The only woman who judges, Deborah “used to sit under the palm tree…and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment” (Judges 4:5). She is shown here in a stained glass window by the Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall. Photo: © 1997 Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris.

The two chapters show her exemplary moral character and indicate the people gave her great love and respect. Like Moses before³ and David afterward, she fused in herself the roles of prophet, national leader, and military commander.

Thought to be an Ephramite because she resided in Ephraim (4:5), Deborah judged and led Israel for 60 years in the 12th century B.C.⁴ Her oversight covered approximately 20 years of national hardship before the Canaanite war and then a peaceful aftermath of 40 years. Arguably, Deborah first was recognized as a prophet, then as judge/leader, next in a military role (5:15), and finally as a songstress. She judged under a palm tree—a setting, rabbinic tradition maintains, that validated her fairness, openness, and refusal to show partiality.⁵

Deborah is introduced, as are the other 11 judges in the Book of Judges, without fanfare. The Bible records no dissent or rebellion against her. Leadership resides not in gender but in character and gifting.⁶ The Israelites recognized her abilities and prospered under her tenure. Her name means bee or even honeybee.

Judges 4–5 is unusual in that it chronicles a slice of biblical history first in narration and subsequently in poetry. The chapters complement each other, fitting together details, insights, and judgments.

The two chapters begin with Israel’s disobedience, vividly describe a Holy War and its participants, and end with the victorious result: the land had rest for 40 years (5:31). Put another way, the people sinned, learned from hardship, repented, and cried out to the Lord. The Lord responded with a plan of deliverance.

Although the Canaanites didn’t know it, this was a Holy War.⁷

FREE ebook: Israel: An Archaeological Journey. Sift through the storied history of ancient Israel.

First Name:*

Last Name:*

Email Address: * * Indicates a required field.

SUBMIT

If you don’t want to receive the Bible History Daily newsletter, uncheck this box.

The chapters present the possibility of three war zones: the initial battleground of Mount Tabor and the Jezreel Valley (4:12); Tanaach (5:19); and the gates of Hazor and other Canaanite cities. (4:23; 5:11d).

Chapters 4 and 5 provide character sketches of those involved in the war. The men include:

• Barak, who, at Deborah’s command, suddenly becomes Israel’s general; he bargains with Deborah to come with him to the war; she agrees but prophesies that “the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (4:8–9)
• Jabin, a king in Canaan who resides in Hazor (4:2)
• Sisera, Jabin’s general, who exudes confidence because of his weapons of mass destruction—some 900 iron chariots (4:2–3)
• The tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon followed by Ephraim, Benjamin, and Issachar and the men of Machir; all march with Barak and are praised by Deborah (5:14–15)
• The tribes of Reuben, Dan, and Asher and the men of Gilead (5:15–17); they are ridiculed for failing to heed the summons to the Holy War

In addition to Deborah, the women include:

• Jael the Kenite, who invites the fleeing Sisera into her tent and murders him (4:17–22; 5:24–27)
• Sisera’s mother, who, Deborah imagines, waits anxiously at a latticed window for her son’s return (5:28)
• Nearby ladies-in-waiting who speculate that the victorious Canaanites are delayed because they’re busy dividing the spoils of war and enjoying the women they’ve conquered (5:29–30)

Those mentioned only incidentally include:

• Lappidoth, the husband of Deborah (4:4)⁸
• Heber the Kenite, husband of Jael (4:11); according to tradition, the Kenites descended from Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law⁹

Deborah’s tenure starts with the Lord’s judgment against Israel. Because the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, the Lord sells them into the hand of Jabin, a king in Canaan (4:1–2). Confined to the unproductive hilltops and denied commercial access on the highways, the Israelites suffer economic hardship under the Canaanites (5:6).

Deborah summons Barak from Kadesh in Naphtali; she tells him the Lord commands him to position himself at Mount Tabor and bring in 10,000 from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon (4:5–6). The Lord shares his strategy and promises deliverance and victory: “I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand” (4:6–7).

Chapter 4 highlights the conflict between the Israelites and Canaanites. Tribes assemble under Barak’s order. Sisera hears and takes his chariots to the Wadi Kishon (4:12–13). Making good his word, the Lord throws Sisera and his forces into panic (4:15). Seeing that the battle goes against the Canaanites, Sisera flees on foot. Exhausted, he arrives at Jael’s tent. She brings him milk, covers him with a rug, and while he sleeps, hammers a tent peg through his head (4:17–21)! The assassination incorporates multiple erotic images.¹⁰ Barak, coming shortly thereafter, views the corpse (4:22).

As Sisera sleeps, Jael calmly and quietly hammers a tent peg into his temple, in this 1620 painting by Italian Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Photo: Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest, Hungary.

The poetry in Chapter 5, the Song of Deborah, smacks of realism and emphasizes the role of women.¹¹ The ballad tells a gripping story, ringing with eyewitness details. Like the Book of Lamentations and the Gospel of Mark, it leaves a reader feeling breathless. One easily imagines Deborah strumming and beckoning Barak to walk and sing with her among their victorious countrymen. Her leadership style favors a team approach; she willingly recognizes those who joined and served.¹² She not only praises others but also thereby encourages them to ongoing service and development as leaders.¹³

Considered one of the oldest pieces of Hebrew poetry,¹⁴ Deborah’s Song continues the Israelite tradition of immortalizing a victory in song. Both Moses and Miriam led the Israelites in songs of victory after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds (Exodus 15:1–21). Deborah’s song has many Hebrew words that are unknown now; that’s why its translations vary so much.

Deborah sings about the Lord but to the Israelites. For example, the earth trembled, the clouds poured water, the Lord marched, and the mountains quaked “before the Lord” (5:4–5). Indeed, the stars in heaven fought against the doomed Sisera and the Canaanites (5:20). Credit for the Holy War and inevitable victory goes to Yahweh (5:5).

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Deborah calls herself a mother in Israel (5:7). Probably one of the highest designations in scripture, it indicates authority.¹⁵ Centuries afterward, the wise woman of Abel Beth Maacah will describe her city with the same phrase in a conversation with military leader Joab during a break in a civil war (2 Samuel 20:19). Much earlier, Joseph called himself a father to Pharaoh (Genesis 45:8).

Deborah’s concluding words validate Jael’s action, pronouncing her “most blessed of women” Judges 5:24). Similar designations go to Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 2:26–28, 42), and to Judith, heroine of the Apocryphal Book of Judith who beheaded Holofernes, an Assyrian, general and saved her people (Judith 13:23–25). With great force, Deborah prays that all the Lord’s enemies will share Sisera’s fate and likewise perish (Judges 5:31).

Deborah’s War changed history. Any dreams Sisera had to use those 900 chariots to defeat Egypt and become a world power literally got stuck in the mud when the Lord sent rain (5:4, 21). Deborah’s War effectively took the Canaanites off the world stage. Yes, the Israelites moved to the fertile valleys and vended their wares on recognized thoroughfares (5:7). But perhaps a misstep was that the Israelites did not become masters of the forge; they did not capture, copy, or customize the enemy’s technology. Consequently, nearby nations excelled in iron smelting. The judge Gideon built on Deborah’s military foundation and led Zebulon, Naphtali, and other tribes against the Midianites and Amalekites (6:33-35). According to rabbinic tradition, Deborah wrote Psalm 68¹⁶; it clearly resembles both chapters, especially Judges 5.¹⁷

According to another rabbinic tradition, descendants of Sisera, the Canaanite commander whose doom was prophesied by Deborah and fulfilled under Jael’s hand, taught children in Jerusalem.¹⁸ If that tradition is true, then it shows one of the great themes of scripture. The judgeship of Deborah started with the Israelites’ sin but its legacy, in time, included God’s good work of redemption in the lives of the descendants of Israel’s enemy.

This Bible History Daily feature was first published in April, 2019

Robin Gallaher Branch teaches Old Testament and New Testament as an adjunct professor at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the 2002–2003 academic year and served in the Faculty of Theology at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa; she retains her North-West research affiliation. She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from the University of Texas in Austin in 2000. Her most recent books are Six Biblical Plays for Contemporary Audiences (Cascade 2016) and Jeroboam’s Wife: The Enduring Contributions of the Old Testament’s Least-Known Women (Hendrickson, 2009; Wipf and Stock, 2018).

Notes

1. Branch 2002, p. 134.

2. Rabbinic tradition lists seven prophetesses: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther (Meg. 14a) (“Deborah,” p. 489).

3. Herzberg 2013, pp. 15–16. Herzberg notes the prophetic gifting of both Moses and Deborah and the similarities of the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and Deborah’s War; consequently he argues Deborah was seen as “the Moses of her time” (2015, p. 33).

4. Zucker and Reiss 2015, p. 32.

5. “Deborah,” p. 490.

6.Nielson 2018, pp. 78–79. Both men and women are made in the image of God.

7. Boda (2012, p. 1137) notes that Israel’s success and the Canaanites’ failure are directly related to their relationship to Yahweh.

8. “Wife of Lappidoth” also could be translated “woman of torches” or “woman of flame”; rabbinic tradition notes that Deborah was “a great light in Israel” (“Deborah,” p. 489).

9. “Sisera,” p. 397.

10. Ackerman 1998, pp. 59–61.

11. Haddox 2013, p. 79.

12. Kroll 2006, pp. 34–35.

13. Nielson 2018, p. 85.

14. Branch 2002, p. 134.

15. Meyers 2000, p. 332.

16. Branch 2002, p. 135.

17. Wright 2011, pp. 529–531.

18. “Sisera,” p. 398. Git 57b.

Bibliography

Susan Ackerman, Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel. The Anchor Bible Reference Library (New York: Doubleday, 1998).

Mark J. Boda, “Judges,” in Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, eds., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Revised Edition. Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), pp. 1043–1288.

Robin Gallaher Branch, “Deborah,” in Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), pp. 134–135.

“Deborah,” The Jewish Encyclopedia. Volume IV (New York: KTAV Publishing House) pp. 489–490.

Susan Haddox, “Gendering Violence and Violating Gender in Judges 4–5,” Conversations with the Biblical World 33, pp. 67–81 (2013).

Bruce Herzberg, “Deborah and Moses,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 38, pp. 15–33 (2013).

Woodrow Kroll, Judges: Ordinary People, Extraordinary God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006).

Carol Meyers, “Deborah,” in D. N. Freedman, ed., Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), pp. 331–332.

Kathleen Nielson, Women & God: Hard Questions. Beautiful Truth (Good Book Company, 2018).

“Sisera,” The Jewish Encyclopedia. Volume XI (New York: KTAV Publishing House), pp. 397–398.

