Jezebel is the most wicked wife of King Ahab of Israel. Her life was marked by evil through and through, both by her own acts and the deeds she encouraged her husband to commit. Jezebel was the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon (1 Kings 16:31), and she married King Ahab of Israel, probably to seal a political alliance between the two powers. Ahab had already demonstrated a love of idolatry and evil, and his marriage to Jezebel only compounded his sin.
Jezebel began to kill off the Lord’s prophets, but Ahab’s servant Obadiah secretly hid one hundred of them in a cave to save them. She personally supported hundreds of priests of Baal and Asherah (1 Kings 18:19), so when Elijah had them killed at the foot of Mount Carmel, Jezebel tried to kill him, too (1 Kings 19:1–2). She also arranged for a man named Naboth to be killed so that Ahab could seize his vineyard for himself (1 Kings 21).
Jezebel’s wickedness did not go unnoticed by the Lord, however. Elijah prophesied that one day her body would become like refuse and be eaten by dogs by the wall of the city of Jezreel. This prophecy eventually came true at the hand of a usurper named Jehu (2 Kings 9). Jezebel’s hometown of Sidon was located in Phoenicia, whose people were famous throughout the ancient world for their extensive maritime activity. They had established trading colonies as far away as Spain and North Africa and were widely regarded as skilled sailors.
