Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 9:30
And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard [of it]; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
30 37. The fate of Jezebel (Not in Chronicles)
30. when Jehu was come to Jezreel ] Very little time could have elapsed between the slaying of Joram and the advance from Naboth’s vineyard to the palace. But the news of what Jehu had done had already been brought to Jezebel, for she knows that he has murdered the king her son. As queen-mother she lived in the royal city, and probably in the royal palace. On the position of the queen-mother and her influence in Eastern courts see on 1Ki 2:19. Her action Bp Hall thinks was with the hope ‘to daunt the courage of a usurper with the sudden beams of majesty’.
and she painted her face ] R.V. eyes. The A.V. gives a wrong idea, though placing the literal rendering on the margin ‘put her eyes in painting’. The process is common still in the East. The preparation used is made from antimony, which gives when applied to the eyelashes and eyebrows, a dark outline, as a setting to the eyes, which while making them look larger adds also to their brilliancy.
and tired her head ] Putting on some ornamental diadem or insignia of royalty. As she was to die, and she could expect no less, she would look the queen to the last.
and looked out at a window ] Josephus ( Ant. IX. 6. 4) describes her as ‘standing upon the tower’. It is clear that the building in which she was formed part of the city wall, and that the gateway by which the city was entered was close by. So the window may have been in some lofty part.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Painted her face – literally, put her eyes in antimony – i. e., dyed the upper and under eyelids, 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. Representations of eyes thus embellished occur on the Assyrian sculptures, and the practice existed among the Jews (marginal reference; and Jer 4:30).
Tired her head – Dressed (attired) her head, and no doubt put on her royal robes, that she might die as became a queen, in true royal array.
A window – Rather, the window. The gate-tower had probably, as many of those in the Assyrian sculptures, one window only.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. She painted her face, and tired her head] She endeavoured to improve the appearance of her complexion by paint, and the general effect of her countenance by a tiara or turban head-dress. Jonathan, the Chaldee Targumist, so often quoted, translates this vechachalath bitsdida eynaha: “She stained her eyes with stibium or antimony.” This is a custom in Astatic countries to the present day. From a late traveller in Persia, I borrow the following account: –
“The Persians differ as much from us in their notions of beauty as they do in those of taste. A large soft, and languishing black eye, with them constitutes the perfection of beauty. It is chiefly on this account that the women use the powder of antimony, which, although it adds to the vivacity of the eye, throws a kind of voluptuous languor over it, which makes it appear, (if I may use the expression,) dissolving in bliss. The Persian women have a curious custom of making their eye-brows meet; and if this charm be denied them, they paint the forehead with a kind of preparation made for that purpose.” E. S. Waring’s Tour to Sheeraz, 4to., 1807, page 62.
This casts light enough on Jezebel’s painting, &c., and shows sufficiently with what design she did it, to conquer and disarm Jehu, and induce him to take her for wife, as Jarchi supposes. This staining of the eye with stibium and painting was a universal custom, not only in Asiatic countries, but also in all those that bordered on them, or had connections with them. The Prophet Ezekiel mentions the painting of the eyes, Eze 23:40.
That the Romans painted their eyes we have the most positive evidence. Pliny says, Tanta est decoris affectatio, ut tinguantur oculi quoque. Hist. Nat. lib. xi., cap. 37. “Such is their affection of ornament, that they paint their eyes also.” That this painting was with stibium or antimony, is plain from these words of St. Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosynis, Inunge aculos tuos non stibio diaboli, sed collyrio Christi, “Anoint your eyes, not with the devil’s antimony, but with the eye-salve of Christ.” Juvenal is plain on the same subject. Men as well as women in Rome practiced it: –
Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum
Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes
Attollens oculos.
SAT. ii., ver. 93.
“With sooty moisture one his eye-brows dyes,
And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes.”
The manner in which the women in Barbary do it Dr. Russel particularly describes: –
“Upon the principle of strengthening the sight, as well as an ornament, it is become a general practice among the women to black the middle of their eye-lids by applying a powder called ismed. Their method of doing it is by a cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe. This they wet with water, in order that the powder may stick to it, and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the eye-lids upon it, and so drawing it through between them, it blacks the inside, leaving a narrow black rim all round the edge. This is sometimes practiced by the men, but is then regarded as foppish.” RUSSEL’S Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, page 102. See Parkhurst, sub voc.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either hoping that by her majestic dress and carriage she might strike Jehu or his followers with such an awe, that they should not offer any injury to her person; or rather, because perceiving her case to be desperate, and that she could not live, was resolved to die with honour and gallantry.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. Jezebel painted herfaceliterally, “her eyes,” according to a customuniversal in the East among women, of staining the eyelids with ablack powder made of pulverized antimony, or lead ore mixed with oil,and applied with a small brush on the border, so that by this darkligament on the edge, the largeness as well as the luster of the eyeitself was thought to be increased. Her object was, by her royalattire, not to captivate, but to overawe Jehu.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it,…. And of what he had done to Joram:
and she painted her face; or put “stibium” on her eyes; a sort of paint, to make them look beautiful perhaps the same with powder of lead ore, the Moors now use to tinge their eyebrows with, and make them look black, which they reckon graceful, [See comments on Eze 23:40], this custom now obtains among the white Indians, who, to heighten the lustre of their complexion, and render their eyes more languishing, put a little black about them n:
and tired her head; dressed her head in the most elegant manner; not with a view to tempt Jehu, which she could not expect, being an aged woman; but for grandeur and majesty, and in the pride and haughtiness of her spirit, which she retained to the last, and resolved to keep up and show in her extremity and calamity:
and looked out at a window; in a bravado, as fearless of Jehu, and to dash him out of countenance if she could; or she might hope, by such a graceful and majestic appearance she made, that he would be moved to spare her life; though this does not so well agree with what follows as the former.
