel sees herself every bit an administrator who could assistance unite the ii lands and bring about cultural pluralism, regional peace and economical prosperity.
What spurs Jezebel to action is unknown and unknowable, but the motives of the Deuteronomist come through plainly in the text. Jezebel is a bold and impious interloper who has to be stopped. From her own point of view, all the same, she is no apostate. She remains loyal to her religious upbringing and is determined to maintain her cultural identity.
Co-ordinate to the Deuteronomist, however, Jezebel's want is non merely bars to achieving ethnic or religious parity. She likewise seems driven to eliminate Israel'southward true-blue servants of God. Evidence of Jezebel's cruel want to wipe out Yahweh worship in Israel is reported in 1 Kings eighteen:four, at the Bible's second mention of her proper noun: "Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord."
The threat of Jezebel is and then great that later in the same affiliate, 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 bull on fire will be the winner, the one true God. It is just then that we larn just how many followers of Jezebel's gods and goddesses are about her at court. Elijah challenges them: "Now summon all Israel to bring together me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel'south tabular array" (one Kings 18:19). Whether the grand full of 850 is a symbolic or literal number, it is impressive.
| Drinking glass jewels and glitter adorn the veiled crown of Jezebel and twisted branches speckled with pigment form the queen's trunk in this sculpture by Bessie Harvey. Photo past Ron Lee, The Silvery Mill/The Arnett Drove, Atlanta, GA | Detail of veiled crown of Jezebel (compare with photo of veiled crown of Jezebel). Photograph past Ron Lee, The Silverish Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA. |
Even so their superior numbers tin 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" (1 Kings 18:26, 29) all twenty-four hour period long in a vain endeavor to rouse Baal. They fifty-fifty gash themselves with knives and whoop it up in a heightened emotional state, hoping to incite Baal to unleash a slap-up fire. But Baal does non answer to the ecstatic ranting of Jezebel'southward prophets. At the finish of the solar day, it is Elijah's single plea to God that is answered.
Larn about the excavations at Jezreel in "Jezreel Expedition 2016: You Don't Have to Be an Archeologist to Dig the Bible" and "Jezreel Expedition Sheds New Light on Ahab and Jezebel's City."
Standing alone earlier Jezebel'due south host of visionaries, Elijah cries out: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! Let it be known today that You are God in State of israel and that I am Your servant, and that I accept done 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 wood, 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 solitary is God!'" (ane Kings 18:38–39). Elijah'due south solitary entreaty to Yahweh serves as a foil to the hours of appeals fabricated past Baal's followers.
Jezebel herself is absent-minded during this all-male consequence. Nevertheless, her presence is felt and the Deuteronomist's message is clear. Jezebel's deities and the huge number of prophets loyal to her are powerless against the almighty Yahweh, who is proven by the tournament to be ruler of all the forces of nature.
Ironically, at the conclusion of the Carmel episode, Elijah proves capable of the aforementioned murderous inclinations that take previously characterized Jezebel, though it is just she that the Deuteronomist criticizes. After winning the Carmel contest, Elijah immediately orders the associates to capture all of Jezebel's prophets. Elijah emphatically declares: "Seize the prophets of Baal, let non a single ane of them get away" (one Kings 18:40). Elijah leads his 450 prisoners to the Wadi Kishon, where he slaughters them (i Kings 18:forty). Though they will never encounter in person, Elijah and Jezebel are engaged in a hard-fought struggle for religious supremacy. Here Elijah reveals that he and Jezebel possess a similar religious fervor, though their loyalties differ greatly. They are also every bit adamant to eliminate one another'southward followers, even if it means murdering them. The deviation is that the Deuteronomist decries Jezebel'southward killing of God's servants (at 1 Kings 18:iv) but now sanctions Elijah's decision to massacre hundreds of Jezebel'south prophets. Indeed, once Elijah kills Jezebel'southward prophets, God rewards him by sending a much-needed rain, ending a three-yr drought in Israel. There is a definite double standard here. Murder seems to be accepted, even venerated, as long every bit it is done in the name of the right deity.
