athered together.--It
must have, already appeared from this, how we understand the words, "I
visit the blood of Jezreel," used in the explanation of the name of
Jezreel, in the verse under consideration. According to the prophet's
custom of designating, by the name of an old thing, any new thing which
is substantially similar to it, the new guilt is marked by the name of
the old; and it is marked as _blood_, because the former guilt was
pre-eminently blood-guiltiness;[3] and as the blood of Jezreel, because
the former blood-guiltiness had been especially contracted there, and
it was there where the punishment was executed. The deep impression,
which just this mode of representation must have produced, must not be
overlooked. The sins formerly committed at Jezreel were acknowledged as
such by the whole people, and especially by the royal house, whose
whole rights were based upon this acknowledgment. The recollection of
the fearful punishment was still in the minds of all; but they did not
by any means imagine that they were implicated in the same guilt, and
had to expect the same punishment. That which they considered as
already [Pg 205] absolutely past, the prophet, by a single word, brings
again into the present, and the immediate future. By a single word of
dreadful sound he terrified and aroused them out of their
self-deception (which will not recognise its own sin in the picture of
the sins of others), and out of their carnal security. Entirely
analogous are 2 Kings ix. 31, where Jezebel says to Jehu, "Hast thou
peace, Zimri, murderer of his master?" which _Schmid_ well explains
by--"It is time for thee to desist, that thou mayest not experience the
same punishment as Zimri;" Zech. v. 11, where the prophet mentions
Shinar as the place of Israel's future banishment; and x. 11, where he
calls their future oppressors by the names of Asshur and Egypt, and
describes a new passing through the Red Sea. In Revelation, the
degenerate church is called by the names of Sodom and Egypt (xi. 18);
the true Church, by Jerusalem; Rome, by Babylon.--The explanation which
we have given will be its own defence against the current, and
evidently erroneous, expositions. Many interpreters understand, by the
blood of Jezreel, the slaughter of the family of Ahab which was
accomplished there by Jehu. It is, indeed, quite correct to say that a
deed objectively good does not thereby become one which is subjectively
so. That which has been wille