He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot.
When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.”
They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, “This is Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel,
and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv33, 34, 36, 37 This he did by the motion of the Spirit…
This he did by the motion of the Spirit of God, that her blood should be shed, that had shed the blood of innocents, to be a spectacle and example of God’s judgments to all tyrants.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv33–37 2Ki 9:33 And he said, Throw her down. So…
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 trode her under foot.
Ver. 33. And some of her blood.] Her brains, that devised mischief against the servants of God, are strewed upon the walls: and she that insulted upon the prophets, is trampled upon by the horses’ heels.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv33, 34, 36, 37 They threw her down; being mercenary creatures, they quickly…
They threw her down; being mercenary creatures, they quickly comply with Jehu’s command, sacrificing her life to save their own.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On v33 And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung…
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, Kg1 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.
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Next: 2 Kings Chapter 10
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v34 And said - It seems he had forgot the…
And said - It seems he had forgot the charge given him above, ver. 10. A king's daughter - He doth not say, because she was a king's wife, lest he should seem to shew any respect to that wicked house of Ahab, which God had devoted to utter destruction.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv33, 34, 35, 37 Verse 33. So they threw her down] What a…
Verse 33. So they threw her down] What a terrible death! She was already, by the fall, almost dashed to pieces; and the brutal Jehu trampled her already mangled body under his horse's feet!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 2Ki 9:34. Go see now this cursed woman —…
2Ki 9:34. Go see now this cursed woman — She had been the greatest delinquent in the house of Ahab. She had introduced Baal; slain the Lord’s prophets; contrived the murder of Naboth; excited her husband first, and then her sons, to do wickedly. She had been a curse to her country, and one whose memory all who loved their country execrated. Three reigns her reign had lasted, but now, at length, her day was come to fall, and meet with the due reward of her deeds. And bury her, for she is a king’s daughter — He does not say, because she was a king’s wife, lest he should seem to show any respect to that wicked house of Ahab, which God had devoted to ignominy and destruction. When Jehu gave this order about burying Jezebel, he seems to have for gotten the prediction of the prophet, and the charge given, 2Ki 9:10. But though he had forgotten it, God had not: while he was eating and drinking, the dogs had devoured her dead body; so that there was nothing left but her bare scull, (the painted face was gone,) and her feet and hands. The hungry dogs paid no respect to the dignity of her extraction: a king’s daughter was no more to them than a common person. It is probable, when the horsemen were gone, who trod her under foot, the footmen stripped her, and left her in her own blood exposed to the dogs, that came out of the city in great numbers, by the ordination of Providence, and with a more than common hunger, otherwise they could not have devoured the body in so short a time.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v34 Leaving the mangled body on the bare earth, Jehu…
Leaving the mangled body on the bare earth, Jehu went to the banquet. It was, no doubt, important that he should at once show himself to the court as king. In calling Jezebel “this cursed one,” Jehu means to remind his hearers that the curse of God had been pronounced upon her by Elijah 2Ki 9:36, and so to justify his own conduct.
A king’s daughter - Merely as the widow of Ahab and mother of Jehoram, Jehu would not have considered Jezebel entitled to buriah. But she was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians (marginal reference), and so a princess born. This would entitle her to greater respect. Wilfully to have denied her burial would have been regarded as an unpardonable insult by the reigning Sidonian monarch.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv34–37 Bury. He had forgotten the prediction of Elias, ver.…
Bury. He had forgotten the prediction of Elias, ver. 36. (Salien) --- Daughter of Ethbaal, wife of Achab, mother of Joram king of Israel, and mother-in-law of Joram king of Juda, and grandmother of his son Ochozias. (Calmet) --- Her great connexions seemed to entitle her to the rights of sepulture. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv35–36 found no more of her than the skull, and…
found no more of her than the skull, and the palms of her hands, &c.--The dog has a rooted aversion to prey on the human hands and feet.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv33–37 33. They threw her down — The eunuchs saw…
33. They threw her down — The eunuchs saw in Jehu their future master, and instantly obeyed his command.
He trode her under foot — He drove his horses and chariot in his usual furious way over the already fearfully mangled body of the queen, crushing out the last spark of life, and scarcely turning to look behind him, drove on into the court of the palace, his horses and chariot becoming sprinkled with her blood. This is one of the most terribly vivid and fearful pictures in all the annals of tragedy.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv33–36 33. So they threw her down] It is easy…
33. So they threw her down] It is easy to understand how such an imperious mistress would have few friends among her servants. And to them, as well as to her, the news of Jehu’s revolt and Joram’s death would have been brought. So with Eastern fickleness they at once take the side which seems victorious.
