2 Kings 9
Butler1. AND Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up 2 thy loins, and take this vial of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when thou 3 comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and 4 make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber. Then take 5 the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee 6 king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not. So the young man, even the 7 young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold, the captains 8 of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, 9 Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain. And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, the God 7 of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. And thou 8 shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the 9 prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab every man child, and him 9 that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. 11 And he opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, 12 Ye know the man and what his talk was. And they said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king 13 over Israel. Then they hastened, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on 14 the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king. So Jehu the son of Jehosha- phat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram kept Ramoth-gilead, he and 15 all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria: but king Joram was returned to be healed in Jez- reel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If this be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the 16 city, to go to tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram 17 lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram. Now the watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it 18 peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the 19 watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it 20 peace? And Jehu answered, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving 21 is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously. And Joram said, Make ready. And they made ready his chariot. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him in the 22 portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother 23 Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said 24 to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah. And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and smote Joram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in
25 his chariot. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him: Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth; and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD. But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot: and they smote him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David. 29 And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. 30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and tired her head, and looked out at the window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master’s murderer? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. 33 And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink; and he said, See now to this cursed woman, and bury her: 35 for she is a king’s daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.
ANOTHER great revolution was at hand. Four kings of the house of Omri and Ahab had now sat on the throne of Israel; but the death-knell of the wicked dynasty had rung. There had been a new war between Syria and Israel; and Ramoth-Gilead, as before, was the scene of the contest. King Jehoram had been wounded in battle, and had retired to Jezreel, where his cousin, King Ahaziah of Judah, had come to see him. W. G. B.
Elisha is still the primary figure in the historical drama; but at this point his personality merges in the general account of the kingdom of Israel, which it is the object of the writer to trace from beginning to end. Elisha here performs his last public act, being commissioned, and carrying out his commission, to transfer the kingdom of Israel from the unworthy dynasty of Omri, which on account of its persistent idolatry has fallen under Divine condemnation, to a new dynasty, that of Jehu, which will, at any rate, check the worst excesses of the prevalent idolatrous system, and maintain the Jehovah-worship as the religion of the State. Hammond.
With Jehu begins the most powerful, the most important, and the longest-lived of all the Israelite dynasties. The descendants of Jehu kept the throne “to the fourth generation” (2 K. 10: 30). Five kings in succession, furnished from a single house, showed that, under certain circumstances, God would allow, even to the northern kingdom, a certain prosperity and stability. The five reigns filled the space of above a century, and in the course of this period Israel attained the highest point of her greatness. Under Jeroboam the Second there was a near approach to a restoration of the Davidic kingdom, not, however, in the Davidic line, but in a line which aspired to supersede it.
1-3. The further course of the Syrian war is not given in Scripture with any detail; but it appears that Jehoram, shortly after the panic flight of the enemy from Samaria (last Section), took the offensive, and in conjunction with his nephew and ally, Ahaziah king of Judah, invaded the Syrian possessions in northern Perea and recovered the important city of Ramoth-Gilead, which Ahab and Jehoshaphat had failed to take (1 K. 22: 29-36; 2 K. 8: 28; 9: 1, 14). Jehoram received severe wounds in the course of the siege, and in consequence withdrew to Jezreel for medical aid, leaving his army in Ramoth-Gilead under the command of Jehu, one of the captains of the host, to watch over the place (verse 14) and defend it, should the Syrians attempt its recapture. It was while matters were in this position that Elisha, regarding the fitting time as at last arrived, proceeded to carry out the commission which had been entrusted to Elijah many years previously (1 K. 19: 16), of anointing a new king to the throne of Israel in the place of Jehoram, whose sins had forfeited his crown. One of the “sons of the prophets” was sent by him to the Israelite army at Ramoth-Gilead, with instructions to seek out Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and having obtained a private audience, to anoint him king of Israel with the holy oil of the sanctuary, a portion of which the prophet put into his hands. G. R.
