Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

She is a king's daughter - Jezebel was certainly a woman of a very high lineage. She was daughter of the king of Tyre; wife of Ahab, king of Israel; mother of Joram, king of Israel; mother-in-law of Joram, king of Judah; and grandmother of Ahaziah, king of Judah.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole 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

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

Keil & Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

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.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

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.

And said — It seems he had forgot the charge given him above, verse10.

A king's daughter — He doth not say, because she was a king's wife, lest he should seem to shew any respect to that wicked house of Ahab, which God had devoted to utter destruction.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

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.

Ver. 34. And bury her.] He had forgot, belike, at present, the prophecy of Elijah, that dogs should eat her flesh, which yet soon after he remembereth. [2 Kings 9:36]

For she is a king’s daughter.] Meaning Ethbaal king of Zidon, whom he was loath to incense.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

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.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

34.He did eat and drink — This scene of hilarity and cheer in the midst of such fearful bloodshed makes one shudder. But the minister of doom to Ahab’s guilty house must needs be such a one as Jehu. Tenderness and sympathy would unfit the avenger of blood for his work of death.

She is a king’s daughter — Yes, and a king’s widow and a king’s mother. But not till after his feast does Jehu reflect that so much royalty and greatness have fallen. He had left the mangled corpse of the once mighty Jezebel on the mounds of offal outside the gate, a prey to the dogs which in the East ever prowl about such spots.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

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.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Bury. He had forgotten the prediction of Elias, ver. 36. (Salien) --- Daughter of Ethbaal, wife of Achab, mother of Joram king of Israel, and mother-in-law of Joram king of Juda, and grandmother of his son Ochozias. (Calmet) --- Her great connexions seemed to entitle her to the rights of sepulture. (Haydock)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

a king"s daughter. A daughter of Eth-baal, king of Zidon (1 Kings 16:31).

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 1 Kings 16:31.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

he did eat

1 Kings 18:41; Esther 3:15; Amos 6:4

this cursed woman

1 Kings 21:25; Proverbs 10:7; Isaiah 65:15; Matthew 25:41

she is a king's

1 Kings 16:31