ellauri171.html on line 1005: The next time we hear of Jezebel is during the ploy to obtain Naboth’s vineyard for her husband, who is unable to secure the transaction. She sends letters, with the stamp of the king, to the elders in Naboth’s town, commanding them to lie against Naboth, and then stone him. The elders do so, and after Naboth’s death, the vineyard is claimed for Ahab. Few bible commentators acknowledge the bizarre betrayal of Naboth by his neighbors. If, as is suggested, Naboth’s neighbors had known him since birth and patronized him, how could they turn so quickly? Some scholars argue that this incident highlights Jezebel’s keen understanding of Israelite men. It is perhaps, also, one of the impetus for her modern connotation as manipulator-supreme.
ellauri171.html on line 1034: It is not incomprehensible that, whereas Ahab devoted himself to military and foreign affairs, Jezebel acted as his deputy for internal affairs: the Naboth report comes back to her, as if the king’s seal was hers; she has her own “table,” that is her own economic establishment and budget; she has her own “prophets,” probably a religious establishment that she controls. All these point toward an official or semiofficial position that Jezebel held by virtue of her character, her royal origin and connections, her husband’s and later her children’s esteem, and her religious affiliation to the Baal (possibly also Asherah) cult.
ellauri171.html on line 1035: Perhaps she had the status of gebira “queen mother”, or of “co-regent”. At any rate, there is no doubt that the biblical and later accounts distort her portrait for several reasons, among which we can list her monarchic power, deemed unfit in a woman; her reported devotion to the Baal and Asherah cult and her objection to Elijah and other prophets of God; her education and legal know-how (shown in the Naboth affair); and her foreign origin Ultimately, the same passages that disclaim Jezebel as evil, “whoring,” and immoral are witness to her power and the need to curb it.
ellauri459.html on line 75: The poet could say, "Nηπιος ος πατερα κτεινας, παιδας υπολειπει." — Arist., Rhet., lib. i cap. 15. i.e., He is a fool who killeth the father, and yet suffereth his children to survive. And it came to pass, when Jehu's letter to that effect came to them, that they took Ahab the king's sons, and slew them seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them Jezreel. This was suitable to Ahab's sin. He had sent for baskets of grapes out of Naboth's vineyard at Jezreel; and now the heads of his sons are brought thither in baskets. God loveth to revenge. A basket full of tits for tat, that is my middle name.
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