Afterwards Elijah's triumph on Mt. Carmel, King Ahab returns home to requite his queen the news that Baal is defeated, Yahweh is the undisputed master of the universe and Jezebel'due south prophets are dead. Jezebel sends Elijah a menacing bulletin, threatening to slaughter him but as he has slaughtered her prophets: "Thus and more may the gods practice if past this time tomorrow I accept non made you like one of them" (1 Kings 19:2). The Septuagint, a 3rd- to second-century B.C.Eastward. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, prefaces Jezebel'due south threat with an additional insult to the prophet. Here Jezebel establishes herself as Elijah'due south equal: "If you lot are Elijah, and so I am Jezebel" (one Kings 19:2b).iii In both versions the queen'southward meaning is unmistakable: Elijah should fear for his life.
These are the outset words the Deuteronomist records from Jezebel, and they are filled with venom. Unlike the many voiceless Biblical wives and concubines whose muteness reminds u.s. of the powerlessness of women in aboriginal Israel, Jezebel has a tongue. While her verbal acuity shows that she is more daring, clever and contained than most women of her time, her withering words too 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'southward threatening words that he flees to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). Despite what he has witnessed on Carmel, Elijah seems to falter in his religion that the Omnipotent will protect him. Every bit a literary device, Elijah'due south sojourn at Horeb gives the Deuteronomist an opportunity to imply parallels between the careers of Moses and Elijah, thus reinforcing Elijah's exalted reputation. Nevertheless, the timing of Elijah'south flight south makes him look suspiciously like he is agape of a mere adult female.
Jezebel indeed shows herself equally a person to be feared in the side by side 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 propose that Jezebel is not merely the foe of Israel's God, but an enemy of the authorities.
In 1 Kings 21:two, Ahab requests that Naboth give him his vineyard: "Requite me your vineyard, then that I may have information technology as a vegetable garden, since it is right adjacent to my palace." Ahab promises to pay Naboth for the land or to provide him with an fifty-fifty better vineyard. But at 1 Kings 21:three, Naboth refuses to sell or merchandise: "The Lord forestall that I should requite upwards to you what I take inherited from my fathers!" The king whines and refuses to swallow after Naboth'southward rebuff: "Ahab went dwelling house dispirited and sullen because of the answer that Naboth the Jezreelite had given him…He lay downward on his bed and turned away his confront, and he would not eat" (ane Kings 21:4). Apparently perturbed by her husband'southward political impotence and sulking demeanor, Jezebel steps in, proudly asserting: "Now is the fourth dimension to bear witness yourself king over State of israel. Rise and consume something, and be cheerful; I will become the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for y'all" (1 Kings 21:7).
Naboth is fully within his rights to hold onto his family unit plot. Israelite law and custom dictate that his family unit should maintain their state (nachalah) in perpetuity (Numbers 27:5–xi). Equally a Torah-bound male monarch of Israel, Ahab should understand Naboth's legitimate desire to go on his inheritance. Jezebel, on the other hand, hails from Phoenicia, where a monarch's whim is often tantamount to law.four Having been raised in a state of absolute autocrats, where few dared to question a ruler's wish or decree, Jezebel might naturally experience annoyance and frustration at Naboth's resistance to his sovereign's proposal. In this context, Jezebel'southward reaction becomes more understandable, though perchance no more admirable, for she behaves according to her upbringing and expectations regarding royal prerogative.
Elijah's claiming of "the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who swallow at Jezebel'southward table" (1 Kings xviii:19) is depicted in ii scenes on the walls of the tertiary-century C.E. synagogue at Dura-Europos in modernistic Syrian arab republic. Co-ordinate to one Kings 18, Elijah proposed that both he and the prophets of Baal lay a single bull on an altar and so pray to their respective deities to ignite the sacrificial animal. Whichever deity responded would exist deemed the more powerful and the one truthful God. In the painting shown here, the priests of Baal gather around their altar, crying out, "O, Baal, answer u.s.," but their sacrifice remains untouched. The small human standing inside the altar in this painting does non appear in the Biblical story, but rather in a afterwards midrash. According to this midrash, when the prophets of Baal realized they would neglect, a human being named Hiel agreed to hide within the altar to ignite the heifer from below. The Israelite God foiled their plan by sending a serpent to bite Hiel, who subsequently died. Image: E. Goodenough, Symbolism in the Dura Synogogue (Princeton Univ. Printing)
Without Ahab'south direct noesis, Jezebel writes letters to her townsmen, enlisting them in an elaborate ruse to frame the innocent Naboth. To ensure their compliance, she signs Ahab's name and stamps the letters with the male monarch's seal. Jezebel encourages the townsmen to publicly (and falsely) charge Naboth of blaspheming God and king. "Then take him out and rock him to death," she commands (i Kings 21:ten). So Naboth is murdered, and the vineyard automatically escheats to the throne, equally is customary when a person is found guilty of a serious crime. If Naboth has relatives, they are now in no position to protestation the passing of their family country to Ahab.
