Jezabel

“ Proclaim a fast, and make Naboth sit among the chief of the people,
10 And suborn two men, sons of Belial against him, and let them bear false witness: that he hath blasphemed God and the king: and then carry him out, and stone him, and so let him die.
11 And the men of his city, the ancients and nobles, that dwelt with him in the city, did as Jezabel had commanded them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them:
12 They proclaimed a fast, and made Naboth sit among the chief of the people. ”

“ And he said to him: Thus saith the Lord. Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man worthy of death, thy life shall be for his life, and thy people for his people.
20:43. And the king of Israel returned to his house, slighting to hear, and raging came into Samaria.
3 Kings Chapter 21
Naboth, for denying his vineyard to king Achab, is by Jezabel's commandment, falsely accused and stoned to death. For which crime Elias denounceth to Achab the judgments of God: upon his humbling himself the sentence is mitigated. ”

“ In the letter to the church at Thyatira it is written:
“That woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess (a teacher) to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication (fornication in the book of Revelation signifies idolatry—image worship and, also, union with the principles and ways of the world) and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
Jezebel was the Pagan wife of Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel stands for the union of Paganism and Judaism. But Jezebel here represents a professed church of Christ. ”

“ When the Jezreelite [1] sheikh refused to sell the family inheritance to the king, Jezebel treacherously caused him to be arrested on a charge of treason, and with the help of false witnesses he was found guilty and condemned to death. For this the prophet Elijah pronounced a solemn curse upon Ahab and Jezebel, which was fulfilled when Jehu, who was anointed king at Elisha’s instigation, killed the son Jehoram, massacred all the family, and had Jezebel destroyed (1 Kings xxi.; 2 Kings ix. 11–28) . What is told of her comes from sources written under the influence of strong religious bias ”

“ Jezebel was a persecutor of the prophets of the Lord, and a great patroness of idolaters and false prophets. The sin of these seducers was that they attempted to draw the servants of God into fornication, and to offer sacrifices to idols; they called themselves prophets, and so would claim a superior authority and regard to the ministers of the church. Two things aggravated the sin of these seducers, who, being one in their spirit and design, are spoken of as one person:— [1.] They made use of the name of God to oppose the truth of his doctrine and worship; this very much aggravated their sin. ”

“ Now when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself and stood upon a tower, and said, he was a fine servant that had killed his master! And when he looked up to her, he asked who she was, and commanded her to come down to him. At last he ordered the eunuchs to throw her down from the tower; and being thrown down, she be-sprinkled the wall with her blood, and was trodden upon by the horses, and so died. When this was done, Jehu came to the palace with his friends, and took some refreshment after his journey, both with other things, and by eating a meal. ”

“ If God reserved for Himself seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, when Ahab and his cursed Jezebel slew his prophets, think not that, in these days of greater light, our Jezebel, with all her scent for blood, has destroyed the whole defenders of the truth. ”

“ The shadow of Queen Jezebel falls dark for many years over the history of Israel and Judah. She was one of those masterful, indomitable, implacable women [Pg 354] who, when fate places them in exalted power, leave a terrible mark on the annals of nations. What the Empress Irene was in the history of Constantinople, or the "She-wolf of France" in that of England, or Catherine de Medicis in that of France, that Jezebel was in the history of Palestine. ”

“ Eshbaal, the fire of Baal; Jerubbaal, let Baal contend, or defend his cause; Meribaal, he that resists Baal, or strives against the idol, were Hebrew names, apparently imposed to ridicule those given in honor of Baal. The father of Jezebel was called Ethbaal, Kings xvi. 31., (classically, Ithobalus,) with Baal, towards Baal, or him that rules. Lastly, Hasdrubal signifies help or assistance of Baal. Will some of the talented contributors to "Notes and Queries" inform me what is the composition and meaning of Jezebel, as it has hitherto baffled my own individual researches? ”

“ Enter Jezebel.
Jezebel.
Ay, hearken to the utterance of the crown.
You are all come to hear a war declared.
Now I, the crown, declare it unto you.
I declare war upon our enemies.
They are all present, standing in this place,
Waiting the execution of our sword.
(To Prophet.) This man, the madman from the desert, first,
Who rages like a desert-storm, that kills
With sand, burning hot sand, pitiless sand.
(To Joram.) This next, the hater of his house, our son,
Who, for a wound that pains him would be glad
That thousand others should be sick with wounds.
(To Jehu.) ”

