Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up Ahab’s sons, saying, “Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor, Select the best and fittest of your master’s sons, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”
But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, “Behold, the two kings didn’t stand before him! How then shall we stand?” He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes.”
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, “If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.” Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.
When the letter came to them, they took the king’s sons and killed them, even seventy people, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel. A messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” He said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.”
In the morning, he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? Know now that nothing will fall to the earth of Yahweh’s word, which Yahweh spoke concerning Ahab’s house. For Yahweh has done that which he spoke by his servant Elijah.”
So Jehu struck all that remained of Ahab’s house in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.
He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing house of the shepherds on the way, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” They answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen.”
He said, “Take them alive!” They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty-two men. He didn’t leave any of them.
When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?” Jehonadab answered, “It is.” “If it is, give me your hand.” He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.
He said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for Yahweh.” So they made him ride in his chariot. When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke to Elijah. Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshipers, and all of his priests. Let no one be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live.” But Jehu did deceptively, intending to destroy the worshipers of Baal.
Jehu said, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal!” So they proclaimed it.
Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshipers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that didn’t come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another. He said to him who kept the wardrobe, “Bring out robes for all the worshipers of Baal!” So he brought robes out to them.
Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search, and see that none of the servants of Yahweh are here with you, but only the worshipers of Baal.”
So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed for himself eighty men outside, and said, “If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.”
As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, “Go in and kill them! Let no one escape.” So they struck them with the edge of the sword. The guard and the captains threw the bodies out, and went to the inner shrine of the house of Baal. They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
However, Jehu didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. Yahweh said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done to Ahab’s house according to all that was in my heart, your descendants shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin. In those days Yahweh began to cut away parts of Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel; from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32 The Scripture useth to call them sons, which are…
The Scripture useth to call them sons, which are either children or nephews.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–36 2Ki 10:1 And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.…
2Ki 10:1 And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab’s [children], saying,
Ver. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons.] By several wives. God had threatened to root out his house, yet he promised himself the establishment of his house; and thereupon so followed the work of generation that he left seventy sons behind him.
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In Samaria.] The chief city, where they were for safety and for noble education.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Ahab had seventy sons; either, first, properly sons by…
Ahab had seventy sons; either, first, properly sons by several wives; or rather, secondly, grandsons are comprehended, who are oft called sons, and grandfathers fathers, in Scripture. In Samaria; either because they were bred up there, that being the chief city of the kingdom; or because upon the tidings of Joram’s slaughter they fled thither, or were by their friends conveyed from several parts thither, as to the strongest place; in which it may seem by Jehu’s message they intended to defend themselves and Ahab’s children, and to set up one as king in Joram’s stead; or rather, because they were left there by Joram when he went to Ramoth-gilead, that if the Syrians had prevailed against him, they might have safety in that very strong and great city, and he by their means succour from it.
Unto the rulers of Jezreel, Heb. the princes of Jezreel, i.e. the great persons and officers of the court, which then was and had been for some time at Jezreel, who either had fled thither with Ahab’s sons, upon the news of Jehu’s actions and successes; or rather, had been sent by Joram with his sons to Samaria, to take care of them there.
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To the elders; either by age, or rather by office; the rulers or senators of Samaria.
To them that brought up Ahab’s children; that had a more particular care of the several children under the inspection of the princes or rulers here mentioned.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 15, 29 We left Jehu in quiet possession of Jezreel, triumphing…
We left Jehu in quiet possession of Jezreel, triumphing over Joram and Jezebel; and we must now attend his further motions. He knew the whole house of Ahab must be cut off, and therefore proceeded in this bloody work, and did not do it deceitfully, or by halves, Jer 48:10.
I. He got the heads of all the sons of Ahab cut off by their own guardians at Samaria. Seventy sons (or grandsons) Ahab had, Gideon's number, Jdg 8:30. In such a number that bore his name his family was likely to be perpetuated, and yet it is extirpated all at once. Such a quiver full of arrows could not protect his house from divine vengeance. Numerous families, if vicious, must not expect to be long prosperous. These sons of Ahab were now at Samaria, a strong city, perhaps brought thither upon occasion of the war with Syria, as a place of safety, or upon notice of Jehu's insurrection; with them were the rulers of Jezreel, that is, the great officers of the court, who went to Samaria to secure themselves or to consult what was to be done. Those of them that were yet under tuition had their tutors with them, who were entrusted with their education in learning, agreeable to their birth and quality, but, it is to be feared, brought them up in the idolatries of their father's house and made them all worshippers of Baal. Jehu did not think fit to bring his forces to Samaria to destroy them, but, that the hand of God might appear the more remarkably in it, made their guardians their murderers. 1. He sent a challenge to their friends to stand by them, Kg2 10:2, Kg2 10:3. "You that are hearty well-wishers to the house of Ahab, and entirely in its interests, now is your time to appear for it. Samaria is a strong city; you are in possession of it; you have forces at command; you may choose out the likeliest person of all the royal family to head you; you know you are not tied to the eldest, unless he be the best and meetest of your master's sons. If you have any spirit in you, show it, and set one of them on his father's throne, and stand by him with your lives and fortunes." Not that he desired they should do this, or expected they would, but thus he upbraided them with their cowardice and utter inability to contest with the divine counsels. "Do if you dare, and see what will come of it." Those that have forsaken their religion have often, with it, lost both their sense and their courage, and deserve to be upbraided with it. 2. Hereby he gained from them a submission. They prudently reasoned with themselves: "Behold, two kings stood not before him, but fell as sacrifices to his rage; how then shall we stand?" Kg2 10:4. Therefore they sent him a surrender of themselves: "We are thy servants, thy subjects, and will do all that thou shalt bid us, right or wrong, and will set up nobody in competition with thee." They saw it was to no purpose to contend with him, and therefore it was their interest to submit to him. With much more reason may we thus argue ourselves into a subjection to the great God. Many kings and great men have fallen before his wrath, for their wickedness; and how then shall we stand? Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? No, we must either bend or break. 3. This was improved so far as to make them the executioners of those whom they had the tuition of (Kg2 10:6): If you be mine, bring me the heads of your master's sons by tomorrow at this time. Though he knew it must be done, and was loth to do it himself, one would think he could not expect they should do it. Could they betray such a trust? Could they be cruel to their master's sons? It seems, so low did they stoop in their adoration to the rising sun that they did it; they cut off the heads of those seventy princes, and sent them in baskets a present to Jehu, Kg2 10:7. Learn hence not to trust in a friend nor to put confidence in a guide not governed by conscience. One can scarcely expect that he who has been false to his God should ever be faithful to his prince. But observe God's righteousness in their unrighteousness. These elders of Jezreel had been wickedly obsequious to Jezebel's order for the murder of Naboth, Kg1 21:11. She gloried, it is likely, in the power she had over them; and now the same base spirit makes them as pliable to Jehu and as ready to obey his orders for the murder of Ahab's sons. Let none aim at arbitrary power, lest they be found rolling a stone which, some time or other, will return upon them. Princes that make their people slaves take the readiest way to make them rebels; and by forcing men's consciences, as Jezebel did, they lose their hold of them. When the separated heads were presented to Jehu, he slyly upbraided those that were the executioners of this vengeance. The heads were laid in two heaps at the gate, the proper place of judgment. There he acquitted the people before God and the world (Kg2 10:9, You are righteous), and, by what the rulers of Samaria had now done, comparatively acquitted himself: "I slew but one; they have slain all these: I did it by conspiracy and with design; they have done this merely in compliance and with an implicit obedience. Let not the people of Samaria, nor any of the friends of the house of Ahab, ever reproach me for what I have done, when their own elders, and the very guardians of the orphans, have done this." It is common for those who have done something base to attempt the mitigation of their own reproach by drawing others in to do something worse. But, (2.) He resolves all into the righteous judgment of God (Kg2 10:10): The Lord hath done that which he spoke by Elijah. God is not the author of any man's sin, but even by that which men do from bad principles God serves his own purposes and glorifies his own name; and he is righteous in that wherein men are unrighteous. When the Assyrian is made the rod of God's anger, and the instrument of his justice, he meaneth not so, neither does his heart think so, Isa 10:7.
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II. He proceeded to destroy all that remained of the house of Ahab, not only those that descended from him, but those that were in any relation to him, all the officers of his household, ministers of state, and those in command under him, called here his great men (Kg2 10:11), all his kinsfolks and acquaintance, who had been partners with him in his wickedness, and his priests, or domestic chaplains, whom he employed in his idolatrous services and who strengthened his hand that he should not turn from his evil way. Having done this in Jezreel, he did the same in Samaria (Kg2 10:17), slew all that remained to Ahab in Samaria. This was bloody work, and is not now, in any case, to be drawn into a precedent. Let the guilty suffer, but not the guiltless for their sakes. Perhaps such terrible destructions as these were intended as types of the final destruction of all the ungodly. God has a sword, bathed in heaven, which will come down upon the people of his curse, and be filled with blood. Isa 34:5, Isa 34:6. Then his eye will not spare, neither will he pity.
III. Providence bringing the brethren of Ahaziah in his way, as he was going on with this execution, he slew them likewise, Kg2 10:12-14. The brethren of Ahaziah were slain by the Arabians (Ch2 22:1), but these were the sons of his brethren, as it is there explained (Kg2 10:8), and they are said to be princes of Judah, and to minister to Ahaziah. Several things concurred to make them obnoxious to the vengeance Jehu was now executing. 1. They were branches of Ahab's house, being descended from Athaliah, and therefore fell within his commission. 2. They were tainted with the wickedness of the house of Ahab. 3. They were now going to make their court to the princes of the house of Ahab, to salute the children of the king and the queen, Joram and Jezebel, which showed that they were linked to them in affection as well as in affinity. These princes, forty-two in number, being appointed as sheep for the sacrifice, were slain with solemnity, at the pit of the shearing-house. The Lord is known by these judgments which he executeth.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–33 And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria,.... These might…
And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria,.... These might not be all his immediate sons, but some of them his grandsons, as such are sometimes called in Scripture:
and Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel; who fled thither, perhaps on Jehu's coming to Jezreel, having slain Joram, being the metropolis of the kingdom, to consult about a successor, or how to oppose Jehu, and to frustrate his designs: but the Septuagint version is, "to the rulers of Samaria", which seems most likely to be the true reading:
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to the elders; the civil magistrates of the city of Samaria:
and to them that brought up Ahab's children: who had the care of their education; who either always dwelt at Samaria, being the royal city, or were sent with their charge thither, when Joram went to Ramothgilead, for safety, supposing he should be worsted by the Syrians; or they fled thither with them upon the death of Joram:
saying; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 11, 15, 18, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31 Jehu cuts off all Ahab's sons, ver. 1-10. And…
Jehu cuts off all Ahab's sons, ver. 1-10. And kindred, ver. 11- 14. Takes Jehonadab with him, ver. 11-17. Slays the worshippers of Baal, ver. 18-25. Abolishes his worship, ver. 26-28. Yet retains the worship of the Calves, ver. 29-31. Which God punishes by Hazael, ver. 32-33. Jehu's death, ver. 34-37
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34 Jehu sends an ironical letter to the elders of…
CHAPTER X
Jehu sends an ironical letter to the elders of Samaria, telling
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them to choose one of the best of their master's sons, and put
him on the throne; to which they return a submissive answer,
1-6.
He writes a second letter, and orders them to send him the
heads of Ahab's seventy sons; they do so, and they are laid in
two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, 7, 8.
Jehu shows them to the people, and excuses himself, and states
that all is done according to the word of the Lord, 9, 10.
He destroys all the kindred of Ahab that remained in Jezreel,
11.
He also destroys forty-two men, the brethren of Ahaziah, king
of Judah, 12-14.
He meets with Jehonadab, and takes him with him in his chariot,
15, 16.
He comes to Samaria, and destroys all that were of the kindred
of Ahab there, 17.
He pretends a great zeal for the worship of Baal, and gathers
all his priests together, under the pretense of a grand
sacrifice, and slays them all, 18-25.
He burns Baal's images, and makes his temple a draught house,
26-28.
But he does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, and does not
prosper, 29-31.
Hazael vexes Israel, 32, 33.
Jehu dies, having reigned over Israel, in Samaria, twenty-eight
years, 34-36.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. Ahab had seventy sons] As he had several wives, he might have many children. The Israelites, from the earliest part of their history, were remarkably fruitful. How amazingly did they multiply in Egypt, even under the hand of the severest oppression! And as to the individuals of whose families we have an account, they are quite remarkable: Rehoboam had thirty-eight sons; Abdon had forty; Tola had thirty; Ahab, seventy; and Gideon, seventy-one.
Unto the rulers of Jezreel] It certainly should be, unto the rulers of Samaria; for to them and to that city the whole context shows us the letters were sent. See 2Kg 10:6.
To them that brought up Ahab's children] It appears that the royal children of Israel and Judah were intrusted to the care of the nobles, and were brought up by them, (see 2Kg 10:6;) and to these, therefore, Jehu's letters are directed. It is supposed Isaiah (Isa 49:23) alludes to this custom: Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32 2Ki 10:1. Ahab had seventy sons — Grandsons are…
2Ki 10:1. Ahab had seventy sons — Grandsons are probably comprehended here under the name of sons, as is usual in the Scriptures: though, by several wives, he might have as many sons as Gideon had. These sons or grandsons were now in Samaria, either because they had been bred up there, that being the chief city of the kingdom; or because they had fled thither, upon receiving tidings of the slaughter of Joram; or had been conveyed thither, from different parts, by their friends, as to the strongest place. Here, as appears probable from Jehu’s message, they intended to defend themselves and Ahab’s children, and to set up one as king in Joram’s stead. Jehu wrote letters unto the rulers of Jezreel — Hebrew, the princes of Jezreel, that is, the great persons and officers of the court, which then was, and for some time had been, at Jezreel. These, it seems, had either fled to Samaria upon the news of Jehu’s actions and successes, or had been sent thither by Joram with his sons, to take care of them there. To the elders — Termed such from their age, or rather from their office, being the magistrates or senators of Samaria. And to them that brought up Ahab’s children — That had a more particular care of the several children under the inspection of the princes and elders here mentioned.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36 Seventy sons - i. e., descendants; there were included…
Seventy sons - i. e., descendants; there were included among them children of Jehoram (2Ki 10:2-3, etc.).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33 Seventy sons, as he had many wives. Gedeon had…
Seventy sons, as he had many wives. Gedeon had 70. (Calmet) --- Grand-children might also be included. (Du Hamel) --- But this is not necessary. (Calmet) --- City, Hebrew, "of Jezrahel," a word which has probably been substituted instead of "Israel," which is more conformable to the Septuagint and Vulgate. Those who adhere to the Hebrew pretend that the princes had all fled from Jezrahel. --- Children. This is the sense generally given to Nutritios Achab, which literally signifies, "nursing-fathers (preceptors, counsellors, &c.) of Achab," ver. 5. The king’s children were perhaps educated in the most noble families, (ver. 6.) and in the best cities, 2 Paralipomenon xi. 23. Isaias (xlix. 23.) foretelling the happiness of the Israelites after the captivity, says, that kings and queens will nurse them.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 2 Kings 10-17
THIRD EPOCH
FROM THE ELEVATION OF JEHU TO THE THRONE UNTIL THE DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
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2 Kings 10-17
FIRST SECTION
the monarchy under jehu in israel and under athalia and joash in judah
2 Kings 10-12
A.—The Reign of Jehu
2Ki_10:1-36
1And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel [the city],1 to the elders, and to them that brought up [the guardians of] Ahab’s children, saying,2 2Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city, also, and armor [weapons]: 3look even out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, and [that ye may] set him on his father’s throne, and fight for3 your master’s house. 4But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? 5And he that was over the house [palace], and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any [one] king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes. 6Then he wrote a [second] letter the second time [omit the second time] to them, saying, If ye be mine [on my side], and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. [(]Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up[)]. 7And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. 8And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in [entrance] of the gate until the morning. 9And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous [just]: behold, I conspired against 10my master, and slew him: but who slew all these? Know now [therefore] that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the Lord hath done that which Hebrews 11 spake by his servant Elijah. So [And] Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks [intimate friends], and his priests [chief officers], until he left4 him none remaining [no survivor].
12And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And [On the way,] as he was at the shearing house in the way [Shepherd’s House of Meeting], 13Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen[-mother]. 14And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house [House of Meeting], even two and forty men; neither left he any of them.
15And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right [verily sincere], as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is [Verily, verily, it is]. If it be [said Jehu], give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. 16And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they [he]5 made him ride in his chariot. 17And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah.