n Agreement of Customs between East Indians and Jews, art. 15. p. 65.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Death of Jezebel. – 2Ki 9:30. When Jehu came to Jezreel and Jezebel heard of it, “she put her eyes into lead polish (i.e., painted them with it), and beautified her head and placed herself at the window.” is a very favourite eye-paint with Oriental women even to the present day. It is prepared from antimony ore (Arab. khl, Cohol or Stibium of the Arabs), which when pounded yields a black powder with a metallic brilliancy, which was laid upon the eyebrows and eyelashes either in a dry state as a black powder, or moistened generally with oil and made into an ointment, which is applied with a fine smooth eye-pencil of the thickness of an ordinary goose-quill, made either of wood, metal, or ivory. The way to use it was to hold the central portion of the pencil horizontally between the eyelids, and then draw it out between them, twisting it round all the while, so that the edges of the eyelids were blackened all round; and the object was to heighten the splendour of the dark southern eye, and give it, so to speak, a more deeply glowing fire, and to impart a youthful appearance to the whole of the eyelashes even in extreme old age. Rosellini found jars with eye-paint of this kind in the early Egyptian graves (vid., Hille, ber den Gebrauch u. die Zusammensetzung der oriental. Augenschminke: Deutsch. morg. Ztsch. v. p. 236ff.). – Jezebel did this that she might present an imposing appearance to Jehu and die as a queen; not to allure him by her charms (Ewald, after Ephr. Syr.). For (2Ki 9:31) when Jehu entered the palace gate, she cried out to him, “Is it peace, thou Zimri, murderer of his lord?” She addressed Jehu as Zimri the murderer of the king, to point to the fate which Jehu would bring upon himself by the murder of the king, as Zimri had already done (vid., 1Ki 16:10-18).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Joram and Ahaziah Slain. | B. C. 884. |
30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. 31 And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? 32 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. 34 And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter. 35 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. 36 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 dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: 37 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.
The greatest delinquent in the house of Ahab was Jezebel: it was she that introduced Baal, slew the Lord’s prophets, contrived the murder of Naboth, stirred up her husband first, and then her sons, to do wickedly; a cursed woman she is here called (v. 34), a curse to the country, and whom all that wished well to their country had a curse for. Three reigns her reign had lasted, but now, at length, her day had come to fall. We read of a false prophetess in the church of Thyatira that is compared to Jezebel, and called by her name (Rev. ii. 20), her wickedness the same, seducing God’s servants to idolatry, a long space given her to repent (v. 21) as to Jezebel, and a fearful ruin brought upon her at last (2Ki 9:22; 2Ki 9:23), as here upon Jezebel. So that Jezebel’s destruction may be looked upon as typical of the destruction of idolaters and persecutors, especially that great whore, that mother of harlots, that hath made herself drunk with the blood of saints and the nations drunk with the wine of her fornications, when God shall put it into the heart of the kings of the earth to hate her, Rev 17:5; Rev 17:6; Rev 17:16. Now here we have,
I. Jezebel daring the judgment. She heard that Jehu had slain her son, and slain him for her whoredoms and witchcrafts, and thrown his dead body into the portion of Naboth, according to the word of the Lord, and that he was now coming to Jezreel, where she could not but expect herself to fall next a sacrifice to his revenging sword. Now see how she meets her fate; she posted herself in a window at the entering of the gate, to affront Jehu and set him at defiance. 1. Instead of hiding herself, as one afraid of divine vengeance, she exposed herself to it and scorned to flee, mocked at fear and was not affrighted. See how a heart hardened against God will brave it out to the last, run upon him, even upon his neck, Job xv. 26. But never did any thus harden their hearts against him and prosper. 2. Instead of humbling herself, and putting herself into close mourning for her son, she painted her face, and tired her head, that she might appear like herself, that is (as she thought), great and majestic, hoping thereby to daunt Jehu, to put him out of countenance, and to stop his career. The Lord God called to baldness and girding with sackcloth, but behold painting and dressing, walking contrary to God, Isa 22:12; Isa 22:13. There is not a surer presage of ruin than an unhumbled heart under humbling providences. Let painted faces look in Jezebel’s glass, and see how they like themselves. 3. Instead of trembling before Jehu, the instrument of God’s vengeance, she thought to make him tremble with that threatening question, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? Observe, (1.) She took no notice of the hand of God gone out against her family, but flew in the face of him that was only the sword in his hand. We are very apt, when we are in trouble, to break out into a passion against the instruments of our trouble, when we ought to be submissive to God and angry at ourselves only. (2.) She pleased herself with the thought that what Jehu was now doing would certainly end in his own ruin, and that he would not have peace in it. He had cut her off from all pretensions to peace (v. 22), and now she thought to cut him off likewise. Note, It is no new thing for those that are doing God’s work to be looked upon as out of the way of peace. Active reformers, faithful reprovers, are threatened with trouble; but let them be in nothing terrified, Phil. i. 28. (3.) She quoted a precedent, to deter him from the prosecution of this enterprise: “Had Zimri peace? No, he had not; he came to the throne by blood and treachery, and within seven days was constrained to burn the palace over his head and himself in it: and canst thou expect to fare any better?” Had the case been parallel, it would have been proper enough to give him this memorandum; for the judgments of God upon those that have gone before us in any sinful way should be warnings to us to take heed of treading in their steps. But the instance of Zimri was misapplied to Jehu. Zimri had no warrant for what he did, but was incited to it merely by his own ambition and cruelty; whereas Jehu was anointed by one of the sons of the prophets, and did this by order from heaven, which would bear him out. In comparing persons and things we must carefully distinguish between the precious and the vile, and take heed lest from the fate of sinful men we read the doom of useful men.