“ The Phœnician god Bel or Baal has nothing to do with this name,—the component words being Je-zebel, not Jeze-bel. Of the various explanations given, that of Gesenius (Heb. Lex., s. voc.) appears, as usual, the simplest and most rational. The name אִיזֶבֶל (Jezebel) he derives from אִי (i) "not" (comp. I-chabod, "In-glorious") and זָבַל (zábal) , "to dwell, cohabit with."
The name will then mean "without cohabitation," i.e. αλοχος (Plat. Theæt.) "chaste, modest." Comp. ”

“ I ask thee, as a Christian priest, wouldst thou have me tolerate the sins of heresy in my own home? Remember, Jezebel, she beguiled Ahab, her daughter, Athaliah, and her husband, Jehoram, also, into gravest transgressions. So God’s people were led, little by little, to the groves of Astarte. I think I’ve a good parallel: Jezebel was the daughter of a priest, so this Rizpah of Bozrah. With her hot temper, pride of exalted birth, and a [460] mouthful of arguments; a man meets such a woman as a pigmy, to crouch, or as a knight, to resist. ”

“ Or, if neither would make him a good title, the absolute power of Jezebel would give it to him, and who would dare to oppose her will? Might often prevails against right, and wonderful is the divine patience that suffers it to do so. ”

“ JEZREEL, a royal city of the kings of Israel, who sometimes resided here as well as at Samaria. Ahab, in particular, is known to have made this his residence; near to whose palace was the vineyard of the unfortunate Naboth. The name of Jezreel was by the Greeks moulded into that of Esdraela; which is described by Eusebius and Jerom, in the fourth century, as a considerable town. In like manner, the valley of Jezreel obtained the name of the valley or plain of Esdraelon; which is still described as very fertile, and much frequented by the Arabs for its fine pasturage. ”

“ It is impossible to think that the "angel" of the church was the chief pastor, and that the woman named Jezebel, spoken of as she is, was his wife. We have before us the notorious Jezebel of Old Testament history. Her story is so familiar to every one that it is unnecessary to dwell on it; and we need only further call attention to the fact that the sentence in which her name is mentioned is complete in itself. The sin of the church at Thyatira was that she "suffered" her. In other words, the church tolerated in her midst the evil of which Ahab's wife was so striking a representative. ”

“ The kings both of Israel and of Judah at this period, with the single exception of the brave and good Jehoshaphat, were unworthy and miserable. The blight of the Jezebel-marriage and the curse of Baal-worship lay upon both kingdoms. It is scarcely possible to find such wretched monarchs as the two sons of Jezebel—Ahaziah and Jehoram in Israel, and the son-in-law and grandson of Jezebel, Jehoram and Ahaziah, in Judah. ”

“ The dogs of Jezebel were howling under her very windows, when there came a man blundering on to the scene and spoiled everything,—a man who is a man, who is more than a prince, a man from top to toe, in short, who carried off the woman from Rome. ”

“ Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, with all the rest of the people, obeyed the command of Jehovah their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him to them. The people also feared before Jehovah. And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, so that they came and worked on the temple of Jehovah of hosts, their God, in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. ”

“ It had been suffered to reach its meridian unchecked, and it seemed only a question of time that the service of Jehovah would yield to that of Baal, to whose favour the queen probably believed that her priestly father had owed his throne. There are indications that Jezebel had gone further still, and that Ahab, however much he may secretly have disapproved, had not interfered to prevent her. For although we do not know the exact period at which Jezebel began to exercise violence against the worshippers of Jehovah, it is certain that she did so. ”

“ He would rather die in the wilderness than as Baal's prophet died, according to Jezebel's threatening (v. 2) , lest the worshippers of Baal should triumph and blaspheme the God of Israel, whom they will think themselves too hard for, if they can run down his advocate. He pleads, "It is enough. I have done enough, and suffered enough. I am weary of living." Those that have secured a happiness in the other world will soon have enough of this world. ”