Verse 30
30. Painted her face Better, set her eyes in paint. “The paint used by the Hebrew women was a powder producing a black colour; it was commonly prepared either from antimony, or from lead ore and zinc, which they mixed with water, and spread by means of a needle or probe of silver or ivory upon the borders of the eyelids, so that the white of the eye might appear still whiter by being surrounded with a black margin.” Gesenius. “This,” says Kitto, “is considered to add greatly to the brilliancy and power of the eye, and to deepen the effect of the long black eyelashes of which the Easterns are excusably proud. The ancient Egyptians practised this long before the date of the present transaction. Figures of painted eyes appear in the monuments, and the implements used in the operation have been actually found in the tombs, with some of the composition remaining in the vessels.”
Tired her head Adorned her head and hair with a queenly headdress.
Looked out at a window Some have thought her object, in thus arraying her person in splendid attire, was to captivate Jehu by her charms, and lead him, after the manner of Eastern usurpers, to take her for his wife. But her scornful words to him in the next verse accord not with this thought. She rather looked out of the window, arrayed in royal attire, to bid defiance to her enemy.
Be the first to react on this!