some of her blood] The fall was from such a height as to kill her, and apparently she was torn and bruised as she descended, so that the blood from her wounds spirted forth at once.
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and he trode her under foot] i.e. Drove his horses and chariot over her fallen body. Hence the LXX. renders ‘they trode her’.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv33–37 (33) Throw her down.—Comp. Note on 1Ch_13:9.
(33) Throw her down.—Comp. Note on 1Ch_13:9.
Was sprinkled on.—Spirted on to.
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He trode her under foot.—All the versions have they—i.e., the horses—trode. Thenius supposes they were excited by the blood being sprinkled upon them. But “he”—i.e., Jehu—“trode her under foot,” plainly means, he drove over her fallen body. Ewald goes beyond the text in stating that Jehu spurned her with his own feet. (For the verb, comp. 2Ki_7:20.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv33–37 And he said, Throw her down. A splendid example…
And he said, Throw her down. A splendid example of the wicked man"s prompt and bold and unscrupulous decision. A queen, a queen-mother, always more tenderly regarded than an ordinary queen-regnant, a princess in her own right (see ver. 34), daughter of a neighboring and powerful potentate, settled in her kingdom for over thirty years, the most powerful person the state during that entire period, backed up by the numerous and dominant party of her co-religionists, she is to Jehu nothing but a wicked woman who is in his way; she inspires him with no awe, she does not even touch him with any feeling of respect. "Throw her down." History presents no parallel to such an indignity. Kings and queens had been, time after time, removed by violence; their lives had been taken; they had been transplanted to another sphere of being. But the open casting forth from a window of a crowned head by the menials of the court, at the command of a usurper, was a new thing, unprecedented, unparalleled. It must have been a shock to all established notions of propriety. In commanding it Jehu showed his superiority to existing prejudice, his utter fearlessness, and his willingness to create a new precedent, which might seriously shake the monarchical principle. So they threw her down. There appears to have been no hesitation. The boldness of Jehu communicated itself to those whom he addressed; and the eunuchs violently seized the person of the queen, and precipitated her from the window to the ground below. She fell on the road by which the palace was approached, and lay there bleeding and helpless. And some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall. As she fell, some portion of her body struck against the wall of the palace, and left splashes of blood upon it. There were probably some projections from the wall between the window and the ground. And on the horses. As her body struck the projections, a bloody shower spurted from it, which fell in part upon the horses that drew Jehu"s chariot. And he trode her underfoot. Like Tullia (Liv, 1:48), Jehu had his chariot driven over the prostrate corpse, so that the hoofs of his horses, and perhaps his own person, were sprinkled with the royal blood. Compare the passage of Livy, "Amens, agi-tantibus furiis, Tullia per patris corpus carpentum egisse fertur, partemque sanguinis ac caedis paternae cruento vehiculo, contaminata ipsa respersaque, tutisse ad penates suos virique sui." It is not often that royal corpses, unless in the heat of battle, have received such treatment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v37 And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung…
2Ki_9:37
And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field.
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The fruits of perfect sin
1. Jezebels is the character of one complete in evil. She enters the stage of human events in the fulness of her wickedness. She does not come before our notice till she has passed through all the stages of early conviction, strife with conscience, and sometimes of the warnings of a better nature. She is one whom savages would pronounce wicked, and from whom they would start as a dangerous member of even their social body. There are some who are brought before us in this way in life, as if the curtain were suddenly drawn up, and they were presented to the eye for the first time in their full development. We have been allowed to see none of the inward workings, none of the early struggle and strife. All this has gone on between themselves and God alone. His eye only has noticed, and His hand recorded the gages, challenges, and contests between the tempter and the sinner. We see but the end of the conflict. We perceive only the conqueror standing forward flushed with his success, and the ranks of the vanquished receding into the far distance on either side, like the forms of beautiful dreams scared by the breaking in of morning light. In the great portrait gallery of Holy Scripture no one is found exactly like her. She stands individually distinctive and terrible.
