And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master; and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Jehovah at the hand of Jezebel.
Elisha's years of miracles have not turned Israel back to God, so the prophet sends a young man to anoint Jehu king. With the throne comes a commission: strike the house of Ahab, so that God can settle an old account for the blood Jezebel shed.
The anointing of Jehu comes at the end of a long ministry of mercy that Israel refused.
The mighty miracles of Elisha — the witnesses of the grace of God to a guilty nation — have all been in vain. Israel refuses to turn from idols to the living God. The prophet may weep over the sorrows coming on the nation. He may foretell their miseries. God may use him to appoint the instruments that will carry out judgment. But though he lives to a great age, we hear of miracles no more.
Another writer describes the moment when mercy gives way to judgment:
The time had now come for God to judge the house of Ahab. Elisha's ministry was marked above all by grace. Yet he was the vessel God chose to approve those avenging forces in Syria and in Israel, and to put His own authority behind them. They were to sweep all before them... In the many mercies Israel and Syria had known, mercy was debating with judgment. Now judgment must have its way.
The message to Jehu came in two parts, and this verse is the second of them.
The young man had two announcements to make to Jehu; first, that the Lord had anointed him to be "king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel." Second, he was to smite the house of Ahab, and thus avenge the blood of the servants, and prophets, of the Lord, shed by the wicked Jezebel.
One writer connects this moment to Naboth, the man Ahab and Jezebel had murdered for his vineyard:
At last, after more than fifteen years' delay, the blood of Naboth was about to be repaid. Like Abel's blood, it had been crying out from the ground for vengeance. God, when judging men, is never in haste. He allowed Jezebel to outlive, not only her husband, but his two successors.
The principle reaches beyond Ahab's household.
This young man reveals to Jehu the unsparing judgment upon the house of Ahab. The motive for this judgment was the way in which this king, urged on by Jezebel, had treated the servants of the Lord and His prophets. In fact, the time always comes when the Lord remembers what was done earlier to "His brothers," whether in Israel or in the Christian assembly.
Elisha does not go himself. He sends a young man to represent him.
Here the young man was to faithfully represent the one who had sent him. There were reasons, as we have seen, why Elisha could not go himself. There was to be no show of fellowship where it could not be real. Jehu was a vessel in whom God could take no delight, and neither could His servant. Yet God still gave Jehu specific instructions, held him responsible for them, and gave him the power to carry them out.
The task God gave and the throne Jehu wanted pointed the same direction.
Reaching the throne matched Jehu's own ambitions exactly. Striking down the house of Ahab looked to him like a sound policy for making himself king... However, God's motives were not Jehu's. God was dealing with evil, avenging the blood of his servants, and maintaining His own glory. Jehu was getting rid of all those who could oppose his ambitions. Jehu is very zealous against evil when it suits his own purpose. He is completely indifferent to evil when he decides it is more convenient to leave it alone.
Being God's chosen instrument did not put Jehu beyond God's own reckoning.
God takes into account not only what men do, but why they do it. Jehu carried out the Lord's judgment on the house of Ahab and on all his guilty partners. He left none of them alive. God also used him to punish Jezebel's wickedness in Jezreel. But he carried out the Lord's just judgments with great severity, and he had selfish reasons of his own for being so harsh. That was far from acceptable. So He says through the prophet Hosea, "in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel" (Hos. 1:4).
- Mercy first. Years of grace through Elisha came before any sword. Judgment only "has its way" after Israel refuses to turn.
- Mercy spent. The prophet who once worked miracles now only names the instruments of judgment. After this, the miracles stop.
- Blood remembered. God strikes Ahab's house for the blood of His servants and prophets. The long delay was not forgetfulness, for He "is never in haste."
- Power given. Jehu received a crown, a commission, and the power to carry it out. He was given no real fellowship with the prophet who sent the message.
- Motive weighed. God counts not only what a man does, but why he does it. Jehu did the right work with a selfish heart, and Hosea says the same reckoning would fall on his own house.
And the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel.
The message that reaches Jehu, an army commander at Ramoth-gilead, is not a promotion but a death sentence on a whole royal family, down to the last male, slave or free. Two questions follow: what was the crime, and why did God wait so long?
The sentence answers a murder. One writer sees the long gap between the crime and the punishment as deliberate:
At last, after more than fifteen years of delay, the blood of Naboth, crying like Abel's for vengeance from the ground, was about to be repaid. God, when He judges men, is never in a hurry. He allowed Jezebel to outlive not only her husband but his two successors. Clearly she had no power to keep up her old high-handed ways after Ahab's death. Part of her punishment was to live and watch his dynasty fall, and the wiping out of his house and hers begin.
