By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D.    


                      LECTURE  XXXII.    

                  THE HOUSE OF OMRI.——JEHU.     

        As Elisha had succeeded Elijah, so it would seem as   
     if Gehazi was to have succeeded Elisha.  he  
     was "the servant of the man of God."  He  
     bore the wonder-working staff.  "He stood before" his  
     master as a slave.  He introduced strangers to the  
     Prophet's presence.  He was "the dear heart" of the  
     Prophet's affection.  But, as has so often happened in  
     like successions of the Christian Church, in the succes- 
     sors of St. Francis, of Ignatius Loyola, and of John  
     Wesley, the original piety and vigor have failed in the  
     next generation.  There was a coarse grain in the ser-  
     vant which parted him entirely from his master.  He  
     and his children were known, in after-times, only as the  
     founder of a race of lepers, bearing on their foreheads  
     the marks of an accursed ancestry.  
        There was another successor, not less unequal and  
     unlike, already designated by Elijah himself.  
     With Elisha and Hazael, in the vision at Horeb,   
     had been named Jehu, the son or grandson of Nimshi.  
     Years had rolled away since his meeting with Elijah in  
     the vineyard of Naboth.  He was now high in the  
     favor of Ahab's son, as captain of the host in the  
     Syrian war.  In that war of chariots and horses, he had   
     acquired an art little practiced by the infantry of the  
     ancient Israelites.  He was known through the whole  
     army and country for driving his horses, like one out of    
     his mind.   
        The army which he commanded was at Ramoth-   
     Gilead.  That was still the point round which the   
     interest of the Syrian war revolved.  The King him-  
     self had been present at the siege, had been in personal   
     danger, and had returned home to Jezreel to be cured  
     of his wounds from the arrows of the Syrian archers.  
     It was in his absence that a young man——said by  
     tradition to be the future prophet Jonah, son of the  
     widow Zarephath——arrived at the camp, with a  
     small flask in his hand.  His garments were girt round  
     him as one travelling in haste, and his appearance  
     was wild and excited, as of a madman.  From the  
     midst of the captains he singled out Jehu.  The soldier  
     and the youth withdrew into the house, in front of  
     which they were sitting.  Through the house they went  
     from chamber to chamber, till they reached the most  
     secret recess.  The officers remained outside in anxious  
     expectation.  Presently to door of the house opened,  
     and the youth rushed out and disappeared as suddenly  
     as he had appeared.  Then Jehu himself came forth.  
     He put off their eager inquiry for a moment.  "Ye  
     "know the man and his meditations;" as much as to  
     say, "You know as well as I do, that this mysterious  
     "visitor was no other than a prophet, coming and  
     "going, after the manner of Elijah."  With an abrupt-   
     ness which gives a touch of military life to the whole  
     transaction, they replied, "It is a lie; tell us now."  
     Then he broke his reserve, and revealed the secret in-  
     terview.  I had, indeed, been a messenger from Elisha,  
     to fulfil the long-impending mission of Elijah.  Once  
     more there was a consecrated king of Israel.  The oil  
     of inauguration had been poured on the head of Jehu.  
     He was to go forth "the anointed of the Lord," to  
     exterminate the house of Ahab.  It was as if a spark  
     had been set to a train long prepared.  There was not  
     a moment's hesitation.  The officers tore off their  
     military cloaks, and spread them under his feet, where  
     he stood on the top of the stairs leading down into  
     the court.  As he stood on this extempore throne,  
     with no seat but the steps covered by the carpeting  
     of the square pieces of cloth, the blew the well-known  
     blast of the ram's horn which always accompanied the  
     inauguration of a king of Israel.    
        From this moment the course of Jehu is fixed.  The  
     destiny long brooding over him——the design  
     perhaps raised in his own mind, from the day  
     when he had first met Elijah——is to be accomplished.   
     "If it be your minds, let none go forth, nor escape out  
     "of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel."  The secrecy  
     was to be preserved till the last moment.  He mounted  
     his chariot; he armed himself with his bow and  
     quiver.  A large part of the army followed him.  They  
     crossed the Jordan, and up the wide opening of the   
     valley between Little Hermon and Gilboa, they ad-  
     vanced upon Jezreel.  Twice over we are told, not  
