IEZABEL. – Daughter of the king of ACAB (v.), king of Israel (875–853), over whom she exercised a pernicious influence and whose misdeeds she was largely responsible for. The worst consequences were in the religious sphere, owing to her systematic hostility toward the Jahwistic religion and the favor she showed to the Phoenician deities Baal (the Baal of Tyre, called Melkart) and Astarte.
Idolatry spread until it almost engulfed the entire nation (cf. I Reg. 16, 30-33). A temple in honor of
Baal was erected in the capital, while hundreds of priests of Baal and Astarte, who had come from Phoenicia, were maintained at the queen’s expense (I Reg. 18, 19). Nor did the favor shown to pagan cults remain within the bounds of a syncretistic policy; rather, it developed into a violent persecution of Jahwism, already partially shaken in Israel by the Ieroboam I (v.). The persecution raged above all against the most authentic representatives of the religious tradition, “the prophets of Jahweh,” many of whom fell victim to the hatred of the cruel Phoenician woman; only about a hundred could be saved by a pious Israelite, Abdia, who kept them hidden in caves (I Reg. 18, 4).
The most illustrious hero of the Elia (v.), a typical figure of archaic prophecy. When idolatry seemed to have engulfed the country, Elia foretold the three-year drought that laid Israel waste; he then succeeded in confronting the priests of Baal and, after a spectacular miracle, exterminated them. Only then did the restorative rain come. But Elia incurred the queen’s furious wrath and had to seek refuge toward the south, going as far as Bersabea and Mount Horeb (I Reg. 17-19).
The perverse character of I. is also attested by the episode of Naboth’s vineyard (I Reg. 21): in order to seize the vineyard, she induced her husband, by a treacherous stratagem, to kill its rightful owner. But the voice of justice thundered implacably through the persecuted Elia, who harshly reproached the king and queen for the horrible crime and foretold the imminent extinction of the dynasty and an ignominious end for the instigator: “the dogs shall devour I. in the field of Iezrael” (I Reg. 21, 23; V. IEZRAEL): this was literally fulfilled at the Iehu (v.); cf. II Reg. 9, 30-37.
After the death of Achab, I. continued to lord it over the kingdom under the reign of her two sons Ochozia and Ioram. Her baleful influence extended over the Kingdom of Judah through the marriage Ioram (v.), son and successor of Iosaphat.
The name of the impious queen became a symbol of a seductive woman who incites to idolatry and evil practices (cf. Apoc. 2, 20, the “woman of Thyatira”).