It is a serious question how the relation of Elisha toward a dynasty stained by so many crimes, and so unfaithful to the true service of the Lord, is to be explained. It certainly cannot be understood without taking several considerations into account. The situation was not simple, but complicated, and accordingly the motives influencing the conduct of the prophets were varied, and, if one-sidedly viewed, may for that very reason appear conflicting. These three considerations may, however, help us to understand their general bearing. First, the prophets were always only the executors of God’s behests; they stood not in any independent personal relation to events or individuals. Secondly, the behests of God, and consequently the prophetic commission, whether as regarded judgment or deliverance, applied to acts and individual events, not to persons or lives. Thirdly, the final object of all was, on the one hand, the vindication of Jehovah’s dealings, and, on the other, the arresting of Israel’s spiritual and with it of their national decline. It was needful that signal judgments should sweep away Ahab and all connected with his ways, and Jehu was, in the circumstances of the time and in the state of the people, the most suitable instrument for it. Thus far, and thus far only, had his counter-revolution the countenance of the prophets. A. E.
We must distinguish throughout this history between the motives which actuated Jehu in his conspiracy against Ahab, and the providential purpose which, as God’s instrument, he was raised up to fulfil. That is to be read from the standpoint of the prophet. Israel was a people called into existence for the purpose of being a witness for the true God amid surrounding heathenism. It owed its existence and possession of the land of Caanan to Jehovah. From Him it had received its polity; to Him it was bound in solemn covenant; the fundamental laws of its constitution required undivided allegiance to Him. The penalties which would follow from disobedience were but a counterpart of the blessings which would flow from obedience. The first great sin of the nation was in the setting up of the calves under Jeroboam. For adherence to this unlawful form of worship two dynasties had already perished
(verse 9). But with the accession of the house of Omri a new development in evil took place. The worship of the Phœnician Baal was introduced; God’s prophets were relentlessly persecuted, and, under the influence of Jezebel, the moving spirit of three reigns, corruption had spread far and near throughout the realm, and had penetrated even to Judah. Jehoram at first showed a better spirit (chap. 3 : 2), but he must afterward have yielded to the superior influence of his mother, for Baal-worship was restored, and had the prestige of court example (verse 22; chap. 10 : 21). Under these circumstances, it was folly to hesitate, if Israel was to be saved. “Here the question of the justifiableness of rebellion against a legitimate dynasty, or of revolution in the ordinary sense of the word, cannot arise. The course of the house of Ahab was a rebellion against all law, human and Divine, in Israel” (Bāhr). Even in ordinary earthly states, the right of revolution when religion, liberty, morality, and national honor can be saved by no other means, is universally conceded. But revolution here was not left to dubious human wisdom. The initiative was taken by Jehovah himself, acting through His prophet, and express Divine sanction was given to the overthrow of Ahab’s house. J. O.
Oh, the sure though patient justice of the Almighty! Not only Ahab and Jezebel had been bloody and idolatrous, but Israel was drawn into the partnership of their crimes. All these shall share in the judgment. Elijah’s complaint in the cave now receives this late answer: Hazael shall plague Israel; Jehu shall plague the house of Ahab and Jezebel. Bp. H.
6. Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel.** Jehovah’s name is emphatically put forward, in contrast with the name of Baal, as that of the true God of Israel; and appeal is made to Jehu, as to one whose God is Jehovah, and who will accept as authoritative a message emanating from Him. I have anointed thee king over the people of Jehovah, over Israel. Practically, the people is, in the main, “the people of Baal” (chap. 10 : 19-21), but theoretically and by covenant it is “the people of Jehovah”—His “peculiar people” (De. 14 : 2), chosen by Him out of all the nations of the earth to be His own.
7. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master.** This is plainly a command, not a prophecy. Jehu is expressly ordered by God to “smite”—i.e., destroy utterly—the whole house of Ahab. This command he carried out (verses 24, 33; chap. 10 : 1-11); and his obedience to it obtained for him the temporal reward that his children to the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel (chap. 10 : 30). Yet still his conduct in destroying the house of Ahab is spoken of by the prophet Hosea as a sin, and God declares, by Hosea’s mouth, that he will “avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu” (Hos. 1 : 4). It is naturally asked, “How could Jehu’s shedding this blood, at God’s command and in fulfilment of His will, be a sin?” And it is rightly answered, “Because, if we do what is the will of God for any end of our own, for anything except God, we do in fact our own will, not God’s. It was not lawful for Jehu to depose and slay the king his master, except at the express command of God, who, as the supreme King, sets up and puts down earthly rulers as He wills. For any other end, and done otherwise than at God’s express command, such an act is sin. Jehu was rewarded for the measure in which he fulfilled God’s commands, as Ahab, ‘who had sold himself to work wickedness,’ had yet a temporal reward for humbling himself publicly, when rebuked by God for his sin, and so honoring God, amid an apostate people. But Jehu, by cleaving, against the will of God, to Jeroboam’s sin (chap. 11 : 29, 31), which served his own political ends, showed that, in the slaughter of his master, he acted, not as he pretended, out of zeal for the will of God (chap. 10 : 16), but served his own will and his own ambition only. By his disobedience to the one command of God, he showed that he would have equally disobeyed the other, had it been contrary to his own will or interest. He had no principle of obedience. And so the blood which was shed according to the righteous judgment of God, became sin to him that shed it in order to fulfil, not the will of God, but his own” (Pusey). Hammond.
7. The blood of all the servants of the Lord. We may gather from this passage that besides the murder of the prophets there had been general persecutions of the worshippers of Jehovah at Jezebel’s instigation—persecutions which are not recorded in the direct narrative. The allusion cannot be to the single case of Naboth. B. C.
9. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Jeroboam’s house had been “cut off,” smitten, destroyed, till not one of his posterity was left, about seventy years previously, by Baasha, “because of his sins which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.” The far greater sin of Ahab could not be visited with less severity. Hammond.
10. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel. The fate of Jezebel had been prophesied by Elijah (1 K. 21 : 23 ; 2 K. 9 : 36, 37). Its announcement as imminent forms a worthy climax to this grand prophecy of Elisha’s. Hers was the chief guilt. From her had come the whole of that terrible sin which had now overshadowed both kingdoms. What more fitting, then, that now, when the evil was come to a head, and Divine wrath was about to burst forth and sweep away the entire impious brood, she should be selected for a punishment of extraordinary horror—a punishment which would never be forgotten—which, in Jewish eyes, was the most terrible that could befall humanity?
In the portion of Jezreel. There most fitly would she suffer, at Jezreel, the scene of her idolatries—there, where she had set up her temple and her grove, had maintained her four hundred prophets and her priests, had threatened Elijah with destruction, and, above all, had stirred up her lord to commit murder. The “portion” or “field” of Jezreel, if not exactly identical with the vineyard of Naboth, was, at any rate, a tract closely adjoining upon it.
11. The captains do not mean to say that the man is mad ; but seeing his excited look, his strange action, and his extreme haste, they call him (as soldiers would) “this wild fellow”—“this scatter-brain.”
13. On the top of the stairs. Rather, “on the very stairs,” or “on the stairs themselves.” The stairs would undoubtedly be those of the house in which the captains were assembled ; they would rise against the wall of the house from the pavement of the court to the level of the upper story, or of the roof. At the top of the stairs would be a flat platform, and this would form a convenient extempore throne, on which the new king could exhibit himself to his subjects (who were, doubtless, admitted into the court below) seated and in an elevated position.
14. Joram had kept Ramoth-Gilead. Rather, “Joram was keeping watch in Ramoth-Gilead.” The city being taken, but the war continuing, and there being a danger of the Syrians recovering it, Joram and all Israel—i.e., the whole military force—were guarding the recent conquest, while Hazael threatened it. Joram is mentioned, though not present, because the watch was kept by his orders. Then, to prevent misconception, the writer repeats, almost in the same words, what he had said in chap. 8 : 29, of Joram’s personal withdrawal to Jezreel. The whole passage, “Now
… with Hazael, king of Syria,” is parenthetic. B. C.