Jacob L. Wright, “Deborah’s War Memorial: The Composition of Judges 4–5 and the Politics of War Commemoration,” Zeitschrift fur die alttestantliche Wissenschaft 123, pp. 516–534 (2011).

David Zucker, and Moshe Reiss, “Subverting Sexuality: Manly Women; Womanly Men in Judges 4–5,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 45, pp. 32–37 (2015).

More by Robin Gallaher Branch in Biblical History Daily

Who Was Phoebe?

Tabitha in the Bible

Ebedmelech—A Remarkable Figure in Jerusalem’s Final Days

Martha: A Remarkable Disciple

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

David and Joab

Why Deborah’s Different

The Song of Deborah—Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not

Hazor and the Battle of Deborah—Is Judges 4 Wrong?

The post Deborah in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. When Joseph (far left) and Mary (left of center) bring baby Jesus to the Jerusalem Temple, they are greeted by Simeon, who embraces the baby, and Anna, the New Testament’s only prophetess, shown at right with a scroll, in this 1342 tempera painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Simeon instantly and independently recognizes Jesus as messiah. Anna begins to preach: “She came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Both are quicker than Mary to comprehend who Jesus is. Uffizi Gallery/Public Domain

Being first to hear doesn’t always mean being first to understand. In Luke’s birth narrative, Mary is the first to be told that Jesus will be the messiah. Luke adds that she “treasures the words” the angel Gabriel speaks to her. But Mary is also puzzled by the divine message; she is “perplexed” when the angel greets her and must “ponder” the meaning of his words (Luke 1:29; see also 2:19). In this, Mary contrasts sharply with Simeon and Anna, two elderly individuals who happen to be in the Temple when Joseph and Mary bring the infant Jesus to Jerusalem for the first time.

According to Luke 2:22–24, “[Joseph and Mary] brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’ [quoting Exodus 13:2, 12]) and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’ [based on Leviticus 12:2–8].”

At the Temple, the family is approached by a man named Simeon, who has been told by the Holy Spirit that he will not die until he has seen the messiah. (The same Spirit told him to go to the Temple that day, too.) Simeon takes Jesus in his arms and praises God: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:28–32). Having seen the messiah, Simeon is now prepared to die.

FREE ebook, Who Was Jesus? Exploring the History of Jesus’ Life. Examine fundamental questions about Jesus of Nazareth.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Anna then approaches the Holy Family. She, too, recognizes Jesus as messiah, but she has a very different reaction: “At that moment, she came and began to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). She is 84 years old, according to Luke, and she does not want to die: She wants to proselytize. Like the disciples who will follow her, she is driven to bear witness to what she has seen. Mary was the first to have the good news announced to her, but Anna is the first woman to understand fully and proclaim the good news.

This is because in addition to being a proselytizer, Anna is a “prophetess” (Luke 2:36). In fact, she is the only woman in the New Testament explicitly described as a “prophetess.” She then stands in the line of figures like the judge, military leader and prophetess Deborah and the Jerusalem prophetess Huldah, who, in the days of King Josiah, was asked to verify that an ancient scroll (a form of Deuteronomy) discovered during Temple renovations was indeed the word of God (2 Kings 22).

Unlike Simeon, Anna is not just visiting the Temple for the day; she is there all the time. According to Luke, Anna “never left the Temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37). Perhaps she was part of some sort of order of widows (Luke tells us her husband died after only seven years of marriage) who had specific religious functions in the Temple. She may have been able to undertake this role in the Temple because she was no longer in periodic states of ritual impurity caused by menstruation.

Learn more about Anna in Robin Gallaher Branch’s Bible History Daily article “Anna in the Bible.”

Mary startles when Gabriel and God the Father appear in her home and interrupt her prayers. In Lorenzo Lotto’s unusual rendition of the Annunciation, dated to 1535, Mary’s cat is equally frightened by the divine apparition. According to Luke, Mary treasures the angel’s message, but does not fully understand it. Only after years of “pondering the message in her heart” does she become a true follower of Jesus.” Museo Civico, Recanati, Italy/Scala/Art Resource, NY.

Luke may also have seen Anna as the second witness in or around the Temple needed to validate Jesus’ significance. Deuteronomy 19:15 stresses the importance of having two witnesses to validate an event.

The pairing of Simeon and Anna reflects Luke’s penchant for male-female parallelism when he writes about the recipients of divine blessing and salvation. The story of Jesus’ birth is framed by two such stories—that of Elizabeth and Zechariah in Luke 1 and Anna and Simeon in Luke 2. Interestingly, in both, the woman is portrayed as the more positive example of discipleship. The women are not only more receptive to the message, they are more willing to act upon it, with Elizabeth realizing that her cousin is carrying the messiah and praising God for this blessing and Anna spreading the good news.

Alfred Plummer, in his classic commentary on Luke, suggested that the difference between Anna and Simeon provides a clue to Luke as a salvation historian, a chronicler of the mighty acts of God for his people through the ages. Yes, a messiah has arrived, as Simeon recognizes, but, as the prophetess Anna suggests, a new era, with a new and living voice of prophecy, has at the same time dawned.¹ In this new era, the living voice of God will continue to speak about the messianic one. Anna is the first in a line of prophetic disciples who will speak about Jesus to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel.

Not everyone can be a prophet, however. Mary, for example, does not fully understand what Anna immediately recognizes. And she won’t for several years.

Twelve years after the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the Holy Family returns to Jerusalem and Jesus returns to the Temple, this time by himself. Mary and Joseph search for him frantically for three days. When at last they find him listening to and asking questions of the teachers in the Temple, Mary asks, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Jesus responds, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But, Luke reports, “they did not understand what he said to them … [but] his mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:48–51). The late New Testament scholar Raymond Brown wrote: “Luke’s idea is that complete acceptance of the word of God, complete understanding of who Jesus is, and complete discipleship is not yet possible. This will come through the ministry of Jesus and particularly through the cross and resurrection.”

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Clearly, Luke is not painting an idealized portrait of Mary or Joseph. Rather, he paints a very human and realistic picture of Mary and Joseph as good parents, anxious, concerned, striving to be obedient and understanding, but not yet comprehending. Brown adds, however, that “Luke does not leave Mary on the negative note of misunderstanding. Rather in 2.51 [“his mother treasured all these things …”] he stresses her retention of what she has not yet understood and … her continuing search to understand.”²

Of course, in the end, Luke portrays Mary as successfully making the spiritual journey into the family of faith; in Acts 1:14, when the apostles gather in the upper room after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Mary is with them. But the story of Simeon and Anna suggests Mary had much to learn before she could enter into the Kingdom, and into the spiritual family of faith, which they already belonged to, and which is to be the primary family of Jesus in the eschatological age.

FREE ebook: The Galilee Jesus Knew

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Luke’s Christmas story is full of surprising reversals of fortunes and roles, in which outsiders become more intimate associates than family members, and in which women play a more active role then men. In this way Luke both prepares for and signals one of his major themes in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts—the least, the last and the lost are becoming the most, the first and the found with Jesus’ coming. Luke portrays the rise of a form of Judaism that would rely on the testimony of women as well as men, and that would empower them once again to fulfill roles like Miriam of old.

The first Christmas and the Christ child come at a particular point in time, but for many, like Mary and Joseph, the significance of the event is only understood incrementally and over the course of many years. But the prophetic insight into God’s intentions is a gift which keeps on giving and renewing the people of God. And at the outset of a long chain of such prophetic insights stand Simeon and Anna, one satisfied that prophecy has been fulfilled and the other pointing to the future, a future as bright as the promises of God.

“Mary, Simeon or Anna” by Ben Witherington III originally appeared in Bible Review, Winter 2005. The article was first republished in Bible History Daily on February 12, 2013.

Notes

1. See Alfred Plummer, Luke, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1905), p. 71.
2. Raymond E. Brown and Karl P. Donfried, eds., Mary in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), pp. 161–162.

Ben Witherington III is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Dr. Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and Biblical meetings in the U.S., England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top Biblical studies works by Christianity Today. In addition to his many interviews on radio networks across the country, Professor Witherington has been featured on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Anna in the Bible

The Virgin Mary and the Prophet Muhammad

Who Was Jesus’ Biological Father?

Herod’s Death, Jesus’ Birth and a Lunar Eclipse

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Birth of Jesus

Mary, Simeon or Anna

Before Mary: The Ancestresses of Jesus

The post Mary, Simeon or Anna: Who First Recognized Jesus as Messiah? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Israel’s most accursed queen carefully fixes a pink rose in her red locks in John Byam Liston Shaw’s “Jezebel” from 1896. Jezebel’s reputation as the most dangerous seductress in the Bible stems from her final appearance: her husband King Ahab is dead; her son has been murdered by Jehu. As Jehu’s chariot races toward the palace to kill Jezebel, she “painted her eyes with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). Image: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK/Bridgeman Art Library.

For more than two thousand years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation as the bad girl of the Bible, the wickedest of women. This ancient queen has been denounced as a murderer, prostitute and enemy of God, and her name has been adopted for lingerie lines and World War II missiles alike. But just how depraved was Jezebel?

In recent years, scholars have tried to reclaim the shadowy female figures whose tales are often only partially told in the Bible. Rehabilitating Jezebel’s stained reputation is an arduous task, however, for she is a difficult woman to like. She is not a heroic fighter like Deborah, a devoted sister like Miriam or a cherished wife like Ruth. Jezebel cannot even be compared with the Bible’s other bad girls—Potiphar’s wife and Delilah—for no good comes from Jezebel’s deeds. These other women may be bad, but Jezebel is the worst.¹

Yet there is more to this complex ruler than the standard interpretation would allow. To attain a more positive assessment of Jezebel’s troubled reign and a deeper understanding of her role, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen. Furthermore, we must reread the narrative from the queen’s vantage point. As we piece together the world in which Jezebel lived, a fuller picture of this fascinating woman begins to emerge. The story is not a pretty one, and some—perhaps most—readers will remain disturbed by Jezebel’s actions. But her character might not be as dark as we are accustomed to thinking. Her evilness is not always as obvious, undisputed and unrivaled as the Biblical writer wants it to appear.

Ahab and Jezebel in the Bible

The story of Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab of Israel, is recounted in several brief passages scattered throughout the Books of Kings. Scholars generally identify 1 and 2 Kings as part of the Deuteronomistic History, attributed either to a single author or to a group of authors and editors collectively known as the Deuteronomist. One of the main purposes of the entire Deuteronomistic History, which includes the seven books from Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, is to explain Israel’s fate in terms of its apostasy. As the Israelites settle into the Promised Land, establish a monarchy and separate into a northern and a southern kingdom after the reign of Solomon, God’s chosen people continually go astray. They sin against Yahweh in many ways, the worst of which is by worshiping alien deities. The first commandments from Sinai demand monotheism, but the people are attracted to foreign gods and goddesses. When Jezebel enters the scene in the ninth century B.C.E., she provides a perfect opportunity for the Bible writer to teach a moral lesson about the evil outcomes of idolatry, for she is a foreign idol worshiper who seems to be the power behind her husband. From the Deuteronomist’s viewpoint, Jezebel embodies everything that must be eliminated from Israel so that the purity of the cult of Yahweh will not be further contaminated.