2. Here is her history. Ahab is mentioned as coming to the throne of Samaria nine hundred and eighteen years before Christ. The marriage with Jezebel is mentioned as a decided step in evil in Ahab, and is clearly connected with his idolatry. The next mention of her is her desire and effort to kill all the prophets of the Lord, and Obadiahs success in saving them. Then came the denunciation of God upon Jezebel, and the prophecy of her being eaten of dogs in the portion of Jezreel There is a pause in her history, and we hear no more of the queen-mother during the reign of Ahabs successor. The wicked king had sunk to his doomed grave. But she, the author and abettor of his sinfulness, lived on. Her end is the next and last circumstance of her life; very terrible. She comes out again with her old characteristic. The long pause in which she has been withdrawn from observation has made no change in her character save to stereotype all old failings, and gnarl into her form the sins of her earlier days. Shameless and barefaced in her iniquity, she looked out for admiration from the very man who was returning as a conqueror over her husbands race.
3. There are certain features which belong to the thoroughly wicked person, and the approach to those characteristics may always excite alarm and anxiety. The principal points about Jezebel are these. A woman holding an evil influence over her husband, and turning her pertinacity and vigour of practical energy and power into the pursuit of the line in which the man hesitated. The wicked woman has an energy of evil which makes her far worse than the man. Her persecution of God and good men. Her casting in her lot with the wicked and the profligate. Her unflinching and unhesitating profligacy in the destruction of Naboth. Her raillery of the king. Her vanity overcoming in the end of life all other feelings, natural or not.
(1) I mentioned the first which was visible in Jezebel. Her decided and unhesitating influence over Ahab. A firm grasp over the conduct of another shows a finish in the character of the person who uses it; still more so when it is complete in evil. No one can take a very decided course unless he have an unwavering trust in his own opinions, or have given himself over to utter indifference. Either a man must have a conscience void of offence, or no conscience at all, to proceed in a very vigorous manner to the attainment of a certain end. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Most men are to a certain degree hesitating. An indecision with regard to faith in some one article or detail: an undetermined mind as to serving God or no; a state of sin or indulged infirmity still hindering the moral advances; all these make men oscillate in as many degrees and with as many variations as there are shades of character and distinctions between dispositions. Now he that can guide another fairly must necessarily have a firm and steady line himself. It is harder to gain this entire ascendancy over another individual mind, than it is to have it over the aim or end of a long course of action. The hesitating eye looks up to the guide either for good or evil. If it see a single swerve discouragements at once ensue: if it meet a firm, steady, unwavering gaze, reassurance comes, and a steady step is the consequence. It is a fearful thing to settle the swerving mind when that swerve is on the sand-bar which crosses the entrance to the harbour, and when the settled action given is to drive the vessel out again into the wide though easy deep. Better be among the rocks than float for ever away from shore and harbour. It is a tremendous thing for any one to influence anothers will, so that when he hesitates as to a doubtful step, the other with a cheering cry induces him to take it; it is a fearful thing to bid the poor trembler, who shuddered on the edge of the leap, to rush on, and to spring oneself across the chasm to give him encouragement. Fearful is it at any time, but far more so when the steady gaze is only assumed, when the firm tone of voice belies the condemning conscience, and when the daring act of final decision is even to him who takes the step taken in the dark. And yet how common a case, how common a character? The very fact of encouraging or urging on another tends to urge on self, and the voice which cheers on a companion in an evil way, or to take a false step, too often hushes the inward whisper of our own remonstrating conscience. We gain firmness by making others firm, and become determined moral speculators by the mere fact of endorsing anothers speculation. Few signs are more certain of far advance in evil than when a man commits himself to urge on another to a doubtful, sinful, or an uncertain course of moral action.
