Context No. 3181 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 9:30-37: in context

30When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window. 31As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?” 32He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 33He 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. 34When 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.” 35They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, “This is the LORD’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, 37and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the surface of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.”’”

When Jehu comes to Jezreel, Jezebel paints her eyes, adorns her head, and looks out the window, taunting him. Jehu calls out, who is on my side? A few eunuchs look out, and at his word they throw her down; she is trampled and dies. Later, when they go to bury her, only her skull, feet, and hands remain, and Jehu recalls that this fulfilled Elijah's word: the dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel.

This is a grim, violent end, and it should be read soberly, not with satisfaction. What the text underlines is the fulfillment of prophecy: Elijah had declared, years before, exactly this fate, and it comes to pass to the letter. Jezebel, who had murdered God's prophets and engineered Naboth's death for a vineyard, meets the judgment long ago pronounced. The passage is a sober testimony that a life of cruelty and idolatry, however secure and long unpunished it seems, does not finally escape God's word. Even a queen's crimes are not forgotten.

Do I take seriously that no one's cruelty finally escapes God's justice, and that his word, once spoken, comes to pass?

Sources

2 Kings 9:36: "This is the LORD's word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah... The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel."
1 Kings 21:23: "The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel."
Galatians 6:7: "Don't be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."