18And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. 19Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. 20And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. 21And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another [wall to wall]. 22And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. 23And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and [he, (Jehu)] said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only. 24And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed [stationed] fourscore men without, and said, If [Whoso letteth—omit if]6 any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him [he shall pay for it, life for life]. 25And it came to pass, as soon as he [they] had made an end of [completed the preparations for] offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains [royal foot-guards and horse-guards], Go in, and slay them; let none [not one] come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains [foot-guards and horse-guards] cast them out, 26and went [pressed through] to the city [strong-hold] of the house of Baal. And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. 27And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house [privy] unto this day.
28, 29Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit, from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan. 30And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well [been zealous] in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 31But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.
32In those days the Lord began to cut [off parts from] Israel short [omit short]: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts [along the entire frontier] of Israel; 33from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. 34Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? 35And Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead. 36And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Ki_10:1. Seventy sons in Samaria, &c. 2Ki_10:3 shows (“your master’s sons”) that the grandsons of Ahab are included, for the “master” cannot mean Ahab, who had been dead for twelve years, but Joram. We must understand the words as referring to all the male descendants of Ahab.—To Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel. 2Ki_10:5 shows who are meant, viz., he who was over the house (palace), and he who was over the city; and we may understand it to refer to Samaria, which was the capital and the residence of the king, and not to Jezreel, which only served as summer residence of the court. The governors, who were the highest officers in Samaria, cannot possibly have been the “rulers of Jezreel,” for these could have had no authority in Samaria. The word יִזְרְעֶאל is entirely wasting in the Sept. and Vulg. The former have πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας τῆς πόλεως καὶ πρὸς τοὺ̀ς πρεσβυτέρους; the latter has: ad optimates civitatis et ad majores natu. Keil, therefore, conjectures that יִזְרְעֶאל is an error הָעִיר אֶל, This is favored by הַזְּקֵנִים, before which, since it cannot be taken as an apposition to אֶל ,שָׂרֵי must certainly be supplied. This seems better than, with Clericus, Michaelis, and Ewald, to change יִזְרְעֶאל into יִשְׂרָאֵל, or, with Thenius, to adopt the conjecture that there stood in the original text: “He sent from Jezreel to the rulers of Samaria.” The אֹמְנִים are the tutors appointed by Ahab for his sons.
2Ki_10:2. Only the main point of Jehu’s letter is given (2Ki_5:6). It is not necessary to understand that this letter was a “trick,” or “irony,” or “scorn,” as is generally done; it rather expresses contrariness or perversity. Its meaning may be expressed thus: “I am king; but if you, who have chariots and horses and weapons in your power, want to put a prince of Ahab’s house on the throne, commence a war with me.” [The letter is very characteristic in its form. It is composed in that comprehensive satire which says much in a few words. It implies self-confidence so great that the writer can afford to tantalize the reader with an apparent command of the situation, and an apparent freedom of choice, which in reality he has not got. It implies also a threat of consequences if the readers are sanguine enough to choose the policy of resistance. If on the other hand they choose the policy of submission, they will find out what they have to do to please the new ruler. It is a satirical and scornful challenge.—W. G. S.] As Jehu was well known to them by reputation as one of the boldest and bravest generals, and no one of them felt competent to meet him, they became frightened, and surrendered at once; all the more readily when they heard what he had already done. It was very cautious of him not to go himself immediately, with his small force (2Ki_9:17), against the strongly fortified city of Samaria, but to first write them threatening letters, so as to find out what disposition he must expect to find in the capital.
2Ki_10:6. Then he wrote a second letter, &c. The reason why Jehu not only commands to put to death the sons of Ahab, but also to bring their heads, at the same hour the next day, to Jezreel, which was nine hours, journey from Samaria, is plain from 2Ki_10:9-10. It was important for him to be acknowledged, by the people as king as soon as possible. The people were to be convinced by the sight of the heads that all who might eventually become pretenders to the crown were dead, and also that the rulers and the great men of the kingdom, who had sent these heads, had thereby broken utterly with the dynasty of Ahab.—The parenthesis in 2Ki_10:6 is not to be translated according to the massoretic punctuation: “The king’s sons were seventy persons,” for this would be an entirely superfluous repetition of 2Ki_10:1. It means rather that the sons, mentioned in 2Ki_10:1, resided with these important persons (אֶת is not a sign of the nominative, but a preposition: “with”), and that this is the reason why the command was addressed to them.
2Ki_10:8. Jehu ordered the heads to be brought to the entrance of the gate, because the people were accustomed to assemble there. It is an old oriental custom to cut off the heads of slain enemies, and then to show these publicly, 2Ma_15:30; 1Sa_17:54 (cf. Winer, R.-W.-B., i. s. 681). Even now, in the Orient, the heads of those who are beheaded are placed upon the gate, in order that they may be seen by all.
2Ki_10:9 sq. And said to all the people, &c. The sight of the seventy heads very naturally produced consternation among the people, probably also dissatisfaction and complaints against Jehu, the supposed cause of their death. Thereupon he appeared before the people in order to soothe them. He does not attack them rudely, but appeals to their just judgment. Ye are just; i.e., not, “Ye insist upon it that ye are right” (Luther); nor: “Ye are righteous,” i.e., “I declare you guiltless” (Richter); nor: “Now is the sin of the people atoned for, now are ye once more righteous before God; the punishment began through me, here ye see how it has gone on” (Gerlach). The sense is rather: “Ye are just, so judge yourselves; I have, it is true, made a conspiracy against Joram and killed him; but I did not kill these seventy. The rulers in Samaria, the friends of the house of Ahab, the tutors of the royal princes, killed these. If ye will lament and complain, ye have far greater reason to do so against them than against me, but consider that both I and they acted according to divine ordinance and in consequence of the sentence which Elijah, the great prophet, pronounced.” In all this, Jehu carefully conceals the main point, viz., that the murders were committed by his command. Perhaps he saw a providential dispensation in the very fact that the rulers at Samaria yielded to him at once, and executed his further commands from fear. His speech had the desired effect. The people ceased their complaints and resigned themselves contentedly. He was thereby encouraged to go farther, and to put to death all the higher officers and friends of the house of Ahab, as is recorded in 2Ki_10:11. The מְיֻדָּססעָיו are not Ahab’s relatives (Luther, E. V.), but his friends and intimate companions. In like manner כֹהֲנָיו are not his “priests” (Keil), but, as in 2Sa_8:18 and 1Ki_4:5, his highest officers and servants. The turn of the idolatrous priests came later (2Ki_10:18 sq.). Not until after this had all taken place, did Jehu go to Samaria, where he no longer needed to fear any opposition (2Ki_10:12).
2Ki_10:12. At the Shepherd’s House of Meeting. “The Chaldee version has בֵּית כְּנִישַׁת רַעֲיָא, the meeting-house of the shepherds, so that it was probably a house which stood alone, and which served the shepherds of the region round about as a place of assembling. The commonest interpretation is, binding-house (where the shepherds tied up their sheep for the shearing), but opposed to this is the fact that the shearing and not the binding is the main point in that connection, and moreover, that the shearing took place, according to Gen_38:12; 1Sa_25:2; 2Sa_13:23, in the separate localities, and not at one place for an entire district” (Thenius).
2Ki_10:13. Instead of Brethren of Ahaziah, 2Ch_22:8 has: “Sons of the brethren of Ahaziah.” Considering the comprehensiveness of the signification of אָח, this is no contradiction. We must understand in general cousins and relatives of Ahaziah. They undertook the journey to Jezreel, as they themselves say in 2Ki_10:13, לִשְׁלוֹם ad salutandum, in order to make a friendly visit at the court there. The fact that they came in such a large number shows clearly that Joram, at this time, no longer lay ill from his wound, but was already recovered, as we saw also from 2Ki_9:21. They expected to enjoy a pleasant visit, and knew nothing of what had occurred since they last heard from the court of Joram. When Jehu heard who they were and whither they were going, he called to his retinue: Take them alive; i.e., take them captives. Perhaps they would not submit to be captured, and undertook, as many suppose, to defend themselves, whereupon he caused them to be slaughtered. There is no ground whatever for the notion which Duncker adopts, that he did this in “the hope of getting possession of the kingdom of Judah also.” There is no sign anywhere of any such intention on the part of Jehu. Evidently his purpose was, by slaying these relatives of Ahab, who, as their journey showed, were friends and retainers of the house of Ahab, to make every attempt at blood-vengeance, or at the overthrow of his royal authority, impossible.
2Ki_10:15. He lighted on Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, &c. No one doubts that this is the same Jehonadab who, according to Jer_35:1-19, gave to the so-called Rechabites their stern, nomadic rules of life, and whom they there call their “father.” Josephus says of him: ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς καὶ δίκαιος, ’Ιωνάδαβος ἄνομα φίλος αὐτῷ [’Ιηνοῦ] πάλαι γεγονώς. It is uncertain whether his meeting with Jehu was accidental, or whether Jehonadab came on purpose to meet him. According to the Hebrew text Jehu saluted him and said: Is thine heart right, &c. According to Josephus, Jehonadab saluted Jehu, and commenced to praise him, because he had done everything according to the will of God for the rooting out of the house of Ahab. Jehu called upon him to mount into the chariot, and to ride with him to Samaria, saying that he would show him how he would spare none of the wicked, but would punish the false prophets and priests and all who had misled the people to the abandonment of Jehovah, and to the worship of false gods. He said that it was the most beautiful, and, for an honorable and just man, the pleasantest sight to see the punishment of the wicked. Jehonadab, prevailed upon by this, mounted the chariot and came to Samaria.—Doubtless some such conversation preceded the words: “Is thine heart right,” &c. At any rate, Jehonadab was a zealous servant of Jehovah, and, therefore, also an opponent of the house of Ahab. As he also stood at the head of a religious community, it was of great importance for Jehu to have him on his side, and to be accompanied to Samaria by him. It was a mark of high esteem to invite him to mount into the chariot.—אֶת before לְבָבְךָ [is used to form an accusative of specification, equivalent to a nominative absolute. “Is it right, as to thy heart,” or “Thy heart, is it right”=“Is thy heart right.” The form gives peculiar emphasis], see Ewald, Lehrb., § 277 d. “יָשָׁר here involves the idea of a sincere agreement in feeling” (Thenius). Almost all the versions render וַיַּרְכִּבוּ, 2Ki_10:16, as if they had read וַיַּרְכִּיב, i.e., “He made him ride.” According to 2Ki_10:17, the first thing which Jehu did in Samaria was just what he had done in Jezreel (2Ki_10:11). After the entire house of Ahab had been destroyed, he went on to overthrow the worship of Baal.
2Ki_10:18. And Jehu gathered all the people together, &c. The fact that Jehu was believed, when he said that he would serve Baal far more than Ahab had done, is explained by the consideration that his entire enterprise was regarded as a military revolution, like that of Baasha and Zimri, in which the thing at stake was the supreme power and the throne, not a religious reform and the restoration of the service of Jehovah. No one any longer thought of that as a possibility.—On the prophets of Baal, 2Ki_10:19 sq., see note above on 1Ki_18:19.—עֲצָרָה, 2Ki_10:20, is not “feast-day” (Vulg. diem solemnem) but a solemn festal assembly, as in Isa_1:13; Joe_1:14; Amo_5:21.—The “House of Baal” is the one built by Ahab (1Ki_16:32), which seems to have been a large and rambling structure, in which were 450 priests of Baal and 400 of Astarte.—פֶּה לָפֶה, 2Ki_10:21, strictly, mouth to mouth, or opening to opening, i.e., as far as it was open, as much as it could hold. It refers to the outer court in which the altar of sacrifice stood, for the house, strictly speaking, that is, the sanctuary or shrine in which the statue of Baal was, was, as in all temple structures, very small.—מֶלְתָּחַה, 2Ki_10:22, occurs only here, but means, unquestionably, vestiarium (Ges., Thes., p. 764). Thenius thinks, because the king here gave especial commands, that “we must understand it to refer to the stores of festal garments in the palace, not to the wardrobe of the temple of Baal, or to especial sacrificial dresses of all who took part in the ceremony.” However, the king ordains everything here; it was he who planned the feast. Neither before this nor afterwards is there any reference to anything but the house of Baal, and certainly there were priestly garments in that, just as the dresses of the priests of Jehovah were preserved in the temple at Jerusalem (Braun, De Vest. Sacerdot., ii. 26, p. 675). Clericus says that, in Ethiopic, אלתח, with which מלתחה is connected, means vestis byssina. Garments of byssus were the peculiar dress of priests in all ancient countries (Symb. des Mosaischen Kult, ii. s. 87 sq.). According to Josephus, it was especially important for Jehu that all the priests of Baal Should be there. They all received priestly garments, and became thereby all the more easily recognizable for the eighty men who were commanded to slay them before all others.
2Ki_10:23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab, &c. When they came into the outer court of the temple, Jehu gave orders to examine carefully and see whether there were any of the servants of Jehovah there. He thereby gave himself the appearance of a strict adherent of Baal; but his object was to take care that no servant of Jehovah should be killed. There is no foundation for Ewald’s representation of the incident: “Jehu gave orders that the feast should be celebrated with all pomp, just as a powerful man may show himself open-handed towards mysteries into which he desires to be admitted. He commanded that garments should be given to all who had not any such as were proper for the feast. When the time for the solemnity approached, he commanded with severity that any servants of Jehovah should be cast out. (It is well known what an importance the heathen attached to the procul profani! in their mysteries.) Finally he sacrificed with his own hand as if he were a most zealous worshipper of Baal.” Eisenlohr, who always follows Ewald, thinks that 2Ki_10:22 refers to “the unchaste garments woven by the Kedeshoth” [women who prostituted themselves in the service of Astarte]. But we know nothing at all of any mysteries of Baal. There is no syllable of reference to any such thing here, much less of reference to any intention, which was even pretended, of initiating the king. Nor does the text say that Jehu himself sacrificed, and then gave the signal for the slaughter of all who were present.
2Ki_10:25, כְּכַלֹּתוֹ, cannot here be translated: “When he, Jehu, had finished,” nor, with some of the Rabbis and Keil: “When he (the sacrificing priest), had finished the burnt-offering.” The suffix וֹ is to be taken as equivalent to an indefinite subject, “one” (German, man) [commonly rendered in English by an indefinite plural, “they,” or by a passive construction]: “When they had completed the preparations for the sacrifice,” or, “When the preparations for the sacrifice were completed.” The Sept. give this same sense: ὡς συνετέλεσαν ποιοῦντες τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν; and the Vulg. also, cum completum esset holocaustum. It is not therefore necessary to read כְּכַלְּתָם as Thenius does (cf. Ew. § 294, b).
As soon as they had completed the preparations for offering. Not, when the sacrifice itself was over, for then the feast of Baal would have been at an end, but, at the moment when the sacrifice was just fully prepared, and was on the point of being offered, Jehu gave command to the “runners and riders,” i.e., to the royal body-guard and its officers (see note on 1Ki_1:38; 1Ki_9:22; 1Ki_14:28) to force their way in. Ewald translates וַיַּשְׁלִכוּ: “And threw the corpses aside unburied,” but of course it is plain that they could not undertake to bury them at once. It did not need another sentence to tell us that they did not bury them as fast as they killed them. The interpretation: “They threw the corpses out of the temple,” is somewhat better, but the athnach with חָרֶב and the express repetition of the subject (“the runners and riders”) seem to indicate that a new sentence begins with וישׁלכו. This sentence does not, therefore, join immediately on to the preceding, but to what follows, and it is to be connected with וַיֵּלְכוּ. In this connection De Dieu translates: proripuerunt se cum impetu et festinatione, and Thenius: “And the guards pressed forward.” שׁלךְ stands in this sense in 1Ki_14:9. They threw the corpses behind them as they pressed forward, and forced their way through to the עִיר of the house. Under this we have not to understand a neighboring city (De Dieu and others), nor a particular district of the city of Samaria (De Wette, Maurer, and others), for this would not fit into the context. The fundamental signification of עִיר is sepimentum, munimentum, locus circumseptus (Fürst, Concord., p. 805). It is then used for city, because every city, as such, was surrounded by a wall, and so formed a stronghold. In this place, however, it refers to that part of the entire sacred enclosure, which, in contrast with the outer courts, was firmly surrounded by a wall, the temple strictly speaking, in which was the chief image of Baal. This may have stood upon a base, and risen like a fortress from it, as the temple of Solomon did. On מַצְּבוֹת see note on 1Ki_14:23. We cannot determine whether they were small images of Baal himself, or images of other and inferior divinities. Movers (Rel. der Phönizier, s. 674) thinks they were the πάρεδροι or σύμβωμοι of Baal. Thenius proposes to read מַצְּבַת in 2Ki_10:26, and מַצְּבוֹת in 2Ki_10:27, as the Sept. do, on account of the sing. surf. in יִשְׂרְפוּהָ. It is to be noticed, however, that, the images were burned (2Ki_10:26), so that they must have been of wood, while the chief image was “broken in pieces” (נתץ), as the stone temple-building was. This image was therefore probably of stone, as indeed we might presume that the large image would be of stone and the smaller ones of wood rather than vice versa. The old expositors translate the suffix by unamquamque earum (Piscator). According to Keil the singular suffix refers to מַצְּבוֹת, the plural being taken as an abstract, as in 2Ki_3:3. [The latter is the correct explanation of the construction. Cf. Ew. § 317, a.] The destruction of this idol was perfectly in accordance with the law, Deu_7:5; Deu_7:25; Deu_12:2-3.—In order to make the destroyed temple a place forever unclean and abominable, they made it a sink or privy. (The Massoretes propose the word מוֹצָאוֹת, exits, as a euphemism.) Cf. Ezr_6:11; Dan_2:5 (Rosenmüller, Morgenland, iii. s. 279).
