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The Women's Scrolls

Jezebel’s Story

This monologue is part of The Women's Scrolls. The other two monologues are Rebecca and Miriam. Like all Grippy and Cormo Idea Plays, it may be performed without royalty payment if you are not charging admission or paying the participants. If you are charging admission or paying the participants, please contact Grippy and Cormo at the email address above for permission and to make arrangements. If you choose to perform any Grippy and Cormo play, please create a video of your performance and write us for an address to send it to. Thanks, Grippy and Cormo.

Jezebel's Story

By Grippy and Cormo

[Jezebel is at her dressing table, brushing oil into her long hair. She is facing to one side of the audience, not directly at them.] [Jezebel speaks.] The hardened soles of his feet were so quiet, the first I knew he was behind me was when he barked:

[loudly, angrily] "Jez, you're lying!" [Note: When Jezebel is speaking the words of someone else, she should change her voice to indicate this. Also, she should turn and face where the other person "is." Except, of course, when Elijah first comes in from somewhere behind her.]

[Softer, her own voice.] Those are the first words Elijah spoke to me. He stood behind me in my chambers, looking handsome but dirty in his hair shirt and tangled beard. Then he went on. [Jezebel twists on the bench to face "Elijah"; she should still be looking out at the audience, but to the other side, still not facing them directly.]

[Jezebel speaking Elijah's words, in Elijah's "voice."] "You are a heretic slut! How dare you claim to be my partner?"

His face was red. Sweat beaded on his forehead. I am queen of Israel, wife to Ahab, king of Israel, as well as the prized assistant of the high god Ba'al-Zebub, whom I am allowed to call by his intimate name of Baba. Most men find me irresistible. Usually angry talk like this is male bluster before they cheerfully allow me to seduce them, but with a famed prophet like Elijah, I wasn't sure. Prophets must remain pure, so they don't usually have sex, especially with other men's wives.

I tried to soothe him. "You and I are partners, Elijah, just as the Chief God and my high god Ba'al-Zebub are partners. Actually, my god is the most important assistant to the Chief God, so, since I'm my god's servant, you could think of me as your assistant."

[Jez turns back to her polished silver mirror -- either imaginary, or something transparent the audience can easily see through -- begins applying blue makeup to her eyelids. But she continues to glance at Elijah off and on.]

Elijah scratched his head. Lice jumped off onto the tiled floor, and my lizard ran forward to eat them. Then in a deep echoing voice he said, "If you're not lying then somebody has been feeding you a pack of lies. That god of whores of yours is the king of lies. God and all the Ba'als are enemies. You and I are enemies. God rewards those who obey Him. Your so-called god just tricks everybody and gets them in trouble. We can never be on the same side." [Jez slowly blinks her eyelids. Smiles knowingly.]

"Then why are you here, talking to me?" [Pause] He didn't react. He didn't notice I was flirting with him. Maybe someday all men will be like that, treating women as people, but for now I needed a way to make him want to listen to me, and at least consider doing what I suggest. I'm only trying to do my job. Baba is a grand master, and up to now, I'd been one of his best.

Elijah sat down. "That's what I don't understand. Nobody said anything about you being my partner. God talks to me when I run in the morning. This morning, God said, 'Go ask Queen Jezebel if it's time to bring the rains to Israel.' As God's chief prophet, I must obey, even when His instructions make no sense. So, I'm formally asking you, Is it time to bring the rains to Israel?'"

"Time? Time! It's long past time." [Jez faces audience, throws up her hands.] Had this man kept his eyes closed all the way to Ahab's castle? [Jez glares back at invisible Elijah in chair.]

"All the rivers have dried up. We're even out of weeds to feed the cattle. Our granaries are nearly empty. Of course it's time! What a stupid question. Look around you!"

"See," he said. "I knew there was no point in asking you, you whore and child of a prophet of the god of whoredom. But I did my duty. I asked. Maybe I should just walk out of here and let the whole pack of Israelite heathens starve!" He turned his back and untied his belt, as if readying himself to strike me. I tapped his back, and he whirled to face me angrily.

"Elijah, I respect you. Why don't you respect me?" I could almost see him shutting his ears. He wasn't taking me seriously. I'm just as devout as he is. My role is just as important as his. He just couldn't see that. He only scowled fiercely. [Elijah voice] "God said to ask you. I asked you. You said, 'It's time.' So, now I'll do my duty, even though I think God is wrong about this. I'll go down to the marketplace and summon the rains."

