A) THE NAME.

B) HER HERITAGE.

C) ALLIANCES.

D) JEZEBEL’S HUSBAND AHAB.

E) INFLUENCES ON OFFSPRING.

F) JEZEBEL AND BA-AL.

G) REVELATION 2:20.

H) HER NAME THROUGHOUT HISTORY.

 

 

A THE NAME

 

 

An interesting and not well-known fact, is that Jezebel’s name means, “un-exalted,” or “un-husbanded.”  She welded such an influence over her husband as to have no husband at all, and the un-exalted is explained by looking at her through righteous (our God’s) eyes.  Her name afterwards came to be used as a synonym for a wicked woman (see Rev. 2:20 discussed later).

 

 

B) HER HERITAGE

 

 

She was the Daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, i.e., the Phoenicians, king of Sidon, and priest of Astarte, who had murdered Phelles his predecessor (see Josephus, in his work, “Contra Apion,” 1:18).  Thus, comes her heritage and assumed character, which she decided to continue in.  She became the wife and queen of Ahab, king of the Northern kingdom of Israel.  And, it is at that point that “Ba-al” worship became predominant in Israel.  Notice the implications in her father’s name, “Ethbaal.”

 

According to Second Kings 9:22, Jezebel was involved in “witchcrafts.”  In other words, she was a witch.

 

 

C) ALLIANCES

 

 

Now Ahab (about B.C. 874-853) carried out a policy, which his father had perhaps started, of making alliances with other nations.  But what is of note, is that this was the first time that a king of Israel had allied himself by marriage with a heathen princess; and the alliance was in this case of a peculiarly disastrous kind.

 

The alliance with the Phoenicians was cemented by his marriage with Jezebel, and Ahab subsequently gave his daughter Athaliah in marriage to Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Israel’s Southern kingdom.  His own union with Jezebel is regarded as a sin according to First Kings 16:31.

 

The “Septuagint,” translates this verse as:  “. . . and it was not enough that he should walk in the sins of Jeroboam ben Nebat, he also took to wife Jezebel.”  The Literal Hebrew of this verse can be pointed enough to mean, “And it was the lightest thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam ben Nebat, he also took to wife Jezebel, and went and served Ba-al and worshipped him.”   In other words, all the other sins were light as compared with the marriage with Jezebel and the serving of Ba-al (compare with Mic. 6:16).

 

 

D) JEZEBEL’S HUSBAND AHAB

 

 

Ahab did do a few good works, in that he named his children not after Ba-al, but after Yahweh (compare; Ahaziah, Jehoram, Athaliah); and that he consulted the prophets of Yahweh (see 1Ki. 22:6); and that Ahab was in favor of religious toleration.  What then can be said for the unfavorable verdict of the Hebrew historians?  That verdict is based on the results and effects of the marriage to, and on the life and character, of Jezebel.

 

So what was Jezebel’s greatest influence upon Ahab?  One is that, and it is only referred to in First Kings 18:4, that, “Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yahweh.”  Another is, and maybe even more forceful, is that she established the Phoenician idolatry on a grand scale at her husband’s court, maintaining at her table the priests of her religion, according to First Kings 18:19.

 

We are further told that, “450 prophets of Baal ate at her table,” and commentators regard the reference to an additional “400 prophets of the Asherah,” as an additional number of religious leaders.  Commentators also regard Second Kings 9:7, in mentioning the massacre of Ahab’s family, as a punishment for the persecution of God’s prophets by Jezebel.

 

As the wife of Ahab, she easily, to his detriment of lack of character, made him become a puppet in her hands for the working of all wickedness in the sight of Jehovah (see 1Ki. 21:25).  When Elijah, under God, wrought the miracle at Carmel and killed her favorite prophets, Jezebel, still un-subdued and unconverted (which is the key point here and I’ll discuss later), swore by her gods to do to Elijah as he had done to them (1Ki. 19:1-3).

 

 

E) INFLUENCES ON OFFSPRING

 

 

The character of Jezebel is seen revived in that of her daughter, Athaliah (2Ki., Ch. 11).  There is no doubt that Jezebel was a powerful personality.  She brought the worship of the Phoenician Ba-al and Astarte with her into Hebrew life, and indirectly introduced it into Judah as well as into the Northern Kingdom through the continuation of her personality and powers passed on through and to her daughter (“unto the third and fourth generation,” Exo. 20:5).

 

In judging her connection with this propagation, we should bear in mind that she is a queen come from a foreign country.  Therefore, it must also be remembered that the introduction of any religious change is often resented when it comes from a foreign (source) queen, and is apt to be misunderstood; or in Israel’s case, and to their detriment and lack of character, accepted without reserve (like mob mentality, such as the changing of the crowd’s attitude around our Lord’s presence, in that all joined in the mood of, “crucify Him, crucify Him,” Luke 23:21).

 

On the other hand, it is not perhaps blameworthy towards her, in that she upheld the religion of her native land; although the natural thing would have been to follow that of her adopted land (compare with Ruth 1:16), her moral and husband bound duty; or at the least, respect it.  The superiority of Yahweh-worship was not as clear then, in those religious times, as it is to us today (it can be found now in all cultures around the globe, whereas it was only basically known in Israel of old).  It may also be held that Ba-al worship was not unknown in Hebrew life (compare with Jud. 6:25), and that the Ba-al of Canaan had become incorporated with the Yahweh of Sinai, and that there were pagan elements in the worship of the latter.

