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BIBLE STUDY -- KILL FOR A KINGDOM

JEHU KILLS THE ROYAL FAMILY

From 2 Kings 9:16-37; 2 Chronicles 22:7-9

When his plans to overthrow King Jehoram of Israel and Ahab’s family were complete, Jehu jumped into his chariot and raced for Jezreel, where King Jehoram lay wounded and where Ahaziah king of Judah had come to visit him. As Jehu approached the city, the watchman on the wall saw him and the company of men riding with him. “I see a company of men approaching,” the watchman reported to King Jehoram. “Send a man on horseback to meet them,” the king said. “Ask them if all is well.” The man was sent immediately and, when he arrived at the company of men he said, “The king wants to know if all is well.” “What do you know about such things?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me and stay there.” The watchman saw this and reported to the king, “The man on horseback has reached them, but he does not come back.” The king sent a second man to meet the approaching company. “Is all well?” he asked Jehu. “What do you know about such things?” Jehu answered. “Fall in behind me and stay there.” “The second man does not return either,” the watchman reported to the king. “The man leading the company must be Jehu, for he is driving like a madman and Jehu always drives that way.” “Prepare my chariot!” King Jehoram commanded. They prepared his chariot and King Jehoram accompanied by King Ahaziah, in another chariot, rode out to meet Jehu. They met at the field of Naboth, where Ahab had taken Naboth’s vineyard. “Is all well, Jehu?” King Jehoram asked. “How can all be well when your mother Jezebel has done so many wicked things?” Jehu replied. When Jehoram heard that, he whirled his chariot around and made a dash for the city. “Treason, Ahaziah!” he cried out. But Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot King Jehoram between the shoulders. The arrow went through his heart and Jehoram slumped over dead in his chariot. “Throw his body into Naboth’s field,” Jehu commanded his aide. “Remember when you and I rode together behind his father Ahab, Adonai said that He would avenge the murder of Naboth and his sons here. Throw his body into the field, as Adonai said we should do.” While this was happening, King Ahaziah was trying to escape by the road that led to Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him and ordered, “Shoot Ahaziah, too!” His men shot Ahaziah as he was going up the slope of Gur near Ibleam. Ahaziah was badly wounded but got as far as Megiddo before he died. His servants took him back to Jerusalem to bury him, for they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who searched for Adonai with all his heart.” Thus, he was buried in the royal cemetery with his ancestors. When Jezebel learned that Jehu was riding toward Jezreel, she painted her eyelids with cosmetics, prepared her hair and sat by a window to watch. As Jehu rode through the gate, she called out, “Is everything all right, you murderer of your master?” Jezebel called Jehu “Zimri,” suggesting that he would rule only a short time, as Zimri did. Jehu looked up to the palace window and called out, “Is there anyone up there on my side?” Immediately two or three eunuchs looked out of the window. “Push her out of that window!” Jehu ordered. So, the eunuchs pushed her out of the window and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled on her. After Jehu went into the palace to eat and drink, he gave orders concerning Jezebel. “Bury that accursed woman, for she was a king’s daughter,” he commanded. When some men went out to bury her, they found only her skull, her feet and her hands. They went back into the palace and told Jehu what they had found. “This is what Adonai predicted through Elijah the prophet,” Jehu said. “He said that dogs would eat Jezebel’s body at Jezreel and her body would be as manure scattered upon the field. This is why no one can find enough of her body to identify it.”

COMMENTARY --- WOMEN’S COSMETICS

By the time of Queen Jezebel, in the ninth century B.C., women in Bible lands shared many of the same cosmetic arts. Ointment was the most essential item. Women and men both used it to protect their skin from the hot, dry climate. Egyptian and Mesopotamian ointment came from animal fats, vegetable and nut oils, but eventually Israelite olive oil became the most popular cosmetic oil. The mild fragrance of plain olive oil was a popular perfume. So was ointment scented with flower blossoms and sweet spices. For wrinkles and other skin problems, women treated their skin with special beauty lotions containing milk, aloe, honey and wheat germ; ingredients still popular in the “natural” cosmetics of today. Red and yellow makeup dyes came from finely powdered ochre, an iron ore, blue and green, from finely powdered copper ore. Mixed with oil or water, these powders formed creamy eye paints, lipstick and rouge. Women also drew heavy lines around their eyes with a smooth black mineral paste called “kohl” (pronounced “coal”). Flowers from the henna shrub yielded a dye fashionable for tinting fingernails and hair. At one time Egyptian and Canaanite women also used the reddish-brown dye to stain markings on their skin which they thought were particularly attractive. Hair care was no less important than skin care. Ointment kept hair shining and free from the insects that flourished in the hot climate. Women curled, braided and frizzed their hair, often setting it with jewels, beads or ivory combs. On special occasions the ancient Egyptians wore wigs, but they worried nonetheless about gray hair, dandruff and baldness. To keep hair healthy, Egyptian physicians advised anointing it with a donkey tooth crushed in honey. The remedy for counteracting baldness was pomade from the mixed fat of a hippopotamus, lion, crocodile, cat, serpent and ibex. Ancient people did not wash very often, and perfume was liberally used as a substitute for soap. The Egyptians devised a kind of deodorant made from incense and dough, but most people depended on perfume to scent their bodies and clothes. Perfume makers extracted fragrances from numerous oils, flowers, herbs and spices; almost any aromatic substance. Most perfumes were made with an oil base derived from olives, radishes or sesame seed, but these wore off quickly. Egyptian women solved the problem by fastening cones of hair oil on top of their heads. As an evening progressed, the perfumed oil slowly dripped from the melting cones, scenting garments and hair for hours. Sometimes women applied perfume in a way that ensured it would last for weeks. Attendants prepared powdered spices in the fire of a cosmetic burner. The woman to be perfumed then arranged her robes to fall around the burner like a tent. As she began to perspire, her skin absorbed the oil from the burning perfumes, and her robe became saturated with the sweet smoke.

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