Deep Dive into Izevel

Here we see the start of Izevel's disregard for Hashem and for human life. Soon after marrying Achav she starts killing the prophets of Hashem. This is the second time she is mentioned in Tanach and it is her killing people and that shows her truly evil nature.

Here, we see Izevel's evil nature again. She is now saying she is going to kill Eliyahu. The question is, why is she waiting to do so?

The Malbim asks this exact question. He explains that Izevel sees how Achav is inspired by what Eliyahu did. She wants to wait 1 day so Achav will change how he thinks.

This shows how conniving Izevel is. She knows that if she kills Eliyahu while Achav is inspired by him, that Achav will get upset. She doesn't want to lose her power and anger Achav, so she is waiting for Achav to change his opinion to hers.

Here we see what happened between Navot and Achav in two different psukim. First the original story, then Achav's retelling to Izevel. In Achav's retelling we see he left out an important information, he didn't explain that the reason Navot would not give the field is because it is his inheritance. While one could claim that the reason Navot is dead is because Achav left out this information, based off of Izevel's true nature (as seen above), having that information would not have mattered. By Izevel's unprovoked decision to kill the Navis of Hashem and when she sent a death threat to Eliyahu when he did the right thing, we see that the truth does not matter to Izevel.

In pasuk 7 we see Izevel taking charge. She is telling Achav what to do, but she says the she herself will get the vineyard. The Abarbanel explains that what she really means is she is questioning Achav's use of his power. She is saying that to be successful Achav needs to impose his power and be forceful. Yes Achav is upset, but maybe it is because he's just annoyed that he can't get the vineyard. When I am angry, I sometimes vent to my friends right after something happens. What I tell them might not be the actual story because I'm blinded by my anger, but they know that. My friends are just there to listen. This might be what Achav was trying to do. Instead of being there for Achav, Izevel decides to be a problem solver. She is trying to abuse Achav's power by "stealing" the vineyard. Izevel is trying to get into Achav's head to make him think something needs to be done. She is questioning his kingship to make him think he needs to force Navot to give him the land. She acts like a doting wife and tells him she will do the dirty work.

Here Izevel wrote letters in Achav’s name and SHE used his seal. Here we can see Izevel is obviously culpable because she is using Achav’s ring and she is writing the letter. Even though Achav didn’t object to this, he didn’t tell her to do this. Izevel made the decision to send the letters to the elders and nobles. Even though this is her reaction to Achav’s false information, it is an extreme response.

Now we see Izevel going to extreme and conniving measures to get Achav the vineyard. SHE is having two men falsely testify against Navot, so he will be found guilty and killed. SHE is sending out the letter of his death sentence.

Based off of this Pasuk it seems to blame Achav, but then explains that it was because of Izevel that Achav did wrong. It is not discounting the wrong Achav did, but it is saying if it weren't for Izevel he might not have done wrong. Rav Levi also seems to agree that Izevel is truly at fault because he is more favorable toward Achav.

Even though Izevel was bad, no one is entirely evil. The Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer explains that whenever a corpse was carried through the market, Izevel would follow behind it clapping and singing praise to show respect to it. Because of this, the dogs weren't able to eat the parts of Izevel that did this act of kindness. This shows Hashem might punish people for the bad they do, but he doesn't discount the good they've done in doing so.