2 Kings 9:21
Ver. 21. And Joram said, make ready,.... The chariot, put to the horses; bind them, as the word signifies, to the chariot:
and his chariot was made ready; by his servants immediately:
and Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; not both in the same chariot, but each in his own, for the sake of greater magnificence:
and they went out against Jehu; not in an hostile manner, for they had no notion of him as an enemy; though it is much they had no suspicion of him by his detaining the messengers; but Joram perhaps thought he was desirous of delivering his message himself; and in honour to him, and also being eager to know what it was, went out to meet him: and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite; which had been his, and where, or near it, he was stoned, and his blood shed; a very inauspicious place to meet him in. 2 Kings 9:22Ver. 22. And it came to pass, when Joram saw, Jehu, that he said, is it peace, Jehu?.... Have things gone well at Ramothgilead? art thou come in triumph from thence? or obliged to fly from the Syrians? or art thou come in a peaceable, or in an hostile manner to me?and he answered, what peace; canst thou expect at home or abroad, from me or others:so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? which may be understood both literally of corporeal whoredom, and diabolical arts she was addicted to, and figuratively of idolatry, often called whoredom in Scripture, and of the wicked arts and methods she made use of to inveigle and entice persons into it; and both these very often went together; see Na 3:4 and of which Joram was guilty, at least in part; he connived at all in her, and did not attempt to restrain her, and therefore had no claim to peace, protection, and safety. 2 Kings 9:23Ver. 23. And Joram turned his hand, and fled,.... Taking hold of the horses' reins with it to turn them, or by the motion of it directing the charioteer to turn them back towards Jezreel, whither he fled:and said to Ahaziah, there is treachery, O Ahaziah; a conspiracy formed, and rebellion raised by the captains, at the head of which he supposed Jehu was. 2 Kings 9:24Ver. 24. And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength,.... To give the arrow all the force he could;and smote Jehoram between his arms; that is, between his shoulders, his back being turned to him, and the chariot an open one:and the arrow went out at his heart: quite through him:and he sunk down in his chariot; and died immediately. 2 Kings 9:25Ver. 25. Then said [Jehu] to Bidkar his captain,.... Not Joram's, but Jehu's captain, though he had been the former's, and his father Ahab's also:take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; near to which they were:for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father; either in the same chariot, or on horseback side by side, his guards or retinue following him two and two:the Lord laid this burden upon him; this heavy denunciation of vengeance by Elijah the prophet; and they being together, and pretty near, heard it, as he might remember, which follows. 2 Kings 9:26Ver. 26. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth,.... These are the words of the Lord to Elijah the day after Naboth was put to death:and the blood of his sons, said the Lord; who were put to death with him, that there might be no heirs to the estate:and I will requite thee in this place: take vengeance here, as he now did on his son:now therefore take [and] cast him into the plat [of ground], according to the word of the Lord; whereby it would be fulfilled, see1Ki 21:19, more is here recited than there, which Jehu well remembered. 2 Kings 9:27Ver. 27. But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this,.... That Joram was slain:he fled by the way of the garden house, which perhaps stood upon the spot where Naboth's vineyard was, turned into a garden by Ahab:and Jehu followed after him; as far as Samaria, where he was hid, 2Ch 22:9,and said, smite him also in the chariot; this order he gave to his soldiers, to do to him as he had done to Joram: and they did so,at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam; a city in the tribe of Manasseh, Jos 17:11,and he fled to Megiddo; after he was wounded; another city in the same tribe, Jos 17:11,and died there; at Megiddo; though some think that from thence he was had by his servants to Samaria, and there hid, and, being found, was brought from thence to Jezreel, where he was slain, and died. Jehu was ordered to destroy the whole house of Ahab, and Ahaziah was of that house by his mother's side, and walked in the way of it, and was in conjunction with it, and perished therewith; this, though here recorded, was after the death of Jezebel, and of the seventy sons of Ahab, and of the brethren of Ahaziah. 2 Kings 9:28Ver. 28. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem,.... With the leave of Jehu, because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat, a sincere worshipper of God, 2Ch 22:9,and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David; see 1Ki 22:50. 2 Kings 9:29Ver. 29. And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. In 2Ki 8:25, it is said to be in the twelfth year of his reign; it was at the close of the eleventh, and the beginning of the twelfth; or he began to reign with his father in the eleventh as here, and in the twelfth as there, when his father was dead. 2 Kings 9:30Ver. 30. 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 Gill 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. 2 Kings 9:31Ver. 31. And as Jehu entered in at the gate,.... Either of the city of Jezreel, or of the king's palace:she said, [had] Zimri peace, who slew his master? Elah the son of Baasha king of Israel; no, he had not; he reigned but seven days, and, being besieged, burnt the king's house over him, and died, 1Ki 16:10, suggesting that the like would be his fate, who had slain his master Joram; or the words may be rendered, "O Zimri, the slayer of his master"; calling Jehu so, because of his likeness to Zimri. 2 Kings 9:32Ver. 32. And he lifted up his face to the window,.... On hearing the above words;and said, who is on my side, who? and will assist in taking vengeance on this haughty, imperious, and abusive woman:and there looked out to him two or three eunuchs; who used to wait on her, as such did on women of quality, and attend them in their bedchambers; these, by their looks, signified they were ready to do any thing Jehu should direct them, Jezebel having been, perhaps, a very cruel mistress to them, and so was hated by them; and they might hope, by pleasing Jehu, to be continued at court in their office. 2 Kings 9:33Ver. 33. And he said, throw her down,.... Out of the window upon the ground:so they threw her down; took her up, and cast her headlong, as they were bid:and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall; of the palace where she was:and on the horses; which drew the chariot of Jehu:and he trod her underfoot; with his horses; according to Kimchi, her sentence, and so her death, was stoning, as a retaliation of Naboth; for stoning was done two ways, both by casting down persons on stones, and by casting stones upon them, See Gill on "Ac 7:58". 2 Kings 9:34Ver. 34. And when he was come in,.... To the palace:he did eat and drink; to refresh himself after so long a march, and doing such execution:and said, go see now this cursed woman; who had been the means of bringing a curse on Israel through her idolatry, and upon Ahab and his family, and upon herself, body and soul, being cursed of God and of men:and bury her; forgetting the prophecy concerning her, though afterwards he remembered it:for she is a king's daughter: the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, 1Ki 16:31 and therefore, in honour to royal dignity, though a cursed woman, he ordered the interment of her; or "though" she is the daughter of one of the kings of the nations of the world, as Kimchi, yet honour must be given to whom it is due. 2 Kings 9:35Ver. 35. And they went to bury her,.... The servants of Jehu, according to his orders and instructions;but they found no more of her than the scull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands; the flesh, and even all the rest of her bones, being devoured by dogs, so that there was scarce anything of her to be buried, as in 2Ki 9:10, something similar to this happened to Ascletarion, a mathematician, as related by Suetonius {o}.{o} In Vita Domitian. c. 15. 2 Kings 9:36Ver. 36. Wherefore they came again, and told him,.... How things were, and what only could be found of Jezebel:and he said, this is the word of the Lord; or the fulfilment of it:which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying; as in1Ki 21:23. 2 Kings 9:37Ver. 37. And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel,.... For upon this spot her carcass fell when thrown out of the window of the king's palace, and here it was left; for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which was in the portion of Jezreel, was next to the palace, 1Ki 21:1, there seems to be some allusion to her name Jezebel, which signifies "where is dung?"so that they shall not say, this is Jezebel; there being nothing left of her to be seen or pointed to, nor any grave nor monument over it on which was such an inscription, here lies Jezebel; or that might lead posterity to say, this is Jezebel's grave. Now though the words of this verse are not recorded elsewhere, as the words of the Lord, by Elijah, yet as Jehu was present when they were spoken, and within the hearing of them, he now remembered them, and could repeat them, these circumstances bringing them fresh to his mind.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.