[miming as she speaks]

I gently laid my slender fingers on his hairy arm, and flicked away a flea. "You could do that. But nobody would pay attention to you, and you do love an audience. I heard all about your bringing that boy in Sidon back from the dead. The story arrived along with my latest shipment of make-up. My father, that's the King of Sidon, and my dear Baba's Chief Prophet, always gets me the latest colors...."

Elijah rolled his eyes skyward. How could I expect a man to understand how important makeup is to my duties? I needed his respect if I was ever going to accomplish my job. So, back to his topic. "We must have had a thousand prophets calling for rain down in the marketplace. For three years, we've prayed for rain. We've danced for rain. We've sacrificed for rain."

He looked bored, but I continued.

"If you call for rain, it won't be anything special. And if the rains do come at your bidding, everybody will think it's just all of our prayers over the last three years. You won't get credit."

Elijah gazed upward. "My God! Why do you help these people at all?" Then he turned to me. "I've heard about your skills as a temptress. You are good. But whatever you want done has to be bad, coming from you!"

"What? God sends you to me for bad ideas? Is that what you think?" [Jez faces audience] It was my turn to look up at the ceiling. Baba talks to me when I'm still. My father is Baba's high priest and their voices sound the same to me. [Jez looks up at ceiling.] "Well, Father, he won't even listen to your plan. Now what?"

[Jez faces audience.] Elijah roared. "Father! You called God, or whatever you work for, Father? I've never heard such blasphemy! Or do you think you can talk with the King of Sidon all the way from here, just by looking at the ceiling? You're not fooling anybody."

[Jez stands, lights make her look ethereal.] Suddenly God took us both out-of-body, like during my initiation ceremony. We rose up through the ceiling and joined with the God-family. They were singing, "We Love... We Love...We Love," but as Elijah and I arrived, the words changed to "Trust God...Trust God," We floated there briefly, letting the soothing rhythms wash away our anger. I noticed Athaliah, my apprentice, among the singers. Then we returned to my chamber, renewed.

[Jez sits again, resumes brushing hair, but now facing audience.] Elijah tied on his belt and in gentle tones, as if he had never yelled at me, he began again, "So, what do you want me to do?"

That was more like it. I'm in charge here, and he's finally recognized that.

[Jez faces imaginary Elijah.] "You could have a barbeque contest. You walk into the market place, like you said. But instead of praying for rain, you challenge my Baba's priests to bring down fire. Everybody knows that powerful Baba can bring down lightning. He does it regularly on request. Nobody has ever seen the Chief God bring down lightning, so this will look like you've lost your mind.

"You ask some local vendors to bring two bulls. You let dear Baba's prophets choose first. You take the reject. You let those prophets have the best pick of the kindling to build a pyre. Then you let them pray first. Baba is in on this. He won't send lightning. This whole drought is a set-up to get people to trust the Chief God.

[Jez faces audience.] I had his attention now. He was already picturing himself drawing eager crowds.

"After you successfully call on God to send fire from heaven to consume your bull and your wood and even the stones of your altar, then the people of Israel will pay attention when you call on the Chief God to send rain."

Elijah looked thoughtful "I don't get it. Why are you helping me? Even as we sit here, God is whispering in my ear, 'Go with the Plan.'"

[Jez takes a deep breath, faces imaginary Elijah.]

"Explaining the mysteries is never easy. My job is temptation, because people will never learn to trust God until they've tried everything else. Temptation will never give them what they really want, but they can only learn that by experience. They may hate me, when they reap the results of succumbing to my temptations, but in the long run, they will thank me. So will you."

"How do I know you aren't just tempting me?" he asked, looking ready to back out of the barbeque plan again. Why are the Chief God's servants so quick to forget direct revelation?

"I am tempting you," I said. "That's my job."

[Jez arches her back and stretches languorously. Stage lights make her oiled breasts gleam. She smiles welcomingly.]

"You can ask the Chief God to verify everything I'm telling you." [Jez bats her eyelids at imaginary Elijah, then faces audience.] I might as well bat my eyelids at a doorpost. He nodded thoughtfully, but I could tell he still didn't believe me.

He closed his eyes, placed his head between his knees and briefly entered meditation. When he opened his eyes, he looked angry but resigned. God had confirmed my words.

[facing imaginary Elijah.] "When you go to the marketplace you'll hear that I slaughtered all the prophets of the Chief God. That's not quite true. I did have several hundred killed. But I hid another hundred in the local caves. I had to keep them quiet, they were undermining my husband Ahab's power."

