And the Dogs Licked Up the Blood

A great fan of Frankie Laine, was my father.  When my brother and I were young, of a Sunday afternoon my father would play old 78s by the Italian American master and make us listen to them. Normally after the second bottle of Grappa, he would fall asleep, and we would escape into the garden.

One of Frankie's great hits was "Jezebel" and I often wondered whether Tom Jones's "Delilah" was a sequel.  "Jezebel" had pseudo - religious lyrics basically accusing said female of being the Devil incarnate - and using her womanly wiles in order to win over weak, defenceless males.

Jezebel in the Bible story was the seductive lass who persuaded her gormless husband to spread Baal worship throughout the land. She was queen consort - he the King of Israel. So some would say that, if anyone deserved the blame for the whole "Prophets of Baal" slaying, it would be Ahab. He, after all, was king. She was one among probably a few wives. Of course, a thoroughly postmodern position would involve asking what Elijah was doing, unleashing religious war when he could have proposed a series of inter-faith evenings.

So anyway. Like Solomon, it's the wife that leads him astray. Or, in Solomon's case, radically plural wives. Actually I tell you what, Solomon was lucky. Because having that many wives, it was lucky he didn't cause an outbreak of gay marriage. Or does that only happen the other way round?

Anyway you get my drift. Solomon and Ahab go wrong - wives get blamed. Herod murders John the Baptist - who's to blame? His wife.  Apparently when you are a bloke, wrongdoing is not wholly your fault, as long as you can prove your wife suggested it.

In all three examples I've given, the male involved had a perfectly good reason for not doing what his missus suggested. Sure, every wedding's a partnership. But if you are the king, you don't have to let your wife decide foreign policy for you. I mean, you wouldn't catch Tony Blair letting his wife decide what country to invade, would you?  Oh, no. He'd let the American president do that.

So it's not good enough, blaming the women. These men should have the decency to make their own decisions, and take the blame for themselves. If they'd thought with their brains, instead of their b.... better halves, the Prophets of Baal could have been in the House of Bishops by now.