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The Bloodshed of Jezreel: Hosea's Condemnation of Jehu
While many of the minor prophets are amongst the lesser known works of the Bible, the most well-known of the group is likely the prophet Hosea. While the bulk of the text is as little studied as the rest of the corpus, the introduction to Hosea is well known to most serious Bible students. As a sign to Israel of their harlotry in breaking their covenant with Yahweh, Hosea is called to marry a prostitute by the name of Gomer. Hosea fulfills this prophetic obligation and has three children with Gomer (although only the first is confirmed to be Hosea’s natural born). These three children are given names as part of Hosea’s prophetic oracles against Israel that detail how Yahweh is going to break the strength of Israel, remove his compassion from Israel, and sunder the relationship between Yahweh and His faithless people (Hosea 1:4-9). In the next breath, however, these names are used in Hosea’s prophesy of the reversal of Israel’s destruction where Israel and Judah will be restored to a proper covenant relationship with Yahweh and live in the blessing of their God (Hosea 1:10-2:1).
An easy to skip over detail amongst this first chapter of prophetic oracles, however, is the rationale for the name of Hosea’s firstborn son: Jezreel. The Lord commands this name by saying, “Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel,” (Hosea 1:4-5). The name of Jehu is quite a recognizable one in Israelite history; he is the warrior who overthrew the house of Ahab at the command of the prophet Elisha and then took the thrown for himself. Jezreel is the city where Jehu begins his bloody carvings through Israel with the deaths of King Jehoram and King Amaziah. There is, however, a potential concern here: why is Hosea condemning Jehu for his actions? Jehu was anointed by one of the prophets and given prophetic instructions to destroy the house of Ahab, which had already been prophesied by Elijah in 1 Kings 21, and he is commended for his actions by Yahweh himself in 2 Kings 10 as having, “done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart,” (2 Kings 10:30) and is rewarded with a small dynasty in spite of his idolatry. So, why is Hosea condemning Jehu for “the bloodshed of Jezreel?”
First, we have to take a look at where the condemnation of Ahab’s household originates. The prophesy that lays out the fate of Ahab’s dynasty takes place in 1 Kings 21. Ahab covets Naboth’s vineyard, which is conveniently located next to Ahab’s palace, as a vegetable garden, but Naboth refuses to give his traditional inheritance to Ahab even if he is paid for it. While Ahab sulks over this refusal, Jezebel takes matters into her own hands; she falsely accuses Naboth of blasphemy against Yahweh and Ahab (which is ironic seeing as Jezebel has murdered the prophets of Yahweh), and Naboth is stoned. The prophet Elijah is commissioned by Yahweh to condemn Ahab for this crime, and Elijah tells the wicked king that, “Behold, I will bring evil upon you and will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and because you made Israel sin. Of Jezebel also has the Lord spoken, saying, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.’ The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and the one who dies in the field the birds of heaven will eat,” (1 Kings 21:21-24). Just as the two previous dynasties of Baasha and Jeroboam were destroyed for their sinful leadership, so too will Ahab’s dynasty be destroyed. Surprisingly, Ahab humbles himself before the Lord at this pronouncement so deeply that the Lord decides to not bring about this destruction in his days, but in the days of his son (1 Kings 21:28). Despite this repentance, however, Ahab does not heed the warning of Micaiah in his battles against Aram and is slain in the next chapter (as prophesied by the unnamed prophet in 1 Kings 20:42 as a result of Ahab not slaying Ben-Hadad). Ahab’s son Ahaziah reigns a brief two years before dying of injuries received after a fall, and his brother Jehoram reigns in his place. It will be in his days that Elijah’s prophesy will come to pass.