Elijah turned red again. "I was starting to believe you. But never! No servant of God could kill His prophets! You are pure evil, and I'm sure God will give you a bloody end."

I tried once more to explain one of the mysteries "Death is nothing. God cannot die, and we cannot truly die. Many of the prophets have willingly met bloody deaths because they understood this."

[Jez faces audience.] Elijah huffed. "God promised me that I will not die." He stomped out of my chamber, angry and confused, but determined none-the-less to obey what he had heard in meditation. What a fascinatingly complex man. Very different from Ahab, my husband. My husband the king always wants everybody to be happy with him. Elijah is totally stuck on himself and doesn't need anybody else. [A smile.] Kind of like me.

I heard the crack of lightning and boom of thunder when God consumed Elijah's offering. Then I heard the shouting in the market place. The crowds crying, "God is God." My plan had worked, and soon we would have rain.

A few hours later, my guards reported to me. "The crowds have slaughtered your god's prophets." [voice furious] That wasn't in my plans at all! The rains came, and I couldn't even get together a proper burial crew. While I was trying to recruit strong men with shovels, Elijah dropped by my chambers to tell me, "That was great theater! Thanks for the idea."

[facing Elijah] "You had no business killing my prophets." [Jez spits on the tiled floor, points hand holding an imaginary dagger at Elijah] "If you are going to choose a successor, do so soon, because you haven't long to live!"

As soon as he'd rushed away from me, I called my generals, and ordered them, "Kill Elijah!"

[faces audience] Next thing I knew, I was getting messages from all across the desert. "Elijah ran through here last night." "Elijah ran past me in the marketplace this morning." For forty days and nights I kept getting these messages. He didn't even stop to eat. He only stopped three times in all forty days to do three anointings, an apprentice as I'd suggested, and a couple of future kings.

Things seemed to be coming in threes. In my evening meditation, I was shown three kings: my husband Ahab, and two of our neighboring kings. Each king accepted an offering from me and each king stumbled into a black pit. Thinking about temptation reminded me, I was running low on makeup again. I sent a messenger to Father to order more. I know, I could buy the local stuff, but I love the imported colors that are only available in Sidon. I was going to need plenty if I was to tempt all three kings.

In my dream, Father's voice (I'm not sure if it was Father or Baba; they're both Father to me) kept saying "No one will see your pretty face." I had no idea what he meant. Everybody looks at me when I'm wearing my gorgeous makeup. The other wives and Ahab's daughters ask me for beauty lessons. All the men want me. It made no sense. My father told me the Chief God gave me this body to use for temptation in this lifetime.

The next morning, I thought about what my dream might mean. All three kings were alive in my dream, so I was not to lead them to their deaths. I was to tempt them -- to offer them short-term happiness in trade for longer-term misery. The usual assignment. Men, especially the kind who become kings, are so simple. Ahab brags about what a great wife I am. How I can hold a stylus in my vagina and write neater script than any man. And all the men who hear him speak of me, want me to write on their beds. So, tempting the neighboring kings will be easy -- offer myself to them -- in suitable circumstances, of course. Tempting my own husband was another matter. Well, one thing at a time.

People think that temptation requires lying. It doesn't. The truth is much more powerful than any lie. Men want to believe they can have what they want without consequences. I just tell them they can have what they want. I don't mention the consequences.

[Jez stands, mimes writing, perfuming -- a prop lambskin would be nice here.] I ordered a lambskin freshly tanned and a pot of writing fluid to be brought to my chamber. Then I dabbed perfume on the skin in the pattern of a ring. And I wrote the first neighboring king on my list.

Of all our neighbors, it is you I most admire. You are the one I'd prefer to conquer me. Our country is so weak right now, you could just send Ahab a letter demanding all of Israel's gold and silver, his best wives and his children. To avoid bloodshed, he'll give them to you without a fight. I'm looking forward to a strong man in my bed. My sons with Ahab are strong, but my sons with you would be superb, ideal to rule as your heirs.

[Jez still standing, miming -- prop bark useful here.] Then I grabbed a piece of bark and scribbled a note to Elijah.

Come back. I've called off my men. I'm no longer trying to kill you. You're needed in the upcoming war with a neighboring king. Maybe this time Ahab will learn to trust God.

Then I called a soldier to deliver the notes.

[Jez sits meditatively] [pensively]

I'd just offered a worthy temptation to one of the kings.

[questioningly, to audience]

What could I offer of equal temptation to my husband and the other king?

Several weeks later, I still hadn't figured it out, so I decided to ask Father.