FREE ebook: Jerusalem Archaeology: Exposing the Biblical City Read about some of the city’s most groundbreaking excavations.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

The legacy of Jezebel. “In the last days, the daughters of Jezebel shall rule over nations,” warns the scrawling inscription that surrounds the face of Jezebel in this 1993 painting by American folk artist Robert Roberg. The apocalyptic message seems to associate the Biblical queen with the “mother of whores and of abominations” who “rules over the kings of the earth” and who has committed fornication with them (Revelation 17:2, 5, 18).
Jezebel’s name appears once in the New Testament Book of Revelation, where it is attached to an unrepentant prophetess who has beguiled the people “to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20).
Yet the Book of Kings offers no hint of sexual impropriety on Queen Jezebel’s part, argues author Gaines. She is, if anything, a too-devoted wife, willing even to commit murder in order to help her husband maintain his authority as king. Image: Robert Roberg

As the Books of Kings recount, the princess Jezebel is brought to the northern kingdom of Israel to wed the newly crowned King Ahab, son of Omri (1 Kings 16:31). Her father is Ethbaal of Tyre, king of the Phoenicians, a group of Semites whose ancestors were Canaanites. Phoenicia consisted of a loose confederation of city-states, including the sophisticated maritime trade centers of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. The Bible writer’s antagonism stems primarily from Jezebel’s religion. The Phoenicians worshiped a swarm of gods and goddesses, chief among them Baal, the general term for “lord” given to the head fertility and agricultural god of the Canaanites. As king of Phoenicia, it is likely that Ethbaal was also a high priest or had other important religious duties. According to the first-century C.E. historian Josephus, who drew on a Greek translation of the now-lost Annals of Tyre, Ethbaal served as a priest of Astarte, the primary Phoenician goddess. Jezebel, as the king’s daughter, may have served as a priestess as she was growing up. In any case, she was certainly raised to honor the deities of her native land.

When Jezebel comes to Israel, she brings her foreign gods and goddesses—especially Baal and his consort Asherah (Canaanite Astarte, often translated in the Bible as “sacred post”)—with her. This seems to have an immediate effect on her new husband, for just as soon as the queen is introduced, we are told that Ahab builds a sanctuary for Baal in the very heart of Israel, within his capital city of Samaria: “He took as wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Phoenicians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made a ‘sacred post’”^a (1 Kings 16:31–33).²

Jezebel does not accept Ahab’s God, Yahweh. Rather, she leads Ahab to tolerate Baal. This is why she is vilified by the Deuteronomist, whose goal is to stamp out polytheism. She represents a view of womanhood that is the opposite of the one extolled in characters such as Ruth the Moabite, who is also a foreigner. Ruth surrenders her identity and submerges herself in Israelite ways; she adopts the religious and social norms of the Israelites and is universally praised for her conversion to God. Jezebel steadfastly remains true to her own beliefs.

Jezebel’s marriage to Ahab was a political alliance. The union provided both peoples with military protection from powerful enemies as well as valuable trade routes: Israel gained access to the Phoenician ports; Phoenicia gained passage through Israel’s central hill country to Transjordan and especially to the King’s Highway, the heavily traveled inland route connecting the Gulf of Aqaba in the south with Damascus in the north. But although the marriage is sound foreign policy, it is intolerable to the Deuteronomist because of Jezebel’s idol worship.

The Bible does not comment on what the young Jezebel thinks about marrying Ahab and moving to Israel. Her feelings are of no interest to the Deuteronomist, nor are they germane to the story’s didactic purpose.

To learn more about Biblical women with slighted traditions, take a look at the Bible History Daily feature Scandalous Women in the Bible, which includes articles on Mary Magdalene and Lilith.

We are not told whether Ethbaal consults his daughter, if she departs Phoenicia with trepidation or enthusiasm, or what she expects from her role as ruler. Like other highborn daughters of her time, Jezebel is probably a pawn, packed off to the highest bidder.

Israel’s topography, customs and religion would certainly be very different from those of Jezebel’s native land. Instead of the lushness of the moist seacoast, she would find Israel to be an arid, desert nation.

Furthermore, the Torah shows the Israelites to be an ethnocentric, xenophobic people. In Biblical narratives, foreigners are sometimes unwelcome, and prejudice against intermarriage is seen since the day Abraham sought a woman from his own people to marry his son Isaac (Genesis 24:4). In contrast to the familiar gods and goddesses that Jezebel is accustomed to petitioning, Israel is home to a state religion featuring a lone, masculine deity. Perhaps Jezebel optimistically believes that she can encourage religious tolerance and give legitimacy to the worship habits of those Baalites who already reside in Israel. Perhaps Jezebel sees herself as an ambassador who could help unite the two lands and bring about cultural pluralism, regional peace and economic prosperity.

What spurs Jezebel to action is unknown and unknowable, but the motives of the Deuteronomist come through plainly in the text. Jezebel is a bold and impious interloper who has to be stopped. From her own point of view, however, she is no apostate. She remains loyal to her religious upbringing and is determined to maintain her cultural identity.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

The threat of Jezebel is so great that later in the same chapter, the mythic prophet Elijah summons the acolytes of Jezebel to a tournament on Mt. Carmel to determine which deity is supreme: God or Baal.

Whichever deity is capable of setting a sacrificial bull on fire will be the winner, the one true God. It is only then that we learn just how many followers of Jezebel’s gods and goddesses are near her at court. Elijah challenges them: “Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:19). Whether the grand total of 850 is a symbolic or literal number, it is impressive.

Glass jewels and glitter adorn the veiled crown of Jezebel and twisted branches speckled with paint form the queen’s body in this sculpture by Bessie Harvey. Photo by Ron Lee, The Silver Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA

Detail of veiled crown of Jezebel (compare with photo of veiled crown of Jezebel). Photo by Ron Lee, The Silver Factory/The Arnett Collection, Atlanta, GA.

Yet their superior numbers can do nothing to ensure victory; nor can petitions to their god. The prophets of Baal “performed a hopping dance about the altar” and “kept raving” (1 Kings 18:26, 29) all day long in a vain attempt to rouse Baal. They even gash themselves with knives and whoop it up in a heightened emotional state, hoping to incite Baal to unleash a great fire. But Baal does not respond to the ecstatic ranting of Jezebel’s prophets. At the end of the day, it is Elijah’s single plea to God that is answered.

Learn about the excavations at Jezreel in “Jezreel Expedition 2016: You Don’t Have to Be an Archaeologist to Dig the Bible“ and “Jezreel Expedition Sheds New Light on Ahab and Jezebel’s City“.

Standing alone before Jezebel’s host of visionaries, Elijah cries out: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! Let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God; for You have turned their hearts backward” (1 Kings 18:36–37). At once, “fire from the Lord descended and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones and the earth;…When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on their faces and cried out: ‘The Lord alone is God, the Lord alone is God!’” (1 Kings 18:38–39). Elijah’s solitary entreaty to Yahweh serves as a foil to the hours of appeals made by Baal’s followers.

Jezebel herself is absent during this all-male event. Nevertheless, her presence is felt and the Deuteronomist’s message is clear. Jezebel’s deities and the huge number of prophets loyal to her are powerless against the omnipotent Yahweh, who is proven by the tournament to be ruler of all the forces of nature.

Ironically, at the conclusion of the Carmel episode, Elijah proves capable of the same murderous inclinations that have previously characterized Jezebel, though it is only she that the Deuteronomist criticizes. After winning the Carmel contest, Elijah immediately orders the assembly to capture all of Jezebel’s prophets. Elijah emphatically declares: “Seize the prophets of Baal, let not a single one of them get away” (1 Kings 18:40). Elijah leads his 450 prisoners to the Wadi Kishon, where he slaughters them (1 Kings 18:40). Though they will never meet in person, Elijah and Jezebel are engaged in a hard-fought struggle for religious supremacy. Here Elijah reveals that he and Jezebel possess a similar religious fervor, though their loyalties differ greatly. They are also equally determined to eliminate one another’s followers, even if it means murdering them. The difference is that the Deuteronomist decries Jezebel’s killing of God’s servants (at 1 Kings 18:4) but now sanctions Elijah’s decision to massacre hundreds of Jezebel’s prophets. Indeed, once Elijah kills Jezebel’s prophets, God rewards him by sending a much-needed rain, ending a three-year drought in Israel. There is a definite double standard here. Murder seems to be accepted, even venerated, as long as it is done in the name of the right deity.

After Elijah’s triumph on Mt. Carmel, King Ahab returns home to give his queen the news that Baal is defeated, Yahweh is the undisputed master of the universe and Jezebel’s prophets are dead. Jezebel sends Elijah a menacing message, threatening to slaughter him just as he has slaughtered her prophets: “Thus and more may the gods do if by this time tomorrow I have not made you like one of them” (1 Kings 19:2). The Septuagint, a third- to second-century B.C.E. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, prefaces Jezebel’s threat with an additional insult to the prophet. Here Jezebel establishes herself as Elijah’s equal: “If you are Elijah, so I am Jezebel” (1 Kings 19:2^b).³ In both versions the queen’s meaning is unmistakable: Elijah should fear for his life.

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

So frightened is Elijah by Jezebel’s threatening words that he flees to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). Despite what he has witnessed on Carmel, Elijah seems to falter in his faith that the Almighty will protect him. As a literary device, Elijah’s sojourn at Horeb gives the Deuteronomist an opportunity to imply parallels between the careers of Moses and Elijah, thus reinforcing Elijah’s exalted reputation. Nevertheless, the timing of Elijah’s flight south makes him look suspiciously like he is afraid of a mere woman.

Jezebel indeed shows herself as a person to be feared in the next episode. The story of Naboth, an Israelite who owns a plot of land adjacent to the royal palace in Jezreel, provides an excellent occasion for the Deuteronomist to propose that Jezebel is not only the foe of Israel’s God, but an enemy of the government.

