2 Kings 9:30

Contextual Overview

³⁰When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, so she painted her eyes, fixed her hair, and looked down from the window. ³⁰ When Yehu was come to Yizre`el, Izevel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. ³⁰ And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. ³⁰ When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. ³⁰ When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it. She put on her eye makeup and fixed her hair. Then she looked out the window. ³⁰ Jehu approached Jezreel. When Jezebel heard the news, she put on some eye liner, fixed up her hair, and leaned out the window. ³⁰So when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked down from the [upper] window.³⁰ When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, and she put makeup on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked down through the window.³⁰ And when Iehu was come to Izreel, Iezebel heard of it, and paynted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a windowe. ³⁰Then Jehu came to Jezreel, and Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jezebel: 1 Kings 19:1, 1 Kings 19:2

painted her face: Heb. put her eyes in painting, Jeremiah 4:30, Ezekiel 23:40

tired: Isaiah 3:18-24, Ezekiel 24:17, 1 Timothy 2:9, 1 Timothy 2:10, 1 Peter 3:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 6:16 - window Numbers 16:27 - and stood Joshua 19:18 - Jezreel 1 Kings 16:31 - Jezebel 1 Kings 21:23 - Jezebel Proverbs 6:25 - take Proverbs 7:10 - the attire Isaiah 3:9 - The show Revelation 2:20 - that woman Revelation 9:8 - hair

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it,.... And of what he had done to Joram:

and she painted her face; or put "stibium" on her eyes; a sort of paint, to make them look beautiful perhaps the same with powder of lead ore, the Moors now use to tinge their eyebrows with, and make them look black, which they reckon graceful, :-, this custom now obtains among the white Indians, who, to heighten the lustre of their complexion, and render their eyes more languishing, put a little black about them n:

and tired her head; dressed her head in the most elegant manner; not with a view to tempt Jehu, which she could not expect, being an aged woman; but for grandeur and majesty, and in the pride and haughtiness of her spirit, which she retained to the last, and resolved to keep up and show in her extremity and calamity:

and looked out at a window; in a bravado, as fearless of Jehu, and to dash him out of countenance if she could; or she might hope, by such a graceful and majestic appearance she made, that he would be moved to spare her life; though this does not so well agree with what follows as the former.

n Agreement of Customs between East Indians and Jews, art. 15. p. 65.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Painted her face - literally, “put her eyes in antimony “ - i. e., dyed the upper and under eyelids, a common practice in the East, even at the present day. The effect is at once to increase the apparent size of the eye, and to give it unnatural brilliancy. Representations of eyes thus embellished occur on the Assyrian sculptures, and the practice existed among the Jews (marginal reference; and Jeremiah 4:30).

Tired her head - Dressed (attired) her head, and no doubt put on her royal robes, that she might die as became a queen, in true royal array.

A window - Rather, “the window.” The gate-tower had probably, as many of those in the Assyrian sculptures, one window only.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. She painted her face, and tired her head — She endeavoured to improve the appearance of her complexion by paint, and the general effect of her countenance by a tiara or turban head-dress. Jonathan, the Chaldee Targumist, so often quoted, translates this וכחלת בצדידא עינהא vechachalath bitsdida eynaha: "She stained her eyes with stibium or antimony." This is a custom in Astatic countries to the present day. From a late traveller in Persia, I borrow the following account: -

"The Persians differ as much from us in their notions of beauty as they do in those of taste. A large soft, and languishing black eye, with them constitutes the perfection of beauty. It is chiefly on this account that the women use the powder of antimony, which, although it adds to the vivacity of the eye, throws a kind of voluptuous languor over it, which makes it appear, (if I may use the expression,) dissolving in bliss. The Persian women have a curious custom of making their eye-brows meet; and if this charm be denied them, they paint the forehead with a kind of preparation made for that purpose." E. S. Waring's Tour to Sheeraz, 4to., 1807, page 62.

This casts light enough on Jezebel's painting, &c., and shows sufficiently with what design she did it, to conquer and disarm Jehu, and induce him to take her for wife, as Jarchi supposes. This staining of the eye with stibium and painting was a universal custom, not only in Asiatic countries, but also in all those that bordered on them, or had connections with them. The Prophet Ezekiel mentions the painting of the eyes, Ezekiel 23:40.

That the Romans painted their eyes we have the most positive evidence. Pliny says, Tanta est decoris affectatio, ut tinguantur oculi quoque. Hist. Nat. lib. xi., cap. 37. "Such is their affection of ornament, that they paint their eyes also." That this painting was with stibium or antimony, is plain from these words of St. Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosynis, Inunge aculos tuos non stibio diaboli, sed collyrio Christi, "Anoint your eyes, not with the devil's antimony, but with the eye-salve of Christ." Juvenal is plain on the same subject. Men as well as women in Rome practiced it: -

Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum

Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes

Attollens oculos.

SAT. ii., ver. 93.

"With sooty moisture one his eye-brows dyes,

And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes."

The manner in which the women in Barbary do it Dr. Russel particularly describes: -

"Upon the principle of strengthening the sight, as well as an ornament, it is become a general practice among the women to black the middle of their eye-lids by applying a powder called ismed. Their method of doing it is by a cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe. This they wet with water, in order that the powder may stick to it, and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the eye-lids upon it, and so drawing it through between them, it blacks the inside, leaving a narrow black rim all round the edge. This is sometimes practiced by the men, but is then regarded as foppish." RUSSEL'S Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, page 102. See Parkhurst, sub voc. פך