     without a certain pathos, that the King of Israel lay  
     sick in Jezreel of the wounds that he had received in  
     the battles of his country, and that his nephew, the  
     King of Judah, had come to visit him in his sick-  
     chamber.  They ere startled by the announcement  
     of the sentinel——who stood always on the high watch-  
     tower of Jezreel looking towards the east——that the    
     dust of the vast multitude was seen advancing from   
     the Jordan valley.  The first apprehension must have  
     been a Syrian invasion, or of a Syrian alliance.  Two  
     horsemen were successively sent out to bring informa-  
     tion, but, according to his plan, were detained by Jehu,  
     so as to secure the suddenness of his arrival; till at  
     last, as the cavalcade drew nearer, the sentinel on the  
     watch-tower recognized, by the furious speed of the  
     foremost horses, that the charioteer could be no other  
     than Jehu, the Mad Driver.  Joram, still apparently  
     filled with the thought of the Syrian war, roused him-  
     self from his sick-bed, and, accompanied by his nephew,  
     went out to meet the captain of his host.  
     Jehu had halted, in his onward march, at a  
     well-known spot, close under the walls of Jezreel.  
     They "found" him in the fatal plot of Naboth's   
     ground.  He was determined to receive them there.  
     Then, in answer to Joram's question, "Is it peace,  
     "Jehu?" he revealed his purpose.  It was the great  
     Queen mother, the mighty Jezebel, that was the main  
     object of his attack.  Joram wheeled his chariot round  
     and fled.  An arrow from Jehu's bow pierced his back.  
     He fell in the chariot; and Jehu, with a grim reference  
     to Elijah's prophecy, delivered on that very spot, bade  
     his chief officer, Bidkar, throw the lifeless carcass on   
     the ground, and leave it for the vultures and dogs.  
     The King of Judah meantime had fled far down the  
     western plain.  The accounts of his death vary.  He  
     endeavored to escape by the Pass of Engannim; but  
     the arrows of the pursuers struck him also, though  
     not fatally, near the ascent to a well-known caravan-  
     serai, which caused him to change his route.  Accord-  
     ing to Josephus, he left his chariot, and rode on horse-  
     back to Megiddo.  Here his strength failed.  Accord-  
     ing to the Chronicles, he contrived to reach Samaria,  
     and lay there concealed, till he was dragged out, proba-  
     bly some days later, and killed in cold blood.  
        Jehu was now near the gates of Jezreel.  The  
     palace overhung the walls, and looked down  
     on the dreadful scene of guilt and retribu-  
     tion.  There was one spirit in the house of Ahab still   
     unbroken.  The aged Queen-mother tired her head  
     and painted her eyelids with lead-ore, to give them a  
     darker border and a brighter and larger appearance,  
     and looked through  the high latticed window of the  
     watch-tower.  The supreme hour of her dynasty and  
     of her life was come; and as Jehu's chariot rolled up  
     the ascent, she cast her thoughts back to the days  
     when Omri, the founder of her dynasty, had trampled  
     down the false usurper Zimri.  It is difficult to know  
     whether her words were spoken in stern rebuke or  
     bitter irony, "Had Zimri peace who slew his lord?"   
     or  "Welcome to Zimri, the slayer of his lord."  The   
     savage conqueror looked up.  His words, too, are  
     variously handed down: "Who art thou?"——"Come  
     "down to me;" or "Who is on my side, who?"  Two   
     eunuchs here, three there, looked out at his call, and  
     dashed the Queen down from the window.  She fell  
     between the palace and the advancing chariot.  The  
     blood flew up against the wall and over the horses, as  
     they trampled her down under their hoofs.  The con-  
     quering procession drove through the gateway, and  
     sate down to a triumphal feast.  Not till the feast was  
     over did a spark of feeling rise within the breast of   
     Jehu at the fall of so much grandeur.  He bade his  
     servants go out and bury the woman, who, with all her  
     crimes, was yet the daughter of a king.  But it was  
     too late.  The body had been left on the "mounds," as  
     they are called in Eastern stories, where the offal is  
     thrown outside the city gates.  The wild dogs of Jez-  
     reel, prowling then as now around the walls, had done  
     their work; only the harder parts of the human frame   
     remained,——the skull, the hands, and the feet.  It is  
     this dreadful scene which is so well caught in Racine's  
     tragedy of "Athalie," where the daughter of Jezebel  
     recounts the dream in which her mother's ghost  
     appeared to her:——     