In 1 Kings 21:2, Ahab requests that Naboth give him his vineyard: “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it as a vegetable garden, since it is right next to my palace.” Ahab promises to pay Naboth for the land or to provide him with an even better vineyard. But at 1 Kings 21:3, Naboth refuses to sell or trade: “The Lord forbid that I should give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!” The king whines and refuses to eat after Naboth’s rebuff: “Ahab went home dispirited and sullen because of the answer that Naboth the Jezreelite had given him…He lay down on his bed and turned away his face, and he would not eat” (1 Kings 21:4). Apparently perturbed by her husband’s political impotence and sulking demeanor, Jezebel steps in, proudly asserting: “Now is the time to show yourself king over Israel. Rise and eat something, and be cheerful; I will get the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you” (1 Kings 21:7).

Naboth is fully within his rights to hold onto his family plot. Israelite law and custom dictate that his family should maintain their land (nachalah) in perpetuity (Numbers 27:5–11). As a Torah-bound king of Israel, Ahab should understand Naboth’s legitimate desire to keep his inheritance. Jezebel, on the other hand, hails from Phoenicia, where a monarch’s whim is often tantamount to law.⁴ Having been raised in a land of absolute autocrats, where few dared to question a ruler’s wish or decree, Jezebel might naturally feel annoyance and frustration at Naboth’s resistance to his sovereign’s proposal. In this context, Jezebel’s reaction becomes more understandable, though perhaps no more admirable, for she behaves according to her upbringing and expectations regarding royal prerogative.

Elijah’s challenge of “the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 18:19) is depicted in two scenes on the walls of the third-century C.E. synagogue at Dura-Europos in modern Syria. According to 1 Kings 18, Elijah proposed that both he and the prophets of Baal lay a single bull on an altar and then pray to their respective deities to ignite the sacrificial animal. Whichever deity responded would be deemed the more powerful and the one true God. In the painting shown here, the priests of Baal gather around their altar, crying out, “O, Baal, answer us,” but their sacrifice remains untouched. The small man standing inside the altar in this painting does not appear in the Biblical story, but rather in a later midrash. According to this midrash, when the prophets of Baal realized they would fail, a man named Hiel agreed to hide within the altar to ignite the heifer from below. The Israelite God foiled their plan by sending a snake to bite Hiel, who subsequently died. Image: E. Goodenough, Symbolism in the Dura Synogogue (Princeton Univ. Press)

Without Ahab’s direct knowledge, Jezebel writes letters to her townsmen, enlisting them in an elaborate ruse to frame the innocent Naboth. To ensure their compliance, she signs Ahab’s name and stamps the letters with the king’s seal. Jezebel encourages the townsmen to publicly (and falsely) accuse Naboth of blaspheming God and king. “Then take him out and stone him to death,” she commands (1 Kings 21:10). So Naboth is murdered, and the vineyard automatically escheats to the throne, as is customary when a person is found guilty of a serious crime. If Naboth has relatives, they are now in no position to protest the passing of their family land to Ahab.

Yet the details of Jezebel’s underhanded plot against Naboth do not always ring true. The Bible maintains that “the elders and nobles who lived in [Naboth’s] town…did as Jezebel had instructed them” (1 Kings 21:11). If the trickster queen is able to enlist the support of so many people, none of whom betrays her, to kill a man whom they have probably known all their lives and whom they realize is innocent, then she has astonishing power.

The fantastical tale of Naboth’s death—in which something could go wrong at any moment but somehow does not—stretches the reader’s credulity. If Jezebel were as hateful as the Deuteronomist claims, surely at least one nobleman in Jezreel would have refused to assist in the nefarious scheme. Surely one individual would have had the courage to expose the detestable deed and become the Deuteronomist’s hero by spoiling the plan.⁵

Shown here, Elijah and his followers have easily conjured up a blazing fire, which engulfs their white bull. Seeing the flames, the Israelites call out, “Yahweh alone is God, Yahweh alone is God” (1 Kings 18:39).
Jezebel herself is not present during the event. And yet Elijah’s contest is a direct challenge to the queen who has brought the worship of Baal to the forefront in Israel by inviting the pagan prophets to the palace (compare with painting of the priests of Baal). Image: The Jewish Mesuem, NY/Art Resource, NY.

Perhaps the Biblical compiler is using Jezebel as a scapegoat for his outrage at her influence over the king, meaning that she herself is being framed in the tale. Traditionally thought to be a narrative about how innocent Naboth is falsely accused, the story could instead be an exaggeration of fact, fabricated to demonstrate the Deuteronomist’s continued wrath against Jezebel.

As a result of this incident, Elijah reappears on the scene. First Yahweh tells Elijah how Ahab will die: “The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Go down and confront King Ahab of Israel who [resides] in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard; he has gone down there to take possession of it. Say to him, “Thus said the Lord: Would you murder and take possession? Thus said the Lord: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too”’” (1 Kings 21:17–19). But when Elijah confronts Ahab, the prophet predicts instead how the queen will die: “The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the field of Jezreel” (1 Kings 21:23).^c Poetic justice, as the Deuteronomist sees it, demands that Jezebel end up as dog food. Ashamed of what has happened and fearful of the future, Ahab humbles himself by assuming outward signs of mourning, fasting and donning sackcloth. Prayer accompanies fasting, whether the Bible explicitly says so or not, so we may assume that Ahab raises his penitential voice to a forgiving Yahweh. For once, Jezebel does not speak; her lack of repentance is implicit in her silence.

After the Death of Ahab: The Ill Repute of Jezebel in the Bible

When Jezebel’s name is mentioned again, the Bible writer makes his most alarming accusation against her. Ahab has died, as has the couple’s eldest son, who followed his father to the throne. Their second son, Joram, rules. But even though Israel has a sitting monarch, a servant of the prophet Elisha crowns Jehu, Joram’s military commander, king of Israel and commissions Jehu to eradicate the House of Ahab: “I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. You shall strike down the House of Ahab your master; thus will I avenge on Jezebel the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of the other servants of the Lord” (2 Kings 9:6–7).

Four paleo-Hebrew letters—two just below the winged sun disk at center, two at bottom left and right—spell out the name YZBL, or Jezebel, on this seal. The Phoenician design, the dating of the seal to the ninth or early eighth century B.C.E. and, of course, the name, have led scholars to speculate that the Biblical queen may once have used this gray opal to seal her documents. In the Phoenician language, Jezebel’s name may have meant “Where is the Prince?” which was the cry of Baal’s subjects. But the spelling of the Phoenician name has been altered in the Hebrew Bible, perhaps in order to read as “Where is the excrement (zebel, manure)?”—a reference to Elijah’s prediction that “her carcass shall be like dung on the ground” (2 Kings 9:36). Collection Israel Museum/Photo Zev Radovan.

King Joram and General Jehu meet on the battlefield. Unaware that he is about to be usurped by his military commander, Joram calls out: “Is all well, Jehu?” Jehu responds: “How can all be well as long as your mother Jezebel carries on her countless harlotries and sorceries?” (2 Kings 9:22). Jehu then shoots an arrow through Joram’s heart and, in a moment of stinging irony, orders the body to be dumped on Naboth’s land.

From these words alone—uttered by the man who is about to kill Jezebel’s son—stems Jezebel’s long-standing reputation as a witch and a whore. The Bible occasionally connects harlotry and idol worship, as in Hosea 1:3, where the prophet is told to marry a “wife of whoredom,” who symbolically represents the people who “stray from following the Lord” (Hosea 1:3). Lusting after false “lords” can be seen as either adulterous or idolatrous. Yet throughout the millennia, Jezebel’s harlotry has not been identified as mere dolatry. Rather, she has been considered the slut of Samaria, the lecherous wife of a pouting potentate. The 1938 film Jezebel, starring Bette Davis as the destructive temptress who leads a man to his death, is evidence that this ancient judgment against Jezebel has been transmitted to this century. Nevertheless, the Bible never offers evidence that Jezebel is unfaithful to her husband while he is alive or loose in her morals after his death. In fact, she is always shown to be a loyal and helpful spouse, though her brand of assistance is deplored by the Deuteronomist. Jehu’s charge of harlotry is unsubstantiated, but it has stuck anyway and her reputation has been egregiously damaged by the allegation.

When Jezebel herself finally appears again in the pages of the Bible, it is for her death scene. Jehu, with the blood of Joram still on his hands, races his chariot into Jezreel to continue the insurrection by assassinating Jezebel. Ironically, this is her finest hour, though the Deuteronomist intends the queen to appear haughty and imperious to the end. Realizing that Jehu is on his way to kill her, Jezebel does not disguise herself and flee the city, as a more cowardly person might do. Instead, she calmly prepares for his arrival by performing three acts: “She painted her eyes with kohl and dressed her hair, and she looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). The traditional interpretation is that Jezebel primps and coquettishly looks out the window in an effort to seduce Jehu, that she wishes to win his favor and become part of his harem in order to save her own life, such treachery indicating Jezebel’s dastardly betrayal of deceased family members. According to this reading, Jezebel sheds familial loyalty as easily as a snake sheds its skin in an attempt to ensure her continued pleasure and safety at court.

This ivory comes from Arslan Tash, in northern Syria. The most common motif found on Phoenician ivories, the woman at the window may represent the goddess Astarte (Biblical Asherah) looking out a palace window. Perhaps this widespread imagery influenced the Biblical author’s description of Jezebel, a follower of Astarte, looking out the palace window as Jehu approached (2 Kings 9:30). Photo: Erich Lessing

Ivory fragment discovered in Samaria (compare with photo of ivory from Arslan Tash). Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

Applying eye makeup (kohl) and brushing one’s hair are often connected to flirting in Hebraic thinking. Isaiah 3:16, Jeremiah 4:30, Ezekiel 23:40 and Proverbs 6:24–26 provide examples of women who bat their painted eyes to lure innocent men into adulterous beds. Black kohl is widely incorporated in Bible passages as a symbol of feminine deception and trickery, and its use to paint the area above and below the eyelids is generally considered part of a woman’s arsenal of artifice. In Jezebel’s case, however, the cosmetic is more than just an attempt to accentuate the eyes. Jezebel is donning the female version of armor as she prepares to do battle. She is a woman warrior, waging war in the only way a woman can. Whatever fear she may have of Jehu is camouflaged by her war paint.

Her grooming continues as she dresses her hair, symbol of a woman’s seductive power. When she dies, she wants to look her queenly best. She is in control here, choosing the manner in which her attacker will last see and remember her.