[Jez leans back in chair, positions herbal cushions about her as she speaks, looking up] I know, I should have just asked Him right away, but I like to figure things out for myself first, if I can.

[startles, faces audience]

Just then, Ahab stomped into my room shouting, [Ahab's voice] "I want a vegetable garden!"

[Jez stands, embraces air] I stood and embraced him.

[soothingly]

"You're the king. Of course you can have a vegetable garden." [to audience] I knew this was the time to listen carefully. This might be my opportunity to tempt him. Ahab doesn't usually eat his vegetables. He sneaks them under the table to the dogs. If he wants a vegetable garden, it's not for the vegetables it might grow. So his desire for a vegetable garden could be a great opportunity for temptation.

[Ahab voice] "You know that vineyard right beside our castle, just over the border into the neighboring kingdom?"

[Jez nods her head and mimes stroking his shoulders as she speaks] "That's the perfect spot for a vegetable garden, right next to the kitchen door." [Jez mimes rubbing the tense muscles at the back of his neck.] "Have you asked the owner to sell it to you?" Ahab's neck muscles grew harder as I spoke these words.

[Ahab voice] "I tried. He refused to sell me his family lands. I offered to make a trade his vineyard for a bigger field. He still refused. I'm so angry, I nearly killed him on the spot. I want that land!"

[faces audience] This was a perfect opportunity for temptation. Ahab's whim had become a desire so irrational that he was nearly willing to kill for it.

"Why didn't you kill him?"

[Ahab voice] "I don't want a war. Even though I'm sure we could win. Besides I want to be able to call on our neighbor for help if we are attacked."

[facing audience] Yes! This was my chance.

[facing imaginary Ahab] "Suppose I could get our neighboring king to kill the landowner for you?"

Ahab grabbed me as tightly as during sex. [Ahab voice] "You could do that for me?"

[Jez mimes stroking Ahab's back] "Of course, darling."

[faces audience] So, I had it. I'd tempted my husband to murder. Successfully, I might add. And now I had my opportunity to tempt the neighboring king to murder and adultery. I called for another tanned lambskin.

[sits to write this missive, again with prop.] "I've heard you'd do anything for me for one night in my arms. Would you kill for it? My husband, Ahab, has been trying to buy the vineyard next door to our castle. He wants it for a vegetable garden. The owner has refused to part with his family land.

"I would like you to declare a fast, to ensure your victory in the upcoming war. When the fast ends, host a banquet and seat the landowner in a prominent position and place a couple of scoundrels across from him. Pay the scoundrels to swear that they heard the landowner curse God and yourself. Then have the landowner stoned as a blasphemer, and let my husband claim his lands.

"After my husband has taken possession of the vineyard, I will come to your bed. I'll even sign your sheets."

[Jez mimes drawing flower, etc. as she speaks]

After the ink dried, I dipped my finger into my best perfume, and drew a flower-pattern over the message. Then I rolled it up, sealed it with wax, and impressed it with my symbol.

[Jez moves to balcony area, dances as she speaks, throws lambskin at appropriate time.] In the evening, I danced on my balcony, as usual, for both the neighboring King and the proud landowner. At the most seductive climax of my dance, I threw the lambskin to the King. He

smelled it, and hugged it to his body. I felt a bit sorry for the landowner, but he is a good man, and in these days that is almost as dangerous as being a prophet...and as I said, death isn't permanent...

[stops dancing, faces audience] Suddenly I knew what my problem was with Elijah. He thinks death is permanent. That's why he's afraid to die, why he threatens people with death. Poor man! Perhaps there is some way I can reassure him...and then perhaps he'll respect me.

[Jez sits.] A few days later, Elijah walked into our palace, still wearing his unwashed sweaty hairshirt. He didn't even wait for Ahab to sit regally on his throne. [Elijah voice] "The Lord God of Israel wants you to know that Israel is his people and He is their God. He has determined that you will win the upcoming battle. There are two things God asks in return: [Jez picks up and smells delicately from a perfume bottle.] You must kill this king. [Jez dabs the perfume between her breasts.] And you must remember to praise God for your victory."

[faces audience] Ahab agreed to both conditions. The next morning, Elijah, Ahab and his soldiers, went off to war, and as promised they won. But, when Ahab was about to kill the king, whom I hadn't yet bedded, he went soft and let him live. Ahab also forgot to thank the Chief God for his victory. Instead, he claimed it was due to his cleverness as a military leader.

