Jezebel (biblical)

Jezebel, Queen of Israel
19th-century painting by John Liston Byam Shaw
Spouse(s)	King Ahab
Children	Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah
Parent(s)	Ithobaal I

Jezebel (/ˈdʒɛzəbəl/,Hebrew: אִיזֶבֶל‎ / אִיזָבֶל‎, Modern Izével' / 'Izável Tiberian ʾÎzéḇel / ʾÎzāḇel) (fl. 9th century BCE) was a queen, identified in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 16:31) as the daughter of Ithobaal I of Sidon and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, causing the landowner to be put to death. For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, Jezebel met a gruesome death – thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs.

Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup led to the association of the use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes.

Jezebel is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hebrew אִיזָבֶל ('Izevel/'Izavel). The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible states that the name is "best understood as meaning 'Where is the Prince?'", 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.