15. Literally, let no escaper go forth from the city—equivalent to let no one quit the city—to go to tell it in Jezreel. This is the important point. Secrecy was absolutely essential. If the revolt had got wind—and a single messenger might have carried the news—the whole attempt might have failed, or only have succeeded after a long and bloody civil war. Hammond.
15,16. Jehu evinced his fitness to rule by the promptitude with which he decided on his course of action. He determined to set out at once for Jezreel, and to be the first to declare to Jehoram that his reign had ended. This relative position of the two parties in the action forms the foundation of perhaps the most striking, forcible, graphic, and yet concise description of a revolution in all literature. Kitto.
On a mound near the head of the valley of Jezreel is Zerin (Jezreel), commanding a view of nearly the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon westward, and eastward looking down the broad rich valley of Jezreel to the acropolis of Bethshean and the distant mountains of Gilead. The village itself is poor and miserable, and there is little to remark in the ruins that cover the mound, but beneath that heap of rubbish lie waiting for the hand of the explorer the site, perhaps the remains, of the ivory palace of Ahab, the street into which Jezebel was thrown down at the command of Jehu, and the scenes of some of the bloodiest tragedies in sacred history. Without the city, on the road to Beisan, was the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, where Joram met his death; and as we look down the long valley with its even slope of green turf, we can easily picture the advance of Jehu, which is here so graphically described; the dispatch of the several messengers, the recognition of Jehu by his furious driving, the hasty preparation of the chariots of the kings of Israel and Judah, the meeting near the foot of the mound, the death of Joram and the flight of Ahaziah, mortally wounded, over the great plain to Megiddo—all come before the traveller with a vividness and reality that can only be felt by those who have visited the spot. Wilson.—As we stand on the crown of the ridge, perhaps on the very site of the palace, we open our Bible and read the story of poor Naboth and his vineyard. The vineyard was here below us in the plain (verse 16). Then turn to 2 K. 9: 11-37, and the scene is changed; and every incident of that fearful change is illustrated by the natural features of the scene bebefore us. We see how up the valley from the Jordan Jehu’s troops might be seen advancing; how in Naboth’s “field” the two sovereigns met the relentless soldier; how, while Joram died on the spot, Ahaziah drove across the westward plain toward the mountain-pass, by the beautiful village of Engannim (“the garden-house”), but was overtaken in the ascent, and died of his wounds at Megiddo; how, in the open place which, as usual in Eastern towns, lay before the gates of Jezreel, the body of the queen was trampled under the hoofs of Jehu’s horses; how the dogs gathered round it, as even to this day, in the wretched village now seated on the ruins of the once splendid city of Jezreel, they prowl on the mounds without the walls for the offal and carrion thrown out to them to consume. Murray’s Handbook.
18. The watchman evidently though his not returning suspicious, and reported it at once. Joram should now have taken alarm, but he did not. He appears to have had no notion that any danger could be approaching.
20. A still stranger circumstance, and one still more suspicious. The second messenger could only have been sent out because the king disapproved the detention of the first. Whoever, therefore, had detained the second messenger must be consciously acting in opposition to the wishes of the king.
21. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot.** The uncle and the nephew went out together, still, as it would seem, unapprehensive of any danger, though the circumstances were certainly such as might well have aroused suspicion. And met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. Humanly speaking, this was accidental. The “portion of Naboth,” or his plot of ground, lay outside the southeastern gate of the city, at no great distance from the walls; and it happened that Joram and Jehu met within its limits. Had the king started a little sooner, or had Jehu made less haste, the meeting would have taken place farther from the town, and outside the “portion of Naboth.” But Divine providence so ordered matters that vengeance for the sin of Ahab was exacted upon the very scene of his guilt, and a prophecy made, probably by Elisha, years previously, and treasured up in the memory of Jehu (verse 26), was fulfilled to the letter. Hammond.
22. What peace, etc.** Joram had asked the usual question, “Is it peace?” meaning simply, “Is all well?” Jehu replies with another question, “How can all be well, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, and her many witchcrafts continue?”