At the end of Jehoram’s reign Elijah’s prophetic successor, Elisha, tasks one of the sons of the prophets with finding Jehu the son of Nimshi in Ramoth-Gilead. There, the son of the prophet is to, “take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I have anointed you king over Israel.”’ Then open the door and flee and do not wait,” (2 Kings 9:3). This is not the first time that Jehu has been mentioned in the text of Kings; in 1 Kings 19:15-18, he is one of three “successors” to Elijah’s battles against Ahab’s house and Baalism. Interestingly, there is no record of Elijah himself ever actually making contact with Jehu (or Hazael, who is to be anointed king over Aram). Instead it has now fallen to Elisha and his followers to commence the destruction of Ahab’s dynasty. The young son of the prophet goes to Ramoth-Gilead (a frequent battlefront in the wars between Aram and Israel) and finds the captains of the army. He takes Jehu into a private house and anoints the warrior with oil. It is there, however, that an oddity occurs. The son of the prophet says, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person both bond and free in Israel. I will make the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.’” Then he opened the door and fled,” (2 Kings 9:6-10). As readers, we note the similarity of this prophesy and Elijah’s prophesy in 1 Kings 21. However, there are concerns with this message. First, Elisha had only told the son of the prophets to anoint Jehu, proclaim him king, and then “flee and do not wait.” Is it possible that the additional commands to strike the house of Ahab is the son of the prophet adding on to the message that Elisha commanded? It could be that Elisha had additional things for the son of the prophet to say beyond Jehu being king, but it is disconcerting that Elisha is not recorded as saying them if he meant for them to be said. Second, there’s a particular phrase that is not mentioned in either Elisha’s or Elijah’s prophesy: “that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel.” Ahab’s house has been condemned for the blood of Naboth and their idolatry, but there has not been an explicit connection to the judgment on Ahab’s household and the murder of Yahweh’s prophets at the hand of Jezebel. Some have argued that the Lord’s command to Elijah to anoint Jehu follows directly after his complaint that Jezebel has murdered the Lord’s prophets, but that’s still arguing from a lack of direct connection in the text. Is it possible that this son of prophet, angry at the injustice done to his brethren, takes the opportunity to add his vengeance onto Elisha’s command? It’s difficult to say with certainty but these irregularities in the prophetic message cause us to be apprehensive as Jehu’s reign begins.
Jehu’s brutal spree begins with gathering his loyal forces to ambush Jehoram at Jezreel where the King has returned to heal from his wounds earned fighting the Arameans (certainly there is a heavy irony that Jehoram will be slain at the place of Naboth’s own death!). With Jehoram is his ally Ahaziah the King of Judah. Ahaziah is an alarming presence to the reader; he has been noted as a descendent of Ahab through his daughter Athaliah (2 Kings 8:25-27), but he is also the heir to David’s throne in Judah. Has David’s line been corrupted through its alliance with Ahab? Jehu approaches the two kings and tells Jehoram that there will be no peace in the land, “so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many,” (2 Kings 9:22). Jehoram, realizing too late the coup of his captain, is shot by Jehu as he flees. In accordance with God’s word to Elijah, Jehoram’s body is disposed of in the field of Naboth. Curiously, Jehu tells his officer that they were present for Elijah’s prophesy against Ahab. Certainly, the warrior seems interested in confirming that he is following the will of the Lord. Ahaziah attempts to flee as well, but he is also slain by Jehu (although he will escape to Meggido and be buried in Jerusalem). While Ahaziah is a grandson of Ahab and nominally part of the House of Ahab, it is quite surprising to see a king of Judah slain in this coup. The Chronicler confirms for us that Ahaziah’s death was willed by God (2 Chronicles 22:7), and we have already seen the Kings account confirm that he is an idolater and wicked. Even so, his death is a surprise and will have terrible consequences for the kingdom of Judah with the rise of his mother, Athaliah, to the throne and her purge of the Davidic line (save Joash, who is saved by righteous Jehoiada). Our temporary concern is abated when we see Jehu continue onto the city of Jezreel to slay Jezebel, the terrible foe of God’s prophets. The queen of harlotries is cast out a window and trampled by Jehu’s furious chariot, but we are then surprised to see Jehu quite nonchalantly go into her house and begin to eat her food. It is almost an afterthought that he orders for her to be buried as a woman of status, but is reminded of the prophesy of God that there would be nothing left of Jezebel to bury after the dogs ate her (2 Kings 2:33-37). While Jehu quickly remembers this being a part of Elijah’s prophesy, it is once again odd that his actions are not in congruence with what had previously been prophesied even if he claims otherwise.
