Jezebel… her name is synonymous with _____________. Fill in the blank. Wickedness. Evil. Many families love to choose Biblical names for their daughters… Ruth. Mary. Sarah. Rachel. But Jezebel? I am sure you will not find one newborn baby given this name.
Jezebel was raised and trained to worship Baal. We find her first in 1Kings 16. She married Ahab, the son of Omri, who reigned from Samaria over Israel. Ahab did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any king before him. Together, Ahab and Jezebel built an altar in the temple of Baal to worship and sacrifice to him.
Jezebel made it a point to kill off as many of the prophets of the Lord as possible. Obidiah, the palace administrator for King Ahab and a follower of the Lord, somehow still managed to hide 100 prophets in two caves from her and supplied them with food and water. The prophet on Ahab’s most wanted list was Elijah. The Lord sent Elijah to Ahab to show the Israelites once and for all that the Lord was their God. After making a fool out of all the prophets of Baal, the Israelites believed once again that the Lord was God, and took all 450 prophets of Baal and slaughtered them. (1Kings 18: 16-40) In 1Kings 19, Jezebel sends out a messenger after hearing this from Ahab, telling Elijah “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (meaning as dead as the 450 prophets of Baal that were killed that day) Jezebel was also instrumental in having Naboth stoned to death when he wouldn’t sell his vineyard to Ahab in 1Kings 21.
Unfortunately for Jezebel, the Lord sent newly anointed King Jehu to her in Jezreel (2Kings 9). When he found her, he called out asking if there were anyone on his side, and 2 or 3 eunuchs peered out the window in which she was standing in. He ordered the euchuchs to throw her from her window. The did and she was trampled by horses. When Jehu sent men to bury her since she was the daughter of a king, the men came back saying they only could find her skull, hands and feet, fulfilling Elijah’s prophesy “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh. Jezebel’s body will be like dung on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”
During her lifetime, it was Jezebel’s goal to lure as many people away from the Lord and get them to worship Baal. In worship to Baal, incense and sacrifice were common, even killing innocent humans. Baal’s main function was fertility, of the land, animals and people, so men and women attendants in the temple would perform sexual acts in order to induce Baal to lavish fertility on the land. She encouraged so much sin, it is hard to wrap my mind around all the evil she was willing to participate in.
To read more about Jezebel, you will find her in 1Kings and 2Kings.
Christian Nymphos 