Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, and wife of King Ahab of Israel. The name Jezebel has come to denote a murderous usurping woman. Jezebel killed the true prophets of Adonai and was a follower of the rain god Baal. The spirit of Jezebel has become a doctrine prevalent in the Christian faith. It is a teaching that is borderline diabolical.

Jezebel was a lying, conniving murderer who blasphemed the Father. She was so evil that Obadiah hid Adonai’s true prophets in caves to spare them from being killed. Today this title is pinned on women in assemblies with no regard to what it implies. In one southern state, a pastor and his wife convinced a woman that she had a “Jezebel spirit.” The pastor’s wife told the whole congregation that this woman needed to repent publicly to her husband and the assembly. She was removed from her position in the choir. After weeks of the pastor and his wife teaching on Jezebel, they called the woman up to the altar area, where several gathered around to cast this demonic Jezebel spirit out of her.

The horror of it all. The scarlet letter comes to mind. What had his woman done to acquire such a title as Jezebel? She did not succumb to specific sexual acts with her husband and denied him sex on a few occasions. According to the leaders of the congregation, she was usurping her marriage bed and needed to repent. The husband confessed to porn addiction. This was the real reason his wife had removed herself from intimacy. He was given a slap on the wrist and remained in his leadership position. This is just one story that involves grossly erring and harming sheep. Seldon does one pin the title Jezebel on a man, although the characteristics have nothing to do with one’s gender.

Jezebel is a false prophetess. She, according to Yeshua, resides among Adonai’s servants, the prophets, and leads them astray by mixing in her roots of Baal worship with Adonai’s Word. This prophetess teaches Adonai’s servants to commit whoring. It takes Baal idolatry and joins it with truth, corrupting the truth. Jezebel serves her tainted spiritual food, but you cannot have a Jezebel without an Ahab. These two spirits work together. This duo usually involves a passive-aggressive person joining with a co-dependent person. This is the magic position for Ahab and Jezebel–the dynamic team that feeds off one another. Ahab covets, sulks, and allows Jezebel to do whatever it takes to get him what his flesh desires.

Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is close beside my house, and I will give you a better vineyard than it in its place; if you like, I will give you the price of it in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.

–I Kings 21:2-3, NASB

After Ahab is denied the vineyard, he comes to the palace and lies in bed, and he sulks and pouts and won’t eat. He looks much like a three-year-old that didn’t get their Happy Meal toy. Ahab’s are Passive/ aggressive men that don’t confront the issues. They ignore their problems with people, and their relationships suffer. Then their wives end up trying to fix and control things. Remember this woman?

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of his wife.

–Genesis 16:1-2, NASB

Ishmael was not the promise, but Sarah wanted to fix things.

This man, Ahab, who had it all and, even better, the whole Kingdom, was coveting a humble man named Naboth’s vineyard. Why? Couldn’t he plant a garden on his land? I mean, he was king. Most people who are spoiled and told no, throw fits. He wants it now, and he cannot have it. Ahab wants to uproot the authentic vineyard of Adonai and plant vegetables that die every year:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.

–James 4:1-2, NASB

Elijah confronts Ahab and the people and says, “Just who is God?” How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him” (I Kings 18:20, NASB). It’s a mixture of twistedness. The people were not convicted. They did not see their sin of idolatry and repent. They said, “we will wait and see.” The Ahab’s like to blame the prophets for their misery, never becoming aware that the God of all the earth is the one sending the punishment:

When he (Ahab) saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have.

–I Kings 18:17-18, NIV

For three years, it did not rain because of the people’s idolatry and due to the wicked headship of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab blamed the famine on the holy prophet Elijah, when in actuality, it was due to their wickedness. Jezebel watched everything in the land dry up and die and thought it was due to the Lord’s prophets. Jezebel did not factor in that the famine was due to her false prophets and Baal worship which brought a curse on the land. Jezebel became a fixer due to her passive aggressive husband. Wives need husbands who know what their role is and ones who are righteous. Jezebel thought if she cut off Adonai’s prophets, it would rain again. Jezebel thought if she gave her husband the vineyard, he would quit lying in bed pouting and become the man over the kingdom she needed. Jezebel felt that if she removed those who were going against her plans, all would be well.

Ahab was not a man of action. When most men reach a boiling point from not handling and confronting the things tormenting them, they become aggressive instead of passive. Ahab didn’t repent, fast, or seek the Lord Adonai. His wife Jezebel has Naboth stoned to death–his sons as well. Another characteristic of this spirit is that it will promote you right before it slaughters you.

Now she wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people (a seat or place of honor); and seat two worthless men before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.

–I Kings 21:9-10, NASB

Jezebel found two wicked men who were willing to lie and say that Naboth slandered Adonai and the king. Then Naboth was stoned to death. Jezebel rose, smiled, and told her husband the vineyard was now his.

