Jezebel was a Phoenician woman who became queen of Israel upon her marriage to King Ahab in the ninth century BCE. Much of what we know of her is from a series of unflattering biblical stories that portray her as evil and a whore. Indeed, her reputation is sullied to such an extent that her very name remains shorthand for licentiousness and manipulation to this day. (“Get in the box, you Jezebel,” Will Farrell’s character orders in the Barbie movie.) But was Jezebel really so bad?
Jezebel’s first appearance in the Bible sets the stage for how she is viewed. She is introduced in 1 Kings as the wife of Ahab and the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. Ahab, we have just learned, was worse than all the kings who had preceded him. Immediately after Jezebel’s introduction, the text reports that Ahab served the Canaanite god Baal. So the text links Jezebel with her evil Baal-worshipping husband before she does anything herself. (Note also that her father has the name of Baal incorporated into his name, meaning he is likely a follower of Baal as well.)
So the first thing we learn about Jezebel is that she is a supporter of the god Baal (her own name suggests as much too). Soon we get more information about Jezebel’s actions, which only serve to burnish her reputation for evil. In chapter 18 of 1 Kings, we learn about a man named Obadiah, who revered God. As an aside, we read that Obadiah had sheltered 100 prophets and in a cave to save them from Jezebel, who was busy killing off prophets. Jezebel appears to be doing something awful, but the text only mentions it as an aside to explain who someone else is.
Later in that chapter, the text refers to 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (a female god followed by many in Canaan as well) who eat at Jezebel’s table, likely an indication that she supported them financially. In one of the most famous stories about the prophet Elijah in the Bible, the prophet challenges the prophets of Baal to offer a sacrifice without the use of fire on Mount Carmel. Despite their repeated entreaties to Baal, their sacrifice remains unconsumed. Elijah then places a sacrifice upon the altar, douses it with water and calls out to God. A fire rains down from heaven and consumes not only the sacrifice, but slaughters the prophets of Baal. When Jezebel hears of it, she threatens to kill Elijah, and he flees.
Perhaps the most famous story about Jezebel is the episode in which her husband covets a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth, who will not sell it. Ahab is infuriated by this, and when he tells his wife what has happened, she tells him to act like the king of Israel and she will take care of it. Jezebel then writes letters in her husband’s name asking for all the important folks to gather, seat Naboth in front of the people and have some scoundrels falsely testify that he reviles God and should be stoned. It works like a charm: Based on little evidence, Naboth is stoned to death and Ahab receives his vineyard. On his way to take possession of it, he meets Elijah, who tells him that he will destroy his house and that “dogs shall devour Jezebel in the field.”
Elijah’s prophecy comes true many years later. Ahab has by now died, Jezebel’s son Joram sits on the throne, and a man named Jehu is leading an uprising against the king. Upon seeing Jehu, Joram asks him how he is. Jehu responds: “How can all be well as long as your mother Jezebel carries on her countless harlotries and sorceries?” Often in the Hebrew Bible, when the Israelites abandon God, their betrayals are referred to by the same Hebrew word, zonah, that is used to describe harlotry. But when someone is referred to as a “Jezebel,” the assumption is that she’s literally a whore — not someone who has gone astray religiously. So it’s not entirely clear exactly what Jehu means. What is clear is what happens two verses later: Jehu draws his bow and fires an arrow into Joram’s heart.
Things go even worse for Jezebel. As Jehu enters the gate, Jezebel calls out to him: “Is all well, Zimri, murderer of your master?” This is a reference to a previous king of Israel, Elah, who was killed by one of his officers named Zimri. Here Jezebel shows she knows her Israelite history and is calling Jehu a traitor. But Jehu is not deterred, ordering that Jezebel be thrown down, which she is. The text is quite clear: “her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her.” (2 Kings 9:33).
But Jehu is not done. He goes inside and eats and drinks and then orders that Jezebel be buried. But when they go to bury her, all they find is her skull, feet and hands. This is reported to Jehu, who notes that this is just what Elijah had said would happen. As many commentators have noted, this shows that Elijah was right and that his prophecy was true. Another option is that Jehu fulfilled the prophecy for him.
It’s worth noting that many of the men in these stories (Elijah, Jehu) carry out similar actions to those of Jezebel and are lauded for it. It’s also worth noting that while Jezebel initiates the ruse to secure Naboth’s vineyard for her husband, it is a group of men who actually carry out the plot and kill him. Nevertheless, in the eyes of most commentators — and in the judgment of history — the only criminal of the story is Jezebel. The men are seen as innocent naifs manipulated by an evil woman.
Jezebel clearly committed acts that would not make her a hero for the Israelites, though she may have been for the Sidonians (or the Israelites who were not particularly devoted to God). Not surprisingly, in the view of the Hebrew Bible, she is horrible and must be so to prove the line about Ahab being the worst. Yet, if non-Israelites had written these histories, we may have wound up with a very different view of her.