23. Joram turned his hands and fled.** The meaning here is that Joram ordered his charioteer to turn round and drive back to the town. Jehu’s words left no doubt as to his hostile intention; and so Joram, who had probably come out unarmed and unattended, felt compelled to seek for safety in flight. Flying, he shouted to his nephew the two words—“Treason, Ahaziah!” B. C.
24. Too late now doth wretched Jehoram turn his chariot and flee, and cry, “Treason, O Ahaziah.” There was treason before, O Jehoram: thy treason against the majesty of God is now revenged by the treason of Jehu against thee. That fatal shaft, notwithstanding the swift pace of both the chariots, is directed to the heart of Jehoram. There is no erring of those feathers which are guided by the hand of destiny. Bp. II.
25. Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.** “Take up the body,” that is, “and cast it into the plot of ground which once belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite, and was forfeited to the crown at his death (1 K. 21: 15), and taken possession of by Ahab” (verse 16). The reason for the order follows. For remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him. Jehu recalls his captain’s recollection to an occurrence which was deeply impressed upon his own. “When thou and I rode together after Ahab” probably means “when we two stood behind Ahab in his chariot.”
26. I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord.** This was the gist of the prophecy, which ran as follows: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.” Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the Lord. The evil prophesied against Ahab had been formally and expressly deferred to his son’s days on Ahab’s repentance (cf. 1 K. 21: 29). Hammond.—On that very spot, or near it, Naboth’s own blood had been shed, and, as this verse shows (verse 26), not his alone, but the blood of his sons. Thither, after the murder, Ahab went down to take possession of the vineyard, and there, when he arrived, he found Elijah standing, waiting to denounce upon him the doom of blood. This was not all, for among those who rode with Ahab that day were two of his captains, one of them Bidkar, the other this Jehu, who heard the prophetic announcements against Ahab and his family. That prophecy, probably, had never altogether left the mind of Jehu, but now it came home to him with fresh force as he saw it actually fulfilled by his own hand. Bidkar, too, as it chanced, was there, and Jehu recalled to him the prophetic oracle. Then, to give it literal accomplishment, he bade Bidkar give orders that the corpse of Jehoram should be thrown into the plat of ground which formerly belonged to Naboth. J. O.
How just are the judgments of God! It was in the field of Naboth, wherein Jehoram met with Jehu: that very ground called to him for blood. And now this new avenger remembers that prophecy, which he heard from the mouth of Elijah, in that very place, following the heels of Ahab; and is careful to perform it. What a resemblance there is betwixt the death of the father and the son—Ahab and Jehoram! Both are slain in their chariot; both with an arrow; both repay their blood to Naboth; and how perfect is this retaliation! Face doth not more answer to face than sin to sin. Bp. II.
26. And the blood of his sons.** The murder of Naboth’s sons is here for the first time mentioned. As the removal of the sons was necessary if the vineyard was to escheat to Ahab, we can well understand that Jezebel would take care to clear them out of the way. She was not likely to do any work which she undertook by halves. B. C.
27,28. Ahaziah king of Judah was pursued and slain in a little time, and not far off (verses 27, 28). Though he was now in Joram’s company, he had not been slain but that he was joined with the house of Ahab both in affinity and in iniquity; he was one of them; so he had made himself by his sins, and therefore he must fare as they fare. Yet perhaps he had not at this time fallen with them if he had not been found in company with them. It is a dangerous thing to associate with evil-doers; we may be entangled both in guilt and misery by it. H.—Ahaziah continued his flight to Megiddo, where he died. A slightly different account of the manner of his death is given in 2 Chron. 22: 9. Whatever the precise circumstances of the death, we cannot but see in it a righteous retribution for his own sins, and an example of the end of evil association. Through his mother Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, he was brought into close and friendly relations with the court of Samaria, and sharing in the crimes of Ahab’s house, shared also in their fate. It was his visit to King Jehoram which immediately brought down this doom upon him. J. O.
