Jezebel | |
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![]() Jezebel and Ahab meeting Elijah, print by Sir Francis Dicksee (1853-1928) |
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Occupation | Princess of Phoenicia, Queen of Israel |
Spouse | King Ahab |
Children | Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Athaliah |
Parents | Ithobaal I |
Jezebel (/ˈdʒɛzəbəl/,[1] /ˈdʒɛzəbɛl/;[1] Hebrew: אִיזֶבֶל / אִיזָבֶל, Modern Izével / Izável Tiberian ʾÎzéḇel / ʾÎzāḇel) (fl. 9th century BC) was a princess, identified in the Hebrew Book of Kings as the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre (Phoenicia) and the wife of Ahab, king of north Israel.[2] According to genealogies given in Josephus and other classical sources, she was the great-aunt of Dido, Queen of Carthage.
Jezebel was a power behind the throne. Ahab and Jezebel allowed temples of Baal to operate in Israel, and that religion received royal patronage. After Ahab's death, Ahaziah and Jehoram, his sons by Jezebel, acceded to the throne. The prophet Elisha had one of his servants anoint Jehu as king to overthrow the house of Ahab. Jehu killed Jehoram as he attempted to flee in his war chariot.
Jehu confronted Jezebel in Jezreel, where he incited her court officials to murder the queen by throwing her out of a window and leave her corpse to be eaten by dogs. Jezebel became associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery and putting on makeup before her death led to the association of use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes.
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Jezebel is the Anglicized transliteration of the Hebrew אִיזָבֶל ('Izevel/'Izavel). Attempts to trace the meaning of the name are speculative, since its origin can only be conjectured.
The biblical Hebrew 'Izebel may be rooted in a Hebrew word for "prince/nobility" or "husband" (bul/ba'al) combined with the word for "naught/none" ('iy), "there is no prince/nobility/husband," suggesting a lack of character (i.e. implying lack of royal sensibilities) or of morality (i.e. unmarried, implying adultery or fornication). It may also find its root in a Hebrew word for "dung" (from gbl; note here Ba'al-zebul/Ba'al-zebub, "Lord of dung") combined with the word for either "naught/none" ('iy) or "island" ('iyz), thus "no dung" or "island of dung."[citation needed]
Other sources find meaning from the character's native Syro-Phoenician language. It may be rooted in the word ba'al (lord), referring either to the Syro-Phoenician god, the "King of Heaven," or simply the royal title "lord." Thus, Iz-ba'al may mean "the Lord (Ba'al) exists/exalts" or "where is the prince," a name known from liturgies of the Syro-Phoenician Ba'al cults.[citation needed]
Jezebel's story is told in 1st and 2nd Kings, which details an intense religious-political struggle — the most detailed such account of any period in the history of the Kingdom of Israel. The account portrays the religious side of the events, with the political, economic and social background — highly important to modern historians — given only incidentally.[3]
Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Phoenician empire. She married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom (i.e. Israel during the time when ancient Israel was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south). She helped convert Ahab from worship of the Jewish God to worship of the Phoenician god Baal. After she had many Jewish prophets killed, Elijah challenged 450 prophets of Baal to a competition (1 Kings 18), exposed the rival god as powerless, and had the prophets of Baal slaughtered (1 Kings 18:40). Jezebel becomes his enemy.[3]
The scholar V. Barzowski interprets Ahab's marriage to Jezebel as a dynastic marriage intended to cement a Phoenician political alliance. This went back to the times of King Solomon, to give the then-inland Kingdom of Israel access to the Mediterranean Sea and international trade. The monarchy (and possibly an urban elite connected with it) enjoyed the wealth derived from this trade, which gave it a stronger position vis-a-vis the rural landowners. The monarchy became more centralized with a powerful administration.[4][dubious ]
Barzowski believes that the story of Naboth, a landowner killed at the instigation of Jezebel so the King could acquire his land, points to this interpretation. With her foreign religion and cosmopolitan culture, Jezebel represented a hated Phoenician alliance from which the landowners had little to gain and much to lose. Their resentment was expressed in religious terms as related to the difference in religions. Eventually Jehu achieved a bloody coup, instigated and supported by the prophets whose actions the Bible preserves.[4]
In The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, Roger Williams, the founder of the American colony of Rhode Island and the co-founder of the First Baptist Church in America, wrote of Naboth's story as an example of how God disfavored the use of government force in religious matters. Williams believed using force in the name of religion would lead to political persecution, contrary to the Bible's teachings.[5]
The name Jezebel came to be associated with false prophets, and further associated by the early 20th century with fallen or abandoned women.[6] In Christian lore, a comparison to Jezebel suggested that a person was a pagan or an apostate masquerading as a servant of God. By manipulation and/or seduction, she misled the saints of God into sins of idolatry and sexual immorality.[7] In particular, Jezebel has come to be associated with promiscuity. In modern usage, the name of Jezebel is sometimes used as a synonym for sexually promiscuous and sometimes controlling women,[8][9] In his two-volume Guide to the Bible (1967 and 1969), Isaac Asimov describes Jezebel's last act: dressing in all her finery, make-up and jewelry, as deliberately symbolic, indicating her dignity, royal status and determination to go out of this life as a Queen.
