Since the writer did not record Jehu's coronation, we should probably regard his reign as beginning when Joram died (9:24). Jehu began Israel's fifth and longest royal dynasty. He and his descendants reigned 88 years (841-753 B.C.). He himself reigned 28 years (841-814 B.C.). His contemporaries in Judah were Queen Athaliah and King Joash.
Jezebel evidently painted her eyes and adorned her head (v. 30) to receive Jehu. Unwittingly, or perhaps deliberately,59she prepared herself for her own death. At least one interpreter believed she was trying to seduce Jehu.60Her greeting to Jehu may have been a sarcastic, derogatory threat (v. 31).61She asked, "Is it peace?"as the two horsemen and Joram had (vv. 17, 19, 22). However she meant, "Have you established peace (by assassinating the king)?"She implied he had not by calling him Zimri. Zimri was the rebel who had assassinated his king, Elah, only to die seven days later at the hand of Jezebel's father-in-law, Omri (1 Kings 16:9, 18-19). Jezebel implied that Jehu would suffer a similar fate. This interpretation seems better than that Jezebel saw Jehu as a rebel but complemented him on being the one who pruned Omri's dynasty.62"Zimri"may have become synonymous with "traitor"by this time.63
In response to Jehu's question, "Who is on my side?"a few officers (Heb. saris) who acted as harem attendants threw Jezebel out of her upper-story window. The way Jehu treated Jezebel's body shows his complete lack of respect for her. Rather than mourning her death, he feasted. He fulfilled Elijah's prophecy of how God would end her life (1 Kings 21:23). She who had ordered the murders of Naboth and his sons died on the very ground she had stolen from them. This was the same plot of ground where Jehu had thrown Joram's corpse (vv. 24-26). Yahweh and the godly people of Israel shared Jehu's lack of respect. Jezebel had been responsible for much of the apostasy, wickedness, and consequent divine discipline that had plagued Israel for over 30 years. As always in Kings, the writer recorded the type of death a person died to document God's faithfulness in blessing the obedient and cursing the disobedient.64
When Jehu occupied Jezreel, he had not yet established himself as Israel's king. Jezreel was only a secondary residence of Ahab's royal family after Samaria.65
Jehu challenged the nobles of Samaria and Jezreel who were rearing Ahab's 70 male descendants to select an heir and to battle Jehu. This would decide whether Ahab's house or Jehu's would rule Israel. Rather than fight a battle they were sure they would lose they submitted to Jehu and slew Ahab's sons. In the ancient Near East conquering kings sometimes piled the heads of their defeated foes at the city gate to show their power and to discourage future rebellion.66Jehu then proceeded to execute the nobles who had killed Ahab's sons. However in this purge Jehu demonstrated too much zeal. God judged his own dynasty later for these unlawful assassinations (cf. Hosea 1:4). Jehu was wise and obedient to kill Ahab's sons (cf. 2 Sam. 1:14-15), but he overstepped his authority by killing the nobles.
"Jehu's killings exceed reform and become atrocities, . . . a fact Hos 1:4-5 makes clear. Eventually, Jehu becomes very much like those he replaces, which makes him more of a political opportunist than a catalyst for change."67
Jehu also wiped out the members of Ahab's family who were still alive in the Southern Kingdom whom God evidently brought together to make Jehu's job easier (vv. 12-14).68
Jonadab also rejoiced in the destruction of Ahab's line, though he may not have approved of all Jehu's killing (vv. 15-17). Other Scripture describes Jonadab as a faithful follower of Yahweh who observed the Mosaic Law strictly (cf. Jer. 35:6-7).
This purge evidently took place in Samaria (1 Kings 16:32). Jehu's true religious preferences had not yet become known publicly. The Hebrew words translated "pillar"in verses 26 and 27 are not the same indicating that Jehu desecrated two or more kinds of objects, probably flammable wooden and non-flammable stone idols. Jehu also converted the temple of Baal into a public latrine, the greatest possible insult to Baal, the god of fertility. His act made it an unclean place as well. Jehu thus effectively eradicated the Baal worship that Ahab and Jezebel had officially established as Israel's religion.
God blessed Jehu for eliminating the line of Ahab and Baalism. However, Jehu did not go far enough. He allowed the cult of Jeroboam to continue. Furthermore he was not careful to obey the Mosaic Law with all his heart (v. 31). Consequently God cut his line off eventually, and Israel lost much Transjordanian territory to Hazael, king of Aram.
"Despite his cometlike beginning, spiritually speaking, Jehu was a falling star, so his reign is largely passed over in silence."69
"Despite his attacks against Baalism, Jehu does not lead the nation into separatist Yahwism. He allows the worship instituted by Jeroboam to continue. In effect, then, he expels the foreign religion (Baalism) in favor of the long-standing Israelite state religion begun by Jeroboam. Apparently he believes reform beyond the elimination of Ahab's children, Ahab's wife, and Ahab's religion, that is, what secures his power, does not concern him. Indeed he acts as the instrument of punishment against the corrupt Omride dynasty, but he does not operate out of Elijah-like motives. Rather, he is, like Syria, Assyria, and Babylon, an instrument that punishes but exhibits few personalmoral strengths. Israel is now back to where it was before Ahab and Jezebel assumed leadership, but it has certainly not come back to the Lord."70
