1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jezebel |←Jew's Harp||1911
Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 15 |See also Jezebel (Bible) on
Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.|
JEZEBEL (Heb. ī-zebel, perhaps an artificial form to suggest
“un-exalted,” a divine name or its equivalent would naturally be
expected instead of the first syllable), wife of Ahab, king of
Israel (1 Kings xvi. 31), and mother of Athaliah, in the Bible.
Her father Eth-baal (Ithobal, Jos., contra Ap. i. 18) was king
of Tyre and priest of the goddess Astarte. He had usurped the
throne and was the first important Phoenician king after Hiram
(see Phoenicia). Jezebel, a true daughter of a priest of
Astarte, showed herself hostile to the worship of Yahweh, and to
his prophets, whom she relentlessly pursued (1 Kings xviii.
4-13; see Elijah). She is represented as a woman of virile
character, and became notorious for the part she took in the
matter of Naboth's vineyard. When the Jezreelite sheikh refused
to sell the family inheritance to th