We are going to take a look at Jehu’s reign over the Northern Kingdom. First, let’s note that during this period, several generations see kings of both north and south have the same names — Jehoram/Joram, Ahaziah, Joash/Jehoash. It can be confusing if you aren’t keeping track of which name points to which king. In our current narrative, Ahaziah is the young King of Judah, who was a nephew Jehoram, King of Israel.
Let me try to untangle that. We remember Ahab married Jezebel, the princess of Tyre and Sidon. They had three children who are major figures: Ahaziah, Jehoram and their sister Athaliah. Ahaziah was the royal heir who died quickly, and his brother Jehoram succeeded him. This is the king who led the battle against Moab, and had to deal with Elisha a lot. His counterpart from Judah was Jehoshaphat, a much older man. So Jehoram marries off his sister Athaliah to the son of this Jehoshaphat — who was named Jehoram, also. This Jehorma of Judah doesn’t reign long. His successor is Ahaziah, named after the uncle in Israel who died quickly. In our narrative here, Ahaziah is King of Judah for a very short time when things are turned upside down in Israel. Keep in mind that Ahaziah of Judah is a direct descendant (grandson) of Ahab.
Elisha inherited Elijah’s instructions to anoint Jehu King of Israel. Jehu is currently serving as the ranking general over Israel’s army. Jehoram of Israel has taken his army to Ramoth-gilead to recover the city from the Syrians. They succeed, but Jehoram is wounded in battle, so he slips back across the Jordan River to recover at his second palace in Jezreel. Meanwhile, the army remains in Ramoth-gilead to protect the city from a Syrian counter attack.
Thus, Elisha commissions his new servant, after having lost Gehazi to greed and leprosy, to go and anoint Jehu as king (tradition says it’s Jonah). Elisha gives the servant a small vial of fragrant oil made just for this purpose, having a seal in the top. He then tells him to proceed to Ramoth-gilead in a hurry, find Jehu, anoint him privately, and then flee as if from a threat to his life. Hint: He is anointing Jehu to slaughter a bunch of people God has already condemned for their own murders and general destruction of shalom.
So the servant finds Jehu sitting among other commanders at a conference table in the courtyard of a large home. The prophet is dressed in a fashion that marks him as a such, and the men at this table are half amused by the whole idea that a prophet of Jehovah comes to visit them. The young prophet trainee announces he has a message for the commander. Jehu makes a joke: “All of us are commanders. Who do you want?” The servant of Elisha knows that Jehu would be first to speak as the senior man, so indicates he needs a private audience with him.
Jehu leads him into the house. The servant breaks open the strong smelling anointing oil and pours it on Jehu’s head. Then he proceeds to tell him his mission is to slaughter the descendants of Ahab, in vengeance for his and Jezebel’s murder of Jehovah’s prophets and a lot of other people who were faithful to Him. So Jehu was ordered to kill every male who descended from Ahab. Finally, he was feed Jezebel to the dogs so that she would have no tomb. Then the young prophet fled. This symbolizes that Jehu’s mission must begin immediately, and that he had a lot of killing to do.
As is typical of such houses, the floor level was somewhat above that of the open courtyard. So Jehu stops and stands at the top of the steps. One of his subordinates asked what that “madman” had to say; it was nutty for him to flee like that. Jehu suggested that his staff had put some actor up to his whole wild scene. “He was your lackey. You already know what he said.” They denied it, and it was clear they were puzzled enough to be genuinely curious. So Jehu recounted the anointing and commission.
Upon hearing this, all of them quickly ran to place their military outer robe down on the steps, making a carpet for Jehu. It symbolized giving their all to him as their King. Then they grabbed shofars and blew them, shouting that Jehu was King of Israel. There’s a side note that Jehoram wasn’t in town with them, but off in Jezreel healing from his battle wounds, sustained in fighting to gain control of Ramoth-gilead. So Jehu said that if they were serious about this, they needed to bring all the guards and random folks near the city walls inside and lock the gates. He didn’t need anyone running off to Jezreel to report this rebellion.
So a short time later Jehu is in his chariot, driving his own horses. Keep in mind that in the Old Testament, people seldom rode horseback. They always rode behind them in chariots, and they were invariably two-man chariots for the military. One drove the horses and the other typically fought in battle. Jehu ditched his driver to ride light. Of course, he wasn’t alone, as almost any man of importance always had at least one servant. In this case, Jehu had his own military bodyguard with him.
