Jezreel

“ But Jehu’s character as a soldier was too well known to permit the rulers of Jezreel and the elders to entertain the thought of encountering him in open battle. So they made this answer:
“We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any king. Do thou that which is good in thine eyes.” ”

“ Now Joram had been defending Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, from Hazael king of Aram. 15 And king Jehoram returned to be healed at Jezreel from the wounds which the Arameans had given him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. And Jehu said, If this is what you want, Let no one go out and escape from the city to go report it in Jezreel. 16 And Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel, because Joram was lying there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. ”

“ Now when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself and stood upon a tower, and said, he was a fine servant that had killed his master! And when he looked up to her, he asked who she was, and commanded her to come down to him. At last he ordered the eunuchs to throw her down from the tower; and being thrown down, she be-sprinkled the wall with her blood, and was trodden upon by the horses, and so died. When this was done, Jehu came to the palace with his friends, and took some refreshment after his journey, both with other things, and by eating a meal. ”

“ Ahab yoked his chariot, and made all speed to Jezreel. The hand of the Lord, or, as the Targum says, the spirit of strength, came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins, that is, tucked up his long garments in his girdle, and ran; and notwithstanding the advantage the king had by means of his chariot, the prophet reached Jezreel before him. ”

“ Jezreel was the place where the last great judgment of God upon the kingdom of Israel had been executed. The apostasy from the Lord, and the innocent blood of His servants, shed by Jezebel and the whole house of Ahab, had been there avenged upon them by Jehu, the founder of the dynasty which was reigning at the time of the prophet. At the command of God, Jehu is anointed as king by one of the sons of the prophets sent by Elisha, 2 Kings ix. In vers. 6-9 the Lord says to him through the latter: "I anoint thee king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. ”

“ Note, Note, Neither the pomp of kings nor the power of kingdoms can secure them from God's destroying judgments, if they continue to rebel against him. (2.) What is the ground of this controversy: I will revenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, the blood which Jehu shed at Jezreel, when by commission from God and in obedience to his command, he utterly destroyed the house of Ahab, and all that were in alliance with it, with all the worshippers of Baal. ”

“ By its association with the worship of Baal, Jezreel got a bad reputation, and in the prophet Hosea degenerate Israel is called Jezreel, a name somewhat similar, but with very different associations (chap. i. 4) . Shunem was the place of encampment of the Philistine army before the battle of Gilboa, and also the residence of the woman whose son Elisha restored to life. Bethshemesh must not be confounded with the town of the same name in Judah, nor with that in the tribe of Naphtali. ”

“ Here let us observe that, as obsequious as the elders of Jezreel were to Jezebel's orders which she sent from Samaria for the murder of Naboth, so obsequious were the elders of Samaria afterwards to Jehu's orders which he sent from Jezreel for the murder of Ahab's seventy sons, only that was not done by course of law, 2 Kings x. ”

“ And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. ”

“ The three symbolical names of the children of the prophet here once more return. The femin. suffix in זרעתיה, referring to יזרעאל, need not at all surprise us; for, in the whole passage before us, the sign disappears in the thing signified. In point of fact, however, Jezreel is equivalent to Israel to be sowed anew. (It is not the Israel to be planted anew, which is a figure altogether different; the sowing has always a reference to the increase.) ”

“ The general at once acknowledged the call, “drove furiously” to Jezreel, and, having slain both kings, proceeded to exterminate the whole of the royal family (2 Kings ix., x.) . A similar fate befell the royal princes of Judah (see Athaliah) , and thus, for a time at least, the new king must have had complete control over the two kingdoms (cf. 2 Chron. xxii. 9) . ”

“ He told her the sturdy refusal of Naboth, and she broke into a scornful laugh. "Are you King of Israel?" she asked. "Why this is playing at kinghood! [754] It is not the way we do things in Tyre. Arise, eat bread, be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
Did he admire the mannish spirit of the Syrian princess, or did he secretly shrink from it? At any rate he let Jezebel take her own course. With intrepid insolence she at once wrote a letter in Ahab's name from Samaria, and sent it sealed with his signet to the elders of Jezreel. ”

“ All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel."
17 Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, "You are a great people, and have great power. You shall not have one lot only; 18 but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it's farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong." ”

“ The discrepancy between “the eleventh year” here and “the twelfth year” in 2Ki 8:25 may be most simply explained, on the supposition that there was a difference in the way of reckoning the commencement of the years of Joram’s reign.
Verses 30-31Verses 30-31
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.” פּוּך is a very favourite eye-paint with Oriental women even to the present day. ”