The third action Jezebel takes before Jehu arrives is to sit at her upper window. The Deuteronomist may be deliberately conjuring up images to associate Jezebel with other disfavored women. For example, contained within Deborah’s victory ode is the story of the unfortunate mother of the enemy general Sisera. Waiting at home, Sisera’s unnamed mother looks out the window for her son to return: “Through the window peered Sisera’s mother, behind the lattice she whined” (Judges 5:28). Her ladies-in-waiting express the hope that Sisera is detained because he is raping Israelite women and collecting booty (Judges 5:29–30). In truth, Sisera is already dead, his skull shattered by Jael and her tent peg (Judges 5:24–27). King David’s wife Michal also looks through her window, watching her husband dance around the Ark of the Covenant as it is triumphantly brought into Jerusalem, “and she despised him for it” (2 Samuel 6:16). Michal does not understand the people’s euphoria over the arrival of the Ark in David’s new capital; she can only feel anger that her husband is dancing about like one of the “riffraff” (2 Samuel 6:20). Generations later, Jezebel also appears at her window, conjuring up images of Sisera’s mother and Michal, two unpopular Biblical women.

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

Sitting at her window, Jezebel is seemingly rendered powerless while the active patriarchal world functions beyond her reach.⁷ But a more sympathetic reading of the situation suggests that Jezebel has determined the superior angle from which she will be viewed by Jehu, thus giving the queen mastery of the situation.

Positioned at the balcony window, the queen does not remain silent as the usurper Jehu arrives into town. She taunts him by calling him Zimri, the name of the unscrupulous predecessor of Omri, Jezebel’s father-in-law. Zimri ruled Israel for only seven days after murdering the king (Elah) and usurping the throne. “Is all well, Zimri, murderer of your master?” Jezebel asks Jehu (2 Kings 9:31). Jezebel knows that all is not well, and her sarcastic, sharp-tongued insult of Jehu disproves any interpretation that she has dressed in her finest to seduce him. She has contempt for Jehu. Unlike many Biblical wives, who remain silent, Jezebel has a distinct voice, and she is unafraid to articulate her view of Jehu as a renegade and regicide.

To demonstrate his authority, Jehu orders Jezebel’s eunuchs to throw her out of the window: “They threw her down; and her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her. Then [Jehu] went inside and ate and drank” (2 Kings 9:33–34). In this highly symbolic political action, the once mighty Jezebel is shoved out of her high station to the ground below. Her ejection from the window represents an eternal demotion from her proper place as one of the Bible’s most influential women.

Jezebel’s body is left in the street as Jehu celebrates his victory. Later, perhaps because the new monarch does not wish to begin his reign with such a disrespectful act against a woman, or perhaps because he realizes the danger in setting a precedent for ill treatment of a dead ruler’s remains, Jehu orders Jezebel’s burial: “Attend to that cursed woman and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter” (2 Kings 9:34). Jezebel is not to be remembered as a queen or even as the wife of a king. She is only the daughter of a foreign despot. This is intended as another blow by the Deuteronomist, an attempt to marginalize a formidable woman.

When the king’s men come to bury Jezebel, it is too late: “All they found of her were the skull, the feet, and the hands” (2 Kings 9:35). Jehu’s men inform the king that Elijah’s prophecies have been fulfilled: “It is just as the Lord spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: The dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel; and the carcass of Jezebel shall be like dung on the ground, in the field of Jezreel, so that none will be able to say: ‘This was Jezebel’” (2 Kings 9:36–37).

FREE ebook, Recipes from the BAR Test Kitchen Make your own food from recipes handed down from biblical times. Download now.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

How Bad Was Jezebel?

With its green hills, fecund grapevines and abundant flowers, the scene depicted in this early-17th-century silk embroidery would appear peaceful—if not for the gruesome detail at left, which shows a woman being pushed out the palace window to a pack of hungry dogs. According to 2 Kings 9, Jehu orders the palace eunuchs to throw Jezebel out a window. When he later commands his men to bury her, little remains: “All they found of her were the skull, the feet and the hands” (2 Kings 9:35). Jehu’s men inform the new king that Elijah’s prophecies have been fulfilled: The queen’s corpse has been devoured by dogs; her body is mutilated beyond recognition, so that “none will be able to say ‘This was Jezebel’” (2 Kings 9:37). Death of Jezebel/Holburne Museum, Bath, UK/Bridgeman Art Library

While the Biblical storyteller wants the final images of Jezebel to memorialize her as a brazen hussy, a sympathetic interpretation of her behavior has more credibility. When all a person has left in life is the way she faces her death, her final actions speak volumes about her character. Jezebel departs this earth every inch a queen. Now an aging grandmother, it is highly unlikely that she has libidinous designs on Jehu or even entertains the notion of becoming the young king’s paramour. As the daughter, wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother of kings, Jezebel would understand court politics well enough to realize that Jehu has far more to gain by killing her than by keeping her alive. Alive, the dowager queen could always serve as a rallying point for anyone unhappy with Jehu’s reign. The queen harbors no illusions about her chances of surviving Jehu’s bloody coup d’état.

How bad was Jezebel? The Deuteronomist uses every possible argument to make the case against her. When Ahab dies, the Deuteronomist is determined to show that “there never was anyone like Ahab, who committed himself to doing what was displeasing to the Lord, at the instigation of his wife Jezebel” (1 Kings 21:25). It is interesting that Ahab is not held responsible for his own actions.⁸ He goes astray because of a wicked woman. Someone has to bear the writer’s vituperation concerning Israel’s apostasy, and Jezebel is chosen for the job.
Every Biblical word condemns her: Jezebel is an outspoken woman in a time when females have little status and few rights; a foreigner in a xenophobic land; an idol worshiper in a place with a Yahweh-based, state-sponsored religion; a murderer and meddler in political affairs in a nation of strong patriarchs; a traitor in a country where no ruler is above the law; and a whore in the territory where the Ten Commandments originate.

Yet there is much to admire in this ancient queen. In a kinder analysis, Jezebel emerges as a fiery and determined person, with an intensity matched only by Elijah’s. She is true to her native religion and customs. She is even more loyal to her husband. Throughout her reign, she boldly exercises what power she has. And in the end, having lived her life on her own terms, Jezebel faces certain death with dignity.

“How Bad Was Jezebel?” by Janet Howe Gaines originally appeared in Bible Review, October 2000. The article was first republished in Bible History Daily in June 2010.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Janet Howe Gaines is a specialist in the Bible as literature in the Department of English at the University of New Mexico. She published Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Southern Illinois Univ. Press).

Notes

a. Asherah is the Biblical name for Astarte, a Canaanite fertility goddess and consort of Baal. The term asherah, which appears at least 50 times in the Hebrew Bible (it is often translated as “sacred post”), is used to refer to three manifestations of this goddess: an image (probably a figurine) of the goddess (eg., 2 Kings 21:7); a tree (Deuteronomy 16:21); and a tree trunk, or sacred post (Deuteronomy 7:5, 12:3). See Ruth Hestrin, “Understanding Asherah—Exploring Semitic Iconography,” BAR, September/October 1991.

b. In the Septuagint, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are all included in Kings, which therefore has four books, 1–4 Kings.

c. A similar statement is made by the unnamed prophet who anoints Jehu king of Israel in 2 Kings 9:10.

1. For a fuller treatment of Jezebel, see Janet Howe Gaines, Music in the Old Bones: Jezebel Through the Ages (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1999).

2. All references to the Bible, unless otherwise noted, are to Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).

3. The translation of the Greek text is my own. According to Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton (The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, 3rd ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990], p. 478), the translation of the entire line is “And Jezabel sent to Eliu, and said, If thou art Eliu and I am Jezabel, God do so to me, and more also, if I do not make thy life by this time tomorrow as the life of one of them.”

4. For a discussion of Phoenician customs, see George Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia (London: Longmans, 1889).

5. As corroborating evidence, see the story of David’s plot to kill Uriah the Hittite in 2 Samuel 11:14–17. Like Jezebel, David writes letters that contain details of his scheme. David intends to enlist help from the entire regiment as confederates who are to “draw back from” Uriah, but Joab makes a shrewd and subtle change in the plan so that it is less likely to be discovered.

6. Eleanor Ferris Beach, “The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text,” Biblical Archaeologist 56:2 (1993), pp. 94–104.

7. For an excellent, detailed discussion of Biblical imagery concerning women seated at windows, see Nehama Aschkenasy, Woman at the Window (Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1998).

8. For a reassessment of Ahab’s character based on the archaeological remains of his building projects and extrabiblical texts, see Ephraim Stern, “The Many Masters of Dor, Part 2: How Bad Was Ahab?” BAR, March/April 1993.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Biblical Sidon—Jezebel’s Hometown

Scholars Debate “Jezebel” Seal

Jezreel Expedition Sheds New Light on Ahab and Jezebel’s City

Scandalous Women in the Bible

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Jezreel—Where Jezebel Was Thrown to the Dogs

Fit for a Queen: Jezebel’s Royal Seal

How Women Differed

First Lady Jezebel

Elijah and Jezebel

The post How Bad Was Jezebel? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The Book of Judith—considered canonical by Roman Catholics, Apocrypha Literature by Protestants, and non-canon by Jews—tells the story of the ignominious defeat of the Assyrians, an army bent on world domination, by the hand of a Hebrew woman (Judith 13:14).

Artemisia Gentileschi’s 17th century depiction of Judith slaying the Assyrian general Holofernes. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Indeed her slaying of Holofernes, the invading Assyrian general—in his own tent, with his own sword, and surrounded by his own heretofore victorious army, no less!—marks her as a political savior in Israel on a par with David.

Consider these characteristics:

1. Judith commands, plans, leads.

She enters the book bearing her name when the Assyrians have cut off the water supply of Bethulia, the town at the entrance of the narrow corridor leading to Jerusalem (Judith 7:7, 4:7). The siege, which has lasted 34 days, has made the people fractious, thirsty, and bitter (Judith 7:20, 29). Uzziah and the town’s other magistrates succumb to the townspeople’s demands and say they will surrender to the Assyrians in five days—unless the Lord takes pity (Judith 7:29-30).

Upon hearing this, Judith, instead of going to Bethulia’s leaders, summons them to her home (Judith 8:10). Chiding them for testing God (Judith 8:11–12), she declares she has a plan to save Bethulia, Jerusalem, the Temple, and the people. Declining to reveal it, she nonetheless proclaims her deed will “go down through all generations of our descendants” (Judith 8:32). Not only do the leaders listen without interruption, they also acclaim her for her wisdom and—like all men in this tale!—do her bidding (Judith 8:28–29). She demands that the gates be opened and that she and her maid be let out of the city (Judith 8:33, 10:9).

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

2. Judith is verbose.

Other women wordsmiths in the Biblical text are Lady Wisdom (Proverbs 8-9), Abigail (1 Samuel 25:23–31), Deborah (Judges 5), and the Beloved in Song of Songs. Judith tops them all with two long statements—first to Uzziah and the other Bethulian magistrates (Judith 8:11-27), and the second to Holofernes and the Assyrian forces crowding around to gaze at her beautiful face (Judith 11:5–19). She prays thrice—once before her adventure starts (Judith 9), then for strength to behead Holofernes (Judith 13:4-7) and finally in a public song at the national celebrations honoring her deed and the slaughter of the Assyrians (Judith 16:1–17).