Elijah had already delivered both the charge and the sentence, years earlier, in Naboth's vineyard:
Ahab wanted Naboth's vineyard. Naboth refused to give up the inheritance God had given his fathers, so Jezebel had him killed and told Ahab to take the vineyard. Elijah met him there and said that dogs would lick his blood where they had licked Naboth's blood. The dogs would also eat Jezebel, and Ahab's house would be cut off. Ahab humbled himself before God, and God delayed the full end of his house until his son's days... Later, in battle against Syria, an arrow shot at random struck Ahab between the joints of his armour, and he died. Elijah's prediction came true. Grace had lingered over this poor idolater, for he was an Israelite; but he died unrepentant, and his whole house was soon to perish.
The threat was not new. God had already ended two royal houses with the same words, and one writer follows the line forward:
The whole house of Ahab was to perish like Jeroboam's (1 Kings 14:10) and Baasha's (1 Kings 16:3)... And now the hour of execution had come. The day is coming when the Lord will judge this world. Then, above all, Jezebel (Rev. 2:20) will receive her judgment — Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and abominations of the earth, drunk with the blood of the saints.
"The whole house" means the whole house. The phrase "bond or free" covers slave and free man alike. No one of any rank would be left. Jehu himself pointed to that completeness as proof of who was at work:
"Know now that nothing of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab shall fall to the earth; for the Lord has done what He spoke by His servant Elijah." So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel. He killed all his great men, his close friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. So the word of the Lord came true to the last detail.
God's command and Jehu's ambition pointed the same way. That did not make them the same thing:
To reach the throne was entirely in line with Jehu's ambitions. Wiping out the house of Ahab looked to Jehu like a sound way to make himself king. So he carries out the Lord's directions with the greatest possible energy and zeal. However, God's motives were not Jehu's. God was dealing with evil, avenging the blood of His servants, and maintaining His own glory. Jehu was getting rid of everyone who could oppose his ambitions. He is very eager to deal with evil when it suits his own purpose. He is quite indifferent to evil when he decides it is wiser to leave it alone... He destroys the worship of Baal; he preserves the golden calves.
Being God's instrument gave Jehu no cover. God later judged the judge:
While God uses Jehu to carry out judgment on Jezreel, He still says through the prophet Hosea, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu; and will bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel" (Hosea 1:4).
- Blood. Naboth's murder was the charge, along with the blood of the Lord's servants. That blood cried from the ground like Abel's until God repaid it.
- Delay. God is never in a hurry. Ahab's humbling pushed the sentence into his son's day. Delay is not cancellation.
- Pattern. Ahab's house was to end like Jeroboam's and Baasha's. One writer sees the same judgment reaching on to Jezebel in Revelation.
- Fulfilment. Not one word God spoke through Elijah fell to the ground. Jehu left the house of Ahab with no one remaining.
- Instrument. Jehu did the right work with wrong motives. He destroyed the worship of Baal but kept the golden calves. Hosea says God later avenged Jezreel's blood on Jehu's own house.
And I will make the house of Ahab as the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and as the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
God tells Jehu that Ahab's family will end the way two earlier royal families ended: Jeroboam's and Baasha's. The comparison is the point — God had already carried out this sentence twice, and Israel's kings had not learned from it.
The two names in the verse point back to two families already wiped out.
This judgment had to end the dynasty of Omri, to fulfil the sentence pronounced on Ahab. For the same reason the Lord had already put an end to the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (1 Kings 15:28-30), and to that of Baasha (1 Kings 16:1-4). Each time He repeated the dreadful word: "Anyone who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat" (1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4; 1 Kings 21:24).
For an Israelite, that comparison carried a weight we can miss today. It meant the end of the family line.
So the house of Baasha, like that of Jeroboam before him, became extinct — to Jewish minds the greatest disaster that could overtake a man.
Baasha is the sharpest warning in the verse. God used him to destroy Jeroboam's family. Then he received the same sentence he had carried out.
He sinned as Jeroboam did, though he had been the one who carried out God's judgment on the descendants of the wicked king. He had not heard the Lord's voice speaking in the events of the past... He followed the fate of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and now the fate of his house would also be the fate of Baasha, who had executed the divine sentence. "I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Such is divine justice.
Ahab had heard this same sentence years earlier, from Elijah. Then nothing happened for a long time.
More than fifteen years had passed since the Lord, through Elijah, had announced the doom of the house of Ahab and the doom of Jezebel. And now the hour of execution had come. God will judge in the end, though He is never in a hurry to carry out His threatened judgments. The day is surely coming when the Lord will judge this world.
Jehu was the man God used to carry this out. He was thorough with Ahab's house and selective everywhere else.
God's motives were not Jehu's. God was dealing with evil, avenging the blood of His servants, and maintaining His own glory. Jehu was getting rid of everyone who could oppose his ambitions. He was full of zeal against evil when it suited his own purpose, and quite indifferent to evil when he decided it was better to leave it alone. So he ruthlessly avenges the sins of the house of Ahab, while leaving untouched the sins of the house of Jeroboam. He destroys the worship of Baal; he preserves the golden calves.