It would have been the better part of a day to ride some 35+ miles (56km) to Jezreel. It’s a good bet this next scene is late in the day. A watchman sees this handful of chariots approaching from the direction of Ramoth-gilead and notifies the still living King Jehoram. The king responds to send out a messenger, who would have been riding in a smaller, much lighter chariot, probably with only one horse. Jehoram has no idea what’s afoot, only that his commanding general is rushing up toward the palace from the battle front. So he sends a messenger to ask if it’s good news — “Is it peace?” He can wait for the full report, but wants to know if he needs to prepare to flee some Syrian invasion or something.
When the messenger gets to the hard-driving Jehu and asks his question, Jehu tells him peace is the least of his worries, and to fall in behind the column of chariots. This happens again with another messenger. So Jehoram assumes the worst and decides to meet Jehu on the road. He orders his chariot readied, and is joined by the recently crowned Ahaziah of Judah, his nephew, who had come for a family visit. The two kings in their chariots meet Jehu on the road still outside the city walls.
In person, this time, Jehoram asked Jehu if things were okay. Jehu says abruptly that things are not okay so long as Jezebel’s sins were not avenged. Jehoram now realizes what this is all about, and just barely manages to turn his chariot around, calling out to Ahaziah to flee. Keep in mind that Jehoram knows that this is the wrath of God, and that it will fall on all the male descendants of Ahab. That would include his nephew.
Jehu whips up a bow and arrow and shoots Jehoram in the back, so that the arrow comes out of his heart in front. He drops down dead onto the floor of his chariot, but Ahaziah gets away. Jehu tells his second in command, Bidkar, to throw Jehoram’s body into the former vineyard of Naboth, which would have been just off the road on the hillside below the city walls. Jehu memorializes Naboth, and we learn after the fact that apparently his sons were killed with him to ensure no one could ever claim his land back. At this point, Jehu faithfully represents the justice of Jehovah.
Meanwhile, Ahaziah had managed to put the garden house, that Ahab had built on Naboth’s land, between him and Jehu’s next arrow. It apparently meant he was forced to take the long way around the city. Jehu ordered his men to give chase taking a shortcut. He estimated that when Ahaziah’s chariot reached the road ascending a low ridge near Ibleam, he would be vulnerable to a good arrow ambush. The main road back home passed over this nearly flat ridge near the city of Ibleam, just a few miles south and little west from Jezreel. Evidently they caught him there and Ahaziah turned his chariot back west, but didn’t escape. He end up a few miles away in Megiddo, where he died. His staff fetched his body and took him back to Jerusalem for burial.
The narrative notes Ahaziah of Judah had just started his reign less than a year ago.
So while that scene was playing out, Jehu came riding up into the city of Jezreel and headed toward the palace. Jezebel had heard about the fracas outside of the city, probably from the watchmen on the tower and walls. She was all dolled up, choosing to die like the royalty she was, and the kind of royalty, one who acted like a prostitute for her deities (proper Hebrew ladies would never wear that stuff). She made a snide comment about how things didn’t turn out too well for Zimri, who murdered his king and was in turn murdered shortly thereafter. She was equating Jehu’s bloody start with the folly of Zimri. The difference was that Jehu had a commission from Jehovah, a deity she despised.
Jehu pulled up under the window where she sat, and shouted up to the other open windows: “Who is with me?” The question had obvious connotations: Who wants to live after I take over? A handful of harem servants stuck their heads out the windows and signaled their capitulation. He ordered them to throw Jezebel out from her seat to the ground. She splattered some of her blood on the palace walls and on Jehu’s horses. He then rode his horses and chariot over her.
Jehu entered the palace and ate his first meal as king in the palace. During this time he would start giving orders, asserting his authority as the new King. Oops! He forgot that Jezebel was royalty, and so he ordered that her body be treated accordingly. All they found were her head, hands and feet. If someone were anointed for priestly service, the oil would be put on those parts. Her pretense as high priestess meant that it was all the dogs left of her (typical Hebrew symbolism). When they came back and told him what they found, he noted wryly that this was according to the curse God laid on her. No would ever be able to point to her grave.
Jehu isn’t finished yet.