2Ki_10:28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal, &c. This is here once more emphasized as the chief act of Jehu, but it is added that he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam, viz., the worship of the golden calves in Bethel and Dan.
2Ki_10:30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, i.e., by a prophet, but whether by Elisha (Thenius), is very uncertain. הֱטיבֹתָ is correctly rendered by the Vulg. studiose egisti; Piscator: quia strenuum te prœbuisti ad faciendum, etc. He had an earnest will to execute the purposes of God (2Sa_13:28; Rth_3:7; Rth_3:10). The rooting-out of the house of Ahab and the attendant overthrow of idolatry, the latter of which not even Elijah had succeeded in accomplishing, were accomplished by Jehu. It was in truth an act of kindness toward Israel, which otherwise would, at this time, have gone to ruin. In so far Jehu had accomplished a great deed which is here recognized and acknowledged. The manner in which he carried it out, in all its details, is not, however, approved; especially is it recorded as unsatisfactory that he persisted in the worship of Jeroboam’s calves. Therefore it was announced to him that his dynasty should not reign beyond the fourth generation (Exo_20:5; Exo_34:7), cf. 2Ki_15:12.
2Ki_10:31 is not to be connected with 2Ki_10:30 by “but,” but rather with 2Ki_10:32. It states the occasion for what is narrated in 32 and 33. The threatened calamities from foreign foes came upon them through Hazael (2Ki_8:12), because Jehu did not walk in the ways of the Lord with all his heart. [If we hold to the massoretic verse-division,—and there is no reason to abandon it,
2Ki_10:30 is a promise of the throne during four generations as a reward for the vigor with which Jehu had carried out the task which was laid upon him, and not a warning that he should not keep it longer than that because he had kept up the worship of the calves. The “but” at the commencement of 2Ki_10:31 is therefore quite correct. Although God commended Jehu and promised to reward him, yet Jehu did not walk perfectly with God. The origin of the calf-worship was political, and Jehu unquestionably kept it up for political reasons. While we certainly could not deny that the military misfortunes east of the Jordan were divine punishments, if the record said that they were such, yet in the absence of any such definite combination of the two things as cause and effect, we may leave that hypothesis aside, as something which we are not competent to decide. Such a revolution as this was certainly never accomplished without great internal commotion. Jehu found it necessary to consolidate his authority at home and could not give his attention to the foreign war. Hazael in the meantime was a very warlike and energetic king, and he pushed his conquests with vigor while his enemy was weak. We shall see below that this district was recovered when Israel once more was united and contented under a vigorous ruler (Jeroboam II.).—W. G. S.]
2Ki_10:32. In those days the Lord began to cut off parts from Israel. Instead of לֲקצּוֹת, i.e. to cut off parts of, the Chald. and Arab. read לִקְצוֹף i e. to become enraged (Luther: überdrüssig zu werden; Vulg. taedere super Israel). There is no ground, however, for changing the text, which is sustained by the Sept. (συγκόπτειν).—Along the entire frontier, not “in all the coasts” (Luther, De Wette, E. V.). The frontier country is, in general, the land beyond the Jordan, which was divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. Their territory formed the district which was also called Gilead. Aroer on the Arnon was the southern limit of the Israelitish territory east of the Jordan. These conquests of Hazael, therefore, extended to the frontier of the Moabites. The closing words: Even Gilead and Bashan [cf. Amo_1:3] are meant to show “that the land east of the Jordan, in all its extent, even to its farthest eastern limit, came into the hands of the enemy (Thenius). These conquests were made gradually, and they reached this extent at about the end of the twenty-eight years’ reign of Jehu.—On גְּבוּרָה, 2Ki_10:34, see 1Ki_15:23.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. In regard to the reign of Jehu during the long period of twenty-eight years, the author gives only the summary at the end of the passage before us, viz., that he retained the calf-worship which Jeroboam had introduced, and that he lost a large portion of his territory, piece by piece, to Hazael of Syria. For all else he refers to the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. The destruction of the house of Ahab, and the abolition of idolatry, with which Jehu commenced his reign, are narrated with full details. It was these two things that made his reign remarkable, and that constituted it an epoch in the history of the Israelitish monarchy, and of the Old Testament theocracy. All other incidents or actions of his reign seem to this theocratical historian to be inferior in significance and importance to these. Duncker’s assertion is astonishing and it is false (Gesch. des Alt., i. s. 416): “The house of Omri, under which Israel had flourished and prospered, was overthrown and annihilated by a wild murderer whom the prophet of Jehovah had instigated.… Jehu was a good assassin, but a bad ruler and a bad general.… Although the prophets of Jehovah did not oppose him as they had opposed Ahab and Joram, but, on the contrary, Elisha’s authority and influence were lent to his support, yet Israel, under his reign, became weaker and weaker.” Under the house of Ahab, of which the shameless and fanatical Jezebel was the soul, the kingdom of Israel, so far from being elevated and prospered, had been shattered to its very foundations. Under this house Moab revolted, and Ahab and his successors never succeeded, even with the assistance of Judah, in completely conquering the Syrian arch-enemy, who continually threatened Israel and even brought it near to ruin (2 Kings 7:24). No fact can be cited from the record to prove that Jehu reigned for twenty-eight years wickedly, still less that he was a bad general; if he had been this latter, his fellow-commanders would never have proclaimed him king. Moreover, the record mentions his גְּבוּרָה with especial emphasis (2Ki_10:34), even adding כֹּל, which is not found elsewhere except in 1Ki_15:23, and 2Ki_20:20, and which Ewald correctly takes as referring to “his great and inexhaustible manly courage.” It is true that he saw himself compelled to give up to Hazael land after land on the east of the Jordan, but this may have been due partly to the superior strength of the Syrians, partly to the lack of assistance from Judah, such as Ahab and Joram had enjoyed, partly to the state in which the kingdom had been left by the house of Ahab. [It is a simple truism to say that he was defeated partly because his enemy was stronger than he, and partly because he did not have more help. It is not at all certain that Joram left the kingdom weak in material respects. If it was shattered morally, as it undoubtedly was, it would not long prosper materially, but, for a time, moral decay and material prosperity might co-exist. The fact that Joram’s last act was to collect an army and go into Gilead to try to recover Ramoth, even by a conflict with a general like Hazael, is certainly strong evidence that Israel was not weak in material and military force under his rule. A far more natural ground for Jehu’s inactivity (for all we know to the contrary) while Hazael was making these conquests, is the one suggested above in the note on 2Ki_10:30 under Exegetical. That is, that the revolution was not accomplished so quickly as one might suppose on reading the only details of it which are here given, and that it was not accomplished by those few great and terrible blows which are alone mentioned here. To kill the royal family and mount the throne, to kill the priests of a certain religion, and put an end to the public performance of its rites, were comparatively easy things. We may be sure, however, that the house of Ahab had friends and supporters, and that Baal had worshippers who saw with sorrow his joyous worship give place to the austere religion of Jehovah. These elements of discontent had to be watched and time had to be spent in healing the wounds which the revolution had inflicted, before the state could be made docile, contented, and loyal at home, and reliable for campaigns abroad. It was during this interval that Hazael probably made his conquests.—W. G. S.] The author sees in the misfortunes east of the Jordan a divine judgment, because Jehu had persisted in the sins of Jeroboam, and had not fulfilled his appointed task. [See Exeg. notes on 2Ki_10:31. Bähr connects 2Ki_10:31-32, but it is more correct to begin a new paragraph with 2Ki_10:32 as the English translators do.] We do not learn in what relation the prophet Elisha stood to Jehu during his reign. Elisha’s name does not occur, as has been said above, from 2Ki_9:1 to 2Ki_13:14, where his death, in the reign of Joash, is mentioned.
2. The rooting-up of the house of Ahab, and the destruction of the worship of Baal, ought not to be measured by the New Testament standards, and ought not to be judged from a modern, humanitarian stand-point. As for the slaughter of Ahab’s family, it was customary in the Orient from the earliest times for the founder of a new dynasty to put to death, not only the deposed monarch, but also his descendants and relatives, especially all the males. We have several examples of this in these very books (1Ki_15:29; 1Ki_16:11; 2Ki_25:7). Similar instances occur in the East even in our own day. This cruel conduct was connected, not only with their ideas of the solidarity of all blood-relations in one family, but also with the universal custom of blood-vengeance, according to which it appeared to the relatives of a murdered man to be their right and their duty to pursue and slay the murderer. Not seldom their vengeance extended to the whole family of the murderer (Gen_34:30; 2Sa_14:7; 2Ki_14:6). How wide-spread and deep-rooted the custom of blood-vengeance was, may be seen from the fact that the Mosaic law could not abolish it, but only limit it and restrain it, as was the case also in regard to polygamy (Winer, R.-W.-B., i. s. 189). When, therefore, Jehu put to death all the adherents of the deposed dynasty, he did not commit an unheard-of crime, but only “followed the example of other founders of new dynasties” (Ewald). What is more, Ahab’s house had introduced and fostered idolatry, and it was not to be hoped that it could be absolutely rooted out, as long as there were still members of this family alive. The case is similar as regards his conduct toward the worship of Baal. The Israelitish constitution knew nothing of freedom of religion or of worship, but assigned the death-penalty for all idolatry (see 1 Kings 18, Hist. § 5). Jehu acted as little contrary to the law when he caused the servants of Baal to be put to death, as Elijah did in. 1Ki_18:40. Nevertheless his mode of action is to be condemned, even from the Old Testament stand-point. He allowed himself to be carried away by his fierce, violent, soldierly, despotic disposition. He proceeded to extremes, and observed no limits. When he had once spilled blood, he thirsted for more, and thought that this thirst for blood was zeal for Jehovah. Especially did he fail in the matter of the cunning and deceit and falsehood which he employed. In Jezreel he pretended to the people that he was innocent of the murder of the seventy descendants of Ahab, although he had himself ordered it. In Samaria he declared that he was a zealous servant of Baal, in order that he might get all the servants of Baal into his power, and slaughter them all at once. Therefore also the prophet Hosea speaks of the “blood of Jezreel” which Jehovah will avenge upon the house of Jehu (Hos_1:4). Krummacher asserts, in opposition to this prophetical declaration, as well as to the fact before us (Elisa, iii. s. 152): “Nevertheless he (Jehu) comes out from this horrible massacre pure, because he did not draw the sword in obedience to his own thirst for blood, but in the name of Him who ‘maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire’ [Psa_104:4, where the translation is incorrect. It should read, “maketh winds his messengers, and flames his ministers.”—W. G. S.], and who had chosen Jehu as His executioner.” Lilienthal observes correctly (Die gute Sache der göttl. Offenbarung, iv. s. 410): “An executioner does what is right when he takes the life of an evil-doer, at the command of the civil authority, and receives for this service his proper wages. But when he purposely torments and tortures the culprit, he deserves to be especially punished for it. Therefore blood-guilt is ascribed to Jehu, because it was a gratification to his fierce disposition to spill the blood of those who had indeed merited death, but who ought not to have been slain at the instigation of private hate.” Every attempt to wash Jehu clean from blood-guilt becomes, in spite of itself, a defence of falsehood and deceit in majorem Dei gloriam. Jehu was indeed a “Scourge of God,” but he certainly was not a “man of God,” as appears in the fact that, with all his pretended zeal for Jehovah, he nevertheless did not desist from the “sins of Jeroboam” as long as he ruled. The instruments of the divine punishments are not made “pure” by the fact that they are God’s instruments, but they are, in their turn, punished for their own sins; cf. Isa_10:5-7; Isa_10:12.
[Would it not be a hard fate to be chosen to be an instrument of God’s vengeance, and then to be held to a strict account, if one’s human infirmities of judgment led one to overdo or to fall short in some points of the just execution of the task? The trouble is that Jehu in the first place gets credit for far more pure and hearty zeal for the restoration of the Jehovah-religion than he deserves, and then has to be correspondingly under-estimated. If we attempt, with all the light given us by the text, to estimate Jehu’s personal feeling in regard to this revolution, we shall reach the following conclusion: Jehu was a military man to whom the crown presented itself as an object of earthly ambition worth some effort. Supposing him to have been, by conviction, an adherent of the: religion of Jehovah, the call to him to put himself at the head of a reaction in favor of the Jehovah-religion, and the anointment to the royal office by a prophet of Jehovah, might move him to make the attempt. The adherence of the army determined him. When he had won his victory, he carried out faithfully the policy to which he was bound as leader of the Jehovah-party. He put an end to the worship of Baal. The crown, however, was his reward. It was a political reward, and he took political means to secure it. He slew all the possible pretenders to the crown from the house of Ahab, according to the oriental custom in such cases, as a means of securing himself on the throne. He stopped short with his religious reforms and did not destroy the golden calves; he left them for the same political reasons for which Jeroboam erected them, i.e., that the northern kingdom might have its own religious centres outside of Jerusalem. He saw in the revolution principally a gratification of his own ambition. He was willing to be the instrument of the overthrow of a wicked dynasty and a corrupt religion, and he stopped just where his personal interests were in danger of being impaired. It is not strange that his contemporaries rejoiced so much at the rescue of their ancestral religion that they were indifferent to the excesses by which Jehu tried to establish his royal power, nor that later and calmer judges, on the contrary, raised his bloodshed into prominence in judging of his career (Hos_1:4).—See further, below, § 5.—W. G. S.]
3. In connection with the violent and bloody conduct of Jehu, the religious and moral condition into which the kingdom had been brought, under the dominion of the house of Ahab, is thrown into distinct relief. “What a shocking picture of demoralization, vulgarity, and slavery” (Eisenlohr) presents itself to us in the rulers, the elders, and the tutors of the royal princes, that is to say, among the highest officials and the most familiar frequenters of the court! Although the fortified city, with all the necessary means of defence, chariots, horses, and weapons, were still in their possession, yet not one energetic man could be found who would put himself at the head. Upon Jehu’s first letter, which did not even contain a command, but only a question, or, in a certain sense, only a challenge to resist, they all yielded timidly, like cowards. No one of them thinks of even moving a finger in behalf of the royal house, whose confidants, favorites, and servants they have been. They change their disposition with the change of events, and place themselves as instruments without will at the disposal of the new ruler, who had killed their king and master. Jehu would hardly have addressed this challenge to them if he had not been sure of their utter want of principle, and had not known that he had not the least independent opposition to fear from them. Then when he demands of them the very highest crime, the murder of the scions of the royal house, who have been entrusted to their care and their protection, they do not hesitate a moment; they slaughter the whole seventy in one night, and send their heads the next morning to Jezreel, in order to win the favor of the new ruler. If the conduct of the elders at Jezreel, when they slew Naboth at the command of Jezebel, testified to the deep corruption of the time (see 1 Kings 11, Hist. § 3), how much more does this behavior of those of the highest rank and office bear witness to the same. The religious decay was as deep as the moral decay. In the capital of the kingdom there was no sanctuary of Jehovah, but a fortress-like temple of Baal which Ahab had built (1Ki_16:32), furnished with idols of wood and stone, and surrounded by large courts. In spite of the great day on Mount Carmel, where the people had solemnly declared for Jehovah, and had slain 450 priests of Baal (1Ki_18:21 sq.), this temple remained standing, and the worship of idols continued to be, as it had been before, the prevailing religion of the kingdom. It appears, it is true, that Joram, at his accession, removed the statue of Baal (2Ki_3:2), but he did not put a stop to the worship of Baal; and the feast of Baal which Jehu ordained, at which so many worshippers of the god were present from all parts of the kingdom that the extended courts of the temple were packed full, shows how numerous the worshippers of the god had already become again. To this point had Israel come, under the rule of the house of Ahab; since there had been any people of Israel, such a state of things had not existed.
