Jehu: His Leadership and Legacy - Part 2

This is the second part on my study of Jehu, king of Israel. This study is divided into two parts. Part one, “Jehu: His Leadership and Legacy,” was an overview of the political and religious crises that prompted the prophetic community of the Northern Kingdom to take action and plan the overthrow of the Omrides. The second part of this study, the present post, deals with Jehu’s anointing and the actions he took in order to eliminate Jezebel and the members of Ahab’s family.

Jehu’s Anointing

The anointing of Jehu took place while he was with the army at Ramoth Gilead in preparation for war with Hazael, king of Syria (2 Kings 9:1-13). At that time Elisha gave orders to one of his servants to anoint Jehu as king. Elisha’s messenger came to where Jehu was meeting with his officers; he took Jehu apart, poured oil on his head and anointed him king over the Lord’s people Israel (2 Kings 9:6). This statement serves to identify Israel as God’s people, in contradistinction to those who worshiped Baal. Then, in the name of Elisha, the messenger gave Jehu the order to utterly destroy the house of Ahab to avenge the innocent blood shed by Ahab and Jezebel. After the prophet left, Jehu declared to his fellow officers what had just happened. The officers hastily spread their garments for Jehu to stand on, blew the trumpets and proclaimed: Jehu is king (9:7).

Jehu began to carry out his mission immediately. He set off, together with a group of his horsemen, to Jezreel, where Joram (also known as Jehoram), a grandson of Ahab, king of Israel, was recovering from a wound that he had received in battle (2 Kings 9:17-24). When Joram was told that Jehu was driving his chariot “furiously,” Joram sent messengers to Jehu, asking, “Is it peace?” When the messengers did not return, Joram, together with his cousin Ahaziah, king of Judah, went to meet Jehu. When Joram asked, “Is it peace?” Jehu responded by denouncing the sins of Jezebel. At this Joram cried: “It is treason, Ahaziah.” When Joram turned to escape, Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram in the back and the arrow pierced his heart and Joram died on his chariot. Jehu commanded his aide Bidkar to take Joram’s body and throw it in the field that belonged to Naboth. This action fulfilled the oracle of Elijah concerning the death of Ahab’s house.

Jehu then proceeded to kill Ahaziah, king of Judah, the son of Athaliah (9:27-29). When Ahaziah saw that Jehu had killed Joram, Ahaziah fled but Jehu’s men caught up with him and wounded him (2 Kings 9:27). Ahaziah once again escaped, but he died in Megiddo of his wounds. Ahaziah’s body was taken to Jerusalem by his aides, where he was buried in the tomb of the kings.

The Death of Ahab’s Family

After having killed Joram and Ahaziah, Jehu went to Jezreel to deal with Jezebel, the queen-mother. Jezebel, when told what had happened, prepared to meet her death with dignity: she painted her eyes, arranged her hair, and put on her royal garments. Her defiance in the face of death is seen in her insulting words to Jehu from the window of the royal residence: “Have you come in peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” Jezebel’s words refer to the murderous actions of Zimri who usurped the throne by killing the family of Baasha. Without an answer, Jehu asked some palace officials to throw Jezebel down from the window. When Jezebel’s body hit the ground, her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses. Jehu drove his horses and his chariots over her body, and then, he entered the palace to eat. Later, when his men went to bury Jezebel, they only found her skull, her feet, and her hands. The rest of her body was eaten by dogs. When Jehu was told what had happened, he recollected the words of the Lord to Elijah that dogs would eat the body of Jezebel in Jezreel (2 Kings 9:36-37; see 1 Kings 21:23).

Jehu continued the purge of Ahab’s family by sending letters to guardians of the seventy sons and grandsons of Ahab who lived in Samaria. His asked them to select one of the descendants of Ahab, make him king and be prepared to fight and defend the kingdom. Terrified of the possible outcome of a resistence, the rulers of the cities and the guardians of the royal heirs submitted themselves to Jehu. Jehu then sent a second letter asking for the heads of Ahab’s descendants. The city officials decapitated the descendants of Ahab, put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel. The heads were then pilled up in two heaps and placed at the city gate until morning. The next day Jehu began to kill those associated with Ahab: “So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends, his priests, leaving him no survivors” (2 Kings 10:11).

