2 Kings 9:34

And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's daughter.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) And when . . . drink.—Rather, And he went in (into the palace), and ate and drank. Jehu takes possession of the palace, having slain its former occupants. Savage warrior as he was, he forgot all about the victim of his violence until he had appeased the demands of his appetite. Then he could remember that even Jezebel was of royal rank, and perhaps a touch of remorse may be discerned in the mandate for her burial.

Go, see now.—Rather, Look, I pray, after.

This cursed woman.—Jehu was thinking of the curse pronounced on Jezebel by the prophet Elijah. (See next verse.)

She is a king’s daughter.—Compare 1Kings 16:31.

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 9:34. Go see now this cursed woman — She had been the greatest delinquent in the house of Ahab. She had introduced Baal; slain the Lord’s prophets; contrived the murder of Naboth; excited her husband first, and then her sons, to do wickedly. She had been a curse to her country, and one whose memory all who loved their country execrated. Three reigns her reign had lasted, but now, at length, her day was come to fall, and meet with the due reward of her deeds. And bury her, for she is a king’s daughter — He does not say, because she was a king’s wife, lest he should seem to show any respect to that wicked house of Ahab, which God had devoted to ignominy and destruction. When Jehu gave this order about burying Jezebel, he seems to have for gotten the prediction of the prophet, and the charge given, 2 Kings 9:10. But though he had forgotten it, God had not: while he was eating and drinking, the dogs had devoured her dead body; so that there was nothing left but her bare scull, (the painted face was gone,) and her feet and hands. The hungry dogs paid no respect to the dignity of her extraction: a king’s daughter was no more to them than a common person. It is probable, when the horsemen were gone, who trod her under foot, the footmen stripped her, and left her in her own blood exposed to the dogs, that came out of the city in great numbers, by the ordination of Providence, and with a more than common hunger, otherwise they could not have devoured the body in so short a time.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:30-37 Instead of hiding herself, as one afraid of Divine vengeance, Jezebel mocked at fear. See how a heart, hardened against God, will brave it out to the last. There is not a surer presage of ruin, than an unhumbled heart under humbling providences. Let those look at Jezebel's conduct and fate, who use arts to seduce others to commit wickedness, and to draw them aside from the ways of truth and righteousness. Jehu called for aid against Jezebel. When reformation-work is on foot, it is time to ask, Who sides with it? Her attendants delivered her up. Thus she was put to death. See the end of pride and cruelty, and say, The Lord is righteous. When we pamper our bodies, let us think how vile they are; shortly they will be a feast for worms under ground, or beasts above ground. May we all flee from that wrath which is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Leaving the mangled body on the bare earth, Jehu went to the banquet. It was, no doubt, important that he should at once show himself to the court as king. In calling Jezebel "this cursed one," Jehu means to remind his hearers that the curse of God had been pronounced upon her by Elijah 2 Kings 9:36, and so to justify his own conduct.

A king's daughter - Merely as the widow of Ahab and mother of Jehoram, Jehu would not have considered Jezebel entitled to buriah. But she was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians (marginal reference), and so a princess born. This would entitle her to greater respect. Wilfully to have denied her burial would have been regarded as an unpardonable insult by the reigning Sidonian monarch.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. Jezebel painted her face—literally, "her eyes," according to a custom universal in the East among women, of staining the eyelids with a black powder made of pulverized antimony, or lead ore mixed with oil, and applied with a small brush on the border, so that by this dark ligament on the edge, the largeness as well as the luster of the eye itself was thought to be increased. Her object was, by her royal attire, not to captivate, but to overawe Jehu.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This he suddenly commanded: either because he had forgot the charge given him above, 2 Kings 9:10, or because having done his own business, he was careless about God’s work, and the fulfilling of his threatening.

For she is a king’s daughter: see 1 Kings 16:31. He doth not say, because she was a king’s wife, lest he should seem to show any respect to that wicked and cursed house of Ahab, which God had devoted to ignominy and utter destruction.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when he was come in,.... To the palace:

he did eat and drink; to refresh himself after so long a march, and doing such execution:

and said, go see now this cursed woman; who had been the means of bringing a curse on Israel through her idolatry, and upon Ahab and his family, and upon herself, body and soul, being cursed of God and of men:

and bury her; forgetting the prophecy concerning her, though afterwards he remembered it:

for she is a king's daughter: the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, 1 Kings 16:31 and therefore, in honour to royal dignity, though a cursed woman, he ordered the interment of her; or "though" she is the daughter of one of the kings of the nations of the world, as Kimchi, yet honour must be given to whom it is due.

Geneva Study Bible

And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a {o} king's daughter.

(o) That is, of the king of Zidon, 1Ki 16:31.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. And when he was come in] To the palace, where now he was master. Not only the eunuchs of Jezebel, but the household of Joram appears to have been ready to serve him, for the queen-mother is hardly dead before Jehu is set down to a banquet in the palace.

and said, Go, see now this cursed woman] [R.V. And he said, See now to this cursed woman] The ‘Go’ of A.V. is of course implied but not expressed in the original. By ‘cursed’ he means that she has brought God’s curse upon herself by her idolatry and bad example. It is no objurgation of his own. The word is the same that is employed in that solemn list of God’s curses on evil-doing in Deuteronomy 27, 28.

she is a king’s daughter] Jezebel was daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. See note on 1 Kings 16:31.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - And when he was come in - i.e. when Jehu had established himself in the royal palace - he did eat and drink, and said. His first care was to refresh himself - to order a banquet to be served, and to satisfy his appetite with food and drink. Not till afterwards did he bethink himself of the bloody corpse of his late queen and mistress, lying on the cold ground uncared for and untended, exposed to scorn and ignominy. When the thought occurred to him, it brought about a certain amount of relenting. Go, see now this cursed woman. He calls Jezebel, "a cursed woman," not inappropriately. She had brought a curse on her husband, on her sons, and on her grandsons; she had been the evil genius of two countries, Israel and Judah; she had been the prime mover in a bloody persecution of the worshippers of Jehovah; and was the true original source of the present revolution, which was to result in the deaths of so many others. And bury her: for she is a king's daughter. As queen-mother, Jehu, it seems, would not have regarded Jezebel as entitled to burial; but as daughter of Eth-Baal, King of the Zidonians (1 Kings 16:31), and so a princess born, he allowed her claim. Perhaps he feared lest further insult to the corpse might provoke the resentment of the Phoenician monarch, and draw down upon him that prince's hostility. 2 Kings 9:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jehu thereupon entered the palace, ate and drank, and then said to his men: "Look for this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." הארוּרה, the woman smitten by the curse of God.