 

 

F) JEZEBEL AND BA-AL

 

 

By contrast, against all this it must be clear, that the Ba-al whom Jezebel attempted to introduce, was the Phoenician Ba-al, pure and simple.  He was another god, or rather in him was presented an idea of a god very different from Yahweh.  And further, in Phoenicia, where wealth and luxury had been enjoyed on a scale unknown to either Israel or the Canaanites of the interior, there was a refinement, if one may so speak.  This could be thrown in the face of the Israelites, in that Ba-al was a more loving, make you prosperous god, than Israel’s God.

 

At the same time, a prodigality of vicious indulgences, connected with the worship of Ba-al and Astarte, became common, something to which Israel had hitherto been a stranger.  It was like a cancer eating into the vitals of the head and heart; a sickness resulting in the total decay of the body (see Isa. 1:6), unrealized by those who practiced it.

 

The fact that is missed in all of this is that, especially in Israel, moral deterioration meant political as well as spiritual death.  The wealth of the nation lay in fidelity to Yahweh alone, and in His pure worship.  And this is what could have been taught to Jezebel.  Therefore, Israel is just as much responsible for allowing the actions of Jezebel to take control of their nation, in that they did not teach Jezebel the correct actions to take.  This is why the punishment of our Lord upon the nation of Israel later, is just as much a punishment to “the house of Ahab,” Second Kings 8:18, as it was to the house of Jezebel.

 

The verdict of the Hebrew historian as to Jezebel’s improper influence is thus substantiated.  Jezebel is an example -- an extreme one no doubt if you will -- of the bad influence of a highly-developed civilization (that of the Phoenicians) forcing itself, with all its sins, upon a community less highly civilized (that of Israel), although possessed of nobler moral and religious conceptions.  Jezebel’s influence was allowed to promote values both in family and in national life; even though Israel had every reason to know that this was not the rightful course to take.  Thus, the power of a monarchy is seen employed on a national basis, when God’s reasoning’s and instructions to the contrary as to the non-establishing or adaptation of such a system of government are ignored, or considered (excuse) to be old-fashioned or unbinding (such as we see of the Ten Commandments in the Christian community as a whole).

 

Jezebels allowed influence into all factors of religious and social life were so corrupt and so overpoweringly accepted, that our Lord warns the last generations of this earth to avoid such a trap in Revelation 2:20, where we read of (Greek “Iezabel”), “the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess.”  “The Expositor’s Greek Testament” translates this verse as, “that Jezebel of a woman alleging herself a prophetess.”

 

Also, “The Expositor’s Greek Testament” comment upon this passage states:  “Some members of the Church at Thyatira, under the sway of an influential woman refused to separate from the local guilds where moral interests, though not ostensibly defied, were often seriously compromised. . . Her lax principles or tendencies made for a connection with foreign and compromising associations which evidently exerted a dangerous influence upon some weaker Christians in the city. , , [Her followers] prided themselves upon their enlightened liberalism [see Rev. 2:24].”

 

 

G) REVELATION 2:20

 

 

Once again, in discussing Revelation 2:20, Jezebel typically expresses some self-styled prophetess, or a set of false prophets (for the Greek feminine expresses collectively a multitude), as closely attached to the Thyatira Church as a wife is to a husband, and as powerfully influencing that Church for evil, as Jezebel did to her husband.

 

Like her father, the ancient Jezebel had been swift to shed blood.  A priestess and devotee of Ba-al and Astarte herself, she seduced Israel beyond the calf worship, which was established by its first king after Solomon, who started it all by marrying wives outside the nation, i.e., outside of the Church, a violation of the Second Commandment.  His son, Jeroboam, then moved into “calf” worship (1Ki. 12:25-28).  Jezebel went beyond mere idol worship (again, a violation of the Second Commandment), to Ba-al worship, of which whoredoms and witchcrafts were a leading part; a violation of the First Commandment.  The spiritual Jezebel of Thyatira similarly, by pretended inspiration, lured God’s servants to libertinism, fornication and idol meats (see Rev. 2:6 & 14-15), as though things done in the flesh were outside the man, and therefore indifferent.  Thus, the deeper the Church penetrated into paganism, the more pagan she became and becomes.

 

 

H) HER NAME THROUGHOUT HISTORY

 

 

Jezebel has stamped her name on history as the representative of all that is designing, crafty, malicious, revengeful, and cruel.  She is the first great instigator of persecution against the saints of God.  Guided by no principle, restrained by no fear of either God or man, passionate in her attachment to her heathen worship, she spared no pains to maintain idolatry around her in its entire splendor.  Four hundred and fifty prophets ministered under her care to Ba-al, besides four hundred prophets of the groves [R.V., “prophets of the Asherah”], which ate at her table (1Ki. 18:19 again).  Her idolatry was also of the most debased and sensual kind.  Her conduct was in many respects very disastrous to the kingdoms of both Israel and Judah (1Ki. 21:1-29), and ultimately any nation, which is foolish enough to embrace Jezebel’s value system.

 

By the Word of God, she, as with all those who practice such wickedness, came to an untimely end.  She (along with others in the end times), was immediately consumed by the dogs of the street (2Ki. 9:7-37), according to the word of [God] Elijah the Tishbite (1Ki. 21:19).  When the righteousness of God is finally seen by all, even the wicked will ask that the rocks would fall upon them (see Rev. 6:15-16) in an attempt to hide from the wrath of a righteous God.  Which was a way, by the way, take careful note here, in which it would appear they knew of, but refuse[d] to walk in.

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