This is a story about Jezebel, who was a queen of Israel. She was married to Ahab, who was the king of Israel. Jezebel was not a nice person. She caused a lot of trouble in Israel. Jezebel used her power to kill people who didn’t agree with her or who were different from her. She also forced people to worship Baal, an idol that was not part of the Jewish religion.
This story is told in the Bible, which is a book that contains many stories about God’s people and what happened to them before Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins (see John 3:16-17).
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Jezebel Story In The Bible
A Phoenician princess who worships Baal, the pagan god of fertility, Jezebel marries King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel. She persuades him to tolerate her alien faith, then becomes entwined in the vicious religious conflict that ends in her death.
Jezebel was the first queen of Israel, and she ruled for about 20 years. She was married to King Ahab, who also ruled Israel during that time.
Jezebel was an ambitious woman with a strong personality, and she wanted to be the most important person in Israel. She didn’t care who she had to hurt or kill in order to accomplish her goals—she just wanted power and control over everyone around her.
Jezebel was a queen of Israel who was married to King Ahab. She is most famous for her role in the story of Naboth the Jezreelite and his vineyard, which became the source of a conflict between her and Elijah.
The story begins when Jezebel conspires with her husband, Ahab, to get Naboth’s property so that they can enlarge their garden. They offer him money for it, but Naboth refuses because he had inherited it from his forefathers (1 Kings 21:1-4).
Elijah confronts Ahab about his actions and tells him that God will punish him for this act (1 Kings 21:17-19). Jezebel becomes angry at Elijah for interfering with her plans and threatens to kill him (1 Kings 19:2-3). He flees from Jezebel’s threats; however, before he leaves she has him thrown into prison (1 Kings 19:4-6).
After many years in prison under Jezebel’s watchful eye, God sends an angel down to free Elijah from captivity (2 Kings 2:11-12). Elijah then goes on to confront Ahab about his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Kings 2:23-25
Jezebel was a ruthless queen who ruled through fear and bloodshed. She lived during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in Israel’s capital, Samaria.
Jezebel In The Bible KJV
Who is Jezebel?
Despite being a fairly minor character in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Jezebel is one of the most infamous figures in the entire Bible. According to the Book of Kings, Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab, the seventh king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and ruled as his queen around the mid-ninth century BCE. Her father was King Ethbaal of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Bible. Jezebel worshiped the Canaanite storm god Ba’al and converted her husband to Ba’alism as well. Most of the story of Jezebel is focused on her treachery and worship of Ba’al in opposition to the Israelite god Yahweh and his prophets.
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Meaning and Etymology
There is usually a lot of significance to names in the Hebrew Bible, so what does Jezebel mean? Jezebel’s name literally means ”exalted of Ba’al” or ”where is my Prince?” with ”bel” meaning ”Ba’al,” which in turn means ”Prince” or ”Lord.” Jezebel’s name would have been Phoenician, which might have been spelled as ”Jezebul” or ”Jezebaal.” However, the author of Kings spells it with the root ”zebel” instead, which means ”dung” or ”trash” in Hebrew.
Jezebel in the Bible
The Jezebel Bible verses span 1 Kings 16 through 2 Kings 9. There are four major parts or events that characterize Jezebel’s story:
- her marriage to King Ahab
- her persecution of the prophets of Yahweh
- her deception that results in the death of Naboth
- her own punishment and death
Jezebel is portrayed unfavorably by the author of Kings for many reasons. One of the greatest issues, however, is the intermarriage between the Israelite Ahab and the Gentile, or non-Jewish, Jezebel. For most of the Hebrew Bible, any marriage outside of the Israelite tradition was discouraged, particularly if it was to a foreign woman as women were characterized as deceivers.
Like his ancestor Solomon, king during Israel’s united monarchy, Ahab was ”led astray” by Jezebel to worship deities other than Yahweh, whom the Israelites thought was the only true god. Jezebel’s Ba’al worship and authority led her to persecute the Israelite prophets who worshiped Yahweh and resulted in repeated confrontations with them. Most notable of these was Elijah, whose name means ”Yahweh is my god,” who frequently prophesied about her coming demise and tried to encourage Ahab to get rid of her.
Origins and Influence
The Hebrew Bible says little about Jezebel’s origins. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, who was the King of Sidon in Phoenicia, an area northwest of Israel in what is now modern-day Lebanon. Based on when most scholars date Ahab’s rule, Jezebel was probably born in the early ninth century BCE. Her family, based on her and her father’s names alongside the text of Kings, worshiped Ba’al, which was common for most of Israel’s neighbors at the time.
King Ahab and the Worship of Ba’al
Ba’al worship was the major problem that Jezebel brought to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, according to the perspective of the author of Kings. King Ahab, who ruled Israel for about two decades in the early to mid-ninth century BCE, married Jezebel presumably as a political alliance. It was commons for ancient Near East rulers to marry royals from other nations as ways to ensure safety and trade between nations. When Queen Jezebel came to Israel, according to Kings, she and Ahab immediately instituted Ba’al worship, replacing shrines to Yahweh.
Jezebel: Persecution and Deception
The author of Kings records many instances of Jezebel persecuting prophets of Yahweh and deceiving people to her way. She commanded the killing of many unnamed prophets of Yahweh and tried to have Elijah killed as well (after he had Ba’al prophets killed). Elijah frequently spoke out about the punishment Jezebel and Ahab, along with their family, would receive because of Jezebel’s actions.
Perhaps the best remembered of Jezebel’s horrific acts in the Hebrew Bible is the deception and execution of Naboth. Ahab wanted the vineyard that Naboth owned and refused to sell. Therefore, Jezebel forged evidence that Naboth was blaspheming against Ba’al and the king. Naboth was executed for his supposed crimes leaving the land free for Ahab and Jezebel.
Jezebel’s Death
The Jezebel Bible story comes to a close with the queen’s gory death. After Ahab died, Jezebel lived for ten to twenty more years while their sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram, ruled consecutively. During Jehoram’s rule, Ba’al statues and altars were taken down, the king did not worship Ba’al, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel formed an alliance with the Yahweh-worshiping Southern Kingdom of Judah.
However, Jehoram was held responsible for his parents’ actions. As the prophet Elijah had predicted, both Jehoram and Jezebel were killed in Jezreel, the same city as Naboth’s vineyard and execution, and the queen’s corpse was eaten by dogs. The Jezebel death scene is quite gruesome: Jehu, who takes over as king, has Jezebel thrown from a window, and upon her fall, she is trampled by horses. Her blood spatters the wall, and her body is eaten by dogs before she is able to be buried.
There is significance in Jezebel’s death. In Israelite society, dogs were usually considered ritually impure, so being eaten by dogs would be the ultimate sign of impurity. In addition, burial and death rites were extremely important to the Israelites. The fact that this was denied to Jezebel indicates how despised of a person she was.
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