3. Judith strategizes.

Dressing in a way “to entice the eyes of all the men who might see her” (Judith 10:4), Judith and her maid set forth at night down the valley intending to be captured. Stopped by an Assyrian border patrol and escorted by 100 men directly to Holofernes (Judith 10:17), she readily spins a tall tale that contains just enough fact to be believed.

Claiming to have direct access to God, she promises to guide Holofernes and his whole army through the hill country to Jerusalem without the loss of life or so much as a dog growling at them (Judith 10:13, 11:19). Her words delight the general and his attendants (Judith 11:20). Calling her beautiful and eloquent (Judith 11:23), he welcomes her to the camp and grants her request to travel through the camp at night to bathe at a spring and pray (Judith 12:5–7). Thus this unprotected and unexpected guest in the Assyrian camp dangles herself alluringly as bait and waits for three days for a chance to strike and save Israel.

FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

4. Judith knows her power over men.

Throughout the book, it seems Judith merely smiles and men collapse (Judith 10:7, 14, 19, 23). Wisely appealing to their senses of sight and smell, she mesmerizes them. Her weapons of warfare are sensual and material. She dresses carefully, knowing the success of her ruse and assassination plan depend upon her ability to entice.

For her adventure, she removes her sackcloth and widow’s dress, bathes and richly perfumes herself, fixes her hair, selects a festival dress, and dons a tiara as her battle garb’s finishing touch (Judith 10:3). She accessorizes her outfit with rings, bracelets, anklets, earrings, other jewelry, and attractive sandals (Judith 10:4).

In the intimate seduction banquet scene set in Holofernes’ tent, Judith simply reclines on lambskins, nibbles her food brought from Bethulia, and flatters the general by telling him “today is the greatest day of my whole life” (Judith 12:15–20). She presents such a pretty picture that gullible Holofernes, beset with lust, drinks himself into senseless, fatal oblivion (Judith 12:16, 20).

5. Judith acts for the common good.

Judith murders Holofernes, the enemy of Israel, a world-class bully who slaughtered his way through Put, Lud, the lands of the Rassisites and the Ishmaelites, the walled towns along Wadi Abron, and Cilicia; he set fire to the tents of the Midiantites and the fields of Damascus (Judith 2:23–27).

Alone with him late at night in his tent, Judith beheads him with two strokes to the neck from his own famous sword—praying beforehand, of course (Judith 13:4–7)! She rolls his corpse to the floor, yanks down a jeweled canopy from above his bed, walks out of the tent, and hands his head to her waiting maid who puts it in the food sack (Judith 13:9–10). Together the women walk through the Assyrian lines as they have on other nights, allegedly to pray and bathe. 

This time skipping the prayer-and-bath routine, they head straight up the mountain to Bethulia’s gates. There, Judith starts shouting (Judith 13:14)! The gates open and she shares her story. She carefully proclaims in front of all that she has not been defiled by Holofernes because the Lord protected her; her face tricked Holofernes and brought his downfall (Judith 13:16). 

Displaying his head, and no doubt unraveling the jeweled canopy, her story is believable. Uzziah proclaims Judith is blessed “by the Most High God above all other women on earth” (Judith 13:18). This verse, an echo of Deborah’s vindication of Jael’s similar, hands-on murder of Sisera (Judges 4:21, 5:24–26), is pivotal in Roman Catholic theology, for it also is spoken of Mary (Luke 1:42, 48).

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on July 30, 2012.

Read the second half of Robin Gallaher Branch’s study of Judith, in which she analyzes Judith’s extraordinary courage, Judith and her maid, her heritage and theology and her roles as prophetess and countrywoman.

Robin Gallaher Branch is professor of Biblical studies at Victory University (formerly Crichton College) in Memphis, Tennessee, and Extraordinary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from the University of Texas in Austin in 2000. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the 2002–2003 academic year to the Faculty of Theology at North-West University. Her most recent book is Jereboam’s Wife: The Enduring Contributions of the Old Testament’s Least-Known Women (Hendrickson, 2009).

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Tabitha in the Bible

Anna in the Bible

Lydia and Tabitha in the Bible

Who Was Thecla?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Judith

Esther Not Judith

Giving Eve’s Daughters Their Due

The Bible in the News: Judith and Holofernes

Woman, a Power Equal to Man

Discovering Women in Scripture

The post Judith: A Remarkable Heroine appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

In the very first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the command is given to humankind to “be fruitful and multiply.” Genesis 1:28 reads: “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’”

Yet despite this blessing, there are numerous instances of barrenness in the Bible—from the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel to Michal (Saul’s daughter and David’s wife). Joel S. Baden of Yale Divinity School and Candida R. Moss of the University of Notre Dame analyze the Biblical portrayal of infertility in the Biblical Views column “Reevaluating Biblical Infertility,” published in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

“Be Fruitful and Multiply.” This illustration shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where God gave them the command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Photo: From Charles Foster, The Story of the Bible (1897).

Many of the women in the Bible described as being barren, such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah (Samuel’s mother), Samson’s mother and Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s mother), later conceive. However, there are other Biblical women, including Michal (David’s wife), who remain barren for their entire lives. For still others, like Dinah, Miriam and Deborah, the Bible records no offspring, which suggests they may have been barren.

According to the Bible, is infertility a punishment for sin?

Short answer: no.

Baden and Moss clarify that although “some ancient interpreters tried to identify some rationale for these women’s infertility, the Bible itself attributes no faults to them. They are, simply, barren—and blameless.” Some may argue that Michal’s infertility was a result of her contempt for King David (2 Samuel 6:16–23), but by that point in the narrative, she had already been married—first to David, then to Patiel, and then returned to David—for more than a decade. There is not an inherent causality between her reproach and her barrenness.

FREE ebook: The Holy Bible: A Buyer's Guide 42 different Bible versions, addressing content, text, style and religious orientation.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Baden and Moss further explain that in those times, every birth was seen as a miracle:

[I]n the ancient Near East, there was a broader understanding that every successful procreation was the result of divine intervention: The deity had to “open the womb” in order for conception to occur. … [T]he opening of the womb was miraculous, despite its frequency. The absence of this miracle could hardly be a reflection of some human sin—and, in the case of the barren matriarchs, it is never described as such.

What else does the Bible say about infertility?

Interestingly, Baden and Moss point out that the directive “be fruitful and multiply” doesn’t apply to everyone:

Although it is spoken to the first humans in Genesis 1, “be fruitful and multiply” is not a command that pertains to all people at all times. Even in the Bible itself, these words cannot be taken as straightforward instruction: Both Noah and Jacob are told to be fruitful and multiply, yet in both cases God says this to them after they have finished producing offspring. Moreover, this blessing is given only to those individuals who stand at the head of necessary lineages: the first humans, Noah, Abraham and Jacob. Once Jacob’s 12 sons are born, no one else in the Bible will ever be told to be fruitful and multiply. After all, we are told already at the end of Genesis that the Israelites had become fruitful and numerous. The command has long since been fulfilled.

The idea that procreation is not for everyone is advanced in the New Testament, where “the driving metaphor is one of adoption.” Biological lineage becomes less important than spiritual adoption in the Christian church. Paul even recommends that some Christians stay single, so that they can better focus on ministry (1 Corinthians 7).

Learn more about Biblical infertility in Joel S. Baden and Candida R. Moss’s Biblical Views column “Reevaluating Biblical Infertility” in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review and in their recent book Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (2015).

BAS Library Members: Read the full column “Reevaluating Biblical Infertility” by Joel S. Baden and Candida R. Moss in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

The Creation of Woman in the Bible

Everyday Eves

Tabitha in the Bible

Anna in the Bible

First Person: Misogyny in the Bible

Did the Ancient Israelites Think Children Were People?

What Does the Bible Say About Children—and What Does Archaeology Say?

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on October 5, 2017.

The post What Does the Bible Say About Infertility? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Huldah the prophetess, prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem. Print by Caspar Luyken 1708. Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Although often overshadowed by their male counterparts, prophetesses in the Bible play an important role. Yet, their role does not always match our common understandings of biblical prophets. So, who were the prophetesses in the Bible, and what did they do? This is the very question tackled by biblical scholar Susan Ackerman in her article “Women and Prophecy in Biblical Israel,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Throughout the Hebrew Bible, only five women are explicitly referred to as prophetesses: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Noadiah, and an unnamed woman in the Book of Isaiah. Like prophets, the Hebrew word for prophetesses in the Bible comes from the root nb’ (“to call”) and refers to one called by God. Yet, throughout the Hebrew Bible, the defining trait of prophets appears to be the delivery of God’s messages. This is undoubtedly the case with some of the biblical prophetesses as well.

FREE ebook: Gabriel’s Revelation. Discover the meaning of the inscription of “Gabriel’s Revelation” on a first-century B.C. “Dead Sea Scroll in Stone.”

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Deborah is one such example, delivering the command of God that the Israelite commander Barak should raise an army and go to war against the Canaanite general Sisera (Judges 4). When Barak is too cowardly to go to the battlefield without Deborah joining him, she gives a second message that God will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman, thus taking the glory from Barak.

Huldah is another example of a prophetess in the Bible delivering a message from God. As recounted in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, Huldah provides a message to Josiah stating that the “book of the law” he discovered in the Temple reflects the will of God. Furthermore, as the people of Judah have failed to live up to this law, they will be punished for their transgressions. According to rabbinic literature, Huldah was a relative of the prophet Jeremiah and, like him, preached repentance; she also taught the law publicly. One of the most prominent female prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition, Huldah’s name was commemorated in one of the gates to the Second Temple complex, and her tomb is believed to have been located directly in front of the southern gates of the Temple Mount. Even today, two sets of gates at the site of the Temple Mount are still referred to as the Huldah Gates.

The Huldah gates of the Temple Mount. Utilisateur:Djampa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

However, the three other prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible less easily fit the standard prophetic role of delivering messages from God. The prophetess Noadiah, for instance, is recorded simply as being opposed to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6), and the unnamed prophetess in Isaiah 8 is known only for having borne Isaiah a son. Meanwhile, Miriam, the sister of Moses, is referred to as a prophetess in Exodus 15:20–21, despite never performing an action that appears, at least on the surface, to align with the act of delivering a message from God. Nonetheless, in Numbers 12:2, she does mention that God has spoken to her. Finally, while not dealing with any specific prophetess, Ezekiel 13:17–23 includes Ezekiel’s condemnation of women who prophesy while using arm bands and head coverings, likely in reference to an ancient magical ritual.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Subscribers: Read the full article, “Women and Prophecy in Biblical Israel,” by Susan Ackerman, published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Anna in the Bible

Mary, Simeon or Anna: Who First Recognized Jesus as Messiah?

