Jezebel meaning: from ancient queen to loaded label

What does Jezebel mean?

1. The person. Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, daughter of the king of Sidon, who married King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible. She lived in the ninth century BCE.
2. The label. In later English, a jezebel is a woman portrayed as wicked, manipulative or sexually shameless. Phrases like a painted jezebel add the idea of heavy makeup used to seduce.

Most dictionaries mark the second sense as disapproving. It is a judgement about a woman's character, not a neutral description. So any jezebel definition depends on whether you are reading scripture or hearing an insult.

The biblical story behind the name

In the books of Kings, Jezebel is shown supporting the worship of Baal, a Canaanite god, in Israel, and opposing the prophet Elijah and the prophets of the God of Israel. The text says she arranged false charges against a man named Naboth so that the king could take his vineyard.

Her end is told in 2 Kings 9. After a new ruler, Jehu, rises against the royal house, Jezebel puts on eye paint, arranges her hair and looks down from a window. Servants throw her from the window, and the text says dogs ate her body, as Elijah had foretold.

The Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament later uses the name for a woman in the church at Thyatira who is accused of leading believers astray. Many readers take this as a symbolic use of the older name.

How the name became a label

Over time, preachers and writers held Jezebel up as a warning. Her makeup at the window was read as vanity or seduction, and her power over the king as manipulation. By the time the word entered everyday English as a common noun, it carried those ideas: a woman who uses charm or sex to control men, or who rejects accepted morals.

Scholars point out that the biblical text focuses mostly on her religion and her use of royal power, not on sexual behaviour. The sexual meaning came largely from later interpretation. In the United States, historians also note that the jezebel stereotype was used to demean Black women during and after slavery, which adds to the word's weight.

Jezebel meaning today and how people use it

• As an insult: calling someone a jezebel is a strong put-down, much like other words that shame women for their sexuality. Our page on misogyny explains the wider pattern behind such labels.
• In sermons and religious writing: some teachers speak of a "Jezebel spirit", meaning a controlling or idolatrous influence. This is a term in certain Christian circles, and its use is debated.
• Reclaimed: some writers and artists use the name proudly, to challenge the idea that a bold or independent woman must be wicked.
• As a given name: it is rare, because of the story. The related name Isabel is sometimes linked to it, though the connection is not certain.

Example sentences

• In Sunday school we read about Jezebel and the prophet Elijah.
• The old novel calls the heroine a jezebel simply because she wears red and dances.
• The professor argued that the biblical Jezebel is remembered more for her religion than for any scandal.
• My grandmother still uses "jezebel" to scold anyone she thinks is flirting too much.

Should you use the word?

Referring to the biblical queen is fine in study, faith and history. Using jezebel about a real person is another matter: it is name-calling, it targets women in particular, and it can sound old-fashioned or offensive. If you mean someone is manipulative, words like manipulative or deceitful describe the behaviour without the gendered history. For more terms from scripture and tradition, see our faith and belief section.