Jehu
KINGS OF THE JEWS 72 JEHU 841–813 BCE Conveying the words and commands of Yahweh to the Jewish people was the role of the prophets of ancient Israel. They transmitted His promises of divine favor if they remained true to Him and issued His warnings of severe retribution for sinfulness. The sacred duty of those holy men included fearless condemnation of injustice, corruption, oppression, and poverty. Living and preaching in times when unprincipled behavior by those in power was not uncommon, they wove an indelible ethical thread through the fabric of Judaism that has endured to the present day. However, some prophets sought to exploit their venerable status to advance political objectives not necessarily within their holy writ, or only marginally associated with it. Samuel attempted to prevent the establishment of a Jewish monarchy that would weld the nation together but would also undermine his spiritual authority. The prophet Nathan influenced David to pick Solomon as his royal successor rather than his older son, Adonijah, and falsely convinced the elderly king that he had earlier promised to do so. Ahijah encouraged Jeroboam to lead an uprising against Solomon who had downgraded the priesthood. The prophet Elisha was active at a time when those dedicated to Jewish religious traditions were particularly dismayed by the extent of pagan worship in Israel, and by their own diminished influence. With the Israelite royal court in Samaria heavily heathenized through neglect by King Jehoram and by the influence of his mother, Jezebel, Elisha saw the army, long a breeding ground of political plotting, as the only force capable of producing a Judaic resurgence. He wanted Jehoram overthrown and vengeance for the prophets who had been killed in Jezebel’s campaign to stamp out Jewish worship. Elisha acted while Jehoram was at his winter capital of Jezreel, recuperating from a wound sustained while fighting against the forces of Damascus for territory in Transjordan. With him out of the way, Elisha sent a priestly emissary to meet with Israelite army commander Jehu at his battle headquarters and urge him to take action against the king’s failure to fulfill his religious obligations. Subsequently asked by his brother officers about his audience with the “madman ”—as the long-haired visitor had seemed in his animal skin attire—Jehu told them the prophet’s envoy had anointed him king of Israel in place of Jehoram THE DIVIDED NATION 73 and also told them about the task with which he had been entrusted. The officers received the news of their commander’s coronation with cheers and symbolically spread their cloaks for Jehu to walk on as trumpets blew in celebration. The army’s backing for the coup assured, the hot-tempered Jehu raced by chariot to Jezreel where he slew the king and mortally wounded his cousin, King Ahaziah of Judah, who had been visiting him at the time. Jehu’s next victim was the hated Jezebel who was also in Jezreel. Having heard what had happened to her son and knowing what to expect, the proud Jezebel prepared to meet her doom looking her best. She arranged her hair and applied makeup to her face. But she was denied a dignified end to her life. Arriving at the royal palace, Jehu commanded her eunuch servants to throw her from a palace window. Terrified, they did as they were told, and Jehu rode over her body with his chariot. Her blood was splattered over the palace walls and the legs of his horses, and her body was left for stray dogs to devour. Then, rather than proceeding to Samaria to put the finishing touches to his coup, Jehu sent a command to the elders of the capital city. They were to kill all surviving sons and grandsons of Ahab, Jehoram’s deceased father, to eliminate any possible future revival of the dynasty founded by Omri. Collaboration in the slaughter by senior figures in the land, no matter how reluctantly tendered, would ensure that responsibility would not be his alone while his claim to the throne remained tenuous. Word of what Jehu had perpetrated at Jezreel having already reached the terrified elders in the capital, they quickly complied with his instructions. Members of Jehoram’s family and their servants were killed, as were friends of the murdered king, his personal priests, and ranking officials of the kingdom. When Jehu finally reached Samaria, he continued the massacre, wiping out whatever surviving relatives of Jehoram he could track down. Pretending to offer...
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