Jezebel in the Bible

It was a pivotal moment in the reign of the young Ahab. Ignoring the clear instructions of God (Deuteronomy 7:1-5), he chose to marry a foreign princess, Jezebel.

The story of Jezebel is one of arrogance, intrigue, murder and tyranny. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more wicked woman in the pages of Scripture.

Who was Jezebel in the Bible?

The Bible identifies Jezebel tersely, stating that she was “the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians” (1 Kings 16:31). Ethbaal, however, was more than the king of a city-state.

According to the first-century historian Josephus, Ethbaal was the “king of the Tyrians and Sidonians” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, chap. 13, sec.1). This meant he was the king of all the Phoenicians, a seafaring people with colonies throughout the Mediterranean.

This royal marriage was typical for the time, an alliance entered into in order to ensure peace between neighboring kingdoms. It also linked the maritime trade of the Phoenicians to the inland trade routes controlled by Israel.

Jezebel would have witnessed—and learned from—her father’s political maneuvering. Josephus also describes Ithobalus (Ethbaal) as the priest of Astarte (called Ashtoreth or Asherah in the Bible, 1 Kings 11:5; 18:19) who assumed the throne after assassinating his predecessor (Against Apion, Book 1, sec.18).

Promoting idolatry

Once married to Ahab, Jezebel sponsored the worship of both Baal, a male god of rain and fertility, and Asherah, a female goddess often associated with Baal, sometimes as his consort.

It may be that Jezebel’s religious zeal stemmed from her father’s influence. After all, he had once been the Phoenician priest of Astarte.

The biblical record notes that Jezebel supported hundreds of pagan priests. There were “four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and . . . four hundred prophets of Asherah, who [ate] at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:19).

More than that, Jezebel swayed Ahab. In the same sentence that tells us Ahab married Jezebel, we learn that “he went and served Baal and worshiped him” (1 Kings 16:31). The next two verses portray Ahab building a temple for Baal and erecting an image of Asherah.

The biblical account lays much of the blame for Ahab’s great sin at the feet of his queen. Ahab “sold himself to do wickedness . . . because Jezebel his wife stirred him up” (1 Kings 21:25).

Persecuting God’s prophets

Establishing the worship of her own gods in Israel was not enough for Jezebel. She sought to eradicate worship of the true God within the kingdom of Israel.

This becomes clear when Elijah met with Obadiah, a high-ranking official under the king. Elijah had been in seclusion for more than two years, emerging “in the third year” of a drought (1 Kings 18:1).

That drought had been a judgment of God on Ahab (1 Kings 17:1), undoubtedly because of Ahab’s choice to worship Baal and Asherah. It was a fitting judgment—Baal was supposed to be the god who controlled rain but, of course, could do nothing when the true God of Israel withheld rain from His people.

Elijah asked Obadiah to announce his arrival to Ahab. Obadiah expressed concern that Elijah might disappear again, leaving him vulnerable to the king’s wrath.

At this point Obadiah reminded Elijah that he had protected 100 prophets “when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD” (1 Kings 18:13). Clearly, though Ahab was the king, Jezebel wielded immense influence and power as his queen.

Showdown on Mount Carmel

Elijah reassured Obadiah that he would meet with Ahab, and Obadiah would not be in danger. God, in His mercy, was ready to end the drought (verse 1), but only after a showdown.

It was for this purpose that Elijah spoke with Ahab, directing him to “gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table” (verse 19).

In this stunning confrontation, the pagan god was shown to be powerless. Even after the false prophets had spent hours pleading with Baal and ritually cutting themselves, there was no response (verses 26-29).

On the other hand, Elijah offered only a short prayer before God responded. The answer was dramatic. Fire from heaven consumed the offering as well as the wood, stones and dust. It even consumed the precious water that had been poured onto the sacrificial bull (verse 38).

This spectacular demonstration of the power of the true God led to a crushing defeat for Jezebel. Elijah directed the people gathered on Mount Carmel to execute these prophets of Baal and Asherah (verse 40).

Jezebel and Elijah

The news did not please Jezebel or cause her to reconsider her devotion to her gods. Instead, almost immediately after hearing of the slaughter of the priests of Baal and Asherah, she threatened to kill Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-2).

The response of Elijah, who had demonstrated so much faith on Mount Carmel, is a bit surprising. He fled, leaving not only the city of Jezreel, but the nation of Israel. In fact, he went to Beersheba, one of the southernmost cities of the kingdom of Judah (verse 3).

Elijah’s response also hints at the reputation and character of Jezebel. Her words were no idle threat. She meant to kill Elijah, just as she had already killed so many of God’s true prophets.

