The Cursed Woman and the Unfailing Word Text: 2 Kings 9:30-37
Introduction: The Hard Edges of God's Justice
We live in a soft age, an effeminate age, that wants a soft god. We want a god who is all sentiment and no substance, all mercy and no justice, all tolerance and no standards. We want a god who is a celestial therapist, a divine affirmation machine, a cosmic grandpa who pats us on the head regardless of what we do. But that is not the God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire. He is holy, He is just, and His judgments are true and righteous altogether.
This passage is one of those places in Scripture that makes modern Christians squirm. It is bloody, it is brutal, and it is unapologetically violent. The end of Jezebel is not a pretty story. It is a story of defenestration, trampling, and canine consumption. And because we are squeamish, because we have been catechized by the world to value niceness above all else, we are tempted to either skip over such passages or to try and explain them away. We want to blunt the sharp edges of God's Word. But these hard passages are in the Bible for a reason. They are here to teach us something essential about the character of God, the nature of sin, the certainty of judgment, and the absolute reliability of God's prophetic Word.
Jezebel was not just a misguided woman with an alternative lifestyle. She was the federal head of idolatry in Israel. She was the state-sponsored high priestess of Baal and Asherah worship, a cult of sexual perversion, ritual prostitution, and child sacrifice. She was a murderer of God's prophets. She was a tyrant who used the levers of state power to steal and to kill, as in the case of Naboth's vineyard. She was a living, breathing embodiment of rebellion against Yahweh. Her sin was not private; it was public, political, and pervasive. And so, her judgment had to be public, political, and pervasive. God's justice is not a quiet, backroom affair. When sin is flaunted in the public square, God's judgment will be executed in that same public square, for all to see.
The story of Jezebel's demise is a stark and bloody reminder that God is not mocked. What a man, or a woman, or a nation sows, that they will also reap. God's patience is long, but it is not infinite. The accounts of heaven are kept with meticulous accuracy, and the day of reckoning always comes. This is not a bug in the system; it is the central feature of God's moral universe. And in this, we should find not horror, but a profound comfort. We serve a God who keeps His promises, both the promises of blessing for obedience and the promises of cursing for rebellion.
The Text
Then Jehu came to Jezreel, and Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window. As Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, your master’s killer?” Then he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” And two or three officials looked down at him. And he said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot. Then he came in and ate and drank. And he said, “Take care now of this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” They went to bury her, but they found nothing more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Therefore they returned and declared it to him. And he said, “This is the word of Yahweh, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”
(2 Kings 9:30-37 LSB)
Final Defiance (v. 30-31)
We begin with Jezebel's last stand, a final act of defiant vanity.
"Then Jehu came to Jezreel, and Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window. As Jehu entered the gate, she said, 'Is it peace, Zimri, your master’s killer?'" (2 Kings 9:30-31)
Jezebel knows the score. Jehu has just killed her son, King Joram, and her grandson, King Ahaziah of Judah. The revolution is at the palace gates. The game is up. And what is her response? Repentance? Fear? A plea for mercy? Not a bit of it. She goes to her makeup table. She paints her eyes with kohl and arranges her hair. This is not an act of seduction, as some have suggested. Jehu is a bloody revolutionary, not a suitor. This is an act of royal defiance. She is a queen, the daughter of a king, and she will meet her end dressed for the part. She is putting on her power, her authority, her identity as the high priestess of Baal. It is a final, futile gesture of self-worship.
She then looks out the window, the place of royal appearance, and hurls her insult at Jehu. "Is it peace, Zimri, your master’s killer?" This is a carefully crafted piece of political trash talk. Zimri was an officer who assassinated his king, Elah, and then reigned for a mere seven days before he was overthrown and killed himself (1 Kings 16). By calling Jehu "Zimri," she is doing two things. First, she is calling him a traitor and a regicide. Second, she is prophesying his doom, suggesting his reign will be as short and disastrous as Zimri's. It is a curse, a final, venomous spit from the throne. She is unrepentant to the very last, full of pride and contempt. She dies as she lived: a rebel against God's anointed.
The Instrument of Wrath (v. 32-33)
Jehu, God's instrument of judgment, does not waste time with words. His response is swift and decisive.
"Then he lifted up his face to the window and said, 'Who is on my side? Who?' And two or three officials looked down at him. And he said, 'Throw her down.' So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot." (2 Kings 9:32-33 LSB)
Jehu doesn't debate her. He doesn't argue politics. He simply looks past her to the eunuchs, the palace officials standing beside her. "Who is on my side? Who?" This is the great question that divides all of humanity. There are only two sides. You are either on the Lord's side, or you are against Him. There is no neutral ground, no demilitarized zone. These eunuchs had served Jezebel, they had enabled her wickedness, but now the day of reckoning has arrived, and they must choose. Their survival instinct, and perhaps a flicker of the fear of God, makes the choice for them. They look down at Jehu.
