(4) Death of jezebel. The king of Judah contrived to escape, but not without a wound, of which he afterwards died at: Megiddo. (See AnAztAti.) Jelin then entered the city, whither the news of this transaction had already pre ceded him. As he passed tinder the walls of the palace Jezebel herself, studiously arrayed for ef fect, appeared at one of the windows, and saluted him with a question such as might have shaken a man of weaker nerves, 'Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?' But Jehu was unmoved, and instead of answering her. called out, 'Who is on my side, who?' when several eunuchs made their appearance at the window, to whom he cried, 'Throw her down!' and immediately this proud and guilty woman lay a blood-stained corpse in the road, and was trodden under foot by the horses. (See JezettEL.) Jehtt then went in and took possession of the palace (2 Kings ix: 30-37)• (5) Destroys House of Ahab. He was now master of hizreel, which was, next to Samaria, the chief town of the kingdom; but he could not feel secure while the capital itself was in the hands of the royal family, and of those who might be supposed to feel strong attachment to the house of Ahab. The force of the blow which he had struck was, however, felt even in Samaria. When therefore he wrote to the persons in au thority there the somewhat ironical but designedly intimidating counsel, to set up one of the young princes in Samaria as king and fight out the mat ter which lay between them, they sent a very submissive answer, giving in their adhesion, and professing their readiness to obey in all things his commands. A second letter from Jehu tested this profession in a truly horrid and exceedingly Oriental manner, requiring them to appear be fore him on the morrow, bringing with them the heads of all the royal princes in Samaria (2 Kings x :t-8). A fallen house meets with little pity in the East; and when the new king left his palace the next morning, Ile found seventy human heads piled up in two heaps at his gate. There, in the sight of these heaps, Jehu took oc casion to explain his conduct, declaring that he must be regarded as the appointed minister of the divine decrees, pronounced long since against the house of Ahab by the prophets, not one of whose words should fall to the ground. He then continued his proscriptions by exte-minating in Jezreel not only all in whose veins the blood of the condemned race flowed, but also—by a con siderable stretch of his commission—those offi cers, ministers, and creatures of the late govern ment, who, if suffered to live, would most likely be disturbers of his own reign. He then pro ceeded to Samaria. So rapid had been these pro ceedings that he met some of the nephews of the king of Judah, who were going to join their uncle at Jezreel, and had as yet heard nothing of the revolution which had taken place. These also perished under Jehu's now fully-awakened thirst for blood, to the number of forty-two persons (verse 14).
(6) Destroys 33aalites. On the way he took up into his chariot the pious Jehonadab the Rech abite, whose austere virtue and respected char acter would, as he felt, go far to hallow his pro ceedings in the eyes of the multitude. At Samaria he continued the extirpation of the persons more intimately connected with the late government'. This, far from being in any way singular, is a common circumstance in eastern revolutions. But the great object of Jehu was to exterminate the ministers and more devoted adherents of Baal, who had been much encouraged by Jezebel. There was even a temple to this idol in Samaria ; and Jehu, never scrupulous about the means of reach ing objects which he believed to be good, laid a snare by which he hoped to cut off the main body of Baal's ministers at one blow. He professed to be a more zealous servant of Baal than Ahab had been, and proclaimed a great festival in his honor, at which none but his true servants were to be present. The prophets, priests, and officers of Baal assembled from all parts for this great sacrifice, and sacerdotal vestments were given to them, that none of Jehovah's worshipers might he taken for them. When the temple was full,
soldiers were posted so that none might escape; and so soon as the sacrifice had been offered, the word was given by the king, the soldiers entered the temple, and put all the worshipers to the sword. The temple itself was then demolished, the images overthrown, and the site turned into a common jakes.
(7) Shortcomings and Death. standing this zeal of Jelin in exterminating the grosser idolatries which had grown up under his immediate predecessors, he was not prepared to subvert the policy which had led Jeroboam and his successors to maintain the schismatic estab lishment of the golden calves in Dan and Bethel. Here Jehu fell short: and this very policy, ap parently so prudent and farsighted, by which he hoped to secure the stability and independence of his kingdom, was that on account of which the term of rule granted to his dynasty was shortened. For this, it was foretold that his dynasty should extend only to four generations; and for this the Divine aid was withheld front him in his wars with the Syrians under Hazael on the eastern frontier. Hence the war was disastrous to him, and the Syrians were able to maintain themselves in the possession of a great part of his territories beyond the Jordan. He died in B. C. 856, and was buried in Samaria, leaving the throne to his son Jehoahaz.
(8) Testimony of the 1VIonuments. "Shal maneser Il's own record bears testimony to the existence of Ahab, of Benhadad, and Hazael of Damascus, and of Jehu the son of Omri." (Price, The Monuments and the Old Testament, pp. 63, 155, 292.) (9) Character. He must be regarded, like many others in history, as an instrument for accomplishing great purposes rather than as great or good in himself. With all his remorseless zeal there was no honest enthusiasm for the true God (2 Kings x:3t). In the long period dur ing which his destiny though known to others and perhaps to himself lay dormant ; in the sud denness of his rise to power; in the ruthlessness with which he carried out his purposes; in the union of profound silence and dissimulation with a stern, fanatic, wayward zeal,—he has not been without his likenesses in modern times. The Scripture narrative, although it fixes our atten tion on the services which he rendered to the cause of religion by the extermination of a worth less dynasty and a degrading worship, yet on the whole leaves the sense that it was a reign bar ren in great results. His dynasty, indeed, was firmly seated on the throne longer than any other royal house of Israel (2 Kings x), and under Jeroboatn II it acquired a high name amongst the oriental nations. But Elisha, who had raised him to power, as far as we know, never satv him. In other respects it was a failure; the original sin of Jeroboam's worship continued; and in the Prophet Hosea there seems to be a retri bution exacted for the bloodshed by which he had mounted the throne: "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu" (Hos. i:4), as in the similar condemnation of Baasha (t Kings xvi:3). (Smith, Bib. Dict.) 2. Son of Hanani, a prophet, who was sent to pronounce upon Baasha, king of Israel, and his house, the same awful doom which had been al ready executed upon the house of Jeroboam (I Kings xvi:1-7). The same prophet was, many years after, commissioned to reprove Jehoshaphat for his dangerous connection with the house of Ahab (2 Chron. xix :2). He seems to have been in the office of chronicler during all of Jehosha phat's reign (2 Chron. xx:34). (B. C. 928 886.) 3. A man of Judah, son of ()bed, and father of Azariah Chron. ii:38). (B. C. aft'er t6t2.) 4. One of the Benjamite slingers who came over to David at Ziklag (1 Citron. xii :3). (B.
C. to55.) 5. Son of Josibiah, a Simeonite, who migrated to the valley of Gedor, and was one of the chief men of the tribe 0 Chron. iv:35). (B. C. about 7t1.)