The queen was determined to have her way, even after an enormous setback. Her message to Elijah, in essence, was notification that nothing had changed.

Jezebel and royal power

Jezebel’s evil influence extended beyond religion. She had been born into a culture that, like so much of the rest of the world, saw no limits to royal power. She brought that perspective with her to Israel.

The tragic story of Naboth (1 Kings 21:1-16) illustrates the attitude she held. It was an attitude she expected to see in her husband Ahab: a king was to have absolute power over his subjects and be given anything he wanted.

When Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to Ahab, the king became “sullen and displeased” (verse 4). He understood that biblical law placed restrictions on kings, and that Israel’s kings were to be subject to God’s laws (Deuteronomy 17:14-20).

Scripture is quite clear. God owns the land (Psalms 24:1; 89:11). He gave the Promised Land to Israel but directed that it be divided to tribes and families by lot (Numbers 26:55). Joshua did just that (Joshua 14:1-2).

The law was also quite clear in stipulating that land should stay within tribal and family allotments (Leviticus 25:23-34). No family was to be cut off from ancestral land permanently, and no one had the right to compel a sale.

Intrigue and tyranny

Jezebel, however, rejected any such restrictions. Her remark to Ahab (1 Kings 21:7) is laced with sarcasm: “You now exercise authority over Israel!” In essence, she was telling her husband, “If you’re going to be king, then be king!”

This wicked woman then conspired with the officials of the city, who were the unscrupulous type of people that rise to power under ruthless rulers. They falsely accused Naboth of blaspheming both God and the king (verse 10).

The result was that Naboth was stoned to death and Ahab confiscated his land. God was not pleased, sending His prophet Elijah to confront the king in Naboth’s vineyard (verses 17-18).

Upon hearing God’s judgment, Ahab repented. The king “tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning” (verse 27). It seems his contrition was genuine, and God chose to postpone His judgment on Ahab (verses 28-29).

Jezebel, however, was of an entirely different spirit.

The woman in the window

In the Bible, Jezebel is not shown to act in meekness. She is not seen as acknowledging wrongdoing, and she is never portrayed as anything but a brazen and arrogant woman.

Her last living moments reveal this haughty mindset. Jezebel heard that Jehu had been anointed king and instructed to “strike down the house of Ahab” (2 Kings 9:7), and that he had arrived in Jezreel.

Instead of fleeing or pleading for her life, “she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window” (verse 30). To the modern reader, her behavior seems strange. But what Jezebel did was both deliberate and defiant.

As the Society for Old Testament Study points out, “Jezebel is presented as a powerful woman, sitting in her window and assuming the posture of the goddess [Astarte] herself.” Archaeologists have recovered woman-at-the-window images, which were understood to represent Astarte.

Even the mention of Jezebel applying makeup to her eyelids and preparing her hair indicate that she was presenting herself as a goddess. The Jezebel of the Bible was audacious and defiant to the end.

This wicked woman died a horrendous and ignominious death. She was thrown from her window and left to be eaten by dogs, just as God’s prophet Elijah had declared (verses 35-37).

The legacy of Jezebel

Jehu, anointed to carry out God’s will in overturning the horrors of Jezebel’s time in power, destroyed much of her legacy. He killed the descendants of Ahab, and therefore Jezebel, in Jezreel (2 Kings 10:11) and in Samaria (verse 17).

This new king destroyed the dynasty of Omri, Ahab’s father, but he destroyed much more. Jehu worked to eradicate Baal worship in Israel (2 Kings 10:18-28), just as Jezebel had attempted to eradicate worship of the true God of Israel.

Jezebel was left with nothing; her legacy shattered. But her evil reputation lived on. Even hundreds of years later, the apostle John used her name as emblematic of evil (Revelation 2:20).

There is nothing positive written about Jezebel in the Bible. That, no doubt, is why Britannica labeled her “an archetype of the wicked woman.”

Lessons for today

The story of Jezebel is one of the longer ones, surpassing even the accounts of some of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. We can draw many lessons from Jezebel’s life, but perhaps one of the most important is about influence.

Each one of us is influenced by the people around us. From time to time we need to stop and ask ourselves these questions:

• What type of people wield influence over me?
• Do I recognize that influence for what it is?
• Do I weigh it against God’s Word?

We also influence others, and we need to ask ourselves questions about how we affect them:

• On whom do I wield influence?
• Do I think about the impact my words and behavior have on how others think?
• Am I sure that how I influence others is in line with God’s Word and His will?

We don’t want to be like Ahab, easily led astray by an individual with a wicked character coupled with a strong personality. We also don’t want to be like Jezebel, whose influence on Ahab led him into greater apostasy and murder.