Jehu's command is brutally simple: "Throw her down." And her own servants, the men who had just moments before been taking her orders, obey. They become the instruments of her execution. This is a profound picture of how God's judgment works. The very structures and people that a tyrant uses to prop up their rebellion often become the means of their downfall. God turns the wicked against themselves. So they threw her down. The queen who sat in the high window, looking down on the world, is cast down into the dirt. Her royal blood, which she believed made her untouchable, is splattered on the wall and on the horses. And Jehu, God's anointed executioner, tramples her under his chariot wheels. The judgment is not just death; it is humiliation. The symbol of idolatrous pride is literally ground into the dust.
A Cursed Meal (v. 34-35)
The aftermath is as chilling as the execution itself, revealing the cold, hard nature of divine justice.
"Then he came in and ate and drank. And he said, 'Take care now of this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.' They went to bury her, but they found nothing more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands." (2 Kings 9:34-35 LSB)
Jehu goes into the palace, the seat of Jezebel's power, and he eats and drinks. This is not callous indifference. This is a symbolic act. He is taking possession. The house has been cleansed. The meal is a declaration that the old regime is over and a new one has begun. He has executed the sentence, and now he sits in the victor's seat. Only after this does he turn his attention to the body. "Take care now of this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter."
There is a hint of protocol here. Even in judgment, there is a recognition of her station. She was royalty, and a proper burial was the norm. To be left unburied was the ultimate curse in the ancient world. But God's curse supersedes man's protocol. The servants go out to perform the burial, but the judgment of God has outpaced them. The dogs of Jezreel, the feral scavengers of the city, have already served as God's cleanup crew. All that is left are the parts the dogs would not eat: the skull that housed her rebellious mind, the feet that carried her on her wicked errands, and the palms of the hands that schemed and gestured in defiance. It is a picture of utter desolation and consumption.
The Unfailing Word of God (v. 36-37)
The scene concludes with Jehu connecting the grisly events back to their ultimate source: the prophetic Word of God.
"Therefore they returned and declared it to him. And he said, 'This is the word of Yahweh, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ '" (2 Kings 9:36-37 LSB)
This is the theological anchor of the entire narrative. This is not random violence. This is not just a military coup. This is the meticulous, literal fulfillment of a divine prophecy spoken years earlier by Elijah. After Jezebel had orchestrated the judicial murder of Naboth to seize his vineyard, Elijah confronted Ahab and pronounced this very curse upon her (1 Kings 21:23). Years passed. Ahab died. Joram reigned. But God's Word did not expire. The statute of limitations never runs out on a divine decree.
Notice the precision. The prophecy was that the dogs would eat her "in the property of Jezreel," the very place where her sin against Naboth was committed. The judgment fits the crime, not just in its nature but in its geography. God's justice is poetic and precise. The end result is total annihilation of her identity. Her corpse will be like "dung on the face of the field." She will be so utterly consumed and scattered that no one can even point to her remains and say, "This is Jezebel." The woman who spent her life making a name for herself, who adorned her head and painted her eyes to project an image of power, is rendered anonymous refuse. She is unmade. This is the final end of all who set themselves against the living God. They will be erased.
Conclusion: Flee from Idolatry
So what do we do with a story like this? First, we must fear God. We must recover a biblical understanding of His holiness and His justice. God is not to be trifled with. His hatred of sin, particularly the sin of idolatry, is a white-hot fire. Jezebel's great sin was leading Israel into spiritual adultery, teaching them to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And we must understand that idolatry is not just about bowing to statues. Idolatry is setting anything in the place of God: money, sex, power, comfort, the approval of man, or even the worship of the self.
Second, we must trust the Word of God. Every promise and every warning in this book is as certain as the prophecy against Jezebel. The dogs of judgment are coming for our rebellious world. The wages of sin is still death. But the good news is that the promises of salvation are just as certain. God also promised a Savior who would be crushed for our iniquities, who would be trampled under the wheels of divine justice in our place.
The blood of Jezebel was splattered on the wall as a sign of judgment fulfilled. But the blood of Jesus Christ was splattered on a cross as a sign of judgment absorbed. He took the curse that we deserved. He was cast down so that we might be lifted up. He was treated like dung on the field of Golgotha so that we might be called sons and daughters of the King.
Therefore, the question Jehu asked still echoes down to us today: "Who is on my side? Who?" You are either with Jezebel or you are with the Lord. You are either in rebellion, painting your face in defiance, or you are in submission, washed in the blood of the Lamb. There is no third option. Let the fate of this cursed woman drive you to the cross of the blessed Savior, for it is only there that the dogs of judgment will pass you by.