4. The only facts in regard to Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, which can be deduced from this passage, are, that, at the time of the great apostasy under the house of Ahab, he was one of the most earnest opponents of that dynasty, and of the idolatry which it introduced; that he was a firm adherent of Jehovah, and moreover a man who was held in honor by the people, and highly esteemed by Jehu. From the 35th chapter of Jeremiah, we learn further that he stood at the head of a community, the so-called Rechabites, to which he had given peculiar rules of life, according to which they were not to live in houses, not to possess farms or vineyards, and not to drink-wine. They held so firmly to these rules that Jeremiah, 300 years later, could present them to the people, who were disobedient to the commands of Jehovah, as models of obedience. This is sufficient to prove that Jehonadab, although he was a contemporary of Elisha, and probably also of Elijah, yet stood in no direct connection with the prophet-communities which they managed (2Ki_2:3 sq.), since these did not probably have any special rules of life, and certainly did not have those of the Rechabites. Neither is there any indication anywhere that he acted in concert with Elijah, who had caused Jehu to be anointed. This fact is what makes him important for the history of redemption. Ewald (Gesch., iii. 504 sq. [3d ed. 543]) explains this phenomenon by the theory that, after Elijah’s death, “new institutions of influence for the old religion” had been formed, viz., on the one hand, the so-called schools of the prophets, which prosecuted the objects which had been set before them by Elijah, and, on the other hand, “a society of those who despaired of being able to observe true religion undisturbedly, in the midst of the nation, with the stringency with which they understood it, and who, therefore, withdrew into the desert, and preferred, as all Israel had once done under Moses, the hardships of life in tents to all the fascinations of city-life. They borrowed from the Nazarites the principle of abstention from wine and all food connected with wine, and the ancient Kenites were their models for their tent-life.” He goes on to say that they were called Rechabites from the father of their founder, Jehonadab; that their oath was extended and made more stringent at a later time; that they only returned into ordinary social life at long intervals and under compulsion, etc. This theory, to which Eisenlohr and Thenius give their adhesion, is contradicted, first of all, by the fact that Jeremiah calls them גָּרִים, i.e., strangers and sojourners in the land in which they dwelt. “They were not of the race of Israel, but were an offshoot of the family of the Kenites (1Ch_2:55), which is traced back to Moses’ father-in-law (Num_10:29; Jdg_4:11), and which migrated to Canaan (Jdg_1:16), in friendship and alliance with Israel (1Sa_15:6). In this passage in 1 Sam. they appear as still unsettled. According to Jdg_4:11; Jdg_4:17 sq. they continued to be nomadic, as Rechab was also, even before Jehonadab’s regulation.…It is an established historical fact, which is further confirmed by the part. גרים, that they were already nomadic.…Jehonadab only fixed by law what he already found as a generally observed usage, and thereby cut off beforehand all possible temptations to adopt a settled life” (Hitzig). The Rechabites call Jehonadab their “father” (Jer_35:6; Jer_35:8), but they do not thereby designate him as their ancestor (Winer and others). They only mean that he was their teacher and lawgiver, just as the prophet-disciples called Elijah their “father” (2Ki_2:12). If they had originated with Jehonadab, they would have named themselves after him and not after his father. Moreover, it is certain that Rechab was not, strictly speaking, the father of Jehonadab, but the ancestor of the family to which he and the other Rechabites belonged. We must understand by this name, therefore, a national and nomadic community, and not Simply a religious organization. It was much older than Elijah, and not directly or indirectly an outgrowth of his activity. There is no hint in the history that other communities than the schools of the prophets were formed, after Elijah’s death, for the conservation of “true religion.” The most extraordinary feature is this, that a family, which did not belong to the race of Israel, maintained itself in separation and independence in the midst of this people from the entrance into Palestine until the fall of the kingdom, and was more completely devoted to the service of Jehovah than Israel itself. Jehonadab may have been led to give them fixed regulations of life by the growth of the idolatry which Ahab had introduced, and against which he desired to fortify them by a strict exclusion. The result was that he accomplished his object. He saw in Jehu a deliverer from the tyrannical and idolatrous dynasty, and he willingly accepted his invitation to accompany him to Samaria. He must have known of Jehu’s dissimulation in proclaiming the feast of Baal, and must have approved of it, for he was present with Jehu at it (2Ki_10:23). Clericus justly observes: conscius rei erat, nec laudandus est hoc in negotio. Hess thinks that he belonged to the number of those who “hardly regarded it as an error in Jehu, that, in his zeal, he went too far, on account of their joy at the overthrow of the idolatrous dynasty.” It is worth noticing that Elisha, who had been the prime mover in raising Jehu to the throne, took no part in this proceeding. It seems that Jehu purposely did not call for his assistance, because he could not expect from him any approval of his falsehood and dissimulation. Jehonadab certainly does not appear here in the favorable light in which Krummacher represents him: “In fact, we hardly know what to praise most in this person, whether the soul, elevated and carried heavenward by divine inspiration, or the rare wisdom, which, in its rich measure, is so peculiar to him, or the clear, unwavering insight with which he commands everything, and which enables him to pass spiritual judgment upon all, or the foresight and care, as enlightened as tender, which we see him employ in behalf of his family and its interests for centuries to come.” Neither the passage before us nor Jeremiah 35 mentions with a syllable these grand characteristics. The further delineation is still more arbitrary and unfounded: “So they (Jehu and Jehonadab) sit together—a dark thunder-cloud softly enfolded in a rainbow of promise, as if Law and Gospel had been personified in living allegories: Jehu, the woe of God’s condemnation upon all godlessness; Jehonadab, the divine director to point upward to the throne of grace.… Jehonadab, the Church, which lives in heaven; Jehu, the State, which protects,” &c.
5. The continuance of the worship of the calves under Jehu shows that he was not fully in earnest in the zeal for Jehovah, of which he boasted to Jehonadab, otherwise he must have destroyed the golden calves in Bethel and in Dan, as well as the idols in the temple of Baal at Samaria. He did not let them stand because he considered that what he had done was enough “to satisfy the obligation (?) which he had undertaken towards the prophet of Jehovah” (Menzel). The reason was rather the same one which had led the founder of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, to introduce the worship of these images (1Ki_12:26 sq., and Hist. § 1). By abolishing the worship of the calves, Jehu would have torn down the partition between the two kingdoms and would have endangered his throne. His zeal for Jehovah did not go so far as this. His royal authority was more important to him than the law of Jehovah. Political and dynastic interests restrained him after he had extinguished the house of Ahab and abolished the worship of Baal. The manner in which he conducted himself in this matter showed that “he did not walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart” (2Ki_10:31), and this became still clearer when he was firmly established on the throne. He is, therefore, it is true, praised for his zeal in rooting out and destroying the worship of Baal, but is, at the same time, declared guilty of the “sins of Jeroboam,” and this is given as the reason why Jehovah began, in his reign, to cut off provinces from Israel, and why his dynasty should have no firm duration. This criticism of his reign by the author of the history (who was probably one of the prophets) shows that the prophets of the time opposed the worship of the calves [although it was intended, in a certain way, as a worship of Jehovah], and did not simply, as Ewald asserts (see above, Pt. II. p. 35), combat the worship of false gods. [The view of these things entertained by the prophet-author of the Book of Kings, who lived at a much later period and under very different circumstances, cannot be regarded as any indication of the views of “the prophets of the time,” in regard to them.—W. G. S.] The great and bloody revolution of Jehu had, therefore, a merely negative result, namely, the abolition of the worship of false gods; the positive results, the restoration of the constitution, i.e., of the covenant of Jehovah, was prevented by political considerations, i.e., by personal ambition and love of power. It is another proof that a religious reformation can only fail of its objects and come to naught, so soon as political and dynastic interests get control of it, or, indeed, are involved in it.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki_10:1-27.—The two Chief Acts of King Jehu: (a) The destruction of the entire family of Ahab, 2Ki_10:1-17; (b) the abolition of the worship of Baal, 2Ki_10:18-27 (see the Hist. notes).
2Ki_10:1. Würt. Summ.: Though a large family of children is a blessing of God (Psa_127:3), yet we must not rely upon them, or be self-willed on that account, as if the family could not die out, but we must fear God, must not stain ourselves with sin against our consciences, and must bring up children in the fear of God, else He will take them away and destroy the entire family. Psa_112:1-2.
2Ki_10:1-7. The Governors and Chief Men at Samaria: (a) Their cowardice, (b) their blind slavishness, (c) their unfaithfulness.—Moral decline among the highest ranks of a nation generally proceeds from a corrupt court which sets the fashion (Ahab and Jezebel). As is the master, so is the servant.—He who has the power in his hands always finds instruments among the great and those of high rank, who shrink back from no demand which is made upon them, however much it may conflict with honor and duty.—Those who no longer fear God, must fear men. Fear of men may become the cause of the greatest crimes. Therefore the Lord says: (Mat_10:28).
2Ki_10:6-7. Würt. Summ.: Here we have an example of unfaithful tutors and governors and friends, who look, in their actions, not to the interests of the orphans, but to their own advantage, and let the orphans and their cause be ruined. As Jehu nevertheless destroyed them all (2Ki_10:17), so will the just God also bring upon the heads of false friends and trustees, all the unfaithfulness which they inflict upon orphans: therefore, let such be warned against all violation of their trust.—Kyburz: The children of this world become traitors to one another, as we see in the case of these guardians of the royal children. How they probably promised with all zeal to guard the life, the honor, and the rights of these princes! Now, they themselves become their murderers. Let no man trust the golden words of him who fears man more than he fears God.—Unfaithfulness ruins those who practise it. Jehu must infer from the treason of these guardians towards their wards that they would still less be faithful to him. He, therefore, treated them as they treated those who had been entrusted to them.—Though the crime which these men perpetrated against their wards could hardly occur in our day, yet instructors and guardians are not wanting who become murderers of the souls of their pupils, in that they mislead them by example and precept into apostasy from the living God and disbelief in His holy word, instead of educating them in “the fear and admonition of the Lord.” (Cf. Mat_18:6.)—Krummacher: What is the worth of all the friendship and favor and trust of this world! It is like a tree in soft, loose ground, which, so long as thou holdest it upright, covers thee pleasantly with its shadow, but which, when the storm roars through its top, and it is overthrown, no longer takes account of thee, but crushes thee in its fall.
2Ki_10:8-11. Jehu’s Words to the People: (a) He says to the people just what they like to hear: “Ye are just;” (b) he throws the guilt off from himself on to others: “But who slew all these?” (c) he represents something which he had done himself as a divine dispensation: “The Lord hath done that which he spake,” &c.—He who has a good conscience may alone appeal to God’s word. Guard thyself from the great mistake of glossing over and justifying thy sins and errors by citations from the word of God.—Human sins are not justified by the fact that they are made means in the hand of God for accomplishing his judgments.
2Ki_10:12-16. Jehu’s Journey to Samaria: (a) His meeting with the brethren of Ahaziah, 2Ki_10:12-14; (b) his meeting with Jehonadab, 2Ki_10:15-16.
2Ki_10:12-13. The quiet and peaceful house of the shepherd becomes a house of terror and of death. Destruction overtakes the self-assured on their way to pleasure and joy!—Würt. Summ.: When we go out of the house, let us commit ourselves into the hands of God, for much may happen on our journey to prevent us from coming in life or happiness homeward (Jam_4:13-15).
Ver 15. Jehonadab, son of Rechab, chief of the Rechabites (Jeremiah 35), is a type of faithful adherence to the faith and the customs of the fathers in the midst of an apostate, wavering people.—Decided and firm faith, combined with a strict and earnest life, compels respect even from those who themselves follow another course.—Where there is agreement in the highest and most important interests, there one may find a speedy and easy basis of intercourse, whatever may be the difference of rank or nationality.—Kyburz: Jesus says to me and thee what Jehu said to Jehonadab: If thine heart is right with mine, as mine with thine, then come up to me upon my throne (Rev_3:21).
2Ki_10:16. Zeal for the Lord is a great and rare thing, when it is pure. It forfeits its reward, however, when it aims to be seen (Mat_6:1-6). How many a one deceives himself with his zeal for the Lord, and for His kingdom, when, at the bottom, he is zealous only for himself, for his own honor and fame, his own interest and advantage.
2Ki_10:18-28. The great Feast of Baal at Samaria: (a) The preparation of it; (b) its finale.—A work which is in itself pure and holy loses its value when it is accomplished by falsehood and dissimulation. One cannot battle for the truth with the weapons of falsehood (Rom_3:8).—Berleb. Bibel: What things one may do by outward acts, and yet be internally a hypocrite! Jehu dissimulated in order to circumvent the hypocrites and idolaters, and never recognized the hypocrite and idolater in himself.—Jehu destroyed the worship of false gods by the sword, and by external violence. He had full justification for this in the Law, for, under the old covenant, idolatry was the worm at the root of the Israelitish nationality; it was high treason to the Israelitish state. Under the new covenant, it is not permitted to make use of fire and sword against heresy and superstition. No other weapon may here be used than that of the spirit, that is, the word of God. Christianity is not bound to any people; as it was not brought into the world by violence, so it cannot be extended and nourished by the sword.—Even now every civil power has the right and the duty to proceed to extreme measures against a cultus like that of Baal, which is interwoven with, licentiousness and abominations.
2Ki_10:21. The house of Baal was full from wall to wall. The houses in which worship and sacrifice are rendered to the deities of this world, to the lusts of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are full, also now-a-days, from wall to wall, while the churches, in which the word resounds: “Repent and be converted that your sins may be forgiven,” are empty.
2Ki_10:26 sq. J. Lange: The destruction and desecration of the temple of Baal was a genuine physical preaching of repentance through the entire country, by which many a one may have been awakened from the sleep of sin, and many a faithful soul may have been strengthened in goodness. As the German hymn says: “Bring all false gods to shame! The Lord is God! Give to our God the praise!”
2Ki_10:28-33. Jehu is a type of those who show great zeal in tearing down and destroying superstition and false worship, but do nothing to build up the faith, because they themselves have no living faith, and do not walk before God with all their hearts.—Jehu did indeed destroy idolatry, but he did not touch the chief sin of Israel, because he considered it the chief support of his own authority. So many a one renounces gross, external sins, but will not think of denying himself, of sacrificing his own interests, and of turning his heart to the living God.—He who remains standing half-way, goes backward in spite of himself. Jehu would not desist from the sins of Jeroboam, because he thought that it would cost him his crown, but on that very account he lost one province after another.
Footnotes:
[1]2Ki_10:1.—[For יזרעאל read הָעִיר אֶל. See Exeg.—אחאב אמנים], “Ahab’s tutors.” Since, however, they were not tutors of Ahab, but those whom he had appointed to instruct his sons, אמנים stands in a loose construction in the case absolute.
[2]2Ki_10:2.—[After the formal greeting and address of the letter, which are not given here, its substance began with וְעַתָּה. Cf. 2Ki_5:6.]
[3]2Ki_10:3.—[עַל, for. Ewald, § 217, i. ß.]
[4]2Ki_10:11.—[הִשְׁאִיר is an infinitive. See Text. and Gramm. on 2Ki_3:25.]
[5]2Ki_10:16.—[All the versions but the Chaldee have the singular.]
[6]2Ki_10:24.—[For יִמָּלֵט read יְמַלֵּט with Keil, Thenius, Bunsen, and others.—W. G. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 19, 22, 29 he that was over the house--the governor or chamberlain…
he that was over the house--the governor or chamberlain of the palace.
the bringers-up of the children--Anciently, and still also in many Eastern countries, the principal grandees were charged with the support and education of the royal princes. This involved a heavy expense which they were forced to bear, but for which they endeavored to find some compensation in the advantages of their connection with the court.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33 SLAUGHTER OF AHAB’S SONS, 2Ki_10:1-11.
SLAUGHTER OF AHAB’S SONS, 2Ki_10:1-11.
Although Joram and Ahaziah and Jezebel have fallen, the Divine vengeance, which so long has slumbered, will not have finished its work of retribution till every member of Ahab’s guilty house is brought to judgment.
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1. Seventy sons in Samaria — The word sons here, as often, is meant to include all Ahab’s living posterity — sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons. Some of these children of Ahab were no doubt very young.
Wrote letters — Intercourse by means of written epistles was at this period very common.
Sent to Samaria — Where was the chief seat of government, the royal palace, and the court, and where the nobles of the kingdom were generally to be found. The kings of Israel had a palace at Jezreel, (1Ki_21:1,) and often abode there, but that did not diminish the importance of Samaria. It was more of a summer residence of the king and his family than the chief capital of the kingdom.
The rulers of Jezreel — Or, princes of Jezreel, nobles of the kingdom, whose common residence was Jezreel, but who, for some reason not stated, were now at the royal palace at Samaria, where, doubtless, they were often wont to resort.
To the elders — The elders of the city of Samaria. These are not to be identified with the rulers or princes just mentioned, but were men of less dignity and power, having their authority confined to matters pertaining more especially to Samaria.
