Ahab could not entirely divest himself of every national characteristic, or the remembrances and associations of his faith and his people.  There still clung to him some remains of the fear of the “Lord God of his fathers,” some feelings of reverence and awe for the name and worship of Jehovah.  No such compunctions troubled Jezebel.  When Elijah visited Ahab, the impious monarch quailed before him and trembled at the denunciation of Divine wrath.  Jezebel answered his reproofs by scorn and threats, and her menaces drove the prophet from the altar where he had triumphed.

Yet her history is replete with sad interest.  While it declares the certain ruin which follows national sins and national corruption, it displays also much of the wonderful forbearance of Jehovah.  As we retrace his dealings even with the guilty house of Ahab and the apostate people of Israel, we are reminded of One who, ages after, wept over Jerusalem.  “Oh, if thou hadst known, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace—­but now they are hidden from thine eyes.”

During the earlier years of the reign of Ahab, while Jezebel was engaged with all zeal and activity in proselyting the people of Israel to the worship of Ashtaroth and Baal, she was constantly resisted by the prophets sent as messengers from Jehovah.  And many miracles of mercy and of judgment, wrought before her by the power of the Lord God of Israel, should have convinced her of the truth of His messengers—­His indisputable claim to be the God—­the Lord God.  She resisted all—­not from the want of evidence or the power of believing, but from the perverseness of a determined will and a hardened heart.  Yet he who styles himself a God merciful and gracious, long strove with her, though at last she provoked him to depart and leave her to her chosen way.

The seizure of the vineyard of Naboth seems to have consummated the iniquity of Jezebel, while it brought all the distinguishing traits of her character into full light.

Judah was a land of rocky hills and narrow though fertile valleys.  The possessions of Israel were broader and more luxuriant; and in the beautiful plain of Jezreel the kings of Israel had built their favourite city of Samaria.  In that city, Ahab erected the temple consecrated to Baal, and there he maintained four hundred and fifty priests for his service, while the Queen of Israel kept four hundred in the groves consecrated to Ashtaroth.  “But the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite was hard by the palace of Ahab, King of Samaria.”

The King of Israel desired the vineyard of Naboth, either to enlarge his grounds or to add to their beauty and variety.  Yet, despotic and unprincipled as he was, the laws of possession were so fixed, the rights of property so established, that, on the refusal of Naboth to sell his inheritance, he dared not use violence; and he sank into sullen despondency.

It has ever been characteristic of wives like Jezebel to maintain their ascendency by arts and blandishments, and by ministering to every corrupt propensity of their husbands.  With the watchfulness of a devoted wife, she saw the vexation of her husband.