Yet the details of Jezebel's underhanded plot against Naboth practise not e'er ring true. The Bible maintains that "the elders and nobles who lived in [Naboth's] town…did as Jezebel had instructed them" (one Kings 21:xi). 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 take probably known all their lives and whom they realize is innocent, and then she has amazing power.
The fantastical tale of Naboth'south death—in which something could become wrong at any moment just somehow does not—stretches the reader's credulity. If Jezebel were as mean as the Deuteronomist claims, surely at least ane nobleman in Jezreel would have refused to assist in the nefarious scheme. Surely one private would have had the courage to expose the detestable deed and go the Deuteronomist'southward hero past spoiling the plan.v
Shown here, Elijah and his followers accept easily conjured upward a blazing burn, which engulfs their white bull. Seeing the flames, the Israelites call out, "Yahweh lonely is God, Yahweh alone is God" (i Kings 18:39).
Jezebel herself is not present during the event. And yet Elijah's contest is a direct challenge to the queen who has brought the worship of Baal to the forefront in State of israel by inviting the pagan prophets to the palace (compare with painting of the priests of Baal). Image: The Jewish Mesuem, NY/Fine art Resources, NY.
Possibly the Biblical compiler is using Jezebel as a scapegoat for his outrage at her influence over the king, meaning that she herself is being framed in the tale. Traditionally thought to be a narrative about how innocent Naboth is falsely accused, the story could instead be an exaggeration of fact, fabricated to demonstrate the Deuteronomist'southward continued wrath against Jezebel.
As a outcome of this incident, Elijah reappears on the scene. First Yahweh tells Elijah how Ahab volition die: "The discussion of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 'Go down and confront Rex Ahab of Israel who [resides] in Samaria. He is at present in Naboth'due south vineyard; he has gone downwards there to accept possession of information technology. Say to him, "Thus said the Lord: Would y'all murder and take possession? Thus said the Lord: In the very identify where the dogs lapped upwards Naboth'south blood, the dogs will lap upwards your blood besides"'" (1 Kings 21:17–19). Simply when Elijah confronts Ahab, the prophet predicts instead how the queen volition dice: "The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the field of Jezreel" (one Kings 21:23).c Poetic justice, equally the Deuteronomist sees information technology, demands that Jezebel finish up as dog food. Ashamed 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 we may assume that Ahab raises his penitential voice to a forgiving Yahweh. For one time, Jezebel does not speak; her lack of repentance is implicit in her silence.
Later on the Decease of Ahab: The Ill Repute of Jezebel in the Bible
When Jezebel's name is mentioned once again, the Bible writer makes his near alarming accusation confronting her. Ahab has died, as has the couple's eldest son, who followed his male parent to the throne. Their 2d son, Joram, rules. But even though 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 male monarch over the people of the Lord, over Israel. You shall strike downwardly the Firm of Ahab your primary; 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 ix:6–7).
4 paleo-Hebrew letters—2 simply below the winged sun deejay at center, two at lesser left and right—spell out the proper name YZBL, or Jezebel, on this seal. The Phoenician blueprint, the dating of the seal to the 9th or early eighth century B.C.Due east. and, of course, the name, have led scholars to speculate that the Biblical queen may once have used this gray 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'due south subjects. But the spelling of the Phoenician name has been altered in the Hebrew Bible, perhaps in lodge to read as "Where is the excrement (zebel, manure)?"—a reference to Elijah's prediction that "her carcass shall be like dung on the ground" (ii Kings 9:36). Drove Israel Museum/Photo Zev Radovan.