II. Jehu demanding aid against her. He looked up to the window, not daunted at the menaces of her impudent but impotent rage, and cried, Who is on my side? Who? v. 32. He was called out to do God’s work, in reforming the land and punishing those that had debauched it; and here he calls out for assistance in the doing of it, looked as if there were any to help, any to uphold, Isa. lxiii. 5. He lifts up a standard, and makes proclamation, as Moses (Exod. xxxii. 26), Who is on the Lord’s side? And the Psalmist (Ps. xciv. 16), Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? Note, When reformation-work is set on foot, it is time to ask, “Who sides with it?”
III. Her own attendants delivering her up to his just revenge. Two or three chamberlains looked out to Jehu with such a countenance as encouraged him to believe they were on his side, and to them he called not to seize or secure her till further orders, but immediately to throw her down, which was one way of stoning malefactors, casting them headlong from some steep place. Thus was vengeance taken on her for the stoning of Naboth. They threw her down, v. 33. If God’s command would justify Jehu, his command would justify them. Perhaps they had a secret dislike of Jezebel’s wickedness, and hated her, though they served her; or, it may be, she was barbarous and injurious to those about her, and they were pleased with this opportunity of being avenged on her; or, observing Jehu’s success, they hoped thus to ingratiate themselves with him, and keep their places in his court. However it was, thus she was most shamefully put to death, dashed against the wall and the pavement, and then trodden on by the horses, which were all besmeared with her blood and brains. See the end of pride and cruelty, and say, The Lord is righteous.
IV. The very dogs completing her shame and ruin, according to the prophecy. When Jehu had taken some refreshment in the palace, he bethought himself of showing so much respect to Jezebel’s sex and quality as to bury her. As bad as she was, she was a daughter, a king’s daughter, a king’s wife, a king’s mother: Go and bury her, v. 34. But, though he had forgotten what the prophet said (v. 10, Dogs shall eat Jezebel), God had not forgotten it. While he was eating and drinking, the dogs had devoured her dead body, the dogs that went about the city (Ps. lix. 6) and fed upon the carrion, so that there was nothing left but her bare skull (the painted face gone) and her feet and hands. The hungry dogs had no respect to the dignity of her extraction; a king’s daughter was no more to them than a common person. When we pamper our bodies, and use them deliciously, let us think how vile they are, and that shortly they will be either a feast for worms under ground or beasts above ground. When notice was brought of this to Jehu, he remembered the threatening (1 Kings xxi. 23), The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Nothing should remain of her but the monuments of her infamy. She had been used to appear on public days in great state, and the cry was, “This is Jezebel. What a majestic port and figure! How great she looks!” But now it shall be said no more. We have often seen the wicked buried (Eccl. viii. 10), yet sometimes, as here, they have no burial, Eccl. vi. 3. Jezebel’s name nowhere remained, but as stigmatized in sacred writ: they could not so much as say, “This is Jezebel’s dust, This is Jezebel’s grave,” or “This is Jezebel’s seed.” Thus the name of the wicked shall rot–rot above ground.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Jezebel’s Curse Falls-2Ki 9:30-37
Jezebel was under a double curse. The first she had brought on herself deliberately when she sought to put Elijah to death. She had cursed herself by her own gods should she not bring the prophet to the same fate her prophets of Baal had suffered at the hand of Elijah (1Ki 19:2). Then by her venomous murder of Naboth for the selfish purpose of getting his vineyard for her husband she brought the curse of God on her (1Ki 21:23). That had been some fifteen years before the ultimate fulfillment. Now her day of reckoning had come, judgment was falling.
Jezebel surely must have remembered these predictions when word came to her that her son was the victim of rebellion by his chief captain. But she tried once more by her seductive allurements to save her life. She painted her face and fixed up her hair and. stood in an upper window to chide Jehu as he entered the city. So looking down she called to him, “Did Zimri, who slew his master, have peace?” It was a warning. Zimri had turned on King Elah, the son of Baasha, and assassinated him. He proceeded to kill all the house of Baasha, according to prophetic prediction. Yet just seven days later Zimri was besieged by Omri, the captain of the host, and burned down the palace over him and died by his own hand. Jezebel meant to warn Jehu of just some similar fate for killing his master, Joram. (See 1Ki 16:8-20)
Hearing her cry and looking up to see her, Jehu called for someone on his side. Three of her eunuchs looked out the window, and Jehu called on them to throw her down to the street. They did, and her blood was splattered on the wall of Jezreel, as God had said it would be. What a hated and detested woman she must have been that her own servants would so treat her! Jehu and his men drove their horses across her body, crushing it and befouling their horses’s legs with her blood.