Elijah didn't hang around the battlefield for the victory celebrations.

[Jez shimmies her breasts] He came back to see me while I was giving Athaliah a lesson in temptation.

"You started that war, didn't you?" he bellowed.

[Jez makes a slight bow of acknowledgment in his direction.] [facing Elijah] "Indeed I did, and as you saw, my skills as temptress succeeded."

"You mean you're proud of what you did? Young men lie dead, never to return to their mothers and wives because you wanted to have sex with a neighboring king?"

"You still don't get it, do you? I offer temptations. Men accept at their own peril. I'm just doing my job. Besides, as I've told you before -- death is not real."

"You're lying again. But God has sent me to ask your advice. I can't imagine why He trusts a harlot like you."

"Maybe He knows the truth better than you do," I replied.

[faces audience] Elijah dropped the philosophy -- he still wasn't ready for it.

[faces Elijah, speaking in Elijah voice] "That husband of yours is hopeless. He can't even follow simple instructions. Kill the king and thank the One who gave him the victory. What's so hard about that?"

"Why ask me?" (A slow shrug, making her breasts jiggle) "You just called me a liar."

"God sent me," he said. "I'm supposed to ask your advice on how to give Ahab a second chance. I wouldn't give him a second chance, but it's not my choice. So, what's your idea?"

I didn't have one, but Athaliah did. A mischievous idea, with much justice in it. [Use slightly higher voice to indicate Athaliah.] "You could test Ahab's commitment to mercy. Get one of your comrades to injure you, wear a disguise, and stand by the side of the road. When Ahab passes by you, tell him this, "A captain came to me with a captive and said, 'Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his.' While I was busy, the man disappeared." Ask Ahab to pass

sentence on you. If he shows you mercy, then God will show him mercy for letting the king live."

"Sounds too easy," said Elijah.

"Sounds fair to me," I said.

"Then so be it," said Elijah. "But if Ahab fails to show me mercy, his days are numbered."

[faces audience] Ahab returned home a few days later, jubilant with his victory. And he told me, "On the way home I met this idiot soldier who let a captive escape. I told him it was his life for the captive's, and remanded him to his captain for execution." I hugged my husband, and made love to him. Men are delicious after a military victory. When he was finally sated, I wished him a good night's sleep. Who knew how many more he'd have? It was such an easy test. How could he have flunked it?

The next day, our neighbor who owned the vineyard was stoned to death. Ahab lugged the ladder to the fence between our yards, climbed over, and began dancing like a boy after harvest. He looked silly since he's a 50 year-old man with a paunch. He sang, "It's mine now! It's mine now!" so loudly that he woke the sleeping Elijah, to say nothing of interrupting Athaliah's lessons. Athaliah would soon be married, so I didn't have much time left to train her in the art of temptation.

[Jez moves to balcony area, looks down.]

I told Athaliah to join me on my balcony. The purpose of temptation is to teach the tempted a lesson. We were watching Ahab to see if any twinge of guilt dampened his joy at getting this vineyard by murdering an innocent man. From the exuberance of his dance, the lesson was clearly lost on him.

[looks at audience.] Elijah climbed the fence and joined Ahab in the vineyard. "I curse the pair of you -- both you and Jezebel!" he shouted. "You have already earned an early death by refusing to kill the king you defeated in battle. You don't deserve to have your children rule after you! I curse the day you were born and the days all your children were born. I curse the bread that has fed their mouths. I curse the air that has filled their lungs and the sunshine that has brightened their days. I curse all your children by all your wives to die childless. And I curse Jezebel as well."

He pointed to me, up on my balcony watching him. "You will be thrown to your death off your balcony and die on this vineyard, your blood soaking into this soil. Then dogs will come and eat your flesh and carry away your bones."

Ahab reeled, staggered, fell to his knees. He ripped his clothes and wept. He humbled himself before God and Elijah. He climbed the ladders, went to his chamber, put on sackcloth and returned to Elijah in the vineyard with his head bowed. For a few days, Elijah and I both thought maybe Ahab was starting to figure out what really matters and Who is really in charge.

But Ahab's repentance soon ended. He refused to wear the sackcloth to Athaliah's wedding. And he started bragging about his great war victory again.

[faces imaginary Elijah] Elijah stopped by my chamber. [Elijah voice] "I actually thought you knew what you were doing -- tempting both those kings. But, you're either incompetent or a fraud!"

[Jez gives withering glance.] "Don't you know? We're working on a much grander time scale than a day or a week or even a single lifetime."