Being God's instrument did not shield Jehu any more than it had shielded Baasha.
If God has to deal in judgment, it is work that is strange to Him. If Jehu takes up dealing with evil, it is a task he enjoys. So God uses Jehu to carry out judgment at Jezreel. Yet He still says, through the prophet Hosea, "I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel" (Hosea 1:4).
In the end, Jehu himself pointed back to the word that had announced all of this.
"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 through His servant Elijah. So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel... until he left him none remaining." So the word of the Lord came true to the last detail.
- Word spoken. Elijah announced the sentence on Ahab's house years before Jehu was anointed to carry it out.
- Word patterned. Naming Jeroboam and Baasha shows God had already carried out this sentence twice. In Israel's eyes, the end of a man's line was the worst disaster of all.
- Word ignored. Baasha destroyed Jeroboam's house and then inherited Jeroboam's doom. He "had not heard the Lord's voice speaking in the events of the past."
- Word delayed. More than fifteen years of silence changed nothing. God "is never in a hurry to carry out His threatened judgments."
- Word fulfilled. Jehu's zeal served God's purpose and his own ambition, so God judged Jehu's house in turn. Still, nothing of God's word "concerning the house of Ahab" fell to the ground.
And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the plot of Jizreel, and none shall bury her. And he opened the door and fled.
The young prophet's message to Jehu ends not with a crown but with a corpse: the last words over the new king are about Ahab's queen. Why did God name the place of her death in advance, why did He wait so long to act, and why did He choose a man like Jehu to do it?
Jehu's anointing came with orders, and Jezebel's fate was the last item in them. One writer notes how fitting the chosen man was:
More than this, "the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her" (v.10). Certainly God knew well whom He was choosing for this solemn work, for Jehu was just the kind of man to do it.
The verse ends with the messenger running out the door. That flight was part of his orders:
Elisha told this young prophet to deliver his message and leave (v.3). The young man did as he was told.
God gives the reason for this judgment in the same message. It reaches past one royal house:
The reason for this judgment was how this king, urged on by Jezebel, had treated the Lord's servants and His prophets. And the time always comes when the Lord calls to mind what was done earlier to "His brethren," whether in Israel or in the Christian assembly.
Modern readers hear a household pet. The first hearers thought of a street scavenger, and the word carried contempt:
Scripture constantly refers to the dog as an unclean and low animal... They were, and still are, the scavengers of Eastern cities. People throw all their rubbish into the streets and the dogs eat it. It was the dogs who ate the body of Jezebel, and licked up the blood of Naboth and of Ahab.
God does not just say she will die. He names the ground. One writer, quoting an older wording that reads "the portion of Jezreel" where the ESV has "the territory," reads that ground as part of the sentence:
"And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel" — the portion of sin, of covetousness and blood.
This sentence stood for a long time before anyone acted on it. The delay was not forgetfulness:
At last, after more than fifteen years' delay, the blood of Naboth, crying, like Abel's, for vengeance from the ground, was about to be requited. God, when judging men, is never in haste. He allowed Jezebel to outlive, not only her husband, but his two successors. After Ahab's death she clearly had no power left for her old high-handed ways. Part of her punishment was to live and see his royal line overthrown, and the wiping out of his house and hers begun.
Later, Jehu orders Jezebel buried out of respect for her royal birth. He cannot make it happen:
Jehu had heard that word only a short time before. He plainly meant to carry out his commission to the letter. But how little any man, good or bad, carries out the word of God. Now the old respect for one who was a queen — a king's daughter — seems to rise in his mind, and he says, "Bury her, for she is a king's daughter." But the word of God had already given its own command. And they went to bury her. Their purpose was to obey him. In vain. They found nothing of her but the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
The name Jezebel comes back later in the Bible. One writer follows this sentence forward to the world's last judgment:
God will judge in the end, though He is never in haste to carry out the judgments He has threatened. The day is surely coming when the Lord will judge this world. Then above all Jezebel (Rev. 2:20) — Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations, drunk with the blood of the saints — will receive her judgment.
- Crime. God's sentence answers what Ahab and Jezebel did to His prophets and servants. He still calls to mind what people do to His own.
- Place. God names Jezreel on purpose. Ground taken by covetousness and blood becomes the ground where He settles the account.
- Delay. More than fifteen years passed while Jezebel outlived her husband and the two kings after him. God is never in haste, and never in doubt.
- Instrument. Jehu was just the kind of man for this work, and God knew it when He chose him.
- Certainty. When Jehu ordered her buried, burial proved impossible. The word stood even against the will of the man appointed to carry it out.