Your local Shiksa:
(Her) Reign of Terror:
(2) Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “Thus and more may the gods do if by this time tomorrow I have not made you like one of them.”
From David to Destruction:
The Malbim offers a most insightful answer. He argues that Achav is inspired by what transpires at Har HaCarmel. However, Izevel cynically predicts that her husband’s inspiration will wane by the next day. Therefore, she is willing to wait a day for Achav to return to “normal” so she will be able to eliminate her hated foe Eliyahu HaNavi without resistance from her husband."
The Navot Affair
Her Downfall:
To Conclude
In Chazal:
Bava Metzia 59a:6
And Rav says: Nevertheless, anyone who follows the counsel of his wife descends into Gehenna, as it is stated: “But there was none like Ahab, who did give himself over to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife incited” (I Kings 21:25). Rav Pappa said to Abaye: But don’t people say a popular proverb: If your wife is short, stoop and whisper to her and consult with her? The Gemara answers: This is not difficult, as this statement of Rav instructs that one not follow her counsel in general matters; and that proverb instructs that one follow her counsel in household matters. The Gemara presents another version of this distinction: This statement of Rav maintains that one should not follow her counsel in divine matters; and that proverb maintains that one should follow her counsel in general matters.
Esther Rabbah 3:2
Another interpretation: "It is governed by women": four women gained rulership in the world, and they were Jezebel and Athaliah from Israel and Semiramis and Vashti from the gentile nations of the world.
Sanhedrin 102b:14
Rav Naḥman says: Ahab was balanced in terms of the mitzvot and transgressions that he performed, as it is stated: “And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab that he may ascend and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And this one said in this manner, and that one said in that manner” (I Kings 22:20), indicating that it is unclear whether or not he was a full-fledged transgressor. Rav Yosef objects to this statement: This is the person about whom the prophet wrote: “But there was none like Ahab who devoted himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife had incited” (I Kings 21:25). And we learn in a baraita: Every day she would weigh gold shekels equal to Ahab’s weight for idol worship. And you say he was balanced? Rather, Ahab was generous with his money and did not scrimp, and since he also benefited Torah scholars with his property, the heavenly court expiated half his sins for him. The result was a balance between mitzvot and transgressions.
Sanhedrin 39b:8
Rava says: The verse is speaking of actual harlots. Ahab was a frigid man, who did not lust for women. And Jezebel, his wife, fashioned two forms of harlots for him in his chariot, in order that he see them while traveling and become aroused. Accordingly, one would understand the verse as stating that the harlots were washed, not that they washed themselves.
On the Bright Side...
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 17:5
Whence do we learn (the duty of) showing loving-kindness to mourners? From Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal. The palace of Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, was near the market-place. When any corpse was carried through the market-place, she would go forth from her palace, and she clapped with the palms of her hands and praised with her mouth, and she followed the corpse ten steps. Concerning her, Elijah, be he remembered for good, prophesied (and said): "In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel" (2 Kings 9:36). But over the limbs which were (employed in) showing loving-kindness, the dogs had no power, as it is said, "And they went || to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands" (2 Kings 9:35).
In Pop Culture
Jezebel meaning (yourdictionary.com)
jĕz'ə-bĕl', -bəl
The definition of a jezebel is a shameless or wicked woman.
An example of a jezebel is the character Anna Karenina, who betrays her husband by having an affair.
noun
A woman who is regarded as evil and scheming.
noun
(pejorative) An evil, scheming or shameless woman; an immoral woman.
She’s an absolute Jezebel!
usnews.com
To modern feminist authors, Jezebel is one of the most intriguing women in the Scriptures, a bloodstained yet strong-willed, politically astute, and courageous woman. A Phoenician princess who worships Baal, the pagan god of fertility, Jezebel marries King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel. She persuades him to tolerate her alien faith, then becomes entwined in the vicious religious conflict that ends in her death. "She became a convenient scapegoat for misogynistic biblical writers who tagged her as the primary force behind Israel's apostasy," believes University of New Mexico biblical scholar Janet Howe Gaines, author of Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages. "[She] has been denounced as a murderer, prostitute, and enemy of God.... Yet there is much to admire in this ancient queen."
Despite the harlot references, there is no scriptural evidence that Jezebel was a prostitute or an unfaithful wife, yet the taint of immorality has branded her a whore for more than 2,000 years. One explanation is biblical allegory. The Old Testament authors often equated worship of false gods and foreign deities with wanton sexuality.
"Every biblical word condemns her," Gaines says. "Jezebel is an outspoken woman in a time when females have little status and few rights; a foreigner in a xenophobic land; an idol worshiper in a place with a G-d-based, state-sponsored religion; a murderer and a meddler in political affairs in a nation of strong patriarchs; a traitor in a country where no ruler is above the law; and a whore in the territory where the Ten Commandments originate."
She has come down through the ages as the primary symbol of wanton, shameless womanhood. She has been limned by
playwright William Shakespeare and
poet Percy Bysshe Shelley,
by 16th-century religious reformer John Knox
and novelist James Joyce.
Frankie Laine had an international hit single Jezebel in the 1950s,
and Boyz II Men sing about her today.
n 1938, Bette Davis won an Academy Award for best actress playing the title role in the steamy melodrama Jezebel set in the 1850s.
Jezebel characters have appeared in such television shows as I Love Lucy,
Little House on the Prairie,
and The Muppet Show.
And her name was invoked during the investigation into President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
From Lady Macbeth to Lizzie Borden, among history's most famous female villains, fictional or real, the pagan queen of Kings 1 and 2 still rules as the most wicked and enduring of them all.
Tags: religion, Christianity