And of Jezebel also spoke Jehovah saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jizreel.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he stole from Naboth, and God's sentence falls on the whole house. One line of it belongs to Queen Jezebel alone — so why is she named, and what becomes of a judgment that waits years to fall?
This is not just about a murder. It is about the inheritance God gave to every Israelite, and Elijah is the man He sends to say so.
In 1 Kings 21:17 and following, Elijah meets Ahab at Naboth's vineyard. Without fear he denounces him, and declares the judgment of God against him and against Jezebel also. The blessed God uses him to say how grievous it is in His sight when anyone — and even more a prominent person — deprives any of His people of their divine portion and inheritance. Such an act will draw down the severest judgment.
God's sentence has three parts. The words about Jezebel come last, after the king himself and his family.
Ahab then had to listen to as fearful a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Ahab was the king, but not the stronger of the two. That explains his ruin; it does not excuse it.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! … When Elijah announced God's sentence on him after the murder of Naboth, we read that he "tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly." This was excellent, and the LORD so far relented towards him that the judgment was at least deferred. No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness; still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all. "There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited." But he should never have married the woman!
God put Jezebel's judgment off for years, as He had put off Ahab's. The delay changes nothing about the outcome.
The joy he longed for gives way to that horrible curse, which sounds again and again through this sad history of Israel. … And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel." The judgment foretold waits for her (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
Years later Jehu ordered her buried as royalty. The order failed, and that failure proved the word spoken here.
The will of man has little to do with the accomplishment of the word of God. Jehu, now at the height of his power, softens a little towards this wicked woman Jezebel. He even says, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." But what had God said? The prophet had said, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her." … They went to bury her. Their purpose was to obey him. In vain. They found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
The name does not die with her. The last book of the Bible picks it up again and applies it to something wider than one queen.
Jezebel! One of the most sinister figures in the Word of God! This wicked woman did incalculable damage among God's chosen earthly people in the days of Elijah's testimony. That is not all. The Holy Spirit also uses her name in Revelation 2:20 as the symbol of a frightful system of evil, and that system has forced its way into a more sacred circle than Israel ever was.
The same writer traces her end to the end of the system that carries her name:
Ahab's Jezebel had a gruesome end. That which has reproduced her outrages, and practised them in the name of "the holy one, the true one," will have a fearful end also. Meanwhile God wants all who love His truth to stand in firm separation from everything that even hints at Jezebel and Babylon.
- Cause. Ahab robbed Naboth of the inheritance God gave him. God brings the severest judgment on anyone who strips His people of their divine portion.
- Named. Ahab sold himself, but Jezebel incited him. Weakness excuses no one, and the stronger partner gets a sentence of her own.
- Delayed. Ahab humbled himself, so God deferred the blow — for him and for her. A delay never means the word has failed.
- Fulfilled. Jehu ordered her buried as a king's daughter. Almost nothing was left to bury: man's will cannot undo God's word.
- Repeated. The name reappears in Revelation as a symbol. Its end is just as certain, so stand clear of everything like her.
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he has just seized. The prophet's closing words reach past the king to every male in his family: dogs in the city, birds in the open country. Two questions follow. Why was the penalty so severe, and would God's word really come true?
The verse splits Ahab's family by where they die. What matters is what happens to the body next.
As to Ahab's family, he is told that the dogs would eat any of those who died in the city and the birds would eat any who died in the field (v.24). None of them would be allowed the dignity of a burial. What a message for a king of Israel to receive!
This was not a fresh form of words invented for Ahab. The same sentence had fallen twice before on ruling families in Israel.
That horrible curse takes the place of the joy he longed for. The curse sounds again and again all through this sad history of Israel. This was the judgment of Jeroboam, and the judgment of Baasha, in the very same words (v. 24; compare 1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4). And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jezreel" (v. 23). Her own judgment waits until later (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
The story stops right after the sentence. One writer reads that pause as God explaining why.
Sentence on Ahab had already gone out (v. 19). Now Elijah speaks the doom of his house (vv. 21, 22, 24), and the special judgment of Jezebel. Right after describing the stroke of justice about to fall on Ahab, his house, and Jezebel, the Spirit of God breaks off the story with a short aside (vv. 25, 26). There He gives a brief summary of the grounds for the sentence. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the finish of a long guilty course… In such a way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
The same writer explains why the sentence fell on the king, and why it was so harsh.
Notice this. Jezebel had arranged the death of Naboth, yet God holds Ahab responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was glad to profit by her wrongdoing. So the Lord charges him with the murder. In this way the guilt tracks home to Ahab. It tracks to the desire of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property. This is why the sentence Elijah was sent to pronounce was so severe. Innocent blood had been shed without cause. God looked on it, and required it from the guilty king.
Dogs appear in the sentence because dogs had already appeared in the crime. One writer treats this as a pattern running through Scripture.
A favourite sin must be put away, or in the end it will bring grief and shame. The punishment is often of the same kind as the wrongdoing that caused it. Scripture gives many examples. Jacob deceived his father when the old man could not see. Later, in the darkness, the crafty father of Leah deceived Jacob… In the place where the dogs licked the blood of the murdered Naboth, the dogs licked the blood of Ahab, his murderer. As we sow, so we reap, and we see this general principle of God's government.
Ahab humbled himself, and God took notice. One writer marks carefully what that changed and what it did not.
Who can measure the depths of the patience and mercy of the Lord! … Ahab's humbling was only passing, yet for that reason God put off the judgment on Ahab's house until his son's days. (We are here in the sphere of God's government on earth.) The personal judgment on Ahab himself and on Jezebel He carried out to the letter. So there was a day of grace even for Ahab.
Years later Jehu stood over the bodies of Ahab's sons and pointed back to this prophecy.
"Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what He said by His servant Elijah." So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel… So the word of the Lord was most fully accomplished.
- Word spoken. The same sentence had already fallen on Jeroboam and on Baasha. Ahab's house joins a list; it does not get a new penalty.
- Word justified. God pauses the story to give His grounds. Jezebel arranged the murder, but Ahab's own desire drove it, and the crime crowned a long guilty course.
- Word matched. Where dogs licked Naboth's blood, dogs would lick Ahab's; the punishment takes the shape of the sin.
- Word delayed. Ahab humbled himself, and God noticed: the blow on his house waited until his son's days.
- Word fulfilled. Nothing of it fell to the ground. Delay was mercy; it was never cancellation.