After eliminating the family of Ahab, Jehu set out to go to Samaria. On his way to Samaria he met forty-two relatives of Ahaziah, all members of the royal house of Judah who were going to Jezreel to visit Jezebel and the members of her family. Jehu ordered his men to kill them and place their bodies in a cistern near Beth Eked (2 Kings 10:12-14).

Before Jehu reached Samaria, he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab. Jehonadab was the leader of the Rechabites, a group of people who remained faithful to the old traditions of the religion of Yahweh. Because of the Rechabites’s commitment of loyalty to Yahweh, Jehu invited Jehonadab to join him in his quest to purify the religion of Yahweh. Jehonadab accepted the invitation and together they went to Samaria to confront the worshipers of Baal. When Jehu arrived in Samaria, he killed all the relatives of Ahab who were living in Samaria.

Once in Samaria, Jehu proceeded to eliminate the worshipers of Baal. Pretending to be a follower of Baal, Jehu organized a great celebration for Baal. Jehu invited the priests, prophets, and worshipers of Baal from throughout the land of Israel. When all the worshipers were inside the temple of Baal, Jehu gave orders to his soldiers, eighty of them, to kill all those related to the worship of Baal. The worshipers of Baal were slaughtered, the temple of Baal was torn down, the sacred objects were destroyed, and Jehu desecrated the holy place by making the temple a latrine for common use.

God’s Judgment on Jehu

God honored the work of Jehu by promising him that his dynasty would last four generations: “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation” (2 Kings 10:30). Yet, because of Jehu’s excessive shedding of blood, and the excessive violence in accomplishing his mission, Yahweh began to bring his judgment upon the house of Jehu and upon the kingdom of Israel (10:32). The rest of Jehu’s reign is occupied with his wars against Syria. He also had to deal with the loss of territory on the east side of the Jordan. In addition, Jehu became a vassal of Assyria, and had to present himself before Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria, with his tribute. The indignity of this submission is that Shalmaneser calls Jehu “the son of Omri.” However, the most profound word of judgment upon Jehu’s selfish ambition and violent nature comes from God himself: “I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel” (Hosea 1:4). The indignity of Jehu paying a tribute to the king of Assyria to secure the throne that God had given to him demonstrates that in doing the work of God, one is responsible and accountable for the work done.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Elisha, Jehu, Jezebel,

Jehu: His Leadership and Legacy

Today, I begin a study of Jehu, king of Israel. This study will be divided into two parts. Part one will study the political and religious crises that prompted the prophetic community of the Northern Kingdom to take action and plan the overthrow of the Omrides. The second part of this study will deal with Jehu’s anointing and the actions he took in order to eliminate Jezebel and the members of Ahab’s family.

Jehu, the son of Nimshi, was the tenth king of Israel and he reigned twenty-eight years (843-815 B.C.). He came to the throne of the Northern Kingdom with prophetic approval in order to overthrow the dynasty of Omri. Jehu appears as the son of Nimshi in 1 Kings 19:16 and 2 Kings 9:20 and as the son of Jehoshaphat in 2 Kings 9:2, 14. It has been suggested that Nimshi was Jehu’s grandfather. In his youth Jehu served as a chariot officer in Ahab’s army. He was one of the two witnesses that heard the prophetic sentence against Ahab and his house (2 Kings 9:25-26; see 1 Kings 21:17-19, 28-29).

The selection of Jehu to be king of Israel was made by God himself. God’s will was revealed to Elijah and fulfilled by Elisha. Jehu became king of Israel at a crucial time in the life of the nation. The events that preceded his accession to the throne provide the proper background for understanding his anointing and the bloodshed that followed his coronation.

Political Confusion in Israel

When the United Kingdom divided after the death of Solomon, both Judah and Israel went their different ways. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) was plagued by internal instability. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) remained somewhat stable because the Davidic dynasty survived throughout its history. However, Israel's throne changed occupants many times, often by violence, in the first fifty years of its history. The accession of Omri to the throne brought stability and prosperity to Israel.

Omri's rise to power was preceded by much political unrest in Israel (see 1 Kings 16:8-22). Elah, the son of Baasha reigned two years in Israel (877-876 B.C.). Elah was an incompetent king who did not have the support of his people. While the army of Israel was fighting against the Philistines (16:16), Elah, "while drinking himself drunk" (16:9), was killed by Zimri in the house of one of his officers. The death of Elah was seen as a judgment upon the house of Baasha, in accordance with the words of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani (16:12-13).

