Jehu's Coup and Jezebel

The young prophet pours oil on Jehu's head in an inner room: "I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD… And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master." He opens the door and flees. "Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?" When Jehu tells them, the officers spread their garments on the stairs, blow the trumpet: "Jehu is king."

The watchman at Jezreel: "the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously." Joram and Ahaziah ride out and meet him at Naboth's plot. "Is it peace, Jehu?" "What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?" Jehu shoots Joram between the arms; the arrow goes through his heart. "Cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite." Ahaziah flees and is struck near Ibleam; he dies at Megiddo.

"And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?" "Who is on my side? who?" Two or three eunuchs look out. "Throw her down." Jehu goes in to eat and drink, then orders her burial, "for she is a king's daughter." They find only "the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands," as Elijah had said.

The Tel Dan Stele's version

The Tel Dan Stele (c. 840 BC), probably by Hazael, claims that the Aramean king killed "[Jo]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel" and "[Ahaz]iah son of [Jehoram] king of the House of David." The names are partly restored. Kings credits Jehu. Possibilities: Jehu acted as Hazael's ally, Hazael claimed credit for deaths caused by the war, or the two accounts reflect rival propaganda.

Ahaziah's death in two accounts

2 Kings 9:27–28: Ahaziah is shot near Ibleam, flees to Megiddo and dies there; his body is taken to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 22:9: he is found hiding in Samaria, brought to Jehu and killed. The two do not easily fit together. See the passage page.

Jezebel at the window

Painting her eyes (with kohl) and arranging her hair were marks of royal dignity; she meets death as a queen, not as a seductress, and her taunt "Zimri" calls Jehu a traitor. The "woman at the window" is also a known motif in Phoenician ivories from Samaria and Nimrud.