Ahab and Jezebel reign supreme as the ultimate "bad" couple from the Old Testament. They have been used for centuries as caricatures of spouses who bring out the worst in each other. Ahab is weak, easily led astray by his pagan wife, and prone to sullen fits. Jezebel acts treacherously on behalf of her pouting husband, worships false gods, and (as adolescent girls are often reminded) wears too much make-up.

But a closer examination of the story of this corrupt couple reveals that the writers of this narrative were not so much concerned with the domestic woes of Ahab and Jezebel as with the more cosmic battle between Jezebel and the prophet Elijah. Jezebel’s presence in the biblical narrative serves as the perfect foil for Elijah as he works to establish credibility as a prophet from the true God.

Elijah and Jezebel are presented as opposites in every way: male/female, native/foreign, highlands/coastlands, true/false.1 What they share is an equal passion for their respective god(s). Even their names reflect their devotion; Elijah’s name means "YHWH is my God," whereas Jezebel’s name declares "Zebul [Baal] Exists." In her native language, that is. Significantly, her name can be translated "Heap of Dung" in the Hebrew language—a linguistic trick the writers fully exploit at the end of the story. Many commentators note the irony that Jezebel does for her gods exactly what Elijah does on behalf of YHWH. She just has the misfortune of being a spokesperson for Baal in the wrong country and in the wrong narrative. Under different circumstances, she could be seen as a pawn in a political marriage, taken against her will to a land that reviles her because of her religion.

In contrast, we see Elijah forced to flee his land due to famine, only to be received with ultimate hospitality by the Phoenician widow in a town near Jezebel’s home. In stark contrast to Jezebel’s refusal to embrace the God of her husband, this widow is willing to share her last meal with Elijah, recognize the source of his power, and embrace his God, declaring "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth" (1 Kings 17:24 NKJV).

While Elijah receives bread and meat from ravens, and then again from a Phoenician woman (both sources, significantly, considered "unclean" by Hebrew tradition), Jezebel is feeding 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah at her table in the Israelite palace.2 Deborah Appler points out that the presence of food throughout this narrative highlights the distortion of social and spiritual order within Israel at this time.3 The prophet of the true God is forced to take food from the mouths of unclean animals and people, whereas the false prophets dine in luxury. Meanwhile, Jezebel has forced one hundred prophets of YHWH to hide in caves, receiving only bread and water from Ahab’s God-fearing servant, Obadiah.

All this serves as prelude to the showdown on Mount Carmel, where Elijah and his God go altar to altar with Jezebel and her God—although Jezebel is conspicuously absent from the scene. After YHWH devours Elijah’s sacrifice, "lick[ing] up" the last drop of water from the trench, Elijah imitates Jezebel’s prior actions by ordering the execution of all of her prophets. The writers of the narrative seem intent on showing us that what is evil for a representative of a false god is acceptable for the prophet of the true God.

Elijah gets little time to savor his victory. As soon as Jezebel hears of the defeat of her gods, she vows revenge on Elijah and he runs off to the mountains only to be fed yet again by a miracle—in this case an angel. Elijah stays out of Jezebel’s path until after she uses treacherous means to gain access to Naboth’s vineyard. Just as Elijah was willing to use the spectacle of the sacrificial system to show God’s power on Mt. Carmel, Jezebel manipulates the legal system to exercise the power of the king in this battle for property.4 This time, however, it is Elijah who vows revenge as he declares that "the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel" (1 Kings 21: 23–24). In response to Elijah’s rebuke, Ahab repents and is granted a stay of execution by a long-suffering YHWH. Jezebel, however, refuses to heed the prophet’s warnings, thus sealing her fate.

It is in how Elijah and Jezebel exit the stage that we see the most dramatic contrast. Elijah, for his faithful service, is carried up into heaven by "horses of fire," leaving behind only his mantle for his successor. Jezebel, despite all her faithfulness to the cause of Baal, is pushed out a window by eunuchs and trampled underfoot by Jehu’s horses. When Jehu does finally order her burial, all that the dogs have left of her is "the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands" (2 Kings 9:35). Jehu then declares that "the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, ’Here lies Jezebel’" (2 Kings 9:37). The Hebrew reading of her name as "Heap of Dung" has now been literally realized.

In this refusal to allow her body to be buried we find a striking similarity with the story of the search for Elijah’s body. When Elisha reports on what he has seen, the fifty men who have been waiting on the other side of the Jordan insist on looking for a body, "lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley" (2 Kings 2:16). At first, he resists, saying "You shall not send anyone," but eventually he allows them to search for three days. When they return empty-handed, he replies, "did I not say to you, ’Do not go?’" (2 Kings 3:18). Here, again, we find a clear reminder that Jezebel’s faithfulness to her false god leads only to infamy, her remains becoming fertilizer, whereas Elijah’s faithfulness earns him a pass straight into heaven.

Appler notes that the role of dogs in Jezebel’s death is particularly fitting, since "in ancient mythology the gates of the after-world were guarded by dogs who were the companions of the goddess, particularly when she received her dead."5 Yet again, the writers remind their readers that the Hebrew God offers a better alternative. Even if the Canaanite gods DO exist (which the rest of the narrative has worked hard to prove untrue) all the faithful can expect is to be welcomed into the afterlife by dogs, a far cry from the fiery chariot sent to transport Elijah.

There has been much speculation as to why Jezebel "put paint on her eyes and adorned her head" before facing her murderer. One of the most compelling arguments is that she is preparing herself for death in the manner depicted in ivory plaques that date to this period, showing women, framed in a window with "carefully coiffeured hair, worked in a style that characterizes the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who elsewhere is associated with the goddess Asherah."6 Jezebel meets her end with the dignity befitting a faithful servant of her gods. She does not fail her gods; it is her gods that fail her.

Another compelling argument is that she is preparing herself to be the ultimate sacrifice, with the graphic descriptions of her blood spattering over the wall of the house and her body being eaten by dogs, which echoes the ritual described for burnt offerings in Leviticus 7: "its blood shall be dashed against all sides of the altar…and the priests shall eat of it." Jezebel thus becomes "a perverted sacrifice, offered by eunuchs who are least appropriate and eaten by dogs instead of the priests."7

Thus, Jezebel becomes much more than just an object lesson in what not to do as a wife. She is instead a foil against which the power of God is tested. What is at stake is not Ahab’s happiness as a husband, but God’s ability to convince his people to reject the Canaanite gods and be faithful only to him. Jezebel certainly earns her reputation as a scheming, powerful woman, but by doing so she provides the writers a formidable force against which to prove the even more formidable power of YHWH.

Jezebel will continue to be upheld as the stereotype of the wicked wife, but she should also be seen as a woman who uses all the power at her disposal to prove the truth of her gods, and fails only because she fails to recognize the true God.8

Notes and References

1. For comparative analysis of Elijah and Jezebel, see Phyllis Trible’s "Exegesis for Storytellers and Other Strangers," Journal of Biblical Literature 114, no. 1 (1995): 3-19.
2. Deborah Appler, "From Queen to Cuisine: Food Imagery in the Jezebel Narrative," Semeia 86 (1999): 57.
3. Ibid, 55.
4. Trible, "Exegesis," 9.
5. Appler, "From Queen to Cuisine," 65.
6. Judith E. McKinlay, "Negotiating the Frame for Viewing the Death of Jezebel," Biblical Interpretation 10, no. 3 (2002): 315.
7. Appler, "From Queen to Cuisine," 67.
8. For an overview of Jezebel in literature, art, and film, see Janet Howe Gaines, Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel through the Ages (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999).

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