An Intertextual Analysis of Jehu’s Violence in Kings and Chronicles (2 Kgs 9-10 and 2 Chr 21-24)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Given his disregard of the Northern dynasty, the Chronicler's reference to the story of Jehu's coup is presented with extreme brevity: only three verses (2 Chr 22,7-9) as against seventy-three in Kings (2 Kgs 9-10). In this article, I will try to demonstrate that this dramatic abridgment does not keep him from adopting the violent terminology used in these accounts and other violent stories in Scripture, and from applying them to our case, the set of stories bracketed by Jehoram and Joash, which parallel the chronology of the House of Omri. He does so in two ways: expanding the accounts of these kings with stories peppered by acts of violence and reworking stories from the Book of Kings by taking the tenor and terminology of violence to a higher level. Thus, Jehu's uncompromising war on the House of Ahab and the culture of Baal recurs in Chronicles in the Chronicler's war against the Judahite kings who adopted the culture of the House of Ahab.