J. H^VSTINGS.
JEZANIAH (in Jer 40 [Gr. 47] « ";}>•, LXX "UfoWas; in 42 [Gr. 49]' n;;.r, BA 'Afopiat, ti"" 'Ifs'oi-faj). — A Judahite military oflicer who joined ( iedaliah at Mizpah (Jer 40*). After the murder of Gedaliah, Jezaniah was one of those who went to the prophet Jeremiah for counsel as to their future action (42'). He is called in 2 K 23^ Jaazaniah (which see), and is apparently to be identified also with Azariah (n.-]!;:^ Ai-opios) of Jer 43-, who was prominent in rejecting the prophet's advice.
JEZEBEL (^>jr». perhaps* ' un-exalted,' 'un- husbanded ' [see Ox/. Heb. Lex. p. 33*], 'IffdyStX).— The daughter of Ethbaal, and wife of Ahab. Eth- baal (Ithobaal) had, after a period of revolution and anarchy, seized (c. B.C. 888) the throne of Tyre, which he occupied for more than thirty j'cars. lie was the first monarch of note who had reified in Pha;nieia since the days of Hiram, and his alliance was doubtless sought b}- Omri and Ahab in order to counterbalance the hostility of Damascus. The marriage of J. to Ahab (1 K 16^') exercised a powerful influence upon the history of religion in Israel, and indirectly also in Judah, where J.'s daughter, Athaliah, afterwards shared the throne with Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. The wor- ship of the Tyrian Baal was now supported by all the court influence. We are not, indeed, to suppose that Ahab abandoned the worship of J", whose prophets he still consulted (1 K 22""), and whose name he meant to honour by the names he gave to his children {Ahaziah, Jehoram, Athaliah, all of which are compounds containing some form of ■ii.T). Nay, he could have pleaded that he simply copied the example of Solomon, both in his foreign marriage and in erecting a sanctuary for Baal (cf. 1 K 11'-' with le"-""). But what had been tolerated in the days of Solomon now met with strenuous opposition. To the great prophet Elijah, J" was a jealous God ; there was no longer room in Israel for the worship of Baal ; there must be no ' halting between two opinions,' but a definite choice of the one or the other deity. The attitude assumed by Elijah, and those like-minded with nim, provoked the resentment of J., in whose hands Ahab seems to have been little more than a tool. The prophets of J" were either put to death or driven to conceal themselves (I K 18*), until Elijah could exclaim, ' I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to teke itaway ' (1 K 19'*). The issue of the conflict on Mount Carmel, and the slaughter of the prophets of Baal, from which Elijah hoped so much, served only to augment the persecuting zeal of the queen (1 K 19^).
• Hommel'8 theorj- (AHT 116), that the first element o( the word la a di\nne oaiue, 13 ver>* precarious. Konig (Expos. Time4, Jan. 1899, p. 190») suggesta that' th« first element is 'X 'island,' and that the name maj' mean 'exalted isle,' which may have heen originally an honorific appellation ot Tjre it«eU.
The darkest stain, however, npon the memory of J. is left by the atrocious crime she perpetrated (1 K 21) in order to procure for her husband the vineyard of Nalioth the Jezreclite (see Nauoth). The judicial murder of Naboth sent a thrill of horror through the land, and, as W. K. Smith {I'roph. Isr. 87), following Ewald and AVcllliausen, has truly remarked, this crime had far more to do than the worship of Baal with undermining the throne of Ahab and Jezebel. The popular feeling is doubtless tnily reflected in the terrible sentence which (according to the Deuteronomic compiler) Elijah passed upon the actors in this tragedy (1 K 21'»«).
J. survived her husband (who fell in battle at Ramoth-gilead, c. ii.c. 8.")3) some ten years, and saw her two sons, Ahaziah and Jehoram, in succes- sion seated upon the throne. The house of Omri was at lenjjtli destroyed by Jehu, a cavalry officer in the service of Jehoram, who treacherously slew both liis master and Ahaziah king of Judah (2 K '.}■'"■). When tidings of the catastrophe reached J., the aged queen prepared to meet death with fortitude and dignity. Having attired herself as for a state occasion (the notion that she meant to captivate Jehu by her charms is too ridiculous to need refutation), she awaited the arrival of the usurper, whom she mockingly accosted, ' Is it well with Zimri, the murderer of his master?" The answer of the brutal Jehu was to order her eunuchs to cast her down from the window of the palace, and, as the helpless woman lay stunned by the fall, he and his captains trampleil her under their horses' feet. After a banquet held to celebrate the success of his conspiracy, the savage warrior ordered the rites of sepulture to be paid to his victim ; but it was discovered that her body had been devoured by the street do"8. So perished miserably the proud daughter of Tyre, and the murder of Naboth was avenjjed (2 K O**"").
The impression of J. that is left upon us by the narrative of the OT is that of an able, resolute woman, who, once she had formed a purpose, carried it to a conclusion, without much scruple as to the methods she employed. Whether she was guilty, in a literal sense, of the ' whoredoms and witchcrafts' of which Jehu speaks in 2 K 9'-''-', we have not sufficient evidence to decide. Her accuser is by no means an unprejudiced witness, and even he may have only meant, in his coarse fashion, to allude to her worship of the Tyrian Baal. Later traditions interpreted the accusation in its most literal sense (cf. Rev 2").+ There can be little doubt that the prevailing estimate of J.'s char- acter is far less favourable than that which was cherished by her contemporaries. Much of the obloquy that attaches to ner name, and that has made ' a Jezebel ' a term of reproach, is due to an inexcusable misunderstanding of 2 K 9*", which records a perfectly innocent and dignified act. It is surely a singular coincidence whereby the mur- derer and his victim, Jehu and Jezebel, are remem- bered best, not for the part they played at an