Them that brought up Ahab’s children — That is, the guardians and instructors, who had the oversight and training of the young princes. Thus Jehu’s letters were directed to three classes of persons, all of them more or less responsible for the care of the royal family, namely, the nobles, the elders, and the guardians. Expositors have been much troubled to explain why Jehu sent letters from Jezreel to Samaria to the princes of Jezreel. Some have proposed to read rulers of Israel instead of rulers of Jezreel. Keil emends the text according to the Septuagint and Vulgate, and reads rulers of the city, יזרעאלbeing a corruption of העיר אל. But it seems better to understand that the rulers of Jezreel were the supreme court officers of the kingdom, and that they were so called because they commonly resided in Jezreel. It need not seem strange that they were at this time in Samaria, for many supposable items of official business may have called them to the chief seat of the nation; or, perhaps, as some have supposed, they had fled thither from the face of Jehu.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Ch. 2Ki_10:1-11. Jehu destroys the whole family of Ahab…
Ch. 2Ki_10:1-11. Jehu destroys the whole family of Ahab (Not in Chronicles)
1. And [R.V. Now] Ahab had seventy sons] The conjunction is the usual copulative, but it is somewhat in the style of O.T. translation to commence a new section of the narrative with ‘Now’.
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in Samaria] It would seem that the name here is for the whole district, as some of those slain appear to have been in Jezreel (see verse 11). But in verse 2 we have an allusion to a fenced city as though the city of Samaria were specially intended.
And Jehu wrote letters] Josephus (Ant. IX. 6. 5) says ‘two letters, one to the bringers up of the children, the other to the authorities of Samaria’.
sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel] There is a difficulty here. We cannot see why the rulers of Jezreel should be in Samaria, or why the great men in Israel should have been named ‘rulers of Jezreel’. Hence some have suggested that for ‘Jezreel’ we should read ‘Israel’. The LXX. says ‘unto the rulers of Samaria’, and with this agrees Josephus. But it is very clumsy to say ‘he sent to Samaria unto the rulers of Samaria’. Thenius suggests that the original was ‘he sent from Jezreel to the rulers of Samaria’ which seems much the easiest solution.
It was extremely politic of Jehu to send a letter to Samaria rather than to go there before he had gathered a force around him. He had come from Ramoth-gilead with a very small company, and the fame of what he had done at Jezreel would produce more effect than his presence in Samaria with a mere handful of men to support him.
to [R.V. even] the elders] As there is no preposition here in the original, and the preposition is expressed in the next clause, it seems more correct to take ‘the elders’ as in apposition to ‘the rulers of Jezreel’.
and to [R.V. unto] them that brought up Ahab’s children] [R.V. the sons of Ahab]. The change in the preposition is merely to indicate that it is the same word as that before ‘rulers’ in the previous clause. In the final words the Hebrew is somewhat irregular. ‘Them that brought up’ should properly be in construction with some noun, but as ‘children’ or ‘sons’ is not expressed, the word stands absolutely, and ‘Ahab’ is put without connection after it. No doubt the sense is expressed in the translation. Of course it was only for the ‘sons’ of the royal family that this provision of tutors was made, because out of them would come the successor to the throne.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36 (1) Ahab had seventy sons.—His posterity in general are…
X.
JEHU MASSACRES THE FAMILY OF AHAB, THE KINSMEN OF AHAZIAH, AND BAAL-WORSHIPPERS.
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(1) Ahab had seventy sons.—His posterity in general are meant. Ahab had been dead about fourteen years (2Ki_3:1; 1Ki_22:51), and had had two successors on the throne. The name Ahab seems to be used here as equivalent to the house of Ahab. Many of the number might be strictly sons of Ahab, as he no doubt had a considerable harem.
Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria.—Jehu was crafty as well as fierce. He could not venture to the capital without first sounding the inclinations of the nobles of the city.
Unto the rulers of Jezreel.—“Jezreel” is an ancient error. The LXX. has “unto the rulers of Samaria.” So Josephus. Thenius accordingly suggests that the original reading was, “and sent from Jezreel to the princes of Samaria.” The Vulg. gives “ad optimates civitatis,” which seems preferable. Before “the elders” we must restore “and unto” with some MSS., the LXX., Syriac, and Vulg. The original text would then run: “and sent to the princes of the city and unto the elders,” &c. Reuss, on the other hand, reads “Israel” for “Jezreel.”
Them that brought up Ahab’s children.—Literally, them who brought up Ahab (i.e., the house of Ahab). The word occurs in Num_11:12; Isa_49:23 (“nursing father”). The nobles entrusted with this charge would be responsible for the good behaviour of their wards. Ahab may have dreaded the evils of an education in the harem, and possible disputes about the succession.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Vers. 1-36. THE REIGN OF JEHU OVER ISRAEL. Vers.…
Vers. 1-36. THE REIGN OF JEHU OVER ISRAEL. Vers. 1-28. The revolution initiated by the destruction of Joram and Jezebel is here traced through its second and its third stages. The immediate question, after Joram"s death, was Would any member of his family rise up as a claimant of the throne, and dispute the succession with Jehu? Ahab had seventy male descendants, all of them resident in Samaria: would there be any one among their number bold enough to come forward and assert his hereditary fight? Jehu regarded this as the most pressing and imminent danger, wherefore his first step was to challenge such action, and either precipitate it or crush it. In vers. 1-11 is related the action taken by him, so far as the descendants of Ahab were concerned, and his success in ridding himself of all rivals possessed of so strong a claim. Vers. 12-14 relate his dealings with another body of Ahab"s relations, belonging to the neighboring kingdom of Judah. In vers. 15-28 an account is given of the still more bloody and more sweeping measures by which he cowed the party opposed to him, and firmly established his dynasty in the Israelite kingdom.
Vers. 1-11. The destruction of the seventy seas of Ahab.
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And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. By "sons" we must understand "male descendants. Most of the seventy wore probably his grandsons (see ver. 3); some may have been great-grandsons. They lived in Samaria; since Samaria was the principal residence of the court, Jezreel being simply a country palace the "Versailles," as it has been called, or "Windsor" of the Israelite kings. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel. "Jezreel" is almost certainly a corrupt reading. The "rulers of Jezreel" would be at Jezreel; and, if Jehu wished to communicate with them, he would not need to "write." Had any chance taken them to Samaria a very improbable circumstance they would have had no authority there, and to address them would have been useless. John"s letters were, no doubt, addressed to the rulers of Samaria; and so the LXX expressly state (ajpesteilen ejn Samareia prov touav); but the reading "Jezreel" can scarcely have arisen out of "Samaria" (larzy out of wrmv), since the difference of the two words is so great. Most probably the original word was "Israel" (larcy), which is easily corrupted into "Jezreel" (larzy). The rulers of Samaria, the capital, might well be called "the rulers of Israel." To the elders rather, even the elders. Not distinct persons from the "rulers," but the same under another name. (see 1Ki_21:8, 1Ki_21:13; and compare the Revised Version) And to them that brought up Ahab"s children i.e. the tutors, or governors, under whose charge they were placedsaying
Vers. 1-7. The fear of man a stronger motive with the wicked and worldly than the fear of God.
Revolutions subject to severe trial most of those who occupy high stations at the time of their occurrence. Such persons have to determine, at very short notice for the most part, the line which they Will pursue, the side which they will embrace, and the lengths to which they will go in their support of it. In making their choice they are apt to think less of what they ought to do than of what their worldly interests require them to do. They "are in a strait betwixt two on the one hand is the fear of man, on the other the fear of God. The one ought to prevail; the other commonly does prevail. Let us consider a little why this is so.
I REASONS WHY THE FEAR OF GOD IS WEAK.
1. The wicked and worldly, who form, alas! the vast mass of mankind, do not generally even so much as realize the existence of God. They may not be absolute atheists, but practically they do not have God in their thoughts.
2. Those who believe in God and have some fear of him view him as distant, and his vengeance as a thing that may come or may not. He is merciful, and may be propitiated; he is compassionate, and may not be "extreme to mark what is done amiss" Men hope that he Will forget their misdeeds, or forgive them for his Son"s sake, or accept a tardy repentance as compensating for them and blotting them out.
3. Some view God as altogether benevolent and beneficent, and therefore as incapable of punishing men, forgetting that, if he is kind, he is also just, and, if he is forgiving, he is also jealous. They take their idea of God, not from what is revealed concerning him in Scripture, but from their own imaginations respecting him imaginations which are echoes of their wishes.
II REASONS WHY THE FEAR OF MAN IS STRONG.
1. Man is visibly present, and has a power to injure and punish which cannot be doubted.
2. Man"s vengeance falls heavily and speedily. It is rarely delayed; and it is often of great severity.
3. It consists of pains and penalties, which are more easily realized than those which God threatens. We know very well what is meant by the death of the body, but what the death of the soul may mean is obscure to us.
4. If we offend men, it is very unlikely that they will forgive us. Most men regard clemency as a weakness, and exact the uttermost farthing from those who, they think, have injured them. Under these circumstances, the fear of man prevails. The rulers of Samaria, challenged by Jehu either to raise the standard of revolt against him, or definitely to embrace his cause, and mark their adhesion to it by imbuing their hands in blood, must have balanced in their minds for a time the two alternatives should they consent to slay, without offence alleged, seventy persons obnoxious to the powers that were, undeterred by fear of Divine vengeance, to escape the anger of Jehu? or should they brave his anger, and refuse to engage in the massacre required of them, out of regard for the Law of God, (Exo_20:13) and through fear of the vengeance denounced By God upon such as contravened it? (Gen_9:6) They yielded to the lower, but more immediate, fear, and submitted themselves to be mere tools in Jehu"s hands, because they feared man rather than God. Having made up their minds that their forces were insufficient to contend with those of Jehu, they put themselves at his disposal, and consented to do all that he required of them. So, constantly, in civil struggles, parties have put before them the alternative of following conscience and embroiling themselves with the civil authorities, or of defying those authorities, keeping their conscience clear, and observing the strict Law of God in the matters whereon they have to exercise a choice. Sometimes, as in the case of the Girondists, the better part is taken duty, truth, virtue, are preferred to expediency, and martyrdom, a glorious martyrdom, is for the most part the consequence; but generally the result is different expediency carries the day, and the sad spectacle is seen of men sacrificing their principles to their immediate interest, and consenting to wade through crime if they may preserve their worthless lives by so doing.
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN. Vers. 1-11. Ahab"s sons put to death.
Jehu"s commission is to cut off utterly the whole house of Ahab. Like a moral plague was the iniquity of Ahab"s house. Every member of it, by heredity, by example, by association, shared the guilt of Ahab and Jezebel There is a good moral reason for the extermination of such a nest of evildoers. But Jehu was not troubled with many scruples or difficulties. He had got a certain work to do, and he did it. We have here
I FAITHLESS SERVANTS. The general corruption and demoralization were manifest in the way in which Ahab"s sons were treated by the elders of Samaria, and those that brought up Ahab"s children. It was no zeal for what was right, no particular hatred of what was wrong, that caused them to yield so complaisantly to Jehu"s real wish. Jehu, indeed, satirized them to their face. He made it appear as if he really wanted them to defend their master"s children and fight for their master"s house. It would not have been unnatural to expect this from them. But they were sore afraid. Not only were they willing, in their craven cowardice, to surrender Ahab"s children to Jehu, to let him work his own will on them, but they actually slew them with their own hands, and sent their heads to Jehu. Where there is unfaithfulness toward God, there wilt be unfaithfulness in the relations between man and man. Fickleness is a characteristic of the world"s friendships. Deception is a characteristic of the world"s business. But the Christian will be faithful to duty, to conscience, to God. "He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not". (Psa_15:4)
II THE UNFAILING WORD. "There shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah." Every judgment of God which was threatened upon Ahab"s house was fulfilled. God"s judgments upon Israel how literally and fully have they been fulfilled! Every judgment pronounced against sin is sure of certain and complete fulfillment. So also God"s promises will be fulfilled. Not a single promise of God was ever broken, why, then, should any of us doubt his word, his willingness to receive, his power to save, his desire to pardon? "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-14. Destruction of Ahab"s house.
Jehu was not a man to do things by halves. Whatever matter he had in hand, he pushed with unhesitating feet to his goal. His motto was, "If it were then done when "tis done, then "twere well it were done quickly." This vigorous determination is a feature in his character worthy of commendation It is not so clear that the craft and guile he employed in securing his ends were, even from an Old Testament standpoint, justifiable.
I THE CRAFTY MESSAGE. No small amount of craft, as this chapter shows, mingled with Jehu"s headlong zeal.
1. The seed royal in Samaria. The direct posterity of Ahab here called Ahab"s sons amounted to seventy persons. Some may have been his own children, others the children of Jehoram, or of his other sons. They resided at Samaria, and were under the care of nobles responsible for their education and up-bringing. On them, too, the judgment of God was to fall. In itself it was a common Oriental practice for the founder of a new dynasty to put to death the descendants and blood-relations of his predecessor (cf. 1Ki_15:29 1Ki_16:11; 2Ki_11:1 2Ki_25:7) This was to protect the new ruler from blood-vengeance. In the present case the destruction was by direct command of Heaven. The principle of corporate responsibility for sins committed is recognized and- acted on throughout the Old Testament (see Mozley"s "Ruling Ideas of the Old Testament"). It embodies a truth of permanent validity. (Mat_23:34, Mat_23:35) Nevertheless, a pathos attends a fate like that of Ahab"s sons. "Whirled down," as Carlyle says of other unfortunates, "so suddenly to the abyss; as men are, suddenly, by the wide thunder of the mountain avalanche, awakened not by them, awakened far off by others.
2. The crafty letter. Having struck his first blow, Jehu lost no time in delivering his second. But instead of openly advancing to Samaria, and demanding the surrender of the seventy sons, he proceeds by guile. His policy was, not to put the nobles and elders in Samaria in opposition to him, but to gain them to his side. His further object was to implicate those persons in his deeds, by making them the direct agents in the slaughter of Ahab"s sons. The manner in which he accomplished these ends shows no little skill. He first sends a letter to the great men in the capital, offering them a challenge to open war. He recounts to them their advantages the presence of their master"s sons, a fortified city, horses, chariots, armor, etc.; then bids them select the one of Ahab"s descendants whom they think most suitable, and make him king, and fight for their master"s house. This put the nobles in the dilemma, either of getting up an improvised resistance to Jehu, or of making unconditional submission. No time was given them to consider. They must decide at once, and that, in circumstances like theirs, meant only submission.
3. The submissive reply. The course taken by the nobles and elders was what Jehu anticipated. A terrible panic took possession of them. They saw how vain it was to attempt war with the most popular and energetic general in the army, backed as he was by the support of other captains. They had no head, and, notwithstanding Jehu"s sarcastic list of their advantages, no proper means of defense. The fact that two kings not to speak of Jezebel had already fallen before this "scourge of God" added to their dismay. With the unanimity of despair, "he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children," indebted a humble epistle, sent it to Jehu, and put themselves entirely in his hands, offering to do whatever he bade them. Necessity is a terrible tyrant. How many things men yield to force and fear which they would not yield to reason or persuasion!
II THE TREACHEROUS MASSACRE.
1. The new demand. Jehu took the leaders at their word, and sent them the conditions of his acceptance of their submission. If they were his, and would hearken to his voice, the proof of allegiance he would require of them would be that they bring to him by the same hour to-morrow the heads of their master"s sons. The requisition was peremptory, the time given brief, and they had already committed themselves by promising obedience to whatever Jehu wished. Their case was a hard one; nevertheless, the act they were called upon to perform was, from their side, a revolting and treacherous one.
2. Ahab"s sons slain. Hateful as the requirement was, the nobles and elders of Samaria, now that they had come to terms with Jehu, do not seem to have shown any hesitation in carrying it out. The sons of Ahab had been entrusted to their care; they had no quarrel with them; they did not profess to be moved by any regard for a command of God; yet now that policy and their own safety dictated that their charges should be given up to death, they acquiesced without a murmur. This shows the weakness of moral feeling in the riding classes of Samaria. It shows how utterly rotten were all the bends that bound man to man. The willingness with which the men of Jezreel swore away Naboth"s life at Jezebel"s command (1Ki 19) was one instance, and here is another. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man". (Psa_146:3) Political morality is of the weakest fiber. For some paltry interest men will turn their backs to-morrow on the most sacred professions of today. They will forswear the closest friendships, stoop even to the lowest treachery.
3. Jehu"s public appeal. That very evening apparently, the heads of Ahab"s sons were brought to Jehu in baskets. He bade them be piled in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning. Then, standing in the gateway, he called the people to witness that the leaders in Samaria were as deeply incriminated as he. They, the people whom he addressed, were "righteous," i.e. clear from blood-guiltiness, and might be disposed to judge him severely for his acts of the previous day. He acknowledged that he had conspired against his master, and had slain him; but pointing to the pyramids of heads who had slain all these? In truth, he went on to aver, not any of them were guilty, for this was but the fulfillment of the word of the Lord which he had spoken by Elijah.
(1) Jehu was right in his averment, "Know now that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord." Many demonstrations of that fact have been given. We do well to impress the truth upon our minds.
