The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 164

I. JEHU'B APPflOA0II TO JEZREEL. 1. The watchman's announce17Ulnt. In the far distance the watchman on the tower of Jezreel beholds a company of horsemen rapidly opproa~h~ng. Wh11t can it portend? The report is brought to the king, who unsusp1c1ously sends out a mesuenger on horseback to inquire. Towers and watchmen are for the protection of a city and its inhabitants. But "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Ps. cxxvii. 1). And iC the Lord decrees the destruction of a city, or of those in it, towers and watchmen will do little to p~otect them. 2. ,Successive messengers. The~e verses are chiefly interesting as illustrating the character of Jehu. The messenger sent by Jehoram soon reaches the company, and asks, "Is it peace?" The idea probably is, "What tidings from the field of battle?" Jehu does not even answer him civilly, bnt, with a rude" What hast thou to do with peace?" he orders him to tum behind him. A man this who will brook no delay, submit to no curb, endure no check, in his imperious course. He sweeps obstacles from his path, and bends them to his will. This messenger returns not, and a second, sent out from the king, meets a like reception, and is also compelled to ride behind. 3. Jehu recognized. At length the horsemen are near enough for the watchman to get a closer view, and he has no difficulty in recognizing the furious driving of the leading figure as the driving of Jehu. It is familiar to all that character imprints itself on manner. Physiognomy, walk, gesture, handwriting even, are windows through which, to an observant eye, the soul looks out. Hypocrisy may create a mask behind which the real character seeks to hide itself. But hypocrisy, too, has characteristic ways of betraying its presence, and the mask cannot always be kept on. If we wish habitually to appear true, we must be true. IL JEHORAM AND AHAZIAH SLAIN. 1. The fateful meeting. On learning that Jehu was approaching, King Jehoram, now convalescent, prepared his chariot, and, accompanied by Ahaziah of Judah, went out to meet his captain. (1) The two encountered at the portion of Na both the Jezreelite. Strange coincidence, only, as we shall see below, more than coincidence. As the chariots meet, the king puts the anxious question, "Is it peac.e, Jehu?" Alas I the day of peace is over; it is now the day of vengeance. (2) Jehu throws no disguise over his intentions. With his usual vehement abruptness he at once bursts forth, "What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?" Jehn was right: there can be no peace in a state when the foundations of religion and morality are everywhere subverted. When fountains of immorality are opened at head-quarters, their poisonous influence speedily infects the whole nation (Hos. iv. 5). They who are responsible for the subversion of righteousness in a state, must bear the penalty. (3) Jehoram needed to hear no more. He saw at a glance the situation, and with a shout, " Treachery, 0 Ahaziah ! " he tnmed and fled. But there was no grain of pity in Jehu. With fierce promptitude he seizes his bow, fits one arrow to the string, and, taking sure aim, smites the flying king right through the heart. Jehoram falls-is dead. 2. Blood for blood. The tragedy thus transacted was in the immediate neighbourhood of Naboth's vineyard. On that very spot, or near it, Naboth's owu blood had been shed (1 Kings xxi. 13), and, as this verse shows (ver. 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 (1 Kings xxi. 19-24). .Ahab himself was subsequently spared, but the doom predicted against him had now fallen on his son: " In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine" (1 Kings xxi. 19). 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 ~he prophetic oracle. Then, to give it literal accomplishment, he b11de Bidkar give orders that the corpse of Jehoram should be thrown into the plat of ground which formerly belonged to Naboth. Startling correspondences often thus occur between sin and its mode of punishment. When they occur in fiction, we speak of them as instances of "poetic justice." But poetry, in this as in other cases, is " unconscious philosophy," and is not opposed to truth. Its  206 THE SECOND BOOR. OF THE KINGS. [ou. IX, 1-37,