The hardness of Jehu appears in that he went inside to eat and drink after committing such carnage as he had. After he had appeased his hunger he sent a burial detail to take up the remains of the queen and bury them, inasmuch as she was the daughter of a king. But soon they returned to say they could find nothing save her skull, feet, and the palms of her hands. Jehu recalled that this is just what Elijah had predicted, that the dogs would eat the body of Jezebel. She would have no tomb, and her flesh would be converted to the dung of wild dogs in the very city where she had murdered Naboth.
Dr. R. G. Lee, a great Baptist preacher, in his mighty sermon, “Payday, Someday,” says even the dogs disdained to eat the skull which devised the wicked plan, the hands which wrote the letter, and the feet which carried the news of death to her husband in her evil scheme against Naboth (Psa 37:1-2).
More lessons: 1) God uses men’s ambitions to bring to pass His own will and purpose; 2) the worldly never admit that repeated evil will bring repeated judgment; 3) when the Lord’s judgment falls at last, it will be speedy; 4) many wait for the lead of others to do what is right; 5) the Lord’s judgment may recall to those involved its accuracy and verity; 6) association with evil companions involves them in the same judgment; 7) the wiles and cunning of Satan and his followers will go down in ultimate judgment.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
D. THE DEATH OF JEZEBEL 9:3037
TRANSLATION
(30) Now when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she put on eye make-up, and adorned her head, and looked out the window. (31) When Jehu came in the gate, she said, Is all well, O Zimri, who slays his master? (32) And he lifted up his face unto the window, and said, Who is with me? Who? And two or three eunuchs looked out unto him. (33) And he said, Throw her down. And they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot. (34) And he went in, and ate and drank, and said, Go, I pray you, and visit this accursed one, and bury her; for she is the daughter of a king. (35) And they went to bury her; but they found nothing of her except the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. (36) And they returned, and told him, and he said, it is the word of the LORD which He spoke by the hand of His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; (37) and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the ground in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say this was Jezebel.
COMMENTS
After pursuing Ahaziah as far as Ibleam, Jehu turned about and headed back to Jezreel. About three hours would have elapsed since the death of King Joram. Jezebel, who had probably witnessed from the walls of Jezreel the death of her son, was resignedly waiting for her confrontation with Jehu. When she heard he was coming, she put on eye make-up,[560] adorned her head, and took up her position near a window (2Ki. 9:30). Even though she was a grandmother of at least fifty years, Jezebel still hoped to be able to capture the affections of Jehu with her beauty.[561] The question asked of Jehu by Jezebel is probably to be interpreted as conciliatory rather than inflammatory. The queen asked: Is all well now between you and me? She probably intended her appellation Zimri to be an honorific one, recalling the fact that another Israelite general had revolted and slain his master and reigned as king (2Ki. 9:31).
[560] From the earliest times women throughout the Near East would paint a dark dye on their upper and lower eyelids. Such make-up was designed to increase the apparent size of the eye and give it unnatural brilliancy.
[561] Other commentators think Jezebel was simply preparing to meet death in a manner befitting a queen.
Jehu was not about to be deterred by the wiles of Jezebel. He was deaf to her flatteries, blind to her seductions. Spying some palace eunuchs behind the queen, Jehu cried out, Who is with me? (2Ki. 9:32). The eunuchs stepped forward and peered from the window as if to respond positively to the generals challenge. Throw her down, ordered Jehu. Though Jezebel was the queen mother, she was nothing more to Jehu than a wicked woman who was in his way. The eunuchs grabbed the screaming queen and flung her to the courtyard below. As she fell her body bounced off certain wall projections at once smearing her blood on those walls, and showering it on the horses that pulled Jehus chariot. The general then had his chariot driven over her crumpled corpse (2Ki. 9:33). Rawlinson remarks concerning the treatment afforded this royal personage: History presents no parallel to such an indignity.[562]
[562] Rawlinson, PC, p. 196.
Jehu was completely unaffected by the bloodshed in which he had been involved. He immediately entered the palace and ordered a meal for himself. Not until after he had satisfied his appetite did he give any thought to the corpse of the late queen ignominiously lying untended on the cold earth without. Jehu ordered that this cursed woman, who had instigated and participated in so many crimes, be taken and given a decent burial. After all, in spite of all the trouble she had caused, Jezebel was the daughter of a king (2Ki. 9:34) and at the least deserved dignified burial. But when the servants went to bury the queen mother, all they could find of her was the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands (2Ki. 9:35).
When the servants reported back to Jehu what they had found, the general remembered a prophecy delivered many years earlier by Elijah. That prophecy, recorded in 1Ki. 21:23, is here expanded, either because Jehus recollection was not exact, or because the record in I Kings is abbreviated. As Jehu remembered it, Elijah had said four things about the fate of Jezebel: (1) that dogs would devour her; (2) that this would take place in the portion of Jezreel, i.e., the cultivated space or portion of land outside the wall of the city; (3) that the carcass of Jezebel would be as dung upon the face of the ground; (4) that the fragments of the body would be so scattered that it would be impossible to bury all her remains in one tomb (2Ki. 9:36-37).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(30) And when Jehu was come.Rather, And Jehu camei.e., after the slaughter of Ahaziah, as the Hebrew construction implies.
Jezebel heard of it.Rather, Now Jezebel had heardscil., the news of the death of the two kings. There should be a stop after Jezreel.
