For those readers who attend daily Mass, or who like to follow the daily readings from day to day at home (which can be done with a Daily Missal, of course, or online from numerous websites) the lectionary this week has taken us into what is usually called the “Elijah cycle”, the stories about the prophet Elijah and his struggles with the syncretist King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom.
There is absolutely no doubt that the chronicler takes a very dim view of Ahab, and he was of course a very bad man, deserting the One True God to worship the Baals. Nevertheless, Ahab is treated with a certain amount of sympathy, and the description of his death paints him a hero who falls in battle, even if the dogs do eventually lick his blood (see I Kings 22:29-38). But the real crime of Ahab, the thing that damns him in the eyes of the chronicler, is his marriage to that woman, Jezebel. ‘He even married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went over to the veneration and worship of Baal’ (16:31). That ‘even’ is very eloquent.
Of course, King Ahab was not the first to marry a foreigner, but none of the foreigners previous or subsequent kings married were in the same class as Jezebel. The reason that she is so hated is because she was surely the most formidable enemy the God of Israel ever encountered.
If you doubt my estimation of Jezebel’s character, do read the episode of Naboth’s vineyard in the 21st chapter of I Kings. She tackles the project of getting hold of Naboth’s vineyard with drive, efficiency, verve, intelligence and great ruthlessness. Of course, what she is doing is utterly wicked and cruel – framing an innocent man in order to steal his property – but the way she does it marks her out as a very capable woman, frighteningly so.
Whether this makes her a feminist, I am not sure. One thing is certain – she owes her position as Queen to her husband, which does not sound very feminist. However, at the same time, she is the only King’s wife in the Old Testament to have the title of Queen. Then, as is the case in certain other Oriental monarchies, the Queen was the King’s mother, not one of the King’s many wives. Jezebel’s queenly status is unique to her, and she certainly earned it. The trouble is, she earned it at the expense of God and God’s most holy law. Her end is completely deserved, though you do feel a thrill of admiration for her chutzpah.
When Jezebel learned that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she shadowed her eyes, adorned her hair, and looked down from her window. As Jehu came through the gate, she cried out: “Is all well, Zimri, murderer of your master?” Jehu looked up to the window and shouted: “Who is on my side? Anyone?” At this, two or three eunuchs looked down toward him. “Throw her down,” he ordered. They threw her down, and some of her blood spurted against the wall and against the horses. Jehu rode in over her body and, after eating and drinking, he said: ‘Attend to that accursed woman and bury her; after all, she was a king’s daughter.’ (2 Kings 9: 30-34.)
A King’s daughter indeed! A King’s wife as well, and the mother of another King. Every inch a Queen! If one wanted to try and construct an argument that the Devil has all the best tunes (which, of course, is not the case) the life of Queen Jezebel would be a good place to start.
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