Elijah tried to return my withering glance, but he looked like a petulant teenager. [Elijah voice] "I enforce the laws and you encourage people to break them. I don't see how you are serving God."

[Jez laughs derisively.] "You don't enforce the laws. You scare people. You curse people. You bring droughts. You put on a pretty good show. But look around you. Have you changed one single life, helped one single person to trust God?"

[Elijah voice] "Have you?" he countered.

"I at least acknowledge people's desire for happiness. Of course they won't find true happiness in the silly temptations I provide, but they get a taste of what God can truly offer. And some of them start thinking that there must be something even better than a night in my bed. I call that progress."

Elijah tightened the belt over his haircloth shirt. He said, "I don't know why God lets a woman like you live!"

[bravely] "God values my temptations, even if you don't."

[facing audience] But for the first time, I doubted my calling. Elijah was right -- I wasn't doing any better than he was at helping people appreciate God. I hadn't convinced him to work with me as a partner, either. Maybe I was incompetent. Or maybe I was being misled. For three years, I refrained from temptation. For three years, we had peace in Israel, and the rains came in due season. Still nobody sought God.

Then God sent Elijah back to our castle.

[facing Elijah] Elijah paced my rooms, tugging nervously at the knot in his belt. In a confidential voice he said, "Ahab has another test coming up this week, but I'm sure he'll fail, as usual. I don't know where God gets his patience with evil men like your husband or evil women like you!"

"I'm not evil. Everything I've done has been solely with the purpose of helping the cause of God. And I haven't done any tempting for the past three years. Still you regard me as evil. How can I earn your respect?"

Elijah said, "God has revealed His plan to me. If Ahab consults a prophet of God first, then he will have victory. If he consults any other prophet, or none at all, he will die in the battle. The dogs can lick his blood, too!"

I had already knew that the king whose life Ahab spared had declared war again. So the real question was would Ahab consult a prophet of God, or would he consult one of my Baba's prophets? His choice would tell us if we've had any impact on him at all. I thought it would be a miracle if Ahab consulted any prophets. He seemed to have forgotten Who gave him the victory the last time.

Ahab called 400 of Baba's prophets and sealed his doom. Elijah, for once, didn't taunt me about my failure. Was he changing? Starting to respect me? Starting to see the big picture?

He said, "You could have cheated. You could have warned Ahab about his impending doom. It may not be honor as I understand it, but you do have honor."

"At last," I said. "You are starting to understand."

[facing audience] After Ahab was killed in battle, my oldest son became king.

[facing Elijah] Elijah came to the coronation. He said, "God will send his chariot for me soon."

"I thought you said God had promised you wouldn't die."

[Elijah voice] "I'm not dying. God is sending a chariot of fire to carry me away. My apprentice will take over my duties here. Before I go, I want to apologize for that foolish curse about your death that I uttered in the vineyard. God has told me that you are truly His servant. It is a rather nasty end for you. And you don't deserve it. Please forgive me."

[Jez smiles.] "Actually that's a rather poetic end for me. We servants of God aren't supposed to leave our remains around as relics that fools might worship. And it's better than getting sick or senile. Of course I forgive you. Many of God's servants have met worse ends."

[facing audience] I never saw Elijah again. And everything went wrong. My son who was king after Ahab died in a drunken accident. Then a madman seeking to be King of Israel killed my other son, and had his henchmen kill all Ahab's sons by all 70 of his wives, thus carrying out Elijah's curse that all Ahab's children would die childless. I thought, at least I have Athaliah to carry on my line, my true line of temptation. That line is far more important than children of the body. The madman even killed Athaliah's husband. He couldn't know that even if she has no children of her body, she can train a disciple in temptation.

As I was about to allow myself to wallow in grief for the losses and failures of my life, Father spoke to me. [looks up] It was time for another temptation. There in the vineyard, the madman, future King of Israel was dancing below my balcony.

[ Jez paints her eyes, oils her hair, applies perfume to her neck and breasts.]

I saw that he was a man like any other, subject to charms and seductions. Such men desire my sexual skills after the exuberance of death. [stands, goes to balcony area, leans over her balcony.]

[seductively]

Are you the anointed king?

[faces audience] The madman ordered the eunuchs to bring me down to him, but they mis-understood and threw me from my balcony. [flings arm in grand gesture] [looks up] As I fell, I looked up to the heavens and thanked God for all his gifts to me, and felt a moment's doubt. Was Elijah right? Was death permanent? [faces audience] Then I heard Father's proud voice, "This is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased."