Jezebel

Jezebel
Jezebel and Ahab meeting Elijah, print by Sir Francis Dicksee (1853-1928)
Occupation	Princess of Phoenicia, Queen of Israel
Spouse	King Ahab
Children	Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah
Parents	Ithobaal I

Jezebel (/ˈdʒɛzəbəl/,^[1] /ˈdʒɛzəbɛl/;^[1] Hebrew: אִיזֶבֶל / אִיזָבֶל, Modern Izével / Izável Tiberian ʾÎzéḇel / ʾÎzāḇel) (fl. 9th century BC) was a princess, identified in the Hebrew Book of Kings as the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre (Phoenicia) and the wife of Ahab, king of north Israel.^[2] According to genealogies given in Josephus and other classical sources, she was the great-aunt of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

Jezebel was a power behind the throne. Ahab and Jezebel allowed temples of Baal to operate in Israel, and that religion received royal patronage. After Ahab's death, Ahaziah and Jehoram, his sons by Jezebel, acceded to the throne. The prophet Elisha had one of his servants anoint Jehu as king to overthrow the house of Ahab. Jehu killed Jehoram as he attempted to flee in his war chariot.

Jehu confronted Jezebel in Jezreel, where he incited her court officials to murder the queen by throwing her out of a window and leave her corpse to be eaten by dogs. Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup before her death led to the association of use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes.

Meaning of name

Jezebel is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hebrew אִיזָבֶל ('Izevel/'Izavel). Attempts to trace the meaning of the name are speculative, since its origin can only be conjectured.

The biblical Hebrew 'Izebel may be rooted in a Hebrew word for "prince/nobility" or "husband" (bul/ba'al) combined with the word for "naught/none" ('iy), "there is no prince/nobility/husband," suggesting a lack of character (i.e. implying lack of royal sensibilities) or of morality (i.e. unmarried, implying adultery or fornication). It may also find its root in a Hebrew word for "dung" (from gbl; note here Ba'al-zebul/Ba'al-zebub, "Lord of dung") combined with the word for either "naught/none" ('iy) or "island" ('iyz), thus "no dung" or "island of dung."^{[citation needed]}

Other sources find meaning from the character's native Syro-Phoenician language. It may be rooted in the word ba'al (lord), referring either to the Syro-Phoenician god, the "King of Heaven," or simply the royal title "lord." Thus, Iz-ba'al may mean "the Lord (Ba'al) exists/exalts" or "where is the prince," a name known from liturgies of the Syro-Phoenician Ba'al cults.^{[citation needed]}

Scripture and history

Jezebel from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum "

The death of Jezebel, by Gustave Doré

Jezebel's story is told in 1st and 2nd Kings, which details an intense religious-political struggle — the most detailed such account of any period in the history of the Kingdom of Israel. The account portrays the religious side of the events, with the political, economic and social background — highly important to modern historians — given only incidentally.^[3]

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Phoenician empire. She married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom (i.e. Israel during the time when ancient Israel was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south). She helped convert Ahab from worship of the Jewish God to worship of the Phoenician god Baal. After she had many Jewish prophets killed, Elijah challenged 450 prophets of Baal to a competition (1 Kings 18), exposed the rival god as powerless, and had the prophets of Baal slaughtered (1 Kings 18:40). Jezebel becomes his enemy.^[3]

The scholar V. Barzowski interprets Ahab's marriage to Jezebel as a dynastic marriage intended to cement a Phoenician political alliance. This went back to the times of King Solomon, to give the then-inland Kingdom of Israel access to the Mediterranean Sea and international trade. The monarchy (and possibly an urban elite connected with it) enjoyed the wealth derived from this trade, which gave it a stronger position vis-a-vis the rural landowners. The monarchy became more centralized with a powerful administration.^{[4][dubious – discuss]}

Barzowski believes that the story of Naboth, a landowner killed at the instigation of Jezebel so the King could acquire his land, points to this interpretation. With her foreign religion and cosmopolitan culture, Jezebel represented a hated Phoenician alliance from which the landowners had little to gain and much to lose. Their resentment was expressed in religious terms as related to the difference in religions. Eventually Jehu achieved a bloody coup, instigated and supported by the prophets whose actions the Bible preserves.^[4]

Interpretations

In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, Roger Williams, the founder of the American colony of Rhode Island and the co-founder of the First Baptist Church in America, wrote of Naboth's story as an example of how God disfavored the use of government force in religious matters. Williams believed using force in the name of religion would lead to political persecution, contrary to the Bible's teachings.^[5]

Cultural symbol

The name Jezebel came to be associated with false prophets, and further associated by the early 20th century with fallen or abandoned women.^[6] In Christian lore, a comparison to Jezebel suggested that a person was a pagan or an apostate masquerading as a servant of God. By manipulation and/or seduction, she misled the saints of God into sins of idolatry and sexual immorality.^[7] In particular, Jezebel has come to be associated with promiscuity. In modern usage, the name of Jezebel is sometimes used as a synonym for sexually promiscuous and sometimes controlling women,^[8][9] In his two-volume Guide to the Bible (1967 and 1969), Isaac Asimov describes Jezebel's last act: dressing in all her finery, make-up and jewelry, as deliberately symbolic, indicating her dignity, royal status and determination to go out of this life as a Queen.

In popular culture

Bette Davis as Julie in the film "Jezebel"

Libertad Green as Jezebel in the film Blast and Whisper

• The novel "Jezebel's Daughter" (1880) by Wilkie Collins.
• The film Jezebel (1938) starred Bette Davis.
• The song "Jezebel" (1941) (Trad./O. Wilson) recorded by the Golden Gate Quartet.^[10]
• Frankie Laine recorded "Jezebel" (1951), written by Wayne Shanklin, which became a hit song.
• In the film Sins of Jezebel (1953), Jezebel was played by Paulette Goddard.
• In his novel The Caves of Steel (1953, 1954), Isaac Asimov portrayed Jezebel as an ideal wife and woman who, in full compliance with the mores of the time, conscientiously promoted her own religion.^{[citation needed]}
• The song "Jezebel" (1985), by Sade and Gordon Matthewman, on Sade's album Promise.
• In her novel, The Handmaid's Tale, first published in 1985,^[11] which is full of biblical allusions, Margaret Atwood names an underground brothel "Jezebel's." ^[12]
• The song "Jezebel" (1992), by 10,000 Maniacs on the album Our Time in Eden, about the guilt felt by a woman who has fallen out of love, or was never in love, with her husband.
• The song "Jezebel" (1994), by sludge-metal band Acid Bath from their first album The Kite String Pops.
• The song "Jazzy Belle" (1994) by the Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast.
• The song "Juke Joint Jezebel" (1995), by KMFDM on the album Nihil.
• The song "Jezebel" (2000) by Recoil on the album Liquid, using the recording by the Golden Gate Quartet.
• The song "Jezebel" (2003) by Dizzee Rascal on the album Boy in da Corner.
• Lesley Hazleton wrote a revisionist historical non-fiction account, Jezebel, The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (2004), that presents Jezebel as a sophisticated queen engaged in mortal combat with the fundamentalist prophet Elijah. Hazleton is also the author of several non-fiction books about the Middle East.
• The song "Jezebel" (2005) by Iron & Wine on the album Woman King.
• The Gawker offshoot blog Jezebel (launched 2007) concerns mostly feminist issues and women's interest.
• The song "Jezebel" (2009) by Depeche Mode on the album Sounds of the Universe.
• The movie Blast and Whisper (2010),^[13] produced by Mark Moran,^[14] tells the story of Jezebel^[15] and features Libertad Green,^[16] as Jezebel^[15] the antagonist in this tale of the prophet Elijah.^[17] Family Approved by The Dove Foundation,^[18] this movie is available on DVD at Amazon.com,^[19] Walmart.com,^[20] and BarnesandNoble.com.^[21]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jezebel

External links

• Scholars Debate Jezebel Seal Biblical Archaeology Review, 2008