29. In the eleventh year. We read in chap. 8:25 that Ahaziah ascended the throne in Jehoram’s twelfth year. The discrepancy may be explained as arising either from two modes of calculating the regnal years of kings (Keil), or from two ways of reckoning the accession of Ahaziah, who is likely to have been regent for his father during at least one year.
30. Jezebel painted her face. Literally, “put her eyes in antimony”—i.e., dyed the upper and under eyelids with a pigment prepared from antimony, a common practice in the East, even at the present day. The effect is at once to increase the apparent size of the eye, and to give it unnatural brilliancy. No doubt the practice was very ancient among the Oriental nations. And tired her head. Foreseeing her fate, Jezebel determined to keep up her regal splendor to the last, and painted her eyes and tired her head, and no doubt put on her royal robes, that she might die as became a queen, in true royal array. B. C.—While one loathes the character of the woman, it is impossible not to admire the boldness and spirit with which she faces the inevitable. Her proud, imperious nature comes out in her last actions. She paints her eyelids with antimony, tires her head, and adorns her person, as if she was preparing for some festal celebration. Then she plants herself at the window, and, when Jehu appears, assails him with bitter taunting words. “Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master’s murderer?” she mockingly asked. What a power for evil this woman had been in Israel! What a power, with her strong intellect and will, she might have been for good! J. O.
33. And he said, Throw her down. A splendid example of the man’s prompt and bold and unscrupulous decision. A queen, a queen-mother, always more tenderly regarded than an ordinary queen-regnant, a princess in her own right (see verse 34), daughter of a neighboring and powerful potentate, settled in her kingdom for over thirty years, the most powerful person in the State during that entire period, backed up by the numerous and dominant party of her coreligionists, she is to Jehu nothing but a wicked woman who is in his way; she inspires him with no awe, she does not even touch him with any feeling of respect. “Throw her down.” History presents no parallel to such an indignity. The boldness of Jehu communicated itself to those whom he addressed; and the eunuchs violently seized the person of the queen, and precipitated her from the window to the ground below. Hammond.
34. He passed over her, and entered the palace, the hoofs of his horses and his chariot-wheels red with her blood, without pausing to see whether she lived or died. He took possession, and after awhile sat down to refresh himself with meat and drink after that morning’s bloody work. The coolness of this iron-hearted man is astonishing, but not without parallel. Kitto.
25-37. Retribution may be long in coming, but it comes at last. Yet throughout all history evil disposed men have persisted in wicked and cruel conduct just as if it was not only possible, but probable, that retribution would be escaped. The lesson thus needs continually to be impressed on men, that sooner or later retribution must come—that there is no escape from it. Retribution must come—
Because God rules the universe, and God is just. Disbelief in retribution is essentially atheistic. It implies either that there is no God, or that God is without one or more of those attributes which make Him God. A just God must have the will to punish; an omnipotent God must have the power to punish. If a so-called God did not punish sin, he must be either not just or not omnipotent, or not either; but then he would not be God. As Bähr says, “A God without vengeance—i.e., who cannot and will not punish, is no God, but a divinity fashioned from one’s thoughts.”
Because God has declared that it shall come, and God is true. God has said to each man, through his conscience, that He will punish sin. Remorse and regret, the dissatisfaction of a guilty conscience, are such punishment begun. In His Word God has expressly declared that “He will reward every man according to his works;” that He “will by no means clear the guilty;” that “indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, shall be on every soul of man that doeth evil.” Nothing is more plainly taught in the whole of Scripture, from the beginning to the end, than requital, retribution, condign punishment.
Because any negative instance that can be produced will only show a delay, not an abrogation of the sentence. Infinite time is at the disposal of the Almighty. Men are impatient, and if retribution does not overtake the sinner speedily, are apt to conclude that it will never overtake him. But with the Almighty “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The important thing to be borne in mind is the end; and the end will not be reached till “the judgment is set, and the books are opened,” and men are “judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works.” Punishment may be long in coming—the ungodly may continue during their whole lifetime in prosperity. But there remains a future. Hammond.