And she painted her face.Rather, and she set her eyes in painti.e., according to the still common practice of Oriental ladies, she painted her eyebrows and lashes with a pigment composed of antimony and zinc (the Arabic kohl). The dark border throws the eye into relief, and makes it appear larger (Bhr). Pliny relates that in his day this pigment (stibium) was called platyophthalmon (comp. Jer. 4:30), because it dilates the eye (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 34).
Tired.An old English word, meaning adorned with a tire or head-dress. (Comp. Isa. 3:18.) Tire might seem to be the Persian tiara, but is much more probably connected with the German zier and zieren. (See Skeas Etym. Dict., s.v) Jezebel put on her royal apparel in order to die as a queen. Comp. the similar behaviour of Cleopatra:
Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch
My best attires. I am again tor Cydnus,
To meet Marc Antony . . . Bring our crown, and all.
*
*
*
*
*
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me.
Antony and Cleop., Acts 5, scene 2.
A window.The window, looking down upon the square within the city gate. Others think of a window looking down into the courtyard of the palace.
Ewalds notion (after Ephrem Syrus), that Jezebel thought to captivate the conqueror by her charms, is negatived by the consideration that she was the grandmother of Ahaziah, who was twenty-two years old when Jehu slew him, and the fact that Oriental women fade early.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE FATE OF JEZEBEL, 2Ki 9:30-37.
The tidings of the revolution under Jehu, and of the death of Joram, spread with the greatest rapidity throughout Jezreel, and quickly reached the ears of the haughty Jezebel. One would suppose that on hearing it she would have trembled with terror, and gone to hide herself in some dark recess of the palace. But her fierce, masculine, vindictive spirit asserts its pre-eminence to the very last; and if she too, has to perish with the rest of Ahab’s house, she resolves to die the regal mistress she has lived.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30. Painted her face Better, set her eyes in paint. “The paint used by the Hebrew women was a powder producing a black colour; it was commonly prepared either from antimony, or from lead ore and zinc, which they mixed with water, and spread by means of a needle or probe of silver or ivory upon the borders of the eyelids, so that the white of the eye might appear still whiter by being surrounded with a black margin.” Gesenius. “This,” says Kitto, “is considered to add greatly to the brilliancy and power of the eye, and to deepen the effect of the long black eyelashes of which the Easterns are excusably proud. The ancient Egyptians practised this long before the date of the present transaction. Figures of painted eyes appear in the monuments, and the implements used in the operation have been actually found in the tombs, with some of the composition remaining in the vessels.”
Tired her head Adorned her head and hair with a queenly headdress.
Looked out at a window Some have thought her object, in thus arraying her person in splendid attire, was to captivate Jehu by her charms, and lead him, after the manner of Eastern usurpers, to take her for his wife. But her scornful words to him in the next verse accord not with this thought. She rather looked out of the window, arrayed in royal attire, to bid defiance to her enemy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH’s Judgment On Jezebel ( 2Ki 9:30-37 ).
The fact that YHWH carried out his judgment on Jehoram and Ahaziah, and now on Jezebel, through Jehu, does not mean that YHWH would approve wholly of all Jehu’s methods, and later Jehu is castigated for his excesses (see Hos 1:4). But he is commended for destroying the house of Ahab (2Ki 10:30). When God calls men into His service and works through them He does not control all their actions, and they may do things of which He disapproves, and even go too far, often in their zeal. He knows perfectly well that those whom he calls are sinners, and will not carry out His will perfectly. (Even Martin Luther and John Knox would have been very different men in the twenty first century AD. We can rejoice in their godliness and piety, without necessarily agreeing with all that they did). His sovereign will and men’s freewill actions in history go along in parallel and we may see His hand at work even when the detail of all that occurs is not with His approval. Compare how later the king of Assyria will be raised up and used as the rod of His anger, but will have to be punished for going about it in the wrong way (Isa 10:5-13).
Jehu was a man of blood, and he had just come from the seat of war. He had served in the army for long years, having seen service under both Ahab and Jehoram as a charioteer, and to him death was a way of life. Thus when he carried out what he saw as God’s will he did it in the way that life had taught him. He did not shrink from the shedding of blood. God was behind his aims, but not necessarily behind his methods, even though the latter did result in the remarkable fulfilment of Elijah’s prophecy. God had purposed that Jehu become king of Israel, but it was Jehu and his fellow officers who determined on the way in which it would come about (2Ki 9:12-15).
As Jehu now approached Jezreel, with two kings disposed of, his purpose was to destroy what he and most in Israel saw as the greatest curse on the land, Jezebel, Ahab’s Phoenician and idolatress princess, and he did not care how he did it. Thus when he saw her peering out of the window, decorated in all her finery, he commanded those who were on his side to throw her out of the window, and when her blood spattered the wall he rode his chariot over her, just as he had regularly ridden his chariot over his enemies.
And yet he remembered too that she was a king’s daughter, and he therefore commanded that her remains be gathered up for honourable burial, only to learn that meanwhile the scavenger dogs had done their worst, so that only her skull, he feet and the palms of her hands were left, in accordance with Elijah’s prophecy, ‘the dogs will eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel’ (1Ki 22:23).
Analysis.
a
b And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, your master’s murderer?” (2Ki 9:31).
c 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 (2Ki 9:32).
d 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 trod her under foot (2Ki 9:33).
c And when he had come in, he ate and drank, and he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter” (2Ki 9:34).
b 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 (2Ki 9:35).
a For which reason they came back, and told him. And he said, “This is the word of YHWH, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “In the portion of Jezreel will the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they will not say, ‘This is Jezebel’ ” (2Ki 9:36-37).