Who Was Miriam?

Deborah in the Bible

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Woman, a Power Equal to Man

A Woman Was the First to Declare Scripture Holy

Discovering Women in Scripture

The post Prophetesses in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Furniture plaque carved in relief with a “woman at the window.” Made of ivory and dating to the ninth–eighth centuries BCE, it most likely comes from the site of Arslan Tash in northern Syria. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“The Woman at the Window” is an intriguing artistic motif that was popular among the elite of the ancient Near East during the Iron Age (c. 1200–586 BCE). Discovered at various sites including Nimrud and Khorsabad in Iraq, Arslan Tash in northern Syria, and Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, these carved pieces of ivory once adorned various types of furniture that graced wealthy homes and palaces of the day. As popular as this motif seems to have been, its exact meaning still escapes us today. Some have suggested the woman represents the goddesses Astarte or Asherah, although her adornments and jewelry are more typical of noblewomen rather than deities. Perhaps a clue to the identity of this mysterious woman can be found in ancient Near Eastern literature, most notably the pages of the Hebrew Bible.

A particularly memorable episode in the Book of Kings concerns the death of the infamous Jezebel, idolatrous queen of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 9:30–37). Prior to her demise, we are told that her son Joram, the king of Israel, is nursing his wounds at Jezreel. The king had likely come to stay with his mother while he recuperated, and Jezebel’s grandson Ahaziah, king of Judah, came to visit his uncle. Soon after, the newly anointed Jehu rides to Jezreel to go about the bloody business of a military coup and assassinates Joram. He then chases down the fleeing Ahaziah and ends the life of that king as well.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Openwork furniture plaque with a “woman at the window” from a royal building at Nimrud. The openwork technique is typical of Phoenician craftsmanship. The drilled pupils were perhaps once inlaid with glass or semi-precious stones. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Another noblewoman at a window is referenced in the victory song of Deborah in Judges 5:28–31. There, we find the mother of the Canaanite general Sisera standing at a window, waiting for her son to return home victorious from battle. Instead, he lies dead at the feet of Jael, the brave woman who drove a tent peg through his skull.

As Lacy K. Crocker Papadakis notes in the Winter 2023 Issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, “In the Bible, the window serves as the space between life and death, danger and safety. The women illustrate their shifting societal places and the need to guard and protect. Through their liminality, these women mediate the danger posed by the impermanence of life.”

Open windows seem to have carried with them a strong sense of mortality in the ancient Near East and the inescapable nature of death, even among the gods. This can be seen in an episode within the famous Baal Epic discovered at Ugarit. After Baal is victorious over Yamm (the Sea) and his dreaded sea-serpent Lotan, the storm god is made king of the gods and builds a palace for himself on the heights of Mt. Zaphon. The gods’ master builder suggests putting in a window but Baal refuses for reasons that remain a mystery. Baal eventually agrees to put in the window, his fears seemingly put to rest. The act seems to imply some sort of challenge to death himself (the god Mot) and soon after Baal goes to face Mot, only to be swallowed up by the gaping maw of death.

Whether or not the “woman at the window” motif had such a macabre meaning, the imagery proved to be very popular among the rich and powerful of the ancient Near East. Jezebel herself would have most likely been familiar with it, since such ivories have been discovered at Samaria, where she ruled as queen. Perhaps they even adorned pieces of furniture within her palace at Jezreel, where she stood before her open window, and like her patron deity Baal, defiantly stared down her impending death.

To learn more, read Lacy K. Crocker Papadakis’s article “Understanding the Woman in the Window” in the Winter 2023 Issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article, “Understanding the Woman in the Window” by Lacy K. Crocker Papadakis, published in the Winter 2023 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Scandalous Women in the Bible

5 Ways Women Participated in the Early Church

The Creation of Woman in the Bible

Jezreel Expedition Sheds New Light on Ahab and Jezebel’s City

Canaanite God Baal Found in Israel

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

5 Myths About Women in the New Testament Period

Women in the Early Church

Women in the Hebrew Bible

Thecla: The Apostle Who Defied Women’s Destiny

Men are from Judah, Women are from Bethlehem

This article was first published in Bible History Daily February 14, 2024.

The post Women, Windows, and Death appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

“In this palace he erected very high walks, supported by stone pillars; and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect an exact resemblance of a mountainous country.”
Josephus, Contra Appion, lib.1. c.19-20 (quoting Berossus).

At the start of the seventh century B.C.E., the Assyrian king Sennacherib called his new palace at Nineveh a “palace without a rival.” The Hebrew Bible is less kind, describing Nineveh as “that great city with more than 120,000 people who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand” (Jonah 4:11). Located by modern Mosul in Iraq, Nineveh was undoubtedly the metropolis of its day. Was the construction so extensive as to include one of the Seven Wonders of the World?

This Assyrian relief from Nineveh (now housed at the British Museum) shows trees hanging in the air on terraces and plants suspended on stone arches that resemble those from Sennacherib’s waterways, supporting the idea of a hanging garden at Nineveh.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. We know where the Seven Wonders were, because the locations are included in their names. The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Let’s stop at that last one. In the third century B.C.E., Berossus wrote that the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens almost three hundred years earlier, and his statement was copied by later historians, including Josephus. However, there is no archaeological evidence indicating the presence of massive gardens at Babylon, and while we have hundreds of documents by Nebuchadnezzer describing his building activities, none mention his horticultural pursuits. Who else may have built the legendary gardens?

Imagine a gardener, and a tranquil picture probably comes to mind. When Biblical Archaeology Review readers think of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, tranquility is probably the last thing that comes to mind. Sennacherib rampaged through Judah, laying waste to Lachish (immortalized in his extensive reliefs on the siege—click here for seven seminal articles on the city) and besieging Jerusalem until he had King Hezekiah “locked up like a bird in a cage.”

Oxford scholar Stephanie M. Dalley presents a different side of Sennacherib in The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder, in which she presents Nineveh as the actual location of the Hanging Gardens. Dalley entertainingly presented the theory in a recent episode of the PBS series Secrets of the Dead entitled “The Lost Gardens of Babylon” (PBS has the entire episode online for free).

FREE ebook: From Babylon to Baghdad. Ancient Iraq. Learn about Iraq and its cultural heritage. Download now.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Sennacherib’s construction of a new capital at Nineveh was a massive endeavor, and the city and its garden were supplied with a water management project unparalleled at the time. Sennacherib’s canal system, which was some 50 miles long and as wide as the Panama Canal in some sections, featured advanced sluice gates, aqueducts, millions of dressed stones and waterproof cement. His construction paid off as the city quickly flourished, and the site caught the eye of famed 19th-century archaeologist Austin Henry Layard. Much of the canal system has been buried under recent construction, so archaeologists are using Cold War-era Corona spy satellites to identify the canals and other landscape patterns before the construction. (View Nineveh in the late 1960s and early 70s via the University of Arkansas’ new Corona Atlas of the Middle East). The PBS episode features conversations with Harvard University’s Jason Ur, a pioneer in the adaptation of Corona photography for archaeological purposes.

Swinging Assyrians. A drawing by Layard’s draughtsman of a bas-relief found at Nineveh shows Assyrians enjoying the Hanging Gardens by playing sports, boating and even enjoying what appears to be a swing-set.

Assyrian records support the idea that the Hanging Gardens were actually built at Nineveh. The British Museum’s Garden Relief (see the image at the top of this article) from Nineveh shows trees hanging in the air on terraces and plants suspended on stone arches that resemble stones uncovered by archaeologists along from Sennacherib’s waterways. A bas-relief from Sennacherib’s palace, copied in a drawing by Layard’s draughtsman, shows sporting events at the garden (including an Assyrian swinging on a swing–above, right). The garden includes a roofed pillared walkway with the roots of trees growing out of the roofing. Sennacherib himself compares his hanging terraced garden to mountain growth:

I planted a great park beside the palace, like that of the Amanus Mountain, with all kinds of herbs and fruit trees which came from the mountains and from Babylonia

But how did the water reach these high terraces? Canal building was a feat of labor, but Sennacherib needed an equal feat of engineering to raise the water. I imagine that when Dalley noticed that Sennacherib’s language describing a date palm tree–which features screw-like bark patterning–matches the shape of an an Archimedes screw, she must have had a ‘eureka!’ moment to match that of the Greek mathematician himself. This water-raising screw is traditionally attributed to Archimedes, who lived hundreds of years after Sennacherib, but it has long been assumed that the invention was older than its eponymous “inventor.” A clip from the PBS series shows how the Archimedes screw would have been used to carry a steady supply of water against gravity.
 

 
This is just a brief clip from the Secrets of the Dead’s “The Lost Gardens of Babylon,” which is available for free online. The program explores Assyrian texts and art, ancient water systems, satellite photography and even sends an Iraqi film crew to explore the site itself, located in a turbulent region of the war-torn country.
 

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on May 13, 2014.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Dating Babylon’s Ishtar Gate

BAR Test Kitchen: Babylonian Unwinding Stew

How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?

What Is Akkadian?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

 
Mordechai Cogan, “Sennacherib’s Siege of Jerusalem: Once or Twice?” Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2001.

Deborah A. Thomas, “Uncovering Nineveh,” Archaeology Odyssey, September/October 2004.

David Ussishkin, “Answers at Lachish,” Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1979.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

The post Hanging Gardens of Babylon … in Assyrian Nineveh appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The Israelite commander Barak depicted in the Huqoq synagogue mosaic. Courtesy Jim Haberman, UNC Chapel Hill.

Excavations at the site of Huqoq in northern Israel continue to amaze with the discovery of the earliest known depiction of Deborah the Judge. Uncovered by a team led by archaeologists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the depiction forms part of a three-part section of the expansive Huqoq synagogue mosaic. The section depicts the victory of the Israelites over the Canaanite general Sisera (Judges 4), in which the Kenite woman Jael kills Sisera by driving a tent peg through his head.

Deborah, Jael, and the Slaying of Sisera

The Huqoq mosaic, which covers the entire floor of an ancient Galilean synagogue, dates to the late fourth or early fifth century C.E. Since their discovery, these mosaics have revealed many firsts in the history of ancient Jewish art, including the earliest non-biblical scene in synagogue art. The newly discovered scenes, however, have provided archaeologists with the only known depiction of Deborah the Judge as well as Jael, the story’s Kenite hero. While women were occasionally depicted in synagogue mosaics, depictions of biblical stories with female heroes like Deborah and Jael are very rare.

