TEXT [Commentary]

3. The death of Jezebel (9:30-37)

30 When Jezebel, the queen mother, heard that Jehu had come to Jezreel, she painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window. 31 When Jehu entered the gate of the palace, she shouted at him, “Have you come in peace, you murderer? You’re just like Zimri, who murdered his master!”[*]

32 Jehu looked up and saw her at the window and shouted, “Who is on my side?” And two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 33 “Throw her down!” Jehu yelled. So they threw her out the window, and her blood spattered against the wall and on the horses. And Jehu trampled her body under his horses’ hooves.

34 Then Jehu went into the palace and ate and drank. Afterward he said, “Someone go and bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king.” 35 But when they went out to bury her, they found only her skull, her feet, and her hands.

36 When they returned and told Jehu, he stated, “This fulfills the message from the LORD, which he spoke through his servant Elijah from Tishbe: ‘At the plot of land in Jezreel, dogs will eat Jezebel’s body. 37 Her remains will be scattered like dung on the plot of land in Jezreel, so that no one will be able to recognize her.’”

NOTES

9:30 Jezebel, the queen mother. See the note on 9:22.

painted her eyelids and fixed her hair and sat at a window. A classic example of ancient Near Eastern iconography (study of visual images or symbols) is the “woman in the window” (often understood as an alluringly coiffed prostitute) depicted on carved ivory plaques found throughout the region (see, e.g., ANEP, picture 131). Cogan and Tadmor (1988:111-112) discount the significance of the parallels here (e.g., Jezebel is certainly not trying to seduce Jehu) and instead cite Freedman’s apt comment, “The idea is that (as) a queen, (she) meets her destiny in full regalia and made up for the occasion” (contrast Sisera’s mother as depicted in Judg 5:28-30). (Typically, kohl, or powdered antimony, was used to paint the lids, lashes, and brows of the eyes black [cf. the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt].)

9:31 Have you come in peace, you murderer? See the previous commentary concerning the repetition of the phrase hashalom [TH7965, ZH8934]. The NLT’s paraphrastic addition, “you murderer,” does not reflect the Hebrew text, although that is surely the intent of Jezebel’s apt “Zimri” insult.

Zimri. This is the infamous Israelite king who apparently reigned only a week after assassinating his predecessor, Elah (see commentary on 1 Kgs 16:15-20).

9:32 eunuchs. Heb., sarisim [TH5631, ZH6247]. The term is here best translated literally, as in the NLT, since these servants evidently wait upon the queen; elsewhere the term takes on the more general nuance of “court officials” or the like (cf. the first note on 8:6).

9:34 ate and drank. He was apparently carrying on as if nothing amiss had taken place.

bury this cursed woman, for she is the daughter of a king. This is a belated acknowledgment of the royal background of Jezebel (concerning Israelite burial practices, see the commentary on 1 Kgs 13:1-34).

9:36 dogs. Thus Elijah’s prophecy concerning Jezebel is finally fulfilled (1 Kgs 21:23; see the note there for details; cf. 9:10). Deborah Appler (2008) has recently suggested that since dogs served as healers and guides to the afterlife in Canaanite myth, the present account acts also as an Israelite parody of that tradition.

9:37 scattered like dung. In contrast to the preceding verse, this verse finds no parallel in 1–2 Kings, thus attesting to the independent nature of the present account.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The previous commentary section characterized Jezebel as clear-eyed and eerily composed as she confronted her soon-to-be assassin Jehu. Not much more need be said here other than to recognize grudgingly that Queen Jezebel—so often portrayed by commentators as the classic villainess of the books of Kings—plays her part with studied class up to the very end (cf. Freedman’s comment, as cited in the second note on 9:30). The final depiction of Jezebel is more tragic than triumphant, I submit, although one is never to dismiss entirely the evident poetic justice of her meeting a fate similar to that which she had earlier arranged for Naboth and his family (see the commentary on 1 Kgs 21:1-29 for further thoughts on this subject). Jehu nevertheless remains the “low-class” cad, an impostor who seizes the throne like Zimri, whom he did indeed emulate (Jezebel pegged him accurately). Still, the prophetic word is to be fulfilled, and Jezebel’s end is as pathetic as any zealous prophet of Yahweh could wish: the pampered child of a Tyrian king becoming nothing more than food for scavenging Israelite dogs. Sic semper tyrannis (“Thus always to tyrants”).

Even so, it is easy to dismiss Jezebel’s death too cavalierly, as Jehu did when he went in to eat and drink. As Hens-Piazza (2006:296) reminds us, “It is not necessary to be innocent to be a victim,” and:

The case of Jezebel is an instance of the ease with which outsiders may be vilified. How we read and remember her not only occasions the opportunity to rehearse her misdeeds but to be mindful of the violence done to her. It also invites us to reconsider those identified as the “Jezebels” of our own world: those who suffer the violence of sustained or disproportionate blame; those who incur damaged reputations because of their gender, ethnic identity, or their status as “other”; and those who are excoriated for their wrongdoings and are deemed undeserving of forgiveness.

It probably is not entirely coincidental, therefore, that the Latin phrase already cited, sic semper tyrannis, was not only attributed to Marcus Junius Brutus when he helped assassinate Julius Caesar, but also to John Wilkes Booth when he assassinated Abraham Lincoln (it also appears prominently on the State Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia). Sometimes, it seems that a “tyrant” becomes one largely in the eyes of the beholder!