Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 9
Jehu had seemed not to care about what happened to Jezebel’s body. However, in reality, this was an extremely important matter to him.
Jehu had heard the complete message that Elijah spoke about God’s judgment against Ahab’s family (1 Kings 21:21-24). That message included statements about what would happen to Jezebel’s body. It would be impossible to give her a proper grave, because wild dogs would attack her body.
Jehu wanted to see what God would do in this situation. That was why he left the body for a short time. Jehu himself would have chosen to bury Jezebel’s body to show honour to her father, a foreign king. However, Jehu did not bury the body, to allow time for God to act first. So, after his meal, Jehu ordered his soldiers to find the body and to bury it.
The soldiers reported back to Jehu that they were unable to find the body. The wild dogs had already eaten up the whole body. However, because of the importance of Jehu’s command, the soldiers had searched especially carefully. They found a few human bones, which they believed to be Jezebel’s bones.
That information impressed Jehu greatly. He had refused to bury Joram in order to make sure that God’s words by Elijah happened (1 Kings 9:25-26). Now he had seen that God is able to carry out his own judgments. His confidence in the power of God was increasing. Soon, in the matter of Ahab’s 70 sons, Jehu would simply send a letter and other people would carry out God’s judgment (1 Kings 10:9-10).
Next part: Ahab's 70 sons (2 Kings 10:1-3)
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