Israel’s next king, Zimri (876 B.C.), was king of Israel for seven days. Zimri was the commander of half of the chariots of the army of Elah. Zimri killed the royal family and assumed the throne of Israel (16:11-12). When the news of the death of the royal family reached the Israelite army, the troops on the field proclaimed their commander, Omri, as king of Israel. After the death of Zimri, Israel was divided between two pretenders to the throne, Omri and Tibni, the son of Ginath (16:21-22). Nothing is known about Omri's family. The fact that Omri's family is not mentioned may indicate that he probably was a non-Israelite, who was serving the king as commander of the army.

The Reign of Omri

After he became king of Israel, Omri’s first priority was the consolidation of his kingdom. One of Omri’s major political decisions was to establish an alliance with Ittobaal, king of Tyre. This alliance was sealed by the marriage of Ahab, Omri's son, to Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Tyre (1 Kings 16:31). The treaty with Tyre brought economic prosperity to Israel. The royal treasury enjoyed considerable prosperity because of its trade with Tyre. Many people in Israel benefitted from the active commerce between Israel and Phoenicia. Omri also made an alliance with Judah. This alliance was sealed by the marriage of Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 8:18).

Internally, Omri established a new capital for Israel (1 Kings 16:24). Omri bought a site from Shemer to build his capital and named it Samaria (16:24). Omri paid two talents of silver for Samaria. Thus Samaria became royal property and Omri had total control over the city.

Omri introduced a system of taxation to maintain the government. The economic condition in Israel created a class of rich people who controlled the means of production and the wealth of the nation. The situation of the poor became worse. In the days of the prophet Elisha, many poor people had to mortgage their land and sell their children and themselves to pay their debt and the taxes owed to the state and to creditors (see 2 Kings 4:1). This economic hardship upon the poor people of Israel was caused by the system of taxation which became necessary in order to maintain a large military complex and to fund royal projects in Samaria and throughout the nation. The oppressive economic policies of the Omrides brought much dissatisfaction with the policies of Omri and Ahab and created a desire for change.

The Religious Crisis in Israel

The issue that forced the community to conspire against the house of Omri and Ahab was the religious crisis in Israel brought about by the missionary program established by Jezebel. Jezebel was a worshiper of Baal Melqart and Asherah, the god and goddess of fertility. When Jezebel came to live in Samaria, she brought her religious beliefs with her. Working together as husband and wife, Ahab and Jezebel built a temple for Baal in Samaria (1 Kings 18:32). They also built an asherah (18:33). The asherah was a wooden pole which was a symbol of the fertility goddess Asherah, the consort of Baal. In addition, Jezebel brought in 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, all paid by the court (1 Kings 18:19). As part of her effort to establish Baal as the official religion of the land, Jezebel persecuted and killed many of the prophets and followers of Yahweh (1 Kings 18:4).

Elijah the prophet was commissioned by God to oppose the religious aspirations of Jezebel. Elijah began his ministry proclaiming a drought. Baal was held by his worshipers to be the god who controlled the rain (1 Kings 17:1). The announcement of the drought intended to show that Yahweh was the true God and the one who controlled the rain.

In order to promote the religion of Israel, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18). The purpose of this contest was twofold. First, Elijah wanted to demonstrate who the true God was. Second, Elijah called on the people to follow either Yahweh or Baal When Yahweh powerfully demonstrated that he was able to answer the prayer of his prophet, the people recognized that Yahweh was the true God, (18:39), and as a result Elijah killed the prophets of Baal (18: 40).

When Jezebel heard what Elijah had done to the prophets of Baal, Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah, who for safety, fled to hide himself on Mt. Horeb (or Sinai). On Horeb God revealed himself to Elijah and gave him a plan to overthrow the dynasty of Omri (19:15-18): Elijah was to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha to be his successor. Elijah returned to Israel to carry out God’s wishes; he was only able to carry out the third of God’s commands; it was left to Elisha to carry out the other two.

Next Post: Jehu and His Legacy

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Elijah, Elisha, Jehu, Jezebel, Omri