King Joram and General Jehu meet on the battlefield. Unaware that he is about to exist usurped by his military commander, Joram calls out: "Is all well, Jehu?" Jehu responds: "How tin can all exist well every bit long as your mother Jezebel carries on her countless harlotries and sorceries?" (2 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'south land.
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From these words alone—uttered past the human being who is about to impale Jezebel's son—stems Jezebel'southward long-standing reputation every bit a witch and a whore. The Bible occasionally connects harlotry and idol worship, every bit in Hosea 1:3, where the prophet is told to ally a "wife of whoredom," who symbolically represents the people who "stray from following the Lord" (Hosea 1:three). Lusting afterward false "lords" can exist seen as either adulterous or idolatrous. Even so throughout the millennia, Jezebel's harlotry has not been identified as mere dolatry. Rather, she has been considered the slut of Samaria, the lecherous wife of a pouting potentate. The 1938 movie Jezebel, starring Bette Davis as the subversive temptress who leads a man to his expiry, is evidence that this ancient judgment confronting Jezebel has been transmitted to this century. Nevertheless, the Bible never offers evidence that Jezebel is unfaithful to her married man while he is alive or loose in her morals after his death. In fact, she is always shown to be a loyal and helpful spouse, though her brand of assistance is deplored by the Deuteronomist. Jehu's accuse of harlotry is unsubstantiated, but information technology has stuck anyway and her reputation has been egregiously damaged by the accusation.
When Jezebel herself finally appears once more in the pages of the Bible, it is for her death scene. Jehu, with the blood of Joram still on his easily, races his chariot into Jezreel to keep the insurrection by assassinating Jezebel. Ironically, this is her finest hour, though the Deuteronomist intends the queen to appear haughty and imperious to the end. Realizing that Jehu is on his style to kill her, Jezebel does not disguise herself and flee the city, as a more than cowardly person might do. Instead, she calmly prepares for his arrival by performing 3 acts: "She painted her eyes with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window" (ii Kings nine:thirty). The traditional interpretation is that Jezebel primps and coquettishly looks out the window in an effort to seduce Jehu, that she wishes to win his favor and get part of his harem in gild to save her own life, such treachery indicating Jezebel's dastardly betrayal of deceased family members. Co-ordinate to this reading, Jezebel sheds familial loyalty as easily equally a serpent sheds its peel in an effort to ensure her continued pleasance and safety at court.
| This ivory comes from Arslan Tash, in northern Syria. The most common motif institute on Phoenician ivories, the woman at the window may represent the goddess Astarte (Biblical Asherah) looking out a palace window. Perhaps this widespread imagery influenced the Biblical writer's clarification of Jezebel, a follower of Astarte, looking out the palace window as Jehu approached (two Kings 9:30). Photo: Erich Lessing | Ivory fragment discovered in Samaria (compare with photo of ivory from Arslan Tash). Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority. |
Applying eye makeup (kohl) and brushing 1'south hair are oftentimes continued to flirting in Hebraic thinking. Isaiah 3:16, Jeremiah 4:30, Ezekiel 23:40 and Proverbs 6:24–26 provide examples of women who bat their painted optics to lure innocent men into adulterous beds. Black kohl is widely incorporated in Bible passages as a symbol of feminine deception and trickery, and its use to paint the area above and beneath the eyelids is more often than not considered office of a adult female'south arsenal of artifice. In Jezebel'southward case, all the same, the cosmetic is more than merely an attempt to accentuate the eyes. Jezebel is donning the female version of armor as she prepares to practice boxing. She is a woman warrior, waging war in the merely fashion a woman tin can. Whatever fear she may accept of Jehu is camouflaged by her war paint.
Her grooming continues as she dresses her hair, symbol of a woman's seductive ability. When she dies, she wants to expect her queenly best. She is in control here, choosing the manner in which her attacker volition concluding see and call up her.
