2 Kings 9 Study Notes

9:18 The quickness with which the messenger lined up behind Jehu, signaling a switch of allegiance, showed that personal loyalty to King Joram was as shallow in Jezreel as it had been in Ramoth-gilead and that Jehu was a persuasive leader.

9:19-20 After a second messenger defected to Jehu, the lookout thought he could identify the manner of chariot driving as distinctive of Jehu.

9:21 Joram behaved like a man of bravery and character in going to face the danger himself. King Ahaziah of Judah should also be given similar credit for going with him.

9:22 Taken in its literal meaning, the prostitution mentioned by Jehu probably referred to the temple prostitutes of Baalism associated with the local Baals of Palestine and Jezebel’s imported Baalism from Phoenicia. However, it could easily be stretched to apply to the metaphorical religious adultery of worshiping any god other than the Lord. Sorcery was also a routine part of pagan cults.

9:23-26 These events happened near the second royal palace, the summer palace, the place where Naboth and his sons were murdered through Jezebel’s scheming. Jehu, remembering the time when he and Bidkar, his aide, were witnesses to those murders, enabled the fulfillment of the prophecy by dumping Joram’s corpse on Naboth’s land (see notes at 1Kg 21:13-14; 21:19-24; and 22:37-38). The Hebrew word for “aide,” meaning “third,” indicates that Bidkar was a third person in addition to the chariot driver and Jehu.

9:27-29 Judah was a junior ally of the dynasty of Ahab and was also tied to Ahab by marriage and by the cult of Baal. Though he had not been commanded to do so, Jehu may have believed there was no reason to distinguish between purging the land of the house of Ahab and purging it of the related house of David in Jerusalem—so far had the house of David sunk. Jehu’s men pursued and wounded King Ahaziah at the ascent into the Gur Pass near Ibleam, although some locate this pass close to the pass that led from Taanach south. The wounded Ahaziah was permitted to flee to Megiddo where he died. Neither Joram nor Ahaziah are given formal closers to their records since Jehu’s massacres rendered such records superfluous.

9:30-37 This report, written by a follower of Yahweh who considered Jezebel the incarnation of evil, described the courage and resolve of this idolatress and murderess as she faced death. She tended to her appearance with black eye paint and then boldly faced her killer. Her fate again showed that the loyalty of the people to Ahab was quite shallow. Two or three of Jezebel’s eunuchized palace slaves, when challenged by Jehu, threw her to her death. Then, while Jehu ate and drank, the dogs destroyed the corpse of the Phoenician princess just as was prophesied (1Kg 21:23).