JEZEBEL (jez'e-bel), (Heb. ee-zeh'bel, chaste), daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, and consort of Ahab, king of Israel (B. C. 9i8).
(1) Induces Idolatry. This unsuitable alli ance proved disastrous to the kingdom of Israel; for Jezebel induced her weak husband not only to connive at her introducing the worship of her na tive idols, but eventually to become himself a wor shiper, and to use all the means in his power to establish them in the room of the God of Israel. This was a great enormity. The worship of the golden calves which previously existed was, how ever mistakenly, intended in honor of Jehovah; but this was an open alienation from him, and a turning aside to foreign and strange gods, which, indeed, were no gods. Most of the particulars of this bad but apparently highly-gifted woman's conduct have been related in the notices of AHAB and ELIJAH. From the course of her proceedings it would appear that she grew to hate the Jewish system of law and religion, on account of what must have seemed to her its intolerance and its anti-social tendencies. She hence sought to put it down hy all the means she could command; and the imbecility of her husband seems to have madc all the powers of the state subservient to her de signs.
(2) Success of Her Policy. She had the re ward of her unscrupulous decisiveness of charac ter in the triumph of her policy, in Israel, where, at last, there were but 7,000 people who had not bowed the knee to Baal, nor kissed their hand to his image. Nor was her success confined to Israel, for through Athaliah—a daughter after her own heart—who was married to the son and suc cessor of Jehoshaphat, thc same policy prevailed for a time in Judah, after Jezebel herself had perished and the house of Ahab had met its doom. It seems that after the death of her husband, Jezebel maintained considerable ascendancy over her son Joram ; and her measures and misconduct formed the principal charge which Jehu cast in the teeth of that unhappy monarch before he sent forth the arrow which slew him.
(3) Death. The last effort of Jezebel was to intimidate Jehu as he passed the palace, by warn ing him of the eventual rewards of even successful treason. It is eminently characteristic of the woman that, even in this terrible moment, when she knew that her son was slain, and inust have felt that her power had departed, she displayed herself not with rent veil and dishevelled hair, 'but tired her head and painted her eyes' before she looked out at the window, and called to Jehu as he approached : "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master ?" Jehu looked up at the window and said : "Who is on my side? who?" Two or tin ee eunuchs looked out. "Throw her down," he cried, and they unhesitatingly obeyed. She fell in front of his chariot, which he intentionally drove over her, and her blood bespattered the horses and the wall. (See JEitu.) Afterward, when the new monarch bethought hint that, as 'a king's daugh ter,' her corpse should not be treated with disre spect, nothing was found of her but the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. The dogs had eaten all the rest 0 Kings xvi :31 ; xviii :4. 13, 19; xxi :5-25; 2 Kings ix:7, 22, 3o-37), B. C. 884.
(4) Character. "Jezebel was a woinan in whom, with the reckless and licentious habits of an oriental queen, were united the sternest and fiercest qualities inherent in the Phcenician people. The wild license of her life, the magical fascina tion of her arts or of her character, became a proverb in the nation (2 Kings ix:22). Long after ward her name lived as the byword for all that was execrable, and in the Apocalypse it is given to a church or an individual in Asia Minor, com bining in like manner fanaticism and profligacy (Rev. ii:2o)." (Smith, Bib. Dia.)