In modern times, the name Jezebel has come to mean a loose woman or one of low moral standards. You may remember the 1938 movie “Jezebel” with Bette Davis. The main character was called a Jezebel for simply being rebellious. However, the Jezebel of the Bible, spoken of in the book of 1Kings, chapters 16 – 21, had more charges against her than not following the accepted code of conduct. She has the dubious distinction of being the most evil woman in the Bible.

Jezebel was a queen of Israel, although she was of Sidonian birth. As the wife of King Ahab of Israel, she influenced her husband to turn against his belief in the God of Israel. As queen of Israel she ruled 850 pagan priests and systematically worked to turn Israel against the belief in the One True God. She was determined that the entire nation would worship Baal.

In Hebrew, Jezebel means “not exalted” Perhaps this contributed to her desire to exalt herself above all else. She believed that the king and queen should own anything they desired and she went to any means, even murder, to get what she wanted. She managed to influence Ahab, her husband, to do the same.

In the course of her campaign to stamp our Israel’s religion she set about killing the prophets of God. The prophet Elijah went up against the pagan prophets of Baal and eventually killed them all. In retaliation, Jezebel vowed to kill him, saying “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.”
For causing Israel to sin, Elijah prophesied terrible deaths for both King Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab humbled himself before the Lord and repented. Jezebel did not. The Lord spared Ahab but Jezebel met her death just as Elijah had foretold.

We find the name Jezebel mentioned again in the book of Revelation as part of God’s message to the church of Thyatira. There was a woman in the church who was teaching that immorality was not a serious sin for believers. She apparently led others into sexual immorality. She is referred to as Jezebel. There are differences of opinion on whether this woman’s name was actually Jezebel or if John may have used the name to symbolize the extant of the evil that the woman caused. Read about her in Revelation 2:20.


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