(2) It is a common thing for men to shield themselves from the consequences of their acts by pleading that others are as guilty as they are. This, however, will not justify them.
III AHAZIAH"S BRETHREN. A further act in the tragedy of the destruction of Ahab"s house took place at a certain shearing-house on the read to Samaria. Thither forty-two brethren (kinsmen) of Ahaziah had come down on their way to pay a pleasure visit to their relations, the princes at the capital. They were apparently as yet unaware of the revolution that had taken place. It was, however, to prove a costly visit to them. Jehu, fresh from his work of blood, encountered them at the shearing-house, and, on ascertaining who they-were, had them all put to death on the spot their bodies were cast into the pit of the place. In pursuit of their pleasures, how many, like Ahaziah"s brethren, have found themselves overtaken by death! The way of pleasure is, for many, the way of death the way to the pit of destruction. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 15, 16, 31 Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria.
2Ki_10:1-17
Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria.
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Jehu
Jehu. He did not rest until he had destroyed the house of Ahab and the worship of Baal. There are many Jehus to-day and there is much Jehuism: religion that goes a long way, and is very earnest and zealous--only there is a fatal but in it.
I. Jehu spends all his time in hacking at other peoples sins. Perhaps it is too much to expect a man to do more than one thing well, but somehow one does expect that when a man is so tremendously in earnest against other peoples sins he should occasionally see to his own. Have we not often met the man? Have we not heard him denouncing the dreadful heresy of other people: storming them with hard words--papist, heretic, infidel--and then he goes down to his Bethel? See my zeal for orthodoxy. Yet he goes hard, loveless, unbrotherly, the day through. And Jehu is not always in a carriage driving furiously. I have met him sometimes with shuffling steps, whining and whimpering about other peoples dreadful doings, holding up hands of pious horror and shaking the head sternly in an agony of concern as to what will become of them! And yet he too has his calves at Bethel My dear sir, what will become of you? Your Jehu comforts himself that his zeal against Baal will be set over against the little matter of Bethel and the golden calves, as if the Almighty kept a debit and credit account, and that the balance will come out on the right side. Never, Jehu--never. You are not only omitting some trifling detail of religion,--it is the undoing of it all. And look again. There was a terrible danger that Jehu should be satisfied with what he had done. If anybody spoke to him about the calves at Bethel, he would take refuge at once, But see what I did to Baal. If any one called him an idolater he would say. See how I served God in the matter of Ahab. Ah, it is a terrible thing to cheat even ourselves thus.
II. Jehu served God just so far as he could serve himself, and no further. If Jehu was going to be king, then of course he must get rid of Joram: and if he meant to keep the throne, then his safety will be to get rid of the whole house of Ahab; for so long as one was left there would be a centre for disturbance and plots. His safety depended upon the clean sweep that he made. And the priests of Baal would be another source of mischief. So Jehu cried, Come, see my zeal for the Lord. And the whip cracks and the horses gallop and not a prince of Ahabs house or a priest of Baal is left. Then Jehu goes down and worships the calves at Bethel, and worships them for the same reason--that it served his purpose. Yes, Jehu, we have seen thy zeal--thy zeal for thyself. The calves at Bethel were put up at the first as a matter of policy. When the two kingdoms were rent in twain, by possessing Jerusalem Judah had the advantage of the temple and its holy associations. So the king of Israel said, It will never do to let my people acknowledge the supremacy of. Judah by going up to worship. To expose them to this temptation to return to Judah is too much. So he set up the calves at Bethel and at Dan, and cried, These be thy gods, O Israel. Now the same policy that prompted Jeroboam to put them up, prompted Jehu to keep them up. I know that he could explain it all and satisfy everybody--except those that were stupidly particular, you know, and quite ignorant of the ways of the world. You see I did not set them up; I would not have done such a thing on any account, and I cannot, but wish that they never had been set up. Of course Jeroboam is to blame, very much to blame. But now that they are set up and the people are accustomed to them, it would never do for me to interfere. They would not understand it. Really, it may seem otherwise to you, but a man in my position has to be very careful--very. It is an utterly mean and despicable kind of religion this, serving God just as far as it serves our own purpose. To be religious, chiefly on Sundays, not because sin is hateful, but because it is the proper thing;--religious not from many love to holiness, but because it may be expedient in the long run. True religion may have its source in selfish motives, as great rivers may have their rise in marshy swamps--but Jehuism ends there. It is all through a subtle self-service. What suits me and my interests, that decides the whole duty of man.
III. Then again, Jehu goes so far in serving God as it suits his tastes. He liked furious driving and fierce excitements. Set him up behind a pair of wild horses and he was in his element. He was a soldier, and such cruel and bloody horrors were what his nature and his calling inclined him to. But when Ahabs household was slain, and Jezebel was dead, and the worshippers of Baal murdered, and the image burned, and the temple of their foul idolatry left for ever defiled--then it was quite a different thing for him to go troubling himself about pleasing God in the thousand little matters of everyday life. Some people will be religious so far as it suits their tastes. I like it settles everything. We cannot help our tastes and preferences--they are gifts of God like our instincts, of which they are indeed part. But the danger is when we exalt our tastes into that which regulates our duty. Many a course has for its only reason and its bit of poor defence, this--I like it. Now if religion mean anything at all, it means that I am bound to consider first and foremost in everything what God likes, and to serve Him: and I am bound to consider my likes in reference to my brother and see that I offend him not; to consider his preferences and his claims; to stay myself in my furious driving and fierce destruction, lest I should ride over him. Religion is not a system provided only to quiet my uneasy fears, and to put into me happy feelings, and to tell me not to worry myself--a ministry to our selfishness and indolence--vices that no religion need fatten, they know how to take care of themselves, and failings that no religion can satisfy. If religion mean anything it means this, and if it have any reality in it, it will show itself thus--I am bound to deny myself wherever I can really help any man in Gods world. And to us workers in the Church is there not here a word of warning? All that Jehu did was done by him as the servant of the Lord--yet the very bustle and energy of the service shut out the times of meditation and waiting upon God by which he was to learn what he had to do and to find the fitness for doing it. The work, however well done, is but very ill done which steals from us the time of quiet communion with God. The reason of Jehus failure is not far to seek. He walked not in the way of the Lord with all his heart, because his heart was not in it. There is the secret. Let Jehu be handling the reins, or in the excitement of the battle, and there all the man appeared. No task was too difficult for this determined man; no position was too exposed for his courage; nothing was too much to expect of him. But when it was to do the will of God in other things, then Jehu had excuses and hindrances ready by the score. Then the strong man was really so weak and helpless. Ah, so it is that to-day there are many Jehus--men who have a whole heart for anything, everything, but the service of God. Here is a man of business--how he can stick at it, grudging no labour, sticking at it day and night in the hope of increasing his returns--a smart fellow, men say, and very clever. But for the Lord this man can only sigh. Here this earnest man can content himself with excuses. Once more Jehus name is mentioned--And Jehu slept with his fathers. The restless energetic life was over. The furious driver could not escape the old enemy. He lies and looks back upon his course, and looks forward into that dread world which is opening before him. The coveted crown is passing to another head; the sceptre is falling from the trembling grasp. (M. G. Pearse.)
The scavenger of God
By the philosopher, and still more by the philosopher who believes in the Divine guidance of human affairs, the true relation of Napoleon to the worlds history will be reduced to a very simple conception: that he was launched into the world as a great natural or supernatural force, as a scourge and a scavenger, to effect a vast operation, partly positive, but mainly negative; and that when he has accomplished that work he is withdrawn as swiftly as he came. Caesar, Attila, Tamerlane, and Mahomet are forces of this kind; the last a much more potent and abiding factor in the universe than Napoleon; another proof, if proof were needed, of how small is the permanent effect of warfare alone on the history of mankind. These men make great epochs; they embody vast transitions; they perplex and appal their contemporaries; but when viewed at a distance they are seen to be periodical and necessary incidents of the worlds movement. The details of their career, their morals, their methods, are then judged, interesting though they may be, to be merely subordinate details. Scavenger is a coarse word, yet it accurately represents Napoleons first function as ruler. The volcano of the French Revolution had burned itself out. He had to clear away the cold lava; the rubbish of past destruction; the cinders and the scoriae; the fungus of corruption which had overgrown all, and was for the moment the only visible result . . . Then he is a scourge. He purges the floor of Europe with fire. (Lord Rosebery.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 12
JEHU ESTABLISHED ON THE THRONE
2Ki_10:1-17
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B.C. 842-814
"The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose."
- SHAKESPEARE.
BUT the work of Jehu was not yet over. He was established at Jezreel: he was lord of the palace and seraglio of his master: the army of Israel was with him. But who could be sure that no civil war would arise, as between the partisans of Zimri and Omri, as between Omri and Tibni? Ahab, first of the kings of Israel, had left many sons. There were no less than seventy of these princes at Samaria. Might there not be among them some youth of greater courage and capacity than the murdered Jehoram? And could it be anticipated that the late dynasty was so utterly unfortunate and execrated as to have none left to do them reverence, or to strike one blow on their behalf, after nearly half a century of undisputed sway? Jehus coup de main had been brilliantly successful. In one day he had leapt into the throne. But Samaria was strong upon its watchtower hill. It was full of Ahabs sons, and had not yet declared on Jehus side. It might be expected to feel some gratitude to the dynasty which Jehu had supplanted, seeing that it owed to the grandfather of the king whom he had just slain its very existence as the capital of Israel.
He would put a bold face on his usurpation, and strike while the iron was hot. He would not rouse opposition by seeming to assume that Samaria would accept his rebellion. He therefore wrote a letter to the rulers of Samaria-which was but a journey of nine hours distance from Jezreel-and to the guardians of the young princes, reminding them that they were masters in a strong city, protected with its own contingent of chariots and horses, and well supplied with armor. He suggested that they should select the most promising of Ahabs sons, make him king, and begin a civil war on his behalf.
The event showed how prudent was this line of conduct. As yet Jehu had not transferred the army from Ramoth-Gilead. He had doubtless taken good care to prevent intelligence of his plans from reaching the adherents of Jehoram in Samaria. To them the unknown was the terrible. All they knew was that "Behold, two kings stood not before him!" The army must have sanctioned his revolt: what chance had they? As for loyalty and affection, if ever they had existed towards this hapless dynasty, they had vanished like a dream. The people of Samaria and Jezreel had once been obedient as sheep to the iron dominance of Jezebel. They had tolerated her idol-abominations, and the insolence of her army of dark-browed priests. They had not risen to defend the prophets of Jehovah, and had suffered even Elijah, twice over, to be forced to flee for his life. They had borne, hitherto without a murmur, the tragedies, the sieges, the famines, the humiliations, with which during these reigns they had been familiar. And was not Jehovah against the waning fortunes of the Beni-Omri? Elijah had undoubtedly cursed them, and now the curse was falling. Jehu must doubtless have let it be known that he was only carrying out the behest of their own citizen the great Elisha, who had sent to him the anointing oil. They could find abundant excuses to justify their defection from the old house, and they sent to the terrible man a message of almost abject submission: - Let him do as he would; they would make no king: they were his servants, and would do his bidding.
Jehu was not likely to be content with verbal or even written promises. He determined, with cynical subtlety, to make them put a very bloody sign-manual to their treaty, by implicating them irrevocably in his rebellion. He wrote them a second mandate.
"If," he said, "ye accept my rule, prove it by your obedience. Cut off the heads of your masters sons, and see that they are brought to me here tomorrow by yourselves before the evening."
The ruthless order was fulfilled to the letter by the terrified traitors. The kings sons were with their tutors, the lords of the city. On the very morning that Jehus second missive arrived, every one of these poor guiltless youths was unceremoniously beheaded. The hideous, bleeding trophies were packed in fig-baskets and sent to Jezreel.
When Jehu was informed of this revolting present it was evening, and he was sitting at a meal with his friends. He did not trouble himself to rise from his feast or to look at "death made proud by pure and princely beauty." He knew that those seventy heads could only be the heads of the royal youths. He issued a cool and brutal order that they should be piled in two heaps until the morning on either side the entrance of the city gates. Were they watched? or were the dogs and vultures and hyenas again left to do their work upon them? We do not know. In any case it was a scene of brutal barbarism such as might have been witnessed in living memory in Khiva or Bokhara; nor must we forget that even in the last century the heads of the brave and the noble rotted on Westminster Hall and Temple Bar, and over the Gate of York, and over the Tolbooth at Edinburgh, and on Wexford Bridge. The day dawned, and all the people were gathered at the gate, which was the scene of justice. With the calmest air imaginable the warrior came out to them, and stood between the mangled heads of those who but yesterday had been the pampered minions of fortune and luxury. His speech was short and politic in its brutality. "Be yourselves the judges," he said. "Ye are righteous. Jezebel called me a Zimri. Yes! I conspired against my master and slew him: but"-and here he casually pointed to the horrible, bleeding heaps-"who smote all these?" The people of Jezreel and the lords of Samaria were not only passive witnesses of his rebellion; they were active sharers in it. They had dabbled their hands in the same blood. Now they could not choose but accept his dynasty: for who was there besides himself? And then, changing his tone, he does not offer "the tyrants devilish plea, necessity," to cloak his atrocities, but-like a Romish inquisitor of Seville or Granada-claims Divine sanction for his sanguinary violence. This was not his doing. He was but an instrument in the hands of fate. Jehovah is alone responsible. He is doing what He spake by His servant Elijah. Yes! and there was yet more to do; for no word of Jehovahs shall fall to the ground.
With the same cynical ruthlessness, and cold indifference to smearing his robes in the blood of the slain, he carried out to the bitter end his task of policy which he gilded with the name of Divine justice. Not content with slaying Ahabs sons, he set himself to extirpate his race, and slew all who remained to him in Jezreel, not only his kith and kin, but every lord and every Baal priest who favored his house, until he left him none remaining. But what a frightful picture do these scenes furnish us of the state of religion and even of civilization in Jezreel! There was this man-eating tiger of a king wallowing in the blood of princes, and enacting scenes which remind us of Dahomey and Ashantee, or of some Tartary khanate where human hands are told out in the market-place after some avenging raid. And amid all this savagery, squalor, and Turkish atrocity, the man pleads the sanction of Jehovah, and claims, unrebuked, that he is only carrying out the behests of Jehovahs prophets! It is not until long afterwards that the voice of a prophet is heard repudiating his plea and denouncing his bloodthirstiness. {Hos_1:4}
"An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek-
A goodly apple rotten at the core."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 18, 29 2Ki_10:1. Seventy sons—i.e., descendants, sons grandsons, &c. The rulers…
THE FALL OF BAAL
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
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2Ki_10:1. Seventy sons—i.e., descendants, sons grandsons, &c. The rulers of Jezreel—“Jezreel” has no authoritative place in the text. The LXX. suggests “Samaria,” and the Vulgate supplies civitatis; other translators have changed יִוְרְעָאל (Jezreel) into יִשְׂרָאַל (Israel). Keil suggests that “the rulers of Jezreel” mean “the supreme court officials of the royal house of Ahab.” Them that brought up Ahab’s children—These הָאֹמִנִים are the guardians and educators of the royal princes of Ahab.
2Ki_10:2. This letter—It is full of satire. Jehu is so sure he is possessor of the throne that he tantalizes those he addresses by urging them to select a rival!
2Ki_10:2. Your master’s sons, &c.—This “master” meant Joram.
2Ki_10:5. He that was over the house—אֲשֶׁר, perfect.
2Ki_10:11. So Jehu slew all—How remarkable this honest record in God’s book! The cunning dissembler wished to impress “all the people” (2Ki_10:9) with the idea that the chief men in charge of Ahab’s house had conspired to murder these seventy descendants of Ahab, and then had hypocrisy enough to quote Elijah’s prophecy as being fulfilled in the extirpation of Ahab’s house. But neither his dissembling nor his religious cant hinders the plain record that “Jehu slew all.”
2Ki_10:13. Brethren of Ahaziah—Rather, blood relations—step-brothers, nephews, cousins—for Jehoram died when he was forty years old, and it is incredible that he could have forty-two sons. To salute the children of the king—i.e., as they in their ignorance of Jehu’s conspiracy and murders supposed, Joram; and the queen meant the queen-mother, Jezebel.
2Ki_10:16. My zeal for the Lord—Ambitious blood-thirstiness rather; but a villain knows how to use religious phrases, as the devil did (Mat_4:6).