UNC-Chapel Hill participants on the Huqoq dig 2022. Courtesy Jim Haberman, UNC Chapel Hill.

The scenes consist of three horizontal registers, which make up the narrative story of Judges 4. The upper register depicts Deborah the Judge under a palm tree, gazing at the Israelite general Barak, who is equipped with a shield. The middle register shows Sisera, the Canaanite general. The final register depicts Sisera lying on the ground, bleeding from his head, as Jael hammers a tent peg through his temple. “Looking at the Book of Joshua, chapter 19, we can see how the story might have had special resonance for the Jewish community at Huqoq, as it is described as taking place in the same geographical region—the territory of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon,” said Jodi Magness, director of the Huqoq Excavation Project.

The Huqoq mosaic depicts several other scenes from the Book of Judges, including Samson and the foxes (Judges 15:4) and Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3). It is not yet clear if there is an intended relationship between the scenes of Deborah the Judge and those of Samson.

Mosaic depicting a fox eating grapes in the ancient synagogue at Huqoq. Courtesy Jim Haberman, UNC Chapel Hill.

Another newly uncovered section of the Huqoq mosaic features a fragmentary dedicatory inscription (in Hebrew) written inside a wreath, flanked by elongated panels. The panels show two vases that hold sprouting vines. The vines form medallions that frame four animals—a hare, a fox, a leopard, and a wild boar—eating bunches of grapes.

The Huqoq Mosaics: An Archaeological Wonder

With the discovery of scenes that tell the story of Deborah and Jael, the Huqoq mosaics continue to offer unprecedented views into the themes and motifs of early Jewish art. Due to their incredible preservation and diverse content, the Huqoq mosaics were named one of National Geographic’s “100 Archaeological Treasures of the Past.” The mosaics include vivid depictions of several famous biblical stories, including the Tower of Babel, Jonah and the Fish, Samson and the foxes, Noah’s ark, the Exodus, and the four beasts from the apocalyptic vision in Daniel 7. Also featured are scenes that originate from stories and traditions outside the Bible, including a depiction of the aftermath of a battle involving elephants, and an image of the Helios-zodiac cycle.

During the Byzantine period (324–634 C.E.), Huqoq, like many villages in the Galilee, was large and prosperous. Its impressive synagogue was built in the late fourth century but was in use for only a short time before being completely abandoned. In the 14th century, the synagogue was rebuilt and expanded, perhaps in connection with the rise of a tradition that the Tomb of Habakkuk was located nearby. “The 14th-century C.E. building appears to be the first Mamluk period synagogue ever discovered in Israel, making it no less important than the earlier building,” said Magness.

Ed. Note: Jodi Magness is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Read more in Bible History Daily:

Ancient Wonders—The Huqoq Mosaics

Explore the Huqoq Mosaics

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Samson in the Synagogue

Inside the Huqoq Synagogue

Scholar’s Update: New Mosaics from the Huqoq Synagogue

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

The post Deborah the Judge Identified in Huqoq Mosaics appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The Book of Judith’s truly remarkable heroine, Judith, introduced as a devout, shapely, beautiful and wealthy widow (Judith 8:4, 7), exhibits characteristics showing her the equal of Israel’s finest warriors. Indeed her beheading of Holofernes, the invading Assyrian general—in his own tent, with his own sword, and surrounded by his own heretofore victorious army, no less!—marks her as a political savior in Israel on a par with David. To read part one, click here.
 

Judith: A Remarkable Heroine, Part 2

Cristofano Allori’s representation of Judith carrying the head of Holofernes. Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

2. Judith and her maid. A silent, anonymous maid shadows Judith throughout her adventure and shares equally in it. Serving as an inclusion (Judith 8:10, 16:23), the maid summons the magistrates to Judith’s home and receives emancipation just before Judith dies at age 105. The maid, it seems, also is beautiful, for the awestruck Assyrians marvel, “Who can despise these people when they have women like this among them?” (Judith 10:19) (italics added). The maid cares for the physical needs of her mistress—her food and clothing—and acts as chaperone and attendant, necessary qualifications adding to the mystique and credibility of a great lady claiming she flees in distress from her doomed countrymen to the Assyrians because the Hebrews “are about to be devoured” (Judith 10:12).

The text hints at a deep bond between Judith and her maid and the deep faith they share. Both are members of the covenant community; the maid observes Judith’s lifestyle of prayer and fasting. Although the text does not indicate that the maid knew Judith’s complete plan or was asked to accompany her, I think that Judith’s character indicates she would not order someone to come with her on what could be a death mission. I believe she asked her maid, and the maid, meeting her eyes and with her head held high, nodded yes. I believe they prayed together. In modern terms, both were enemy agents bent on the destruction of Israel’s foe. Both are heroines.

FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

3. Judith’s heritage. Judith is introduced with a lineage virtually unparalleled in the Biblical text (Judith 8:1–2). A descendant of Simeon, her genealogy includes 16 progenitors and doesn’t even make it back to Simeon! The genealogy, a significant textual marker, establishes her as a formidable literary character. In an interesting psychological insight, her prayer for help with her plan to save Israel and assassinate Holofernes, the besieging Assyrian general, begins with a remembrance of Dinah’s shame (Genesis 34:2; Judith 9:2–4). Judith, by her upcoming valor and good deed, expresses determination to erase this early, but still remembered, defamation.

Her covenant heritage combines prayer and action. She calls on God to break the world-renowned pride of the Assyrians “by the hand of a woman” (Judith 9:10), thus causing them ongoing, international shame. She calls on God, in his anger, to bring down the strength of the Assyrians (Judith 9:8). She demands that God demonstrate throughout the world that “there is no other who protects the people of Israel but you alone” (Judith 9:14). She beseeches God to grant her, a widow, the strength she needs and to hear her prayer (Judith 9:9, 12). She asks that “my deceitful words bring wound and bruise on those who have planned cruel things” against the covenant people (Judith 9:13). Then, with Holofernes’ neck exposed for the deadly blow, she prays for strength to accomplish her plan and speedily slashes through his neck with two blows (Judith 13:5, 7–8; 16:9).

4. Judith’s theology. Judith ranks along with Deborah (Judges 5), the wife of Manoa (Judges 13:23), Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1–10), Naomi (Ruth 1:20-21) and Abigail (1 Samuel 23–31) as theologians in the Old Testament, in the sense that they all comment on God’s character and actions. However, in terms of verbosity, she exceeds them all. She credits God for the victory over the Assyrians and the killing of Holofernes (Judith 16:5–6). Her theology includes possession and shows her leadership. In her closing prayer, she sings of my territory, my young men, my infants, my children, and my maidens (Judith 16:4) (italics added).

Her song, containing many distinctively feminine insights, details her preparation for war—how she anointed her face with perfume and fixed her hair. Judith’s song speaks of her sandals, her renowned beauty, that fetching tiara and the deliberate action of putting on a linen gown, knowing it would beguile her intended prey, Holofernes (Judith 16:7–8). These were her weapons, as important and deadly as Sisera’s 900 chariots in Deborah’s war (Judges 4:3). Judith triumphantly proclaims “the Persians shuddered at her audacity and the Medes were daunted by her daring” (Judith 16:10).

Her song lauds the kind of upset the Biblical text loves: that of the underdog winning against the mighty, proud foe; of the enemy cowering in fear and screaming and running; of mere boys slaying seasoned Assyrian warriors (Judith 16:11–12).

BAS Library Member Exclusive Content: For more on Judith, read Carey A Moore’s “Judith: The Case of the Pious Killer” as it appeared in Bible Review, February 1990.

Not a library member yet? Sign up here.

Judith receives—and accepts—accolades usually reserved for God. Joakim, the high priest, and the Israelite Council (yet again, men who come to Judith rather than her going to them) arrive from Jerusalem. With one voice they call Judith the glory of Jerusalem, the great pride of Israel, and the boast of the nation (Judith 15:9). The people concur with Amen (Judith 15:10).

5. Judith as prophetess. Although the text does not call her by the appositive prophetess, her words and actions raise the possibility that she indeed is a prophetess. The first indication is when she asserts to Uzziah and the Bethulian magistrates that “I am about to do something that will go down through all generations of our descendants.” (Judith 8:32). She does. Consider these other instances: At the start of her adventure, she (and her maid) are blessed by Uzziah. Uzziah asks God’s favor on the mission and charges Judith to fulfill her plans “so that the Israelites may glory and Jerusalem may be exulted!” (Judith 10:8). Judith responds that she “will go out and accomplish the things you have just said to me” (Judith 10:9). She does.

While a “guest” of the Assyrians, she accepts the invitation to attend a banquet in Holofernes’ tent with this double-meaning response and a pun on the word lord: “Who am I to refuse my lord? Whatever pleases him I will do at once” (Judith 12:14). She does—but for her lord. She proclaims that the banquet “will be a joy to me until the day of my death” (Judith 12:14). It is. While Holofernes ogles her and thinks of how he intends the night to progress, Judith encourages his fantasies by agreeing that “today is the greatest day of my whole life” (Judith 12:18). It is. Clearly, Judith’s adventure progresses according to the plan she devised and prayed about.

Back in Bethulia, she tells her townspeople that once the Assyrians find Holofernes’ headless corpse, “panic will come over them, and they will flee before you” at the advance of the Bethulians who will cut the enemy down “in their tracks” (Judith 14:3-4). As usual, Judith is right.

6. Judith and her countrywomen. Judith relates well to other women. They express no hint of jealousy toward her beauty, wealth, piety, and accomplishments; indeed, they arguably identify with her. She inspires them. They sing her praises and dance in her honor (Judith 15:12). Judith and the women crown themselves with garlands (Judith 15:13). Judith then leads the women first, with the men following, in a celebratory victory dance, just as Miriam the prophetess led the women after the victory at the Sea of Reeds (Exodus 15:20-21). In both stories, a mighty foe bent on the destruction of God’s covenant people, falls. A heroine knows no greater honor.

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on August 1, 2012.

Click here to read part one of Judith: A Remarkable Heroine.

Robin Gallaher Branch is professor of Biblical studies at Victory University (formerly Crichton College) in Memphis, Tennessee, and Extraordinary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Theology at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from the University of Texas in Austin in 2000. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for the 2002–2003 academic year to the Faculty of Theology at North-West University. Her most recent book is Jereboam’s Wife: The Enduring Contributions of the Old Testament’s Least-Known Women (Hendrickson, 2009).

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Tabitha in the Bible by Robin Gallaher Branch

Anna in the Bible by Robin Gallaher Branch

Lydia and Tabitha in the Bible: Women Leaders in the Early Christian Church

The post Judith: A Remarkable Heroine, Part 2 appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.