IEZEBEL. - Daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, and wife of Ahab (q.v.), king of Israel (875-853), upon whom she exercised a baleful influence and of whose misdeeds she was largely responsible. The worst consequences were in the religious sphere, through her systematic hostility to the Yahwistic religion and her favouring of the Phoenician deities Baal (the Baal of Tyre, called Melkart) and Astarte.
Idolatry spread to such an extent that it almost submerged the entire nation (cf. 1 Kgs 16:30-33). A temple in honour of Baal was erected in the capital, while at the queen’s expense hundreds of priests of Baal and Astarte were maintained, who had come from Phoenicia (1 Kgs 18:19). Nor did the favour shown to pagan cults remain within the limits of a syncretistic policy, but degenerated into violent persecution of Yahwism, already partially shaken in Israel by the superstitious practices introduced by Jeroboam I (q.v.). The persecution was especially directed against the most genuine exponents of the religious tradition, “the prophets of Yahweh,” many of whom fell victim to the hatred of the cruel Phoenician woman. Only about a hundred were saved by a pious Israelite, Obadiah, who hid them in caves (1 Kgs 18:4).
The most illustrious hero of this epic struggle was the prophet Elijah (q.v.), a typical figure of archaic prophecy. When idolatry seemed to have submerged the land, Elijah foretold the three-year drought that devastated Israel; then he succeeded in confronting the priests of Baal and, after a spectacular miracle, he slaughtered them. Only then did the restoring rain come. But Elijah incurred the furious wrath of the queen and was forced to flee southward, reaching as far as Beersheba and Mount Horeb (1 Kgs 17-19).
The perverse nature of I. is also attested by the episode of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs 21): to take possession of the vineyard, she induced her husband to kill the rightful owner by a wicked stratagem. But the voice of justice thundered inexorably through the mouth of the persecuted Elijah, 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 eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel” (1 Kgs 21:23; q.V. Jezreel); this came to pass literally at the beginning of Jehu’s revolt (q.v.); cf. 2 Kgs 9:30-37.
After the death of Ahab, I. continued to wield power during the reigns of her two sons, Ahaziah and Joram. Her baleful influence extended to the kingdom of Judah through the marriage of her daughter Athaliah to Joram (q.v.), son and successor of Jehoshaphat.
The name of the wicked queen became a symbol of a seductive woman and an instigator to idolatry and evil arts (cf. Rev 2:20, the “woman of Thyatira”).