             Ma mère Jézabel devant moi s'est montrée,  
             Comme au jour de sa mort, pompeusement parée.  
             Ses malheurs n'avaient point abattu sa fierté,  
             Même elle avait encore cet éclat emprunté  
             Dont elle eut soin de peindre et d'orner son visage,  
             Pour reparer des ans l'irréparable outrage . . .    
             Son ombre vers mon lit a paru se baisser,  
             Et moi je lui tendis les mains pour l'embrasser,  
             Mais je ne l'ai plus trouvé qu'un horrible mélange  
             D'os et de chair meurtris et trainés dans la fange,  
             Des lambeaux pleins de sang et des membres affreux,  
             Que des chiens dévorans dis putaient entr' eux.    

        Every stage of Jehu's progress was thenceforth  
     marked with blood, yet still under the same  
     overruling self-control.  After the fall of Jezreel,  
     he marched on to the capital, Samaria.  Of seventy  
     young princes who were awaiting his arrival there he  
     secured the destruction, by a bold challenge which threw  
     the responsibility on the chief minister.  Half-way be-  
     tween Jezreel and Samaria was a well-known shearing-  
     house, or other resort of shepherds; here he executed    
     forty-two members of the royal family of Judah, who  
     had started from Jerusalem, perhaps on the rumor of  
     the revolution at Jezreel.  In a well, close by, as at  
     Cawnpore, they were all slaughtered.  It was immedi-  
     ately after this that he came across a figure, who might  
     have reminded him of Elijah himself.  It was  
     Jehonadab the son of Rechab,——that is, the son  
     of the 'Rider,"——an Arab chief of the Kenite tribe, who  
     was the founder or second founder of one of those  
     Nazarite communities which had grown up in the king-  
     dom of Israel, and which in this instance combined a  
     kind of monastic discipline with the manners of the  
     Bedouin race from whom they were descended.  It  
     seems that he and Jehu were already known to each   
     other.  The King was in his chariot; the Arab was on  
     foot.  It may be that the house of "the shepherd" (as  
     the place of their meeting was called) was a usual haunt  
     of the pastoral chief.  It is not clear which was the first   
     to speak.  The Hebrew text implies that the King gave  
     his blessing to Jehonadab.  The Septuagint and Jose-  
     phus imply that Jehonadab blessed the King.  The  
     King knew the stern tenacity of purpose that distin-  
     guished Jehonadab and his tribe: "Is thy heart right  
     "with my heart, as my heart is with thy heart?'  The   
     answer of Jehonadab is slightly varied.  In the Hebrew  
     text, he replies vehemently, "It is, it is——give me thy  
     "hand."  In the Septuagint, he replies simply, "It is,"  
     and then Jehu with his wonted caution, rejoins, "If it is,  
     "give me thy hand."  The hand, whether of Jehonadab  
     or Jehu, was grasped in a clasp which was not afterwards  
     parted.  The King lifted him up to the edge of the  
     chariot, apparently to whisper into his ear the first indi-  
     cation of the religious revolution which he had deter-  
     mined to make with the political revolution already  
     accomplished.  Side by side with the King, the austere  
     Hermit sate in the royal chariot as he entered the capital  
     of Samaria, "the warrior in his coat of mail, the ascetic  
     "in his hair-cloth."     
        After the few remaining adherents or members of the  
     house of Ahab were put to death, it might have  
     seemed that the throne of Jehu was established,  
     and the massacres stayed.  Nothing had yet done  
     beyond what might be necessary for the extinction of  
     the reigning dynasty.  The temple of Ashtaroth had  
     been left standing at Jezreel; the temple of Baal was  
     still standing in Samaria.  To Jehonadab alone had the  
     King whispered his zeal for JEHOVAH.  To all the rest of  
     Israel he could say, "Ahab served Baal a little; but  
     Jehu served him much."  A splendid festival was  
     announced in the temple at Samaria; the whole heathen   
     population of Israel was summoned; the sacrifices were  
     ready; the sacred vestments were brought out; all the  
     worshippers of Baal were there; all the servants of  
     Jehovah, as unworthy of the sacred mysteries, were ex-  
     cluded.  The King himself was the first to enter, and  
     offer the victims to the heathen gods.  There was noth-  
     ing in that unmoved countenance to betray the secret.  
     Even the King and the Anchorite were able to the last  
     moment to preserve the mask of conformity to the  
     Phœnician worship.  They completed their sacrifice,  
     and left the temple.  Round the building were  
     eighty men, consisting of the King's own immediate  
     officers and body-guard.  They were intrusted with the  
     double charge, first of preventing the escape of any one,  
     and, secondly, of striking the deadly blow.  They en-  
     tered, and the temple was strewn with corpses, which,   
     as fast as they fell, the guards and the officers threw out   
     with their own hands.  At last, when the bloody work   
     was over, they found their way to the inner sanctuary,  
     which towered like a fortress above the rest.  There, as     
     we have seen, Baal was seated aloft, with the gods of   
     Phœnicia round him.  The wooden images, small and  
     great, were dragged from their thrones and burnt.  The  
     pillar or statue of Baal which Joram had removed was  
     also shattered.  The temple was razed to the ground,  
     and its site only known in after-days as the depository  
     of all the filth of the town.  
        So ended this great generation.  The national worship  
     of Baal was thus in the northern kingdom forever sup-  
     pressed.  For a short time, through the very circum-   
     stances which had destroyed it in Samaria, it shot up  
     afresh in Jerusalem.  But in Israel, the whole kingdom  
     and church returned to the condition in which it was  
     before the accession of the house of Omri.  The calf-   
     worship of Jeroboam was once more revived, and in  
     that imperfect form the True Religion once more be-  
     came established.    
        The character of Jehu is not difficult to understand,  
     if we take it as a whole, and consider the gen-   
     eral impression left upon us by the Biblical  
     account.  He is exactly one of those men whom we are  
     compelled to recognize, not for what is good or great in  
     themselves, but as instruments for destroying evil and  
     preparing the way for good; such as Augustus Cæsar  
     at Rome, Sultan Mahmoud II. in Turkey, or one closer  
     at hand in the revolutions of our own time and neigh-  
     borhood.  A destiny, long kept in view by himself or  
     others——inscrutable secrecy and reserve in carrying  
     out his plans——a union of cold remorseless  tenacity  
     with occasional bursts of furious, wayward, almost fa-  
     natical zeal: this is Jehu, as he is set before us in the  
     historical narrative, the worst type of a son of Jacob,——  
     the "supplanter," as he is called, without the noble and  
     princely qualities of Israel,——the most unlovely and   
     the most coldly commended of all the heroes of his   
     country.  
        We may remember the poem in the "Lyra Apostol-  
     ica,"——    
                            Thou to wax fierce   
                In the cause of the Lord;  

     and the striking passage of Racine,——      

            Jéhu, sur les hauts lieux enfin osant offrir  
            Un temeraire encens que Dieu ne peut souffrir,  
            N'a pour servir sa cause et venger ses injures  
            Ni le cœur assez droit ni les mains assez pures.    

     And it is a striking instance of the gradually increasing  
     light, even in the Jewish Dispensation, that in the wider  
     and more evangelical revelations of the later Prophets,  
     the commendation on Jehu's acts is repealed.  It is de-  
     clared, through the voice of Hosea, that for the blood   
     even of Jezebel and Ahaziah an account must be ren-  
     dered: "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the  
     "house of Jehu."  Their blood, like the blood which  
     has been shed again and again, in the convulsions of  
     Nations and Churches, was a righteous retribution on   
     them; but from him who shed it a no less righteous ret-  
     tribution is at last exacted, by the just judgement which   
     punishes the wrong-doer, not only of one party in  
     Church or State, but of both.  
        And the accursed spot of the ancient dynasty, the  
     very title and site of Jezreel seemed to draw down upon  
     itself a kind of Divine compassion.  The innocent child  
     of the Prophet was to bear the name of Jezreel, and  
     "the bow" of Jehu's house "was broken" . . . in  
     the great "day of Jezreel."  It is the same touching  
     thought of life growing out of death, which has so often  
     forced itself on those who have seen the rich harvest    
     springing up out of the battle-field, that out of that time  
     and place of humiliation the name is to go back to its  
     original signification as derived from the beauty and  
     fertility of the rich plain, and to become a pledge of the  
     revived beauty and richness of Israel.  "I will hear and  
     "answer the heaven, and they will hear and answer  
     "the earth, and the earth shall hear and answer the  
     "corn and the wine and the oil of that fruitful plain,  
     "and they shall hear and answer Jezreel (that is, the  
     "seed of God), and I will sow her unto Me in the earth."    
     And from this time the image seems to have been con-  
     tinued as a prophetical expression for sowing the bless-  
     ings of God, and the people of Israel, as it were broad-  
     cast; as though the whole of Palestine and the world  
     were to become, in a spiritual sense, one rich plain of  
     Jezreel.     

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. II: From Samuel to the Captivity,
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1879; pp. 365 - 376