Note that in ‘a’ Jezebel presented herself as she saw herself in all her ageing beauty, and in the parallel she is presented as God saw her in all her nothingness. In ‘b’ she castigates his murderous behaviour, and in the parallel she herself is found murdered, and worse. In ‘c’ Jehu looked for help from the servants in the palace, and in the parallel he ate and drank in the palace. Central in ‘d’ is a description of the actual murder of Jezebel.
2Ki 9:30
‘And when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window.’
The news of what Jehu had done to the two kings was hurriedly brought back to Jezreel and conveyed to Jezebel, who could have been in no doubt that her end had come. She would know that she could expect no mercy from the people whom she had treated so badly. But as any brave woman would in the circumstances, she painted herself up so that she could meet death proudly. She was not going to let Jehu know that she feared him. Then she went to her open window so that she could challenge him on his arrival. It is clear that she did not lack courage. An oriental woman would not in normal circumstances have been so bold, but Jezebel now knew that she was temporarily representing the royal family as its head
The blackening of her eyes would be with kuhl (also mentioned as guhlu in the Assyrian record of the tribute received from Hezekiah) which was sulphide of antimony mixed with oil, and was later widely used among Arabic women as a cosmetic.
2Ki 9:31
‘And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, your master’s murderer?” ’
Thus as Jehu came through the gate into the city she called out bitterly the same words as had been borne by the messengers and by Jehoram himself, ‘is it peace?’ It was a reminder to Jehu that in her eyes he was simply treacherous, and she ensured that it was properly understood by likening him to Zimri who was well remembered as a regicide (1Ki 16:8-10). She was not looking for any favours.
Some see it as an attempt to parley with the word ‘zimri’ being understood not as a name but as ‘you hero’ (in line with the rare Ugaritic word dmr), but if so her words were to say the least tactless. However, the fact that it fits so perfectly with the behaviour of the actual Zimri supports the first interpretation, especially in the context of Kings. And her implication might have been that Jehu also would only last seven days.
It may well be that Jehu had in fact never seen the queen mother, but her words and her appearance would leave him in no doubt as to who this was who challenged him so boldly.
2Ki 9:32
‘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.’
Her attitude and behaviour determined the method of her death. A Jehu with his blood aroused, and goaded by a woman he hated and despised (as she hated and despised him at this moment) determined to be avenged for her insults. Lifting up his face to the window he asked who among those who were in the palace were on his side, and ‘two or three eunuchs’ responded.
2Ki 9:33
‘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 trod her under foot.’
Then he commanded the eunuchs to throw Jezebel down from the window onto the road below. So they threw her down, and as her body hit the road her blood spattered the walls and the horses. Joel then drove his chariot over her. By his strategy he had cleverly ensured that Jezebel had been slain by the people, not by himself. His action was simply the final humiliation. And he had not needed to lift a hand against her. He did not want to be known as the man who killed a noblewoman. Nor did he want any Tyrian revenge to be aimed only at him. He wanted it thought of as the will of the people.
2Ki 9:34
‘And when he had come in, he ate and drank, and he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” ’
The fact that there was no resistance in the city suggests that the city elders as a whole approved of, or at least gave consent to, Jehu’s actions. Outside the inner court the house of Ahab was not popular, and this was Jezreel not Samaria (where greater resistance might have been expected). Thus affairs were soon settled and a welcoming feast laid on. This was not as callous as it sounds. Such offered hospitality was an immediate assurance of their support for Jehu, and his participating in it a sign that his intentions towards them were peaceable. It was a covenant meal. All who participated in the meal would be committed to friendship. It is, however, an indication both of Jehu’s indifference in the face of bloodshed, and of his sense of propriety, that he thought of the need for Jezebel to be properly buried, but only after some time had elapsed. It came to his mind as he ate that, ‘cursed woman’ as she was (no longer under the blessing of YHWH as the accepted ruler as a result of the evil of her life), Jezebel was a king’s daughter and should therefore in her death be treated with respect. There is possibly underlying the author’s description of her as ‘cursed’ the thought that even while Jehu was eating and drinking, the scavenger dogs were also enjoying their meal. Jezebel’s covenant meal was with the dogs, and she was on the menu.
2Ki 9:35
‘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.’
Accordingly they went to bury her, but when they investigated they found only her bare skull, he feet, and the palms of her hands. All the remainder had been eaten or dragged off by the hungry scavenger dogs.
