Jezebel
| Jezebel | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Northern Israel | |
 19th-century painting by John Liston Byam Shaw | |
| Died | c. 842 BC Tel Jezreel |
| Spouse | King Ahab |
| Issue | Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah |
| Father | Ithobaal I |
| Religion | Baalism |
Jezebel (/ˈdʒɛzəbəl, -bɛl/;[1][2][3] Hebrew: אִיזֶבֶל, Modern: ʾĪzével, Tiberian: ʾĪzeḇel) was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel, according to the Book of Kings of the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 16:31).[4]
According to the Biblical narrative, Jezebel, along with her husband, instituted the worship of Baal and Asherah on a national scale. In addition, she violently purged the prophets of Yahweh from Israel, damaging the reputation of the Omride dynasty.[5][6][7][8] For these offences, the Omride dynasty was annihilated, with Jezebel herself suffering the gruesome death of defenestration.
Later, in the Book of Revelation, Jezebel is symbolically associated with false prophets.[9]
Meaning of name[]
Jezebel is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hebrew אִיזֶבֶל ʾĪzeḇel. The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible states that the name is "best understood as meaning 'Where is the Prince?'" (אֵיזוֹ בַּעַל ’ēyzō ba’al), a ritual cry from worship ceremonies in honor of Baal during periods of the year when the god was considered to be in the underworld.[10] Alternatively, a feminine Punic name noted by the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum,