Jezebel, in the First Book of Kings, Phoenician princess who was the wife of King Ahab and the mother of Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah. She encouraged worship of Baal, including the worship of Asherah and persecuted the prophets of her day. Jezebel was the bitter foe of Elijah. Elijah's prophecy of Jezebel's doom was fulfilled when Jehu triumphed over the house of Ahab. In Revelation, her name is applied to a false prophetess of Thyatira. A Jezebel in common usage is a wicked woman.

(died circa 843 BC) In the Hebrew scriptures, the wife of King Ahab of Israel. The daughter of the priest-king Ethbaal of Tyre and Sidon, she persuaded Ahab to introduce the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart into Israel, thus interfering with the exclusive worship of Yahweh. The book of 1 Kings tells how she was opposed by Elijah. After Ahab's death Jezebel's son Jehoram became king of Israel, but Elisha encouraged a general, Jehu, to revolt. Jehoram was killed, and Jezebel was thrown from a window to her death. Dogs consumed most of her body, fulfilling a prophecy by Elijah. In history and literature she became the archetype of the wicked woman.

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