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_10:1-17
ZEAL IN EXECUTING DIVINE JUDGMENTS
I. Is not deficient in resources for accomplishing its purpose (2Ki_10:1-11). Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel have fallen, but the Divine vengeance, which had so long and patiently slumbered, will not have finished its work of retribution till every member of Ahab’s guilty house is brought to judgment. Jezreel was in the power of Jehu, and with his characteristic promptitude, he seeks to get Samaria in his grasp, and wreak his vengeance on the children of Ahab there. His artifice in writing to the rulers in Samaria to set up a child of Ahab’s as king, and fight for him, is full of both irony and menace—of irony because he knew how unlikely it was that they would champion the cause of a fallen house, known to be doomed of God, and of menace, as it seemed to involve a demand, either to surrender, or else prepare for the worst. Bähr paraphrases it thus:—“I am king, but if ye, who have in your possession the chariots and horses and arms, are desirous of placing a prince of the house of Ahab on the throne, you thereby begin a war with me.” They submitted; and it is a melancholy evidence of the utter demoralisation caused by the prevailing idolatry, that the guardians, without the least show of defence, coolly massacred the seventy sons of Ahab, many of them young and tender, who had been committed to their care, and sent their heads to the blood-thirsty Jehu. By this stratagem it would seem that the slaughter of these descendants of Ahab was charged upon the rulers of Samaria, and that Jehu gained his object without the odium of the guilt. Not so. Jehu takes the full responsibility, and regards it as a fulfilment of the Divine word (2Ki_10:9-11). The man fired with zeal to do a work which is so congenial to his own taste and aims, knows how to make the best of his power and opportunities.
II. May excite a love of slaughter which tempts it to exceed the limits of its original commission (2Ki_10:12-14). Jehu moves on to Samaria to take possession of the capital of his newly-acquired kingdom, and every stage of his progress is marked with blood. When the thirst for blood is once aroused, it is not readily slaked. “On the way he met a gay and gallant party of princes from Judah, proceeding on a visit to the court of Israel, whom the tidings of the revolution had not reached, so rapid had been Jehu’s movements. These, in his still unslaked-thirst for blood, he ordered to be slain on the spot; and it is quite possible that, like the early Moslem conquerors, he sincerely thought that, while performing these and other atrocities, which were greatly beyond his commission, though under cover of it, he was doing God service, and that he suffered not himself to perceive that he was following to a greater extent the ferocious instincts of his nature, or that sanguinary excitement under which he laboured, combined with an undercurrent of selfish policy, which taught him that, after such a beginning as he had made, the more complete the riddance he accomplished of all the adherents of the house of Ahab—whether from sympathy of principle, or from alliance of blood—the more thoroughly the power of future reaction would be weakened. Jezebel’s question—“Had Zimri peace when he slew his master?” rang constantly in his ears; and he was answering it after his hard fashion, which seemed to say: “Zimri had no peace, because he slew only his master; I slay more that I may have peace.”—(Kitto). The intoxication of slaughter is a dangerous symptom in any nature, and will soon hurry one beyond the bounds of duty and justice.
III. Finds sympathy and encouragement in those who fully believe in the righteousness of the judgment (2Ki_10:15-16). Here Jehu comes across a figure who might have reminded him of Elijah himself. It was Jehonadab, the son of Rechab—that is, the son of the “Rider,” an Arab chief of the Kenite tribe, who was the founder, or second founder, of one of those Nazarite communities which had grown up in the kingdom of Israel, and which, in this instance, combined a kind of monastic discipline with the manners of the Bedouin race, from whom they were descended. It seems that he and Jehu were already known to each other. The king knew the stern tenacity of purpose that distinguished Jehonadab and his tribe. The hand was grasped in a clasp which was not afterwards parted. The king lifted him up to the edge of the chariot, apparently to whisper into his ear the first indication of the religious revolution which he had determined to make with the political revolution already accomplished. Side by side with the king, the austere hermit sat in the royal chariot as he entered the capital of Samaria, the warrior in his coat of mail, the ascetic in his haircloth (Stanley).Jehonadab had probably mourned over the prevailing idolatry, and hearing of what Jehu had done and said, he recognised in him a minister of Jehovah, to execute judgment on the wicked house of Ahab, and went forth to meet him, and declare that his heart was with him in this ministry of judgment. To have the sympathy and approval of such a man would be no small advantage to Jehu; and one does not know how far Jehonabab restrained him from excesses into which his impulsive nature might have driven him. It is an unspeakable benefit to any cause when zeal is at once encouraged and controlled. Even the fierce minister of Divine judgment is relieved when the terrible responsibility of his action is shared by a congenial and sympathizing companion.
IV. Persists in fully carrying out the Divine command (2Ki_10:17). Jehu was commissioned to destroy the whole house of Ahab, and he rested not till he had done in Samaria what he had done in Jezreel—put to death all the members of the doomed house. It was customary in the East, from the earliest times, for the founder of a new dynasty to put to death, not only the deposed monarch, but also his descendants and relatives—especially all the males—and we have several examples of this in these books of Kings (1Ki_15:29; 1Ki_16:11; 2Ki_25:7). Jehu, therefore, did not commit an unheard of crime, but followed, in this respect, the example of other founders of new dynasties, though there was in his case the solemn charge and warrant from Jehovah. A zealous nature is restless until the work committed to it is finished, and finished with all fidelity of detail. The marvel is that such strong, fiery spirits do not oftener exceed their commission and plunge into deeper crimes. Naturalists tell us that, among birds and butterflies, the swiftest, strongest flyers approach man much nearer than those with weaker wings, feeling confident that they can dart away from any threatened danger; and this misplaced confidence brings them into the net of the collector. How often has a confidence similarly inspired, and similarly misplaced, brought a strong ardent nature to the very brink of some terrible excess. How few can do just as much, and no more, than he is authorised to do!
LESSONS:—
1. It is no enviable office to be the executioner of Divine vengeance.
2. There are natures to whom the work of slaughter is congenial.
3. If so much seal is shown in carrying out the Divine judgments, with how much eagerness should the Divine mercy be proclaimed!
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_10:1-7. Idolatry: its emasculating and degrading tendency. I. It has not the courage to defend the interests of its best patron but trembles with fear before the ambiguous threat of a usurper (2Ki_10:1-4). II. It makes a cowardly and humiliating submission (2Ki_10:5). III. Without even a remonstrance it surrenders its guardianship over lives it had pledged itself to protect and educate (2Ki_10:6). IV. It does not hesitate to commit the cruellest and most infamous crimes (2Ki_10:7).
—Moral decline among the highest ranks of a nation generally proceeds from a corrupt court which sets the fashion. As is the master, so is the servant. He who has the power in his hands always finds instruments among the great and those of high rank who shrink back from no demand which is made upon them, however much it may conflict with honour and duty. Those who no longer fear God, must fear men. Fear of men may become the cause of the greatest crimes.—Lange
2Ki_10:1. The plentiful issue of princes is no small assurance to the people. Ahab had sons enough to furnish the thrones of all the neighbouring nations—to maintain the hopes of succession to all times. How secure did he think the perpetuation of his posterity when he saw seventy sons from his own loins. Neither was this royal issue trusted either to weak walls or to one roof; but to the strong bulwarks of Samaria, and there in to the several guards of the chief peers. It was the wise care of their parents not to have them obnoxious to the danger of a common miscarriage, but to order their separation, so as one may rescue the other from the peril of assault. Had Ahab and Jezebel been as wise for their souls as they were for their seed, both had prospered.—Bp. Hall.
—Though a large family of children is a blessing of God, yet we must not rely upon them, or be self-willed on that account, as if the family could not die out; but we must fear God, must not stain ourselves with sin against our consciences, and must bring up children in the fear of God, else He will take them away, and destroy the entire family.
2Ki_10:5. Unconditional submission. I. Unjustifiable when it involves a greater wrong than continued resistance. II. Should not be made till every other expedient is first exhausted. III. Evidence of a weak and cowardly spirit. IV. May involve irreparable disgrace and ruin. V. Is always legitimate when made to the King of Heaven.
—Well may Jehu think—These men which are thus disloyal to their charge cannot be faithful to me; it is their fear that draws them to this observation. Were they not cowards, they would not be traitors to their princes, subjects to me. I may use their hands, but I will not trust them. It is a thankless obedience that is grounded upon fear. There can be no true fidelity without love and reverence. Neither is it other betwixt God and us. If, out of a dread of hell, we be officious, who shall thank us for these respects to ourselves?—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_10:6-7. Here we have an example of unfaithful tutors, governors, and friends, who look in their actions not to the interests of the orphans, but to their own advantage, and let the orphans and their cause be ruined. As Jehu nevertheless destroyed them all, so will the just God also bring upon the heads of false friends and trustees all the unfaithfulness which they inflict upon orphans; therefore let such be warned against all violation of their trust. How they probably promised with all zeal to guard the life, the honour, and the rights of these princes. Now they themselves become their murderers. Let no man trust the golden words of him who fears man more than he fears God. Unfaithfulness ruins those who practise it. Though the crime which these men perpetrated against their wards could hardly occur in our day, yet instructors and guardians are not wanting who become murderers of the souls of their pupils, in that they mislead them by example and precept into apostasy from the living God, and disbelief in His holy word, instead of educating them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. What is the worth of all the friendship, favour, and trust of this World? It is like a tree in soft, loose ground, which, so long as thou holdest it aright, covers thee pleasantly with its shadow; but which, when the storm roars through its top, and it is overthrown, no longer takes account of thee, but crushes thee in its fall.—Lange.
2Ki_10:7. No doubt among so many sons of Ahab some had so demeaned themselves that they had won zealous professions of love from their guardians. What tears, what entreaties, what conjurations must here needs have been! What have we done, O ye peers of Israel, that we deserve this bloody measure! We are the sons of Ahab, therefore have ye hither to professed to observe us. What change is this? Why should that which hath hitherto kept you loyal now make you cruel? Is this the reward of the long peaceable government of our father? Are these the trophies of Ahab’s victories against Benhadad, Jehoram’s against Hazael? If we may not reign, yet at least let us live; or, if we must die, why will your hands be imbrued in that blood which ye had wont to term royal and sacred? Why will ye of tutors turn murderers? All pleas are in vain that are deafened with their own fears. Perhaps these expostulations might have fetched some dews of pity from the eyes, and kisses from the lips of these unfaithful tutors, but cannot prevent the stroke of death. These crocodiles weep upon those whom they must kill; and if their own sons had been in the place of Ahab’s, doubtless they had been sacrificed to the will of a usurper, to the parents’ safety. It is ill relying upon timorous natures: upon every occasion those crazy reeds will break and run into our hands. How worthy were Ahab and Jezebel of such friends! They had been ever false to God; how should men be true to them? They had sold themselves to work wickedness, and now they are requited with a mercenary fidelity. For a few lines have these men sold all the heads of Ahab’s posterity. Could ever the policy of Jezebel have reached so far as to suspect the possibility of extirpation of so ample an issue, in one night, by the hands of her trustiest subjects?—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_10:8. This cutting off of heads in collective masses, and making them into heaps, is and has been frightfully common in the East, and an Oriental familiar with blood and beheading from his cradle would read this portion of Scripture with little, if any, of the disgust and horror, and certainly with none of the surprise, with which it inspires us. After a battle, or a massacre, or the rout of a band of robbers, the heads are, as in the present instance, heaped up pyramidally, face outward, on each side the palace gates; and the builder of this horrid pile, if a man of taste and fancy, usually reserves a picturesque head, such as one with a fine long beard, to form the crown of his handiwork. Indeed, we have it on credible authority, that these men make little scruple of taking off the head of a bystander for the purpose, if they find not one in their stock equally becoming for the apex of the pile. Nothing in the East so much shocks a European as the frightful cheapness of human life, and with it of human heads. In Persia, the king has not seldom been known to express his displeasure at a town or village by demanding from it a pyramid of heads of given dimensions.—Kitto.
2Ki_10:9. “Who slew all these?” The terrible havoc of sin. I. The fruitful source of suffering and misery. II. The instigator of anarchy and confusion in the family, the court, the nation, the universe. III. Provides the ghastly harvests of death.
2Ki_10:9-10. He wished the people to understand that in this work of blood, there were other ministers of Divine judgment besides himself. Most commentators explain these words as the language of sarcasm or irony, and suppose that Jehu either intended to involve them in the odium and guilt of this slaughter, or at least to keep them in ignorance of the fact that he had himself given orders for their slaughter. But this is altogether unnecessary and unauthorised by anything that appears in the text. Doubtless what Jehu had done towards this massacre was well known to all the people of Jezreel. He had, indeed, in a certain sense, ordered it, but yet in such a way as to involve the nobles, elders, and guardians in the guilt as much as himself. Their ready and prompt obedience in beheading these seventy persons was, perhaps, hardly expected by Jehu; and when he saw it, he at once began to feel that he was comparatively guiltless of their blood. Jehu wishes them to understand that these massacres are no works of private revenge, but a most signal fulfilling of Jehovah’s word by the prophet Elijah (1 King 2Ki_21:19-26). Strange that the man who so clearly. recognised his mission as a minister of Divine judgment, utterly failed to see that, by cleaving to the sins of Jeroboam, he exposed himself to the same judgment, and that sooner or later Divine righteousness would “avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu.”—Whedon.
2Ki_10:10. The righteous judgments of God.
1. May be wrought out by the basest villanies of man.
2. Are brought about by persistence in disobedience and sin.
3. Impress the most obdurate with awe.
4. Should lead to humiliation and repentance.
2Ki_10:12-14. A thirst for slaughter.
1. A dangerous appetite to indulge.
2. May impel to unnecessary cruelty.
3. Is indifferent to the number of its victims.
4. May be used as an instrument for inflicting deserved punishment.
2Ki_10:15. The right state of the heart. Whatever professions of kindness and friendship we receive from men, their whole value depends on their agreement with the sentiment of the heart. We admit this so uniformly, that there is nothing so detestable as insincerity. The most friendly smiles, the most engaging attentions, become the objects of aversion when seen to be separated from the heart. When the base tinsel, which had given currency to the counterfeit coin, is worn off, we cast the piece away, notwithstanding the correctness of Cæsar’s image and superscription impressed on it, and hold its utterer as a deceiver and cheat. Nothing is so thoroughly contemptible as hypocrisy, when once the mask falls off. If we exact this sincerity from each other—and this is what Jehu required from Jehonadab—how much more strictly may we not expect that it should be required from us by the all-seeing God! He claims the heart in all its principles and feelings. “He searches the heart, and tries the reins.” He regulates his present proceedings towards us by the state of our heart, and by this will He judge us at the last day.
I. If the state of our hearts be right, then they will be right with God. The greatest idea that can be presented to our mind is that of God. He is not a distant being, unconnected with us, unrelated to us; and the state of our hearts towards Him must always be either right or wrong. Every sentiment we cherish contains in it, as to Him, some positive good or evil.
1. A heart truly right with God implies that we venerate him. How little of this is expressed, or even felt, on earth! Yet in Heaven, where all hearts are right, the seraphim veil their faces, and all living beings fall prostrate before His throne. When, therefore, we are conscious of His presence, when we walk as under His inspection, fear His displeasure more than the frowns of the world, and, bowing before His Majesty with lowliness of mind, give unto Him the honour due unto His name, then only are our hearts right with him.
2. A heart truly right with God implies that we entirely submit ourselves to him. The very word “God,” is a name of dominion, and never be it forgotten that He to whom it belongs has a supreme will concerning us. There cannot be a sadder spectacle than a heart wrestling with its Maker’s will; but when we recognise His will as our only rule, when we keep this before us as our supreme law, regarding it as the light and guide of our conduct, when we acknowledge His sovereignty in providence, take our place in society as He appoints, submit to His dispensations, and, even in the greatest afflictions, even when nature agonizes, meekly bow, like Him in the garden, and say: “Not my will, but thine be done,” then is our heart right with God.
3. A heart truly right with God implies that, by the cultivation of a devotional spirit, we maintain a sacred intercourse with Him. Prayer and praise are the great instruments of the fellowship of our spirits with God, and illapses of light, and love, and moral power, are the returns which the condescension of God makes to them. Ever since created intelligences existed, to desire good from God, to receive supplies of it from Himself, to be devoutly grateful, and to express their love—so far as it can be expressed—in praises, has been the Heaven of happy spirits. It is the Heaven even of earth, the only one to be enjoyed, and which all may enjoy. How dead the heart which has no intercourse with Heaven! True joy is a stranger there, and all is darkness and sin. Barren and unwatered, it bears no fruit of either righteousness or peace.
II. If our hearts be right, they are right with Christ. Till this be the case, the heart cannot even be right with God. Some have attempted, indeed, to produce a state of mind, reverential, submissive, and devotional, without respect to Christ; but the attempt has been vain. That our heart be right with Christ is the foundation of all religion.
1. It is so when it accepts His sacrifice as the only ground on which to claim the remission of sins. How many are there that are not, in this respect, right with Christ! One depends on his own virtues, another on his benevolence and charities; and more still (for the heart will rest its hopes somewhere) upon some undefined, unscriptural views of God’s mercy. Others, more enlightened, it is true, but still egregiously wrong, repose a general trust in the merits of Christ; forgetting that this trust is the personal specific act of a broken and contrite heart, which not only flees to that atoning sacrifice, but, despairing of all other help, eagerly embraces this. A heart right with Christ in this respect has gone through the process of awakening, of arousing fears, of conviction of utter helplessness, and then surrenders its whole case to Christ, trusting solely in the merit of his death, and the power of his intercession; looking through them alone, and looking now, for the mercy of God into eternal life.
