Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 9:30

"And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window." — 2 Kings 9:30 (ASV)

And when Jehu was come. — Rather, And Jehu came—that is, after the slaughter of Ahaziah, as the Hebrew construction implies.

Jezebel heard of it. — Rather, Now Jezebel had heard—namely, the news of the death of the two kings. There should be a full stop after "Jezreel" (in the biblical text).

And she painted her face. — Rather, and she set her eyes in paint—that is, according to the still common practice of Eastern women, she painted her eyebrows and lashes with a pigment composed of antimony and zinc (the Arabic kohl). The dark border throws the eye into relief and makes it appear larger (Bähr). Pliny relates that in his day this pigment (stibium) was called platyophthalmon , because it dilates the eye (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 34).

Tired. — An archaic English word, meaning adorned with a tire or headdress. (Compare Isaiah 3:18.) Tire might seem to be the Persian tiara, but is much more probably connected with the German zier and zieren. (See Skeat's Etymological Dictionary, under the word.) Jezebel put on her royal apparel in order to die as a queen. Compare the similar behavior of Cleopatra:

“Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch
My best attires. I am again for Cydnus,
To meet Marc Antony... Bring our crown, and all.

Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me.”

Antony and Cleopatra, Acts 5, scene 2.

A window. — The window, looking down upon the square within the city gate. Others think of a window looking down into the courtyard of the palace.

Ewald’s notion (after Ephrem Syrus), that Jezebel thought to captivate the conqueror by her charms, is refuted by the consideration that she was the grandmother of Ahaziah, who was twenty-two years old when Jehu slew him, and by the fact that Eastern women fade early.