Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen [Hardcover]

Lesley Hazleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bible. Her name alone speaks of sexual decadence and promiscuity. But what if this version of her story, handed down to us through the ages, is merely the one her enemies wanted us to believe? What if Jezebel, far from being a conniving harlot, was, in fact, framed?
In this remarkable new biography, Lesley Hazleton shows exactly how the proud and courageous queen of Israel was vilified and made into the very embodiment of wanton wickedness by her political and religious enemies. Jezebel brings readers back to the source of the biblical story, a rich and dramatic saga featuring evil schemes and underhanded plots, war and treason, false gods and falser humans, and all with the fate of entire nations at stake. At its center are just one woman and one man—the sophisticated Queen Jezebel and the stark prophet Elijah. Their epic and ultimately tragic confrontation pits tolerance against righteousness, pragmatism against divine dictates, and liberalism against conservatism. It is, in other words, the original story of the unholy marriage of sex, politics, and religion, and it ends in one of the most chillingly brutal scenes in the entire Bible.
Here at last is the real story of the rise and fall of this legendary woman—a radically different portrait with startling contemporary resonance in a world mired once again in religious wars.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like other villains of the Bible, Jezebel, it turns out, may have been gravely mischaracterized throughout history. Unlike Judas, of whom there are alternative, rehabilitative stories, the only historical account of Jezebel's life exists in the Books of Kings. What Hazleton argues, however, is that this account is self-subverting and has been misconstrued throughout history. Interlacing fictional narrative with engaging commentary, Hazleton points out that Jezebel was never sexually promiscuous or even accused of being so; the word harlot only ever referred to her unfaithfulness to Yahweh. And while Elijah is a universally loved biblical figure (Hazleton gives examples of Jewish, Christian and Muslim reverence for him), her reading of Kings reveals him to be the worst sort of fundamentalist—the kind who thinks that all who oppose the true faith should be killed. Hazleton draws from a deep, impressive well of scholarship and includes a fascinating travelogue of her journeys to the places described in Kings. In addition, she provides her own rich, nuanced translation and uses it to highlight the wordplay in which the biblical authors frequently engage. Replete with apt comparisons to modern Middle Eastern conflicts, this revisionist portrait is equal parts fun and sobering—a colorful history lesson that's sorely needed. (Oct. 16)
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Review

Advance Praise for Jezebel:

“This riveting biography breaks through all our preconceptions about Jezebel. In Hazleton’s hands, the real story of the ‘harlot queen’ is a vivid and magnificent drama with direct relevance to our own time. You’ll never read the Hebrew bible the same way again.”
—Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth and Misconceptions

“I read Jezebel in a single enthralled sitting. In her wonderfully spirited retelling of the Books of Kings, Lesley Hazleton makes Jezebel our contemporary, and turns the ninth century B.C. into a prophetic mirror of our twenty-first-century religiopolitical wars. In a feat of nonfiction magical realism, she brilliantly collapses the worlds of now and then into one realm, where Jezebel and Elijah effortlessly rub shoulders with Ehud Olmert and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. The book is endlessly informative (and Hazleton’s knowledge of Hebrew serves her well here); it is also great fun.”
—Jonathan Raban, author of Surveillance

“This riveting book tells the story of the real-life, flesh-and-blood-and-brain female whose name has been, for the last three thousand years, shorthand for Bad Girl. Was Jezebel really ‘bad’? Or was she, like so many forward-thinking women after her, simply feared as a foreigner, reviled as an infidel, destroyed as a deviant? Read this book and find out.”
—Rebecca Brown, author of The Gifts of the Body

“Lesley Hazleton is a terrific, charismatic writer, and this book is an eloquent, smart, and thought-provoking reinterpretation of the biblical tale of Jezebel.”
—Neil Asher Silberman, author of David and Solomon


Praise for Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother:

“Thoughtful, evocative, and eminently readable...Dazzling to read and weighty to ponder.”
—Booklist

“Readers who loved the phenomenally popular fictional chronicle of Jacob’s daughter Dina in Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent will find this book about Mary, the mother of Jesus, just as enthralling....She also knows how to write a page-turner.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Weaves historical facts with empathy and imagination to construct a plausible, visceral version of this celebrated woman.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Religion; 1St Edition edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385516142
• ISBN-13: 978-0385516143
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Victors Write the History Books, November 5, 2007

By 

Lars P. Hanson "Delphi" (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (Hardcover)

Lesley Hazleton has done a superb job of filling int the context and teasing out the facts regarding Jezebel. This well footnoted book, with its frequent asides and rich background material, moves quickly and surely. It is fascinating to read, and ends altogether too soon.

Jezebel, whom we learn really was called Itha-Baal, was a Phoenician princess from Tyre who married the Omride King Ahab. She appears to have been neither significantly better nor significantly worse than other royalty of her time. Nevertheless, her spectacular clash with the intransigent desert prophet Elijah eventually resulted in her being denigrated and reviled unfairly in the Hebrew Bible.

Add to that the fact that the current understanding of language has changed so much that many no longer understand such terms as metaphor and allegory. (For the effects of this lack of understanding, see, for instance, Karen Armstrong's excellent work, "The Battle for God.") As a result, the term "harlot," which was applied metaphorically in Biblical times to those who worshipped many gods and were not too fussy about which gods they worshipped, has come to be understood literally. Not so, Ms. Hazleton points out quite correctly. And she goes on to show that the Biblical account in Kings in fact makes no claim that Jezebel literally was a harlot in the sexual sense. Ms. Hazleton similarly addresses other misreadings and euphemistic mistranslations throughout this book. All of these should be of interest to anyone interested in learning what actually has been said of Jezebel, even by the victors who so reviled her.

In summary, "Jezebel" is a smooth-flowing work which is a delight to read while being educational at the same time. This book is well worth the time and money. A keeper.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reconsidering Kings - and a Queen, October 19, 2007

By 

Jane Adams "Jane Adams, Ph.D." (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (Hardcover)

I loved this passionate retelling of the story of Jezebel! Informed by Hazelton's erudition, command of the Hebrew language, and ability to recreate a long-ago time and place in lyrical prose, the Harlot Queen comes alive, not as the much-maligned personification of evil who earned the wrath of the fundamentalist prophet ELijah but as a vulnerable teenage girl who leaves her home and family for an arranged marriage to a foreign king, and comes to one of the most gruesome ends in the Bible.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jezebel Vindicated? Well, it's not that simple, October 22, 2007

By 

Kate Mcleod "Kate McLeod" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen (Hardcover)

Lesley Hazleton tells readers the story of a 15-year-old girl, branded like Kleenex as a harlot. But through her scholarship and use of "historical imagination" the story becomes much more layered. Married off to Ahab, the King of Israel by her father, Jezebel comes from her seaside home of Tyre to the harsh desert. She brings with her, her polytheistic beliefs and that is when Elijah, Israel's ragged prophet of Yahweh, the one and only god, goes to war against her. Sound familiar?

Hazleton has me in her grasp. Her ability to tell a page-turner of a story of a woman who is young, powerful, strong and wronged is too good to put down. Elijah sets her up to be a liar, murderer, sorceress and harlot. She was no angel but Hazelton's story reveals a different person.

Hazleton brings to her story a knowledge of history, language and syntax. She links the past to the present.

I wish that she lives forever so that she can color in the fascinating characters who live in the Bible. They are, too often, used as stock characters in a homily. Her characters are flesh and blood. Jezebel is an eye-opener.