“ We left Elijah at the entrance of Jezreel, still appearing publicly, and all the people's eyes upon him. In this chapter we have him again absconding, and driven into obscurity, at a time when he could ill be spared; but we are to look upon it as a punishment to Israel for the insincerity and inconstancy of their reformation. When people will not learn it is just with God to remove their teachers into corners. Now observe, I. How he was driven into banishment by the malice of Jezebel his sworn enemy,
ver. ”

“ When the Jezreelite [1] sheikh refused to sell the family inheritance to the king, Jezebel treacherously caused him to be arrested on a charge of treason, and with the help of false witnesses he was found guilty and condemned to death. For this the prophet Elijah pronounced a solemn curse upon Ahab and Jezebel, which was fulfilled when Jehu, who was anointed king at Elisha’s instigation, killed the son Jehoram, massacred all the family, and had Jezebel destroyed (1 Kings xxi.; 2 Kings ix. 11–28) . What is told of her comes from sources written under the influence of strong religious bias ”

“ And the driving is like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, because he drives like a maniac.
21 And Jehoram said, Prepare it. And his chariot was prepared. And Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and came upon him on the land of Naboth the Jezreelite. ”

“ Jehu shot an arrow, and it struck Joram, so that he sank down in his chariot and died.
Then Jehu went on into the town; and Jezebel thought she would still try to make friends with the people; so, instead of mourning for her son, she painted her face, and put on a headdress, and looked out at a window. Jehu said, "Who is on my side? who?" And some of the servants looked out. He said, "Throw her down." So the servants threw Jezebel out of the window, and her blood sprinkled on Jehu's horses. But he went on, and went into the palace, and was made king, and had a feast. ”

“ Enter Jezebel.
Jezebel.
Ay, hearken to the utterance of the crown.
You are all come to hear a war declared.
Now I, the crown, declare it unto you.
I declare war upon our enemies.
They are all present, standing in this place,
Waiting the execution of our sword.
(To Prophet.) This man, the madman from the desert, first,
Who rages like a desert-storm, that kills
With sand, burning hot sand, pitiless sand.
(To Joram.) This next, the hater of his house, our son,
Who, for a wound that pains him would be glad
That thousand others should be sick with wounds.
(To Jehu.) ”

“ What! says Jezebel (v. 7) , Dost thou govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread. She does well to persuade him to shake off his melancholy, and not to sink under his burden, to be easy and cheerful; whatever was his grief, grieving would not redress it, but pleasantness would alleviate it. Her plea is, Dost thou now govern Israel? This is capable of a good sense: "Does it become so great a prince as thou art to cast thyself down for so small a matter? Thou shamest thyself, and profanest thy crown; it is below thee to take notice of so inconsiderable a thing. ”

“ O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee."
And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation; and he said, "Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat: thus saith the Lord unto you, 'Fear not ye, neither be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. ”

“ I ask thee, as a Christian priest, wouldst thou have me tolerate the sins of heresy in my own home? Remember, Jezebel, she beguiled Ahab, her daughter, Athaliah, and her husband, Jehoram, also, into gravest transgressions. So God’s people were led, little by little, to the groves of Astarte. I think I’ve a good parallel: Jezebel was the daughter of a priest, so this Rizpah of Bozrah. With her hot temper, pride of exalted birth, and a [460] mouthful of arguments; a man meets such a woman as a pigmy, to crouch, or as a knight, to resist. ”

“ Their groans and shouts reach even Jezra’s ear;
“The temple’s fir’d (they cry in piercing tones)
No shelter left to rest our weary bones!
God is the strongest, all our hopes are vain,
We strive ’gainst him, and therefore suffer pain;
Great God! restrain thy wrath, in pity save,
And penitent we’ll seek the silent grave.”
O’er dead and dying frantic Jezra speeds,
Through ranks of footmen, and ’midst frothy steeds,
To where brave Titus, struggling with the rest,
Inspires his men, and shews his dazzling crest ”

“ He would rather die in the wilderness than as Baal's prophet died, according to Jezebel's threatening (v. 2) , lest the worshippers of Baal should triumph and blaspheme the God of Israel, whom they will think themselves too hard for, if they can run down his advocate. He pleads, "It is enough. I have done enough, and suffered enough. I am weary of living." Those that have secured a happiness in the other world will soon have enough of this world. ”

“ In the letter to the church at Thyatira it is written:
“That woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess (a teacher) to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication (fornication in the book of Revelation signifies idolatry—image worship and, also, union with the principles and ways of the world) and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
Jezebel was the Pagan wife of Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel stands for the union of Paganism and Judaism. But Jezebel here represents a professed church of Christ. ”