2Ki 9:36-37
‘For which reason they came back, and told him. And he said, “This is the word of YHWH, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “In the portion of Jezreel will the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they will not say, ‘This is Jezebel.’ ”
When this was reported back to him he drew attention to the fact that it was the fulfilment of YHWH’s word through Elijah, cited in 1Ki 21:23 as, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel’. This fuller version of the prophecy, which we have no reason for doubting as authentic, although possibly paraphrased by Jehu, was probably recorded in a different original record. It is sufficiently different from the facts to indicate that it was not just invention. It included not only the thought that Jezebel would be eaten by scavenger dogs, but that her remains would act as fertiliser in the area of Jezreel, with nothing remaining to remember her by. There would be insufficient preserved remains for anyone to be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel’. She had become a nothing.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Ki 9:30. She painted her face Rendered in the margin, put her eyes in painting: the word puk, rendered painting, signifies a mineral substance, stybium or stimmi, otherwise called plumbago, or black-lead, a kind of ochre of very fine and loose parts. The word occurs again, Jer 4:30 and both there as well as here, it is mentioned as somewhat with which women coloured their eyes. At this day the women in many parts of the east, tinge their eyes with black to heighten their beauty. The ingenious writer of the “Agreement of the customs between the East Indians and Jews,” well illustrates this matter. “Ezekiel,” says he, “describing the idolatry of Jerusalem, under the figure of a lewd woman, accuses her of rubbing her eye-lids with black-lead when her lovers came to wait upon her.” Eze 23:40. This is what we find also that Jezebel did. She painted her eye lids or her eyes, with black-lead, and put ornaments upon her head. If we may judge of this practice by our fashions, it was not very fit to render women more enticing, yet the custom is still in use among the Indian women that are white, who, to heighten the lustre of their complexion, and render their eyes more languishing, paint them round with black-lead, which serves almost the same purpose as the patches used by some European ladies. See Tavernier’s Travels into Persia, Russel’s Natural History of Aleppo, and Shaw’s Travels. The last cited author observes, that the practice above-mentioned was used as well by the Greeks and Romans as by the eastern nations; and to this Juvenal plainly refers, Sat. 2:
Ille supercilium madida fuligine tinctum, Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes Attollens oculos.
With jet-black pencils on his eye-brows dyes, And, gently touching, paints his trembling eyes.
See Parkhurst on the word pak. Dr. Shaw further observes, that the general method of building, both in Barbary and the Levant, seems to have continued the same from the earliest ages down to this time, without the least alteration or improvement. Large doors, spacious chambers, marble pavements, cloistered courts, with fountains sometimes playing in the midst, are certainly conveniences very well adapted to the circumstances of these hotter climates. The jealousy likewise of these people is less apt to be alarmed, whilst, if we except a small latticed window or balcony which sometimes looks into the street, all the other windows open into their respective courts or quadrangles. It is during the celebration only of some public festival that these houses and their latticed windows or balconies are left open; for, this being a time of great liberty, revelling, and extravagance, each family is ambitious of adorning both the inside and outside of their houses with their richest furniture; while crowds of both sexes, dressed out in their best apparel, and laying aside all modesty and restraint, go in and out where they please. The account that we here have of Jezebel’s dressing herself and looking out at a window for Jehu’s public entrance into Jezreel, gives us a lively idea of an eastern lady at one of these public solemnities. See Trav. p. 227. 229.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The character of Jezebel is one of the most awful we meet with in history among women. So much so, that a false prophetess in the revelations, and probably by way of pointing out more emphatically her infamy, is called after her, Jezebel. And when, in the same book, the final destruction of idolators, under the type of the great whore of Babylon and the mother of harlots, is spoken of in allusion to the same horrible crimes as Jezebel excelled in, it may serve to teach in some measure how very awful in the sight of God such characters are. Rev 2:20 . I only detain the Reader just to repeat how certain God’s judgments are. Jezebel had long triumphed; but a day of reckoning did at length come. So must it be with all. Oh! for grace to keep in view the sure events awaiting. Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him. Isa 3:10-11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard [of it]; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
Ver. 30. And she painted her face. ] Heb., She put her eyes in painting, a , , fucus. This she did ad conciliandum regiam maiestatem, to show herself to Jehu in majesty and royal brightness; for she was extremely proud and arrogant to her very last, and now she would show what a brave spirit she had in this her desperate condition: b and that if she must die, she would die in her gaiety. Peter Martyr here compareth the Pope of Rome to Jezebel in sundry particulars. And besides Pope Joan, an arrant whore, Pope Sylvester and others of them, great magicians; we read of Pope Paulus Venetus, that, Jezebel-like, he painted himself, desired to seem a woman, and was called the goddess Cybele. It was, therefore, a witty answer of a certain painter, who, when he was asked by a cardinal why he coloured the visages of Peter and Paul so red, tartly he replied, I paint them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors. c
a Inunge oculos tuos non stibio diabolico, sed collyrio Christi. – Cypr.
b Ad animositatem ostentandam. – A Lap.
c Plut., in Vit. Adrian.
heard of it: i.e. of the murder of her grandson.
face = eyebrows and eyelids.
tired = adorned.
a window = the lattice.
Jezebel: 1Ki 19:1, 1Ki 19:2
painted her face: Heb. put her eyes in painting, Jer 4:30, Eze 23:40
tired: Isa 3:18-24, Eze 24:17, 1Ti 2:9, 1Ti 2:10, 1Pe 3:3
Reciprocal: Gen 6:16 – window Num 16:27 – and stood Jos 19:18 – Jezreel 1Ki 16:31 – Jezebel 1Ki 21:23 – Jezebel Pro 6:25 – take Pro 7:10 – the attire Isa 3:9 – The show Rev 2:20 – that woman Rev 9:8 – hair
2Ki 9:30. Jezebel heard of it, &c. She had heard that Jehu had slain her son, and slain him for her murders, idolatries, and other crimes, and thrown his dead body into the portion of Naboth, according to the word of the Lord; and now she learned he was come to Jezreel, where she could not but dread falling herself next a sacrifice to his revenging sword. Here we see how she meets her fate. She painted her face Rendered in the margin, put her eyes in painting. The word , puch, translated painting, signifies a mineral substance, stibium, otherwise called plumbago, or black- lead, a kind of ochre of very fine and loose parts. The word occurs again, Jer 4:30, and both there and here is mentioned as somewhat with which women coloured their eyes. It made them look black, and also larger, by dilating their eye-brows; both which circumstances were thought to give them additional beauty. At this day the women, in many parts of the East, tinge their eyes with black to heighten their beauty. And tired her head That is, dressed and adorned it, as the word , theteb, here used, signifies. These things she did, hoping that, by her majestic dress and demeanour, she should strike Jehu and his followers with such awe, that they would be intimidated, and thereby prevented from offering her any personal injury; or rather, because, perceiving her case to be desperate, and that she would not be suffered to live, she was resolved to die with honour and gallantry. And looked out at a window She placed herself at a window at the entering of the gate of the kings palace, to affront Jehu, and set him at defiance.