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Jezebel is a feminist blog, under the tagline "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing." It is one of several blogs owned by Gawker Media.
Jezebel was launched on May 21, 2007, as the 14th Gawker blog. According to founding editor Anna Holmes, the site stemmed from the desire to better serve Gawker.com's female readers, who made up 70% of the site's readership at the time. The Jezebel manifesto states that the site "will attempt to take all the essentially meaningless but sweet stuff directed our way and give it a little more meaning, while taking more the serious stuff and making it more fun, or more personal, or at the very least the subject of our highly sophisticated brand of sex joke. Basically, we wanted to make the sort of women's magazine we'd want to read." One of the site's guiding principles, according to Holmes, is to avoid saying "misogynist things about women's weight."
At Jezebel's launch, the editorial staff included Holmes, who previously worked at Star and InStyle; editor Moe Tkacik, a former Wall Street Journal reporter; and associate editor Jennifer Gerson, a former assistant to Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers. Gerson left the site in May 2008 to become the Women's Editor for the Polo Ralph Lauren website; Tkacik departed in August 2008 to work at Gawker.com, after briefly accepting and then rescinding a job offer from Radar. Tkacik was subsequently laid off in a company-wide restructuring the following October. Holmes left the site in June 2010; Jessica Coen replaced her as editor-in-chief. Other current staffers include Madeleine Davies, Kelly Faircloth, Hillary Crosley, Kate Dries and Callie Beusman.
Jezebel is a 1938 American romantic drama film released and directed by William Wyler. It stars Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, supported by George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Richard Cromwell, and Fay Bainter. The film was adapted by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel, John Huston and Robert Buckner, from the play by Owen Davis, Sr.
The film tells the story of a headstrong young Southern woman during the Antebellum period whose actions cost her the man she loves.
The film is based on a 1933 stageplay starring Miriam Hopkins. Tallulah Bankhead was originally slated for the role but fell severely ill during rehearsals.
In 1852 New Orleans, spoiled, strong-willed belle Julie Marsden (Bette Davis) is engaged to banker Preston "Pres" Dillard (Henry Fonda). In retaliation for Pres refusing to drop his work and accompany her while she shops for a dress, she orders a brazen red one for the most important ball of the year, one where white dresses for unmarried women are expected. All of Julie's friends are shocked, but no one can convince her to give up her whim.
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Shrivel-Up
WELL IT'S A GOD-GIVEN FACT (THAT
YOU CAN'T GO BACK)
IT'S A GOD-GIVEN LAW THAT
YOU'RE GONNA LOSE YOUR MAW
IT'S A GOD-GIVEN FACT YOU GOTTA
BUY'EM BY THE SACK
IT'S A GOD-GIVEN LAW THAT
YOU'RE GONNA GET SMALL
MAY BE JUST ANOTHER RAP BUT
YOU'RE RUNNING OUT OF SAP
WELL YOU BETTER TAKE THE RAP
DYING UNDER DADDY'S CAP
IT'S AT THE TOP OF THE LIST
THAT YOU CAN'T GET PISSED
IT'S RULE #1 LIVING RIGHT ISN'T FUN
TIME-TESTED AND TRUE YOU