This spirit is tricky, befriending you, eating, and feasting with you. The spirit working through Jezebel will raise false teachers in the assembly so quickly it will make your head spin, and she starves the true prophets of Adonai. If there is a true prophet in her “congregation,” those being controlled by this spirit will make sure their mouths are shut. This spirit and a host of other spirits are prevalent today and usually found in leadership. Those working through this spirit come against the spirit of repentance, love the accolades of men, and feed the flesh of prosperity:

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?” He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and you have followed the Baals. Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.

–I Kings 18:17-19, NASB

The false prophets eating at Jezebel’s table are paid and pampered and carry a host of demonic influences. However, the number one issue with the Jezebel spirit is that it contaminates the assemblies in a dual relationship with Adonai and with Baal. It’s a picture of the world in the assemblies, and remember, this is not just a building, but a people. It’s not just a church issue but a heart issue.

In Revelations 2, we learn of Jezebel and her wickedness, the Nicolaitans, and Yeshua speaks to the assembly in Ephesus and tells them that he has something in common with them that He hates: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6, NASB). Continuing in Revelations 2, the assembly in Thyatira is given a harsh message concerning Jezebel that involves death:

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.  Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.  But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.  Only hold fast what you have until I come.

–Revelation 2:20-25, ESV

We don’t know if this is an actual woman also named Jezebel or if the passage from Revelation 2 is relating to the Phoenician princess who was murderous. We learn that the Lord will throw her into a bed of sickness, which can mean spiritual leprosy or other means of suffering. In an even harsher warning, Jezebel’s children will be stricken with death. While looking at this through a more spiritual lens than a literal one, the Father states Jezebel will be cut off, and her children, those who mimic her and inherit her lies and murderous spirit, will be no more. The Holy One will expose them as he did concerning the immature prophet under Elisha:

But Elisha questioned him, “Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to accept money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants? 27Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever! And as Gehazi left his presence, he was leprous—as white as snow.” II Kings 5: 26-27, BSB

The bed of sickness exposes greed, fleshly desires, sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols are a spiritual condition. Our Father’s word is pure, and holy and we are to wash in His word. Idolatry can be a condition of our own self-worship and inflated ego. We must repent and remove Jezebel and her spirit from our assemblies and often that involves looking in the mirror and establishing the fivefold leadership mentioned in Ephesians 4.

How does it end for Jezebel? She is thrown from a window. Jezebel must be spiritually thrown from the window. This window represents a place of visions, false witchcraft, and it was a high window. Jezebel had a high seat of authority but now she is thrown down. The dogs eat her flesh. If one is partaking in the food from this false prophetess, it is nothing more than dog food. Jehu was coming to destroy this wicked woman. The prophet Elisha anoints Jehu as king.

Jehu goes on his foretold rampage, kills king Jehoram of Israel, and dumps his corpse on the field of the previously murdered Naboth of Jezreel (2 Kings 9:24-25). Then Jehu gives chase to the incumbent king Ahaziah of Judah and has him killed too (9:27), proceeds to Jezreel and, after she calls him Zimri, executes Jezebel by having her thrown out of a window (9:30-33). Then he kills the seventy sons of Ahab (10:7), the forty-two sons of Ahaziah (10:14) and all priests of Baal found in Israel (10:21-28).[1]

–Abarim Publications

The Holy One was draining the swamp and cleaning house and it happened after Elijah called fire down from heaven and presented the people with a decision, ““How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (I Kings 18:21, ESV). The people had one foot in the Holy Ones commandments and one foot in Jezebel’s idolatry.

“When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window” (II Kings 9:30, ESV).

The false prophets and prophetesses paint their eyes. The Seer needs no paint their eyes, nor do they adorn their head for the Holy One pours oil on their head, and He anoints them. Dr. Skip Moen, scholar, author and teacher discusses the gift of vision in his blog titled Window Shopping:

A hozeh (Seer) sees through a window into God’s world.  When he looks, he doesn’t see what is just presented to the normal eye.  He sees what God sees.  It is as if he stands at a window and looks into another world, a world invisible to the normal eye.  This is the sense of the often quoted verse about people without a “vision.”  What the verse really suggests is not that the people lack challenging goals but rather that they lack a hozeh, a seer.  They have no ability to look through the window to see what God sees.  Therefore, they are blind to reality.  And no amount of leadership training or goal-setting will improve this.  Without a hozeh, the people falter. Not everyone is a seer.  Furthermore, being a seer is not a personal career-path choice.  God chooses a seer for reasons that usually escape us.  Being a seer is a divine assignment, usually resulting in trials and death.

–Dr. Skip Moen

Interestingly, two eunuchs help in killing Jezebel. This too is prophetic. A eunuch was someone who was castrated. Since they could not reproduce they were perceived to be no threat to the powers that be in authority. We are told in Genesis to be fruitful and multiple. The murderous Jezebel was thrown down and her spirit must be thrown down and removed from the Lord’s people.

And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’”

[1] Jehu | The amazing name Jehu: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com)