The third action Jezebel takes earlier Jehu arrives is to sit down at her upper window. The Deuteronomist may be deliberately conjuring up images to acquaintance Jezebel with other disfavored women. For case, contained within Deborah's victory ode is the story of the unfortunate mother of the enemy full general Sisera. Waiting at home, Sisera's unnamed female parent looks out the window for her son to render: "Through the window peered Sisera'southward mother, behind the lattice she whined" (Judges v:28). Her ladies-in-waiting express the promise that Sisera is detained considering he is raping Israelite women and collecting booty (Judges 5:29–thirty). In truth, Sisera is already dead, his skull shattered by Jael and her tent peg (Judges 5:24–27). King David'southward wife Michal also looks through her window, watching her husband dance around the Ark of the Covenant as it is triumphantly brought into Jerusalem, "and she despised him for it" (2 Samuel 6:sixteen). Michal does not understand the people'south euphoria over the arrival of the Ark in David'southward new capital; she can but feel acrimony that her married man is dancing about similar one of the "riffraff" (2 Samuel 6:20). Generations afterwards, Jezebel besides appears at her window, conjuring up images of Sisera'due south female parent and Michal, 2 unpopular Biblical women.
The image of the woman at the window also suggests fertility goddesses, abominations to the Deuteronomist and well known to the full general public in ancient Israel. Ivory plaques, dating to the Atomic number 26 Age and depicting a woman peering through a window, have been discovered in Khorsabad, Nimrud and Samaria, Jezebel's second home.6 The connectedness between idol worship, goddesses and the adult female seated at the window would not have been lost on the Deuteronomist's audience.
Sitting at her window, Jezebel is seemingly rendered powerless while the agile patriarchal world functions beyond her reach.vii But a more sympathetic reading of the state of affairs 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 as the usurper Jehu arrives into town. She taunts him by calling him Zimri, the name of the unscrupulous predecessor of Omri, Jezebel's father-in-law. Zimri ruled State of israel for but vii days later 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 not 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 voice, and she is unafraid to articulate her view of Jehu as a renegade and regicide.
To demonstrate his authority, Jehu orders Jezebel's eunuchs to throw her out of the window: "They threw her down; and her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her. Then [Jehu] went inside and ate and drank" (ii Kings 9:33–34). In this highly symbolic political action, the once mighty Jezebel is shoved out of her loftier station to the ground below. Her ejection from the window represents an eternal demotion from her proper place as i of the Bible'due south near influential women.
Jezebel's body is left in the street every bit Jehu celebrates his victory. Subsequently, perhaps because the new monarch does not wish to begin his reign with such a disrespectful human activity confronting a woman, or perchance because he realizes the danger in setting a precedent for ill treatment of a expressionless ruler'due south remains, Jehu orders Jezebel'south burial: "Attend to that cursed adult female and bury her, for she was a king'southward daughter" (two Kings nine:34). Jezebel is non to be remembered as a queen or even as the wife of a male monarch. She is simply the daughter of a foreign despot. This is intended as another blow by the Deuteronomist, an endeavour to marginalize a formidable adult female. When the rex's men come up to bury Jezebel, information technology is too belatedly: "All they found of her were the skull, the anxiety, and the hands" (two Kings ix:35). Jehu'southward men inform the rex that Elijah's prophecies accept been fulfilled: "It is just as the Lord spoke through His retainer Elijah the Tishbite: The dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel; and the carcass of Jezebel shall exist like dung on the ground, in the field of Jezreel, and so that none volition be able to say: 'This was Jezebel'" (2 Kings ix: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 announced peaceful—if not for the gruesome detail at left, which shows a adult female being pushed out the palace window to a pack of hungry dogs. Co-ordinate to two Kings 9, Jehu orders the palace eunuchs to throw Jezebel out a window. When he afterward commands his men to bury her, little remains: "All they found of her were the skull, the feet and the hands" (ii Kings ix:35). Jehu'south men inform the new king that Elijah'south prophecies have been fulfilled: The queen'southward corpse has been devoured by dogs; her body is mutilated beyond recognition, then that "none will exist able to say 'This was Jezebel'" (2 Kings 9:37). Death of Jezebel/Holburne Museum, Bathroom, UK/Bridgeman Art Library
While the Biblical storyteller wants the final images of Jezebel to memorialize her as a brazen hussy, a sympathetic estimation of her behavior has more than credibility. When all a person has left in life is the way she faces her death, her final deportment speak volumes nearly her character. Jezebel departs this earth every inch a queen. Now an aging grandmother, it is highly unlikely that she has libidinous designs on Jehu or even entertains the notion of becoming the young king's paramour. Equally the girl, wife, female parent, mother-in-police and grandmother of kings, Jezebel would understand court politics well enough to realize that Jehu has far more to proceeds by killing her than by keeping her alive. Alive, the dowager queen could always 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 bloody coup d'état.