(2) But, again, Jezebel openly persecuted the good, killed the prophets of the Lord, and strove to get Elijah within her grasp. This, too, is a sign of advance in evil. Men do not persecute boldly till they have gone on far in their own sinful course. Persecution infers in the persecutor not so much the love of vengeance and the wish to inflict pain, as the desire to get rid if possible of the testimony and witness of the good. The object of the wicked is to suppress good; to show it to be an unreality, an imposition, a sham; to proclaim it false to its professed principles; to discover some flaw in the motive, or some failure in the act. He hath a devil, and is mad. He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. This is the persecutors aim. Not so much revenge and simple hate for its own sake. The foundation of this feeling is the deep conviction in the persecutor himself, that he has no ground to stand on, save one of sin; has nothing in common with the good, and comes not into the congregation of the righteous. Yet he feels the truth of that ground, its power, its reality. He acknowledges its reality, but he dare not occupy it. He has forfeited his standing. Consequently, the more wicked a man is, the more he longs to drive the good from his ground and the more he persecutes.
(3) But more than this, Jezebel made the wicked her companions; the Baal prophets ate at her table. There is ever a step between persecuting the good and fraternising with the wicked. The latter is a step further in advance. It is positive, the other negative. To love wickedness is in one sense worse than to hate goodness. It is a harder transition for hate to blend into love, than for love to melt off into hate. We often see men not good, not holy, living without God, still hating sin and despising the wicked when brought before them, shrinking from what is mean and vile, shunning the false motive, yet not themselves holy. Positive goodness is a step further than the negative evil.
(4) But the next feature of Jezebels character is that of intrigue and calumny for the purpose of gaining her designs. No man ever stands still in the path of his moral nature. He advances or recedes, but he is in motion. When once the mind is steadily fixed upon evil, the next condition is sure to be one of tact, intrigue, and management to obtain the guilty object. Lies, untruthfulness, slander, meanness, and every kind of duplicity, crowd in and fill up the vacuum between the settled intention to do wrong, and the sinful object itself.
(5) Her end is significant. A long interval elapses in which we hear but one thing of her, that her whoredoms were many; and we are led up to that moment to imagine that either in seclusion she had become penitent, or that the sinful heart had exhausted its fire, and the inward volcano become extinct. But she appears again the very wreck of what she had been--an old woman, painted on the face and tired in the hair, leaning from the upper window to gaze down upon and attract the notice of the returning conqueror, whose sword was yet red with the blood of her husbands family. What a picture! Lost to every sense and touch of even natural feeling, the wretch is wrapped up in self; without God, and without an ultimate object. But such is the symptom of finished sin, it quenches the last spark of even natural feeling; it gnaws downwards from the bloom and stem of religion and morality, and eats away the very root of the original creation. It is a symptom of finished evil when surrounded by desolating calamity, brought on by their own wickedness, men compelled to withdraw for a little while from the stage of human action peer forth again from time to time spectral anatomies of what they were, and caricatures of even the monstrous features they originally presented. Such was Jezebel, and the incidents of her life suggest no insignificant tests of a character that is rapidly approximating to a condition of finished and hopeless iniquity. (E. Monro.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv33, 35 Throw her down
Throw her down
Jehu was telling the eunuchs to throw Jezebel out of the window.
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So they threw Jezebel down
The eunuchs threw Jezebel out of the high window and she died when she hit the ground. (See: Euphemism)
Jehu trampled her underfoot
This means that he drove his horses over her body. AT: "Jehu's horses that were pulling his chariot trampled her body under their feet" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
See now to
The phrase "see now to" means to give your attention to whatever is specified. AT: "Now go to" (See: Idiom)
for she is a king's daughter
Since Jezebel was the daughter of a king, it was necessary to bury her properly. AT: "because she is a king's daughter and therefore should be buried properly" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
horse
palace
curse
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v34 9:34-37 The scene depicting Jezebel’s end brought Elijah’s prophecy…
9:34-37 The scene depicting Jezebel’s end brought Elijah’s prophecy against the house of Ahab to final fulfillment (1 Kgs 21:21-24; 22:34-38).
9:34 Jehu went into the palace to dine, a tacit declaration of his assumption of the throne.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.