Jehu’s spree is not finished, however. He then goes on to have the seventy sons of Ahab murdered by their tutors (although oddly does not take credit for it in front of the people), and then turns to killing all of the tutors and other men, acquaintances, and priests of Ahab. On his way to Samaria, where he will slaughter all of Ahab’s men there, he encounters forty-two relatives of Ahaziah and has them entirely butchered as well. Again, we are alarmed to see the house of David indicted in this episode; are these relatives of Ahaziah intended to be part of the slaughter? The text rushes on, however, to tell us that Jehu summons all the worshippers of Baal to the temple in Samaria for a grand worship sacrifice. Once the priests and prophets come to the temple however, they are all slaughtered; so thorough is the destruction of Baalism in Israel that the temple is torn down and turned into a latrine (2 Kings 10:25-27). Right as we are thinking that Jehu is perhaps the man who will lead Israel back to righteousness, however, are informed that he has kept worshipping the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. He has destroyed Baalism, but he has not lead Israel back to a righteous relationship with God and has traded one form of immorality for an older one. In spite of this sin, we read that “the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel,”” (2 Kings 10:30). This seems like Jehu did well for the Lord, other than maintaining the worship of Jeroboam’s calves; he’s given a dynasty that’s almost Davidic in its quality, albeit not an everlasting dynasty. We return, then, to the original question: why is Jehu condemned by Hosea?
It is important to note that what Jehu is specifically commended for is that he “did to the House of Ahab according to all that was in [God’s] heart.” We know that God had prophesied through Elijah that the house of Ahab would be destroyed, and that it was good in God’s sight that Ahab’s house face the same level of destruction that Jeroboam and Baasha’s houses did. We’re left, then, with three possibilities of why Hosea condemns this spree. The first is that Jehu was supposed to kill Jehoram, Jezebel, and the sons of Ahab, but went overboard in spilling the blood of some combination of Ahaziah, his relatives, the acquaintances and servants of Ahab, and the worshippers of Baal. While all these groups had some sort of sin attached to them and could conceivably be killed as punishment for their sins, they are not specifically members of the house of Ahab that was condemned for destruction. Ahaziah and his relatives would likely be considered the House of David despite their allegiance/relationship to Ahab, and there is no specific mention of purging Ahab’s non-blood servants or those who had taken to idol worship. It’s possible that some or all of these people were “innocent” of the crimes of Ahab, and Jehu went too far in killing them all. A second possibility, which could also align with the first, is that Jehu’s problem was his heart; while he executed the will of the Lord in killing Ahab’s house, it seems quite clear that Jehu was most concerned with establishing his own kingdom in succession to Ahab rather than serving the Lord fully. As evidenced by his disregard for the prophesy concerning Jezebel and, more importantly, his failure to overthrow the Golden Calves, Jehu was not overly concerned with honoring the will of the Lord. There are numerous examples in scripture of people that have done things that were ultimately ordained by God even if their motives were selfish (for example, Assyria and Babylon in destroying Israel/Judah). These people are always condemned in scripture for their wicked mentality even if their actions were part of God’s plan. A third possibility is that the son of the prophet commissioned by Elisha to anoint Jehu overstepped his prophetic boundaries to gain vengeance on the house of Ahab and Jezebel. As noted, there are significant questions concerning the son of the prophet’s message and why it doesn’t seem to line up with Elijah or Elisha’s original message. Is it possible that Jehu’s spree was not the intended result of Elisha’s prophesy, but bloodshed originating from a prophet taking advantage of the Word of God? While this initially might seem unlikely, it is important to note that prophets are often spoken of with mixed results in the book of Kings (Nathan, Micaiah, and numerous unnamed false prophets).
Given the evidence of the account of Kings, it’s quite likely that all three elements of this are in play for why Hosea denounces the actions of Jehu. It is important to realize as well that this is not a contradiction between the passages in Kings and Hosea. Jehu did fulfill the will of the Lord in destroying the House of Ahab, but that didn’t spare his house from having to face the consequences of its own sinful actions in pursuing that course. This is a vital lesson for the Christian to remember: the ends do not justify the means. We can do things that result in the Lord’s will being met and still be condemned because our actions were unholy and sinful. God cares not just about the outcomes we produce, but the methods, means, and morality of how we get to those outcomes. If we gain the world but lose our soul in the process, what use has it been?