9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard [of it]; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and {l} looked out at a window.
(l) Being of a harsh and cruel nature, she would still retain her royal state and dignity.
C. The Second Period of Antagonism 9:30-17:41
The kingdoms of Israel and Judah continued without an alliance between them for the rest of the time the Northern Kingdom existed. This period began with Jehu’s accession to the throne of Israel in 841 B.C. and continued until the Assyrian captivity of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C.
Jehu’s execution of Jezebel 9:30-37
Jezebel evidently painted her eyes and adorned her head (2Ki 9:30) to receive Jehu. Unwittingly, or perhaps deliberately, [Note: Patterson and Austel, p. 209.] she prepared herself for her own death. At least one interpreter believed she was trying to seduce Jehu. [Note: S. Parker, "Jezebel’s Reception of Jehu," Maarav 1 (1978):67-78.] Her greeting to Jehu may have been a sarcastic, derogatory threat (2Ki 9:31). [Note: Gray, p. 551.] She asked, "Is it peace?" as the two horsemen and Joram had (2Ki 9:17; 2Ki 9:19; 2Ki 9:22). However she meant, "Have you established peace (by assassinating the king)?" She implied he had not by calling him Zimri. Zimri was the rebel who, about 44 years earlier, had assassinated his king, Elah, only to die seven days later at the hand of Jezebel’s father-in-law, Omri (1Ki 16:8-10; 1Ki 16:17-19). Jezebel implied that Jehu would suffer a similar fate. This interpretation seems better than that Jezebel saw Jehu as a rebel but complemented him on being the one who pruned Omri’s dynasty. [Note: Saul Olyan, "2 Kings 9:31-Jehu as Zimri," Harvard Theological Review 78:1 (1985):203-7.] Wiseman believed Jezebel wanted to reach a peaceful agreement with Jehu. By calling him Zimri she was not referring to Jehu as a traitor but as a hero (Ugaritic dmr). [Note: Wiseman, p. 223.] This seems unlikely to me. "Zimri" may have become synonymous with "traitor" by this time. [Note: Giorgio Buccellali, Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria, p. 203.]
"On the surface Jezebel’s actions seem contradictory. On the one hand, she beautifies herself as if to seduce Jehu, but on the other hand, she insults and indirectly threatens him with this comparison to Zimri. Upon further reflection, however, her actions reveal a clear underlying motive. She wants to retain her power, not to mention her life. By beautifying herself, she appeals to Jehu’s sexual impulses; by threatening him, she reminds him that he is in the same precarious position as Zimri. But, if he makes Jezebel his queen, he can consolidate his power. In other words through her actions and words Jezebel is saying to Jehu, ’You desire me, don’t you? And you need me!’" [Note: The NET Bible note on 9:31.]
In response to Jehu’s question, "Who is on my side?" a few officers (Heb. saris), who acted as harem attendants, threw Jezebel out of her upper-story window. The way Jehu treated Jezebel’s body shows his complete lack of respect for her. Rather than mourning her death, he feasted. He fulfilled Elijah’s prophecy of how God would end her life (1Ki 21:23). She who had ordered the murders of Naboth and his sons died on the very ground she had stolen from them. This was the same plot of ground where Jehu had thrown Joram’s corpse (2Ki 9:24-26). Yahweh and the godly people of Israel shared Jehu’s lack of respect for the queen. Jezebel had been responsible for much of the apostasy, wickedness, and consequent divine discipline that had plagued Israel for over 30 years. As always in Kings, the writer recorded the type of death a person died to document God’s faithfulness in blessing the obedient and cursing the disobedient. [Note: For interesting insights into the spirit of Jezebel and how to combat it, see Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds, pp. 97-120.]
When Jehu occupied Jezreel, he had not yet established himself as Israel’s king. Jezreel was only a secondary residence of Ahab’s royal family, after Samaria. [Note: Siegfried Herrmann, A History of Israel in Old Testament Times, p. 221.]
1. Jehu’s evil reign in Israel 9:30-10:36
Since the writer did not record Jehu’s coronation, we should probably regard his reign as beginning when Joram died (2Ki 9:24). Jehu began Israel’s fifth and longest royal dynasty. He and his descendants reigned 88 years (841-753 B.C.). He himself reigned 28 years (841-814 B.C.). His contemporaries in Judah were Queen Athaliah and King Joash.
"The usual formula to introduce a king is lacking in the case of Jehu because of the unique and violent nature of his rise to power." [Note: Merrill, "2 Kings," p. 278.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)