2 Kings 9:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab Thou shalt execute my judgment upon them, pronounced long ago. That I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, &c. That they were idolaters was bad enough, and merited all that was brought upon them; yet this is not mentioned here; but the controversy God has with them is for their being persecutors. Nothing fills up the measure of the iniquity of any prince or people so much as this doth; nor brings a surer or sorer ruin. This was the sin which principally brought on Jerusalem both its first and its final destruction, 2 Chronicles 36:16, and Matthew 23:37-38. Jezebel's whoredoms and witchcrafts were not so provoking to God as her persecuting the prophets and other faithful worshippers of God, killing some, and driving the rest into corners and caves, 1 Kings 18:4.