Cosmetics and the painting of one’s eyes is nothing new. The photo below shows a Palm-column flask and kohl stick displayed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. The item is said to date between 1386 and 1212 B.C. Information with the item says,
The palm-column flask is one of the best represented types of glass vessels from the New Kingdom. It served as a container for the cosmetic kohl, or eyepaint, made of ground galena mixed with fat or resin and applied to the lids with the slender glass rod.
Palm-column flask and kohl stick. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo” Ferrell Jenkins.
It was centuries later when Jehu came to see Jezebel at Jezreel. Jezebel, the widow of King Ahab, wanted to make a good appearances on Jehu.
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. (2 Kings 9:30 ESV)
Perhaps Jezebel did not know that she was preparing herself for her death.
Royal Ontario Museum exhibit showing an Egyptian woman painting her eyes. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
The prophets also spoke of this practice, but not in a complimentary way, in Jeremiah 4:30 and Ezekiel 23:40.
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