The Role of Jezebel’s Character in the Bible Narrative

Jezebel was a character belonging to the Bible, a Phoenician princess, that married to Ahab, which was the king of Israel at the time.

There was an open war between the followers of Yahweh and Baal which meant that she lived in very dangerous times. In this tale Ahab, Jezebel’s husband, wanted to buy a land, a vineyard, that was close to his palace at Jezreel, but the owner, whose name was Naboth, was unwilling to sell it to him. Instead of Ahab being the one fighting to achieve those lands, Jezebel was the one who arranged the death of Naboth, so that the ownership of the land passed to Ahab. This shows how a woman that seems to depend on his husband, takes charge on important matters and achieves the goal, no matter the means. But her power wasn’t direct, it came indirectly through her status as wife to the King. Moreover, Ahab is shown to the people as king and the one who takes ownership of the land but the text reveals that he only makes everyone think that his wife’s merits were his, so we could say that he has some authority, but that the real authority lies in Jezebel because she is able to manipulate her husband to her means.Jezebel wasn’t an ordinary woman. Such was her disposition that she constantly attracted everyone’s immediate attention.

It is not possible to see this specifically in the text, but we see it by her actions, we can observe that she has an incredible strength of character and from her appalling fate with a tragic brilliance, which resides in no other woman of the Bible. While this book does not really analyze or even show her character, but simply explains the events in which she afflicted so striking a part, yet by reading between the lines we cannot fail to see her as a woman of impressive force of intelligence and attitude.

The sacred narrative, the Bible, does not record that she possessed any of the refined, noble feminine qualities, its said that she didn’t know anything of the moderation of righteous ideals. But we can see that she was wild and ruthless, this dignified and stubborn-minded woman, saw done all her foul schemes, like sending to murder a man to achieve his land. She was extremely persuasive, but her influence was wrongly directed. Resolute above other women, she used her strength of character to destroy a king and her own offspring, as well as pollute the life of a nation.