Women with a Story to Tell. Jezebel 5.

 Elijah has been carried away in a chariot of fire in a whirlwind (II Kings 2); but Jezebel still reigns as queen of Israel and her son Joram is king. Why do the evil rich and powerful live long? Well, not too long. Actually, the end is nearer than Jezebel imagines.

 Elisha, Elijah’s successor, has sent a young member of the company of the prophets to anoint Jehu to remove and replace Ahab as king of Israel. Here is what Elisha told that young prophet to say.

“Thus says the LORD the God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. You shall strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; I will cut off from Ahab every male, ….” (II Kings 9: 6-8).

 So, from God’s perspective, Jezebel is the main instigator of Ahab and Israel’s apostasy. Does she get off Scot free? Not exactly, the prophet said more.

“The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and no one shall bury her” (II Kings 9: 10). 

 The prophet went and said his piece, then ran out the door to flee any repercussions. Jehu reported what the prophet had said to his officers, and they spread their cloaks on the steps for Jehu to stand on while they declared him king.

 Jehu led his chariots out toward Jezreel. Ironically, though probably nothing is ironic with God, Ahab’s son Joram went out to meet Jehu and “they met at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite” (II Kings 9:21).  

 Joram called out to Jehu, “Is it peace, Jehu?” Jehu answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the many whoredoms and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?” Then, as Joram turned to flee, Jehu shot an arrow through his heart (II Kings 9: 22-23).  

 Jehu carried out God’s bidding. He told his second-in-command concerning Joram,

“Lift him out, and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind his father Ahab how the LORD uttered this oracle against him: ‘For the blood of Naboth and for the blood of his children that I saw yesterday, says the LORD, I swear I will repay you on this very plot of ground’. Now therefore lift him out and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the LORD” (II Kings 9: 24-26).

 So, Jezebel’s apostasy lies at the heart of the sins of the government, and both Ahab and their son Joram have played along and paid the price. What shall she do? 

 Although she is now an older woman, her modus operandi has been to project power by guile and deceit. As Jehu arrived in Jezreel, “she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window” (II Kings 9: 30). What was she thinking? It worked before, maybe it will work again? But leaders can only bully and lie to people so long.

 It is a pathetic sight to see a cougar painted up trying to seduce a younger man. Jehu takes no notice. He simply shouts up to the window, “Who is on my side?” A few eunuchs, that is, household slaves appeared at the window. Jehu commanded them, “Throw her down!”

 The Biblical text says, "Some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her.” By the time the men went to recover her body to bury her, “they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.”

On hearing the news, Jehu said,

“This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, ‘This is Jezebel’” (II Kings 9: 31-37). 

 And that was the end of that. Well, almost. Her story has lived on as folklore for over 2000 years and has been weaponized by the powerful, ironically. Now any woman who seems like a threat, particularly through her sexuality, is often dissed with the epithet ‘Jezebel’. More next week.