• Tlte familiar ancient association of prophecy and madness it indicated in the Heb. J'JC'D (cf. Jer 2928), but it would be an error to regard it as a scornful epithet on the basis of Hos 9" (Ot. 1 S 211-*'r). In cLissieal Arabic the verb is eraplo.ved of speech or writing in the .special form of prophetic rh.vthmic prose.
t niS;'!;n d-j: probably means the bare steps (or, perhaps, tha midst of the flight of steps). The idiomatic phrase C"i3 puzzled the LXX, who simply transliterate it (B yetfiift. A yetfi' i,«. Luc. combines the two, i^' E, t^J, yxpiu, iwi uix¥ ra*, i»a,3«ff^'?«»).
JEHU
JEHU
565
military staff, to confront the bold insurgent. The two caviilcadea met at the ill-omened snot — the field of Nabotli, ever associated with Aliab's hi^h-handed injustice consummated by treachery and murder. Jehu was quick to seize the advant- age atlorded him by these familiar recollections, and, as Jehoram's heart failed him and he turned, immediately discharged an arrow * with his full strength, that laid the king of Israel low. As he beheld the fallen son of Ahab, he recalled tlie words uttered by Elijah on tliat memorable spot many years before. With characteristic energy Jehu did not allow the opiiortunity of striking down a possible foe to escape him, and Ahaziah of Judah, who had fled at the sight of his kins- man's terrible fate, was immediately pursued on the road which he took to Beth-haggan. At a place called the Ascent of G&r,t near Iblu'am, he was overtaken and mortally wounded, ard ulti- mately escaped to die at Megiddo.
As Jehu entered Jezreel at the head of his retinue, he was greeted by Jezebel as she sat with her attendants at the window in the stately queen's apartment in the upper storey of the royal palace. The splendid courage of the queen- dowager did not forsake her in that terrible hour of doom. Surrounded by Phoenician lu.xury, with elaborate headdress and eyelids painted with stibium, she hurled her angry deliance at the vic- torious insurgent. To Jehu's previous reminiscence of a well-known episode she retorts with another, as she llings the taunt, ' Is it peace, O Zimri, his master's murderer ? ' meaning, ' Is there to be peace between me and such a traitor as you with your brief tenancy of power ? ' The narrator who portrays the luricf facts sheds no ray of chivalry on Jehu's relentless ferocity. The queen at liis bidding is flung by the attendant eunuchs from the lofty upper window into the courtyard below, close to his chariot wheels, and sull'ers instant death. Jehu feasts within the palace in cold- blooded indill'erence until the thought of the yet unburicd queen prompts the command that the ' accursed ' (T^sj) should receive the rights of sepulture due to her dignity and rank. This, however, the carrion kites and scavenger dogs had by this time rendered superfluous.
But the career of as,sassination was not yet ended, and, without Macbeth's remorse, Jehu felt himself *youug in deed,' and could say without compunction —
' I am In blood Stepped In BO far that shoulfl 1 wade no more ReCurnintf were as tedious as^oo'er.' — Mact>eOi, m. It. 187.
The seventy sons and grandsons of the royal harem of Ahab still inhabited Samaria, and they undoubt- edly constituted a ijossible source of danger and di.safl'ection. An artfully worded despatch to the elders in Samaria [?],t challenging them to set up one of these royal princes as a rival king, produced the desired tllect. The palace-commander, the com- mander of the city, and the ^-mrdians of the .sons of Ahab trembled tor their own lives, and complied ■with Jehu's second request. They procured the death of all the royal prim es, anil sent their heads in baskets to Jezreel. This work of destruction was supplemented according to the section (vv.""")
* Jehu poflsewtedthe archer's skill, which Assyrian monuments almost universally atthliute to their monarchs, an aptitude perfcot^'d hy the exert'iacs of the chase. Comp. Uie frequent hunting scenes of the Nimnid (jallorj- of the nrilish Museviin.
t lletli'ha^^'an Is identilled with Jenfn, a Ian;e village in the plain of Msdruelon, on the rtiod tn-tween Nazareth and NahlOa ' Art' -en t of liiir' (proh, =' whelp's hill ') wnsin tlie neight>ourhood Of Ilile'am, identitU-d with a s|>ot where there Is now a ruined towiT called lUCatnf. See Stade, (jfsch. p. 642. footnote, and Baedeker, Paleitiiui anil Sj/ria, 2nd ed. (ISIM) p. 2;il II.
I For SKt'">f of the MX ths LXJt, Josephus, and Cod. Kenn. 1T4 read ]1^\:v, but the sug;gt«Uon SkiIT' ol (Jleric, Uicb., aDd Swald is far mora prcbable.
by a still furtlicr holocaust of 42 princes of the line ot David, kinsmen of Ahaziah.* This pendant to the narrative probably belongs to a later source. Yet the following; verse (v.") clearly shows that further deeds of blood were perpetrated.
The final scene of butchery was enacted in the great temple of the I'hoinician Baal, erected by Ahab in Samaria, where, under pretext of zeal for the worship of the god, a large crowd of his devotees were gathered together and then slaughtered by an armed band of eighty men who were posted at the entrance to guard the e.\it. The Baal ' pillars ' (i/uizzc/juth) were brought forth and destroyed by fire (2 K 10=").