How bad was Jezebel? The Deuteronomist uses every possible argument to make the example confronting her. When Ahab dies, the Deuteronomist is adamant 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" (1 Kings 21:25). It is interesting that Ahab is not held responsible for his own actions.eight He goes off-target because of a wicked woman. Someone has to bear the writer'due south vituperation apropos State of israel's apostasy, and Jezebel is chosen for the job.
Every Biblical word condemns her: Jezebel is an outspoken woman in a time when females have little status and few rights; a foreigner in a xenophobic land; an idol worshiper in a place with a Yahweh-based, state-sponsored religion; a murderer and meddler in political diplomacy in a nation of strong patriarchs; a traitor in a country where no ruler is above the police; and a whore in the territory where the 10 Commandments originate.
Yet there is much to admire in this ancient queen. In a kinder analysis, Jezebel emerges as a peppery and adamant person, with an intensity matched just by Elijah's. She is truthful to her native organized religion and community. She is even more loyal to her husband. Throughout her reign, she boldly exercises what power she has. And in the end, having lived her life on her ain terms, Jezebel faces certain death with dignity.
"How Bad Was Jezebel?" by Janet Howe Gaines originally appeared in Bible Review, October 2000. The commodity was first republished in Bible History Daily in June 2010.
Janet Howe Gaines is a specialist in the Bible as literature in the Department of English language at the University of New United mexican states. 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 consort of Baal. The term asherah, which appears at to the lowest degree 50 times in the Hebrew Bible (it is oftentimes translated as "sacred post"), is used to refer to 3 manifestations of this goddess: an image (probably a figurine) of the goddess (eg., 2 Kings 21:7); a tree (Deuteronomy sixteen:21); and a tree torso, or sacred post (Deuteronomy 7:5, 12:3). See Ruth Hestrin, "Understanding Asherah—Exploring Semitic Iconography," BAR, September/Oct 1991.
b. In the Septuagint, 1 and 2 Samuel and i and 2 Kings are all included in Kings, which therefore has four books, 1–4 Kings.
c. A similar statement is fabricated by the unnamed prophet who anoints Jehu king of Israel in 2 Kings 9:10.
1. For a fuller treatment of Jezebel, run into Janet Howe Gaines, Music in the One-time Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1999).
two. All references to the Bible, unless otherwise noted, are to Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation Co-ordinate to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Order, 1985).
three. The translation of the Greek text is my own. According to Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton (The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, 3rd ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990], p. 478), the translation of the entire line is "And Jezabel sent to Eliu, and said, If thou fine art Eliu and I am Jezabel, God do so to me, and more than likewise, if I exercise non make thy life by this time tomorrow as the life of one of them."
4. For a discussion of Phoenician community, run across George Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia (London: Longmans, 1889).
5. As corroborating prove, see the story of David's plot to impale Uriah the Hittite in two Samuel 11:xiv–17. Like Jezebel, David writes messages that incorporate details of his scheme. David intends to enlist help from the entire regiment equally confederates who are to "draw back from" Uriah, just Joab makes a shrewd and subtle change in the plan so that it is less probable to be discovered.
half-dozen. Eleanor Ferris Beach, "The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text," Biblical Archeologist 56:ii (1993), pp. 94–104.
7. For an splendid, detailed word of Biblical imagery apropos women seated at windows, see Nehama Aschkenasy, Woman at the Window (Detroit: Wayne Land Univ. Press, 1998).
8. For a reassessment of Ahab's grapheme based on the archaeological remains of his building projects and extrabiblical texts, see Ephraim Stern, "The Many Masters of Dor, Office 2: How Bad Was Ahab?" BAR, March/April 1993.
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Source: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/how-bad-was-jezebel/
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