2 Kings 9:34

2Ki 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. {2Ki 9:36}

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

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 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, 2Ki 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:34-37 The scene depicting Jezebel’s end brought Elijah’s prophecy against the house of Ahab to final fulfillment (1 Kgs 21:21-24; 22:34-38).

9:34 Jehu went into the palace to dine, a tacit declaration of his assumption of the throne.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To wit, of the king of Sidon, 1 Kings 16:31.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 34. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(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 1Ki_16:31.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34. And when he was come in] To the palace, where now he was master. Not only the eunuchs of Jezebel, but the household of Joram appears to have been ready to serve him, for the queen-mother is hardly dead before Jehu is set down to a banquet in the palace.

and said, Go, see now this cursed woman] [R.V. And he said, See now to this cursed woman] The ‘Go’ of A.V. is of course implied but not expressed in the original. By ‘cursed’ he means that she has brought God’s curse upon herself by her idolatry and bad example. It is no objurgation of his own. The word is the same that is employed in that solemn list of God’s curses on evil-doing in Deuteronomy 27, 28.

she is a king’s daughter] Jezebel was daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. See note on 1Ki_16:31.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 2Ki 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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This he suddenly commanded: either because he had forgot the charge given him above, 2Ki 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 1Ki 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when he was come ini.e. when Jehu had established himself in the royal palacehe did eat and drink, and said. His first care was to refresh himself to order a banquet to be served, and to satisfy his appetite with food and drink. Not till afterwards did he bethink himself of the bloody corpse of his late queen and mistress, lying on the cold ground uncared for and untended, exposed to scorn and ignominy. When the thought occurred to him, it brought about a certain amount of relenting. Go, see now this cursed woman. He calls Jezebel, "a cursed woman," not inappropriately. She had brought a curse on her husband, on her sons, and on her grandsons; she had been the evil genius of two countries, Israel and Judah; she had been the prime mover in a bloody persecution of the worshippers of Jehovah; and was the true original source of the present revolution, which was to result in the deaths of so many others. And bury her: for she is a king"s daughter. As queen-mother, Jehu, it seems, would not have regarded Jezebel as entitled to burial; but as daughter of Eth-Baal, King of the Zidonians, (1Ki_16:31) and so a princess born, he allowed her claim. Perhaps he feared lest further insult to the corpse might provoke the resentment of the Phoenician monarch, and draw down upon him that prince"s hostility.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And said - It seems he had forgot the charge given him above, ver. 10. 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 Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)