2. The heart is not right with Christ unless it loves him. Considered abstractedly, all would pronounce it a thing monstrous, and almost a diabolical act, not to love the Saviour, and yet, sad as is this state of the heart, what can be more common? He stands before us arrayed in the perfection of virtue and holiness, and yet his character possesses no interest for us, as though it had no form or comeliness that men should desire Him as their example. He exhibits the tenderest benevolence, but what heart is moved by it, or shows forth its praise? Men are under an infinite obligation to Him, for He died to save them, but this excites no gratitude. He holds out to them the blessings purchased by His blood, and they spurn them for every trifle. What a state of the heart is this? You see that it is wrong, awfully wrong. Yes, and it never can be right till it loves Christ supremely.
3. When the heart is right with Christ, there is an habitual confidence in His intercession. That is what is called the life of faith, or living by faith, and it is by this that the real is distinguished from the nominal believer. Faith is not one single act, but a constant reliance on the Saviour’s mediation, as that which alone stands between the extreme of justice and ourselves, and by which we are looking for all good, for the supply of every want. Thus when the heart is right with Him it rests not in acknowledging His merit, but draws its virtue from heaven. It is not satisfied with acknowledging a fulness of spiritual blessings to be in Him, but derives them from Him through its specific and habitual exercises.
III. If our hearts be right, they are right with the church of Christ.
1. When the heart is in a right state, the church is avowed. There is the church and the world—the one is renounced, the other embraced. Baptism is not of itself a sufficient avowal. We shall unite ourselves to some portion of the visible church, and so place ourselves under its discipline. Where this is not the case the heart is not right. That which keeps us in the world is some bad principle which we will not renounce, some guilty shame which we will not cast off, some sinful association which we will not break, some evil practice which we will not amend.
2. Its members are loved. A new sentiment is now awakened, and cherished in obedience to the commandment of Scripture, “Love one another.” And this is holy charity. There would be some peculiarities in the opinions and practices of Jehonadab; yet Jehu says to him, “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? If it be, give me thine hand.”
3. When our heart is right with the church, we feel we are identified with it. We grieve at its failures. In its successes we rejoice. We say, with the psalmist, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning.” We pray for its prosperity, and say, “Peace be within thy walls.” We are willing to labour in any part which the providence of God may assign to us, if we may but promote its interests.
IV. If the heart be right, it will be right with itself. There are strange oppositions and divisions in the heart, and this cannot be a right state of it. There is opposition between conviction and choice. Many know the good, who choose it not, who make no effort for its attainment. There is opposition between will and power. To will is indeed present with them, but how to perform they find not. There is the struggle between the flesh and the spirit; the counteraction of graces by opposite evils. There is the stunted growth. The seed is at least so far choked, that there is no fruit unto perfection. When it is thus with us, the heart is manifestly wrong. When it is right, it exerts an enlightened sway over the whole man. All its powers are in obedient order, all its graces fruitful and abundant.
1. Perhaps our heart is wrong. Let us be thankful that we perceive this; but be patient and persevering. Go to the very depths of its error and wrong. Heal not the wound slightly. The case may be hard; but it is not a hopeless one.
2. Perhaps it is in part right. For this be thankful; but rest not here. Many evils have already given way. I see you laden with the spoils of some conquered enemies, more are nearly overthrown. O pursue the fugitives; seek them in their caves, and dens, and hiding-places. Be determined on their final, their utter extirpation.
3. Know and use the means by which this may be accomplished. Exercise faith in the Saviour, live in habitual watchfulness and self-denial, “keeping the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” O lovely sight, not only to men and angels, but to God also, even a heart renewed, stamped with the Divine image, warmed with the Divine life, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is the temple of God, the glorious workmanship of Christ; and He shall exhibit it at the last day as the fruit of his passion, and the monuments of his all-subduing all-restoring grace.—R. Watson.
—Jehonadab and Jehu: a symbol
1. Of war and peace.
2. Of the man of action and the man of contemplation.
3. Of zeal and prudence.
4. Of the union of various gifts and graces in the common service of God.
—Jehonadab is a type of faithful adherence to the faith and the customs of the fathers in the midst of an apostate, wavering people. Decided and firm faith, combined with a strict and earnest life, compels respect even from those who themselves follow another course. Where there is agreement in the highest and most important interests, there one may find a speedy and easy basis of intercourse, whatever may be the difference of rank or nationality. Jesus says to me and thee, what Jehu said to Jehonadab—If thine heart is right with mine, as mine with thine, then come to me upon my throne (Rev_3:21).—Lange.
2Ki_10:16. Zeal for God. I. A laudable and desirable impulse. II. Should be used in exposing and punishing wrong, and in promoting that which is good. III. Should be under the control of a heart right with God.
—Why should Jehu so desire that his zeal should be noted and noticed? Hypocrisy is very ostentatious. Drones make more noise than bees, though they make neither honey nor wax. It is reported of John Fox that as he was going along London streets, a woman of his acquaintance met with him, and as they discoursed together she pulled out a Bible, telling him she was going to hear a sermon; whereupon he said to her, If you will be advised by me, go home again. But said she, when shall I then go? To whom he answered, When you tell nobody of it.—Trapp.
—Zeal for the Lord is a great and rare thing when it is pure. It forfeits its reward, however, when it aims to be seen. How many a one deceives himself with his zeal for the Lord and for His kingdom, when at the bottom he is zealous only for himself, for his own honour and fame, his own interest and advantage.—Lange.
—Some have thought that this was all pretended zeal and showy hyprocrisy, but in 2Ki_10:30 the Lord commends Jehu for having done well, and declares that his bloody work was right in His eyes and according to the feelings of His own heart. In other things Jehu sinned, and it is not pretended that all his measures and motives in his work of doom had the approval of God; but in executing judgment on Ahab’s house his zeal was praised, though it was not without a selfish ambition, and perhaps other elements of wickedness. But we need not call Jehu a heartless boaster and a murderous hypocrite. Shall he be blamed as murderous and cruel who obeys to the very letter Jehovah’s positive command? If the fall of the tower in Siloam were really a Divine judgment on the eighteen hapless victims whom it ground to powder (Luk_13:4), need we charge the tower with blood-guiltiness and cruelty? Sometimes, indeed, God uses wicked hands to execute His counsels, and holds them guilty for their deeds (Act_2:23); but never does He blame a minister of vengeance for doing what His own word has positively commanded him to do. Let us beware how we curse and blame what God has not blamed. There are in our times too many shallow and unbiblical attempts to ignore the awful severities of Divine justice, as revealed in God’s word.—Whedon.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 2Ki 10:15
2Ki 10:15
There is all the difference in the world between the ways in which the answer to this question is spoken; and there is only one way, only one meaning, in which it can be spoken honestly, as before God, from the ground of the heart.
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I. There is, for instance, the careless, indifferent, frivolous answer, the answer of those who have hitherto resisted the grace of God, and who, finding that they can sin as yet with but little sorrow, neither know nor really care what religion means. "Is my heart right? Yes, I suppose so. If I am not particularly good, I am not particularly bad," and so on. Such an answer means nothing, or worse than nothing. In your "Yes" God reads "No." In your "My heart is right" He reads that it is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
II. Take another answer, not, like the last, wholly hollow and insincere, but too impulsive, too confident. "Is thine heart right?" "Yes," another will say. "I do sincerely dislike what is bad, and I despise myself for the weakness with which I yielded to it. And I mean to be quite different now." This answer involves, not merely a weak wish, but a strong desire; not only a strong desire, but a resolute effort; not only even a resolute effort, but an intense and absorbing passion. A weak resolve, a half-resolve, a mere verbal resolve, a resolve made in your own strength—of what use is it? There is a deep-sighted proverb which says, "Hell is paved with good intentions."
III. "Is thine heart right?" Take one more answer. Some may answer carelessly, some presumptuously, but will not many answer in a deeper, humbler, sincerer, more serious spirit? "Though my life has not been always right," you will say, "yet I hope, I trust, that my heart is right. It is not hard. My own strength is weakness, my own righteousness is utter sin, but I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help." "Make me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee, for Thou art my God. Let Thy loving Spirit lead me into the land of uprightness."
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 179.
References: 2Ki 10:15.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 161. 2Ki 10:15, 2Ki 10:16.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 298.
2Ki 10:16
Jehu, the founder of the fifth dynasty of the kings of Israel, interests us partly by his career and achievements, but much more by the problem of his character. His first achievement was the destruction of the entire family of Ahab; his second was the destruction of the worship of Baal, which had been imported from Phoenicia.
Let us endeavour to form a religious estimate of the worth of Jehu’s zeal.
I. What is zeal? It is conviction in a practical and working form. It is the business side of love, whether of God or of man. It is shown in desire to promote the love of God, the worship of God, the praise of God, wherever this is possible. Zeal has also an eye to everything that runs counter to God’s will and to His glory. It rebukes vice and combats error.
II. If zeal is not especially a Jewish virtue, the form which it took in Jehu’s case was eminently Jewish. It expressed itself in a fearful destruction of human life. Jehu’s zeal may have been a zeal for the Lord, notwithstanding the slaughter to which it led. We must in justice distinguish between the absolute standard of right and that relative standard which was present to the mind of Jehu; and if we do this, we may well venture to think that this act in itself was not for a man in his age and circumstances incompatible with a true zeal for the Lord.
III. But there are features in Jehu’s zeal—two especially—which seem to show that it cannot have been so genuine and healthy as we could wish. It was spoiled (1) by ostentation. Jehu desired Jehonadab to come and see what he could do for the Lord. His zeal for the Lord was dashed by a zeal for his own credit and reputation. (2) By inconsistency, not the inconsistency of weakness, but the inconsistency of want of principle. "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam" (that is, from the established calf-worship), "which made Israel to sin."
IV. The lessons which Jehu’s career teaches us are: (1) Great results are constantly achieved by God through the means of very imperfect instruments. (2) Jehu teaches us the risk of attempting to carry out public works of a religious or moral character without some previous discipline of the heart and life.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 1123.
References: 2Ki 10:16.—C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of Life and Godliness, p. 222; T. Chamberlain, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 134; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 87; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 343; T. Kelly, Pulpit Trees, p. 328; E. Monro, Practical Sermons on the Old Testament, vol. ii., pp. 235, 251.
2Ki 10:16, 2Ki 10:31
Jehu is not in any sense an interesting person. He was an energetic and bold man, prompt in action, determined and thorough-going, unfeeling and unscrupulous, well fitted for his particular work—a work of judgment upon those who had sinned beyond mercy. His fault was that, while he had a real zeal, he had no true obedience. He is handed down to us, not as an example, but rather as a warning, while upon his tomb we read the condemning inscription, "Zeal without consistency; zeal without obedience; zeal without love."
I. Zeal is the same word as fervour. In its forcible original meaning, it is the bubbling up of the boiling spirit; the opposite of an impassive, cold-hearted indifference; the outburst of the generous indignation which cannot bear to see right trampled under foot by might; the overflowing of gratitude, devotion, and love to God. The zeal of Jehu was of a lower order than this. Yet even Jehu may reprove. We show our zeal chiefly by the infliction of arbitrary punishments upon offenders, not against the moral law of God, but against the moral law of the world. Such zeal is commonly divorced and dissevered from obedience.
II. We may apply to ourselves, in the way of counsel, a warning from the unfavourable part of the character before us. Jehu had a zeal for God, but Jehu nevertheless took no heed to walk in God’s law with all his heart. (1) "Took no heed." To the heedlessness of human nature most of our sins may be traced up. (2) "With all his heart." The fault in our service is that the heart is not right with God. Christian zeal, like Christian faith, worketh by love.
C. J. Vaughan, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 171.
Reference: 2Ki 10:18, 2Ki 10:19.—E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 413.
2Ki 10:31
Was Jehu then a hypocrite? Was all his zeal for the Lord false and affected? Any one who said so would quite miss the point of Jehu’s character and the moral of his history. It is because there is so great a mixture of good and evil in his deeds, because there is so much in his character that deserves to be imitated while there is also, at the same time, a deadly flaw in it, which mars its beauty, that his history is worthy of particular study.
I. Notice, first, that in the double mission which Jehu was called to perform—the destruction of the house of Ahab and of the worship of Baal—there was no self-denial necessary on his part. The duty to which he was called was not one which violently crossed any propensity, or stood in the way of any selfish feeling. His words to Jehonadab, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord," are a key to the state of Jehu’s mind when he set himself to reform the religion; his zeal was to be the prominent object to be looked at; the awful spectacle of God’s people revolted from the worship of Jerusalem, the painful duty of slaughtering thousands of the followers of Baal, was to be as nothing compared with the spectacle exhibited to Jehonadab by Jehu’s zeal.
II. Jehu’s zeal burnt brightly, and scorched up everything before it, as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was "zeal for God when it answers my purpose," not "zeal for God, cost me what it may." He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 48.
References: 2Ki 10:31.—E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 174; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 685. 2Ki 10—Parker, Fountain, April 26th, 1877. 2Ki 11:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 972. 2Ki 11—Parker, vol. viii., p. 217. 2Ki 12:2.—D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3101. 2Ki 13:14.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 113. 2Ki 13:14-19.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 309. 2Ki 13:14-21.—J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 163, and Good Words, 1861, p. 527. 2Ki 13:14-22.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 164.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v18 2 Kings
2 Kings
IMPURE ZEAL
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2Ki 10:18 - 2Ki 10:31.
The details of this story of bloodshed need little elucidation. Jehu had ‘driven furiously’ to some purpose. Secrecy and swiftness joined to unhesitating severity had crushed the dynasty of Ahab, which fell unlamented and unsupported, as if lightning-struck. The nobler elements had gathered to Jehu, as represented by the Rechabite, Jehonadab, evidently a Jehovah worshipper, and closely associated with the fierce soldier in this chapter. Jehu first secured his position, and then smote the Baal worship as heavily and conclusively as he had done the royal family. He struck once, and struck no more; for the single blow pulverised.
The audacious pretext of an intention to outdo the fallen dynasty in Baal worship must have sounded strange to those who knew how his massacre of Ahab’s house had been represented by him as fulfilling Jehovah’s purpose, but it was not too gross to be believed. So we can fancy the joyous revival of hope with which from every corner of the land the Baal priests, prophets, and worshippers, recovered from their fright, came flocking to the great temple in Samaria, till it was like a cup filled with wine from brim to brim. The worship cannot have numbered many adherents if one temple could hold the bulk of them. Probably it had never been more than a court fashion, and, now that Jezebel was dead, had lost ground. A token of royal favour was given to each of the crowd, in the gift of a vestment from the royal wardrobe. Then Jehu himself, accompanied by the ascetic Jehonadab, entered the court of the temple, a strangely assorted pair, and a couple of very ‘distinguished’ converts. The Baal priests would thrill with gratified pride when these two came to worship. The usual precautions against the intrusion of non-worshippers were taken at Jehu’s command, but with a sinister meaning, undreamed of by the eager searchers. That was a sifting for destruction, not for preservation. So they all passed into the inner court to offer sacrifice.
The story gives a double picture in 2Ki 10:24. Within are the jubilant worshippers; without, the grim company of their executioners, waiting the signal to draw their swords and burst in on the unarmed mob. Jehu carried his deception so far that he himself offered the burnt offering, with Jehonadab standing by, and then withdrew, followed, no doubt, by grateful acclamations. A step or two brought him to the ‘eighty men without.’ Two stern words, ‘Go, smite them,’ are enough. They storm in, and ‘the songs of the temple’ are turned to ‘howlings in that day.’ The defenceless, surprised crowd, huddled together in the dimly lighted shrine, were massacred to a man. The innermost sanctuary was then wrecked, corpses and statues thrown pell-mell into the outer courts or beyond the precincts, fires lit to burn the abominations, and busy hands, always more ready for pillage and destruction than for good work, pulled down the temple, the ruins of which were turned to base uses. The writer, picturing the wild scene, sums up with a touch of exultation: ‘Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel’-where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the king, the god, and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible deed.
Now the main interest of this passage lies in its disclosure of the strangely mingled character of Jehu, and in the fact that his bloody severity was approved by God, and rewarded by the continuance of his dynasty for a longer time than any other on the throne of Israel.
Jehu was influenced by ‘zeal for the Lord,’ however much smoke mingled with the flame. He acted under the conviction that he was God’s instrument, and at each new deed of blood asserted his fulfilment of prophecy. His profession to Jehonadab {2Ki 10:16} was not hypocrisy nor ostentation. The Rechabite sheikh was evidently a man of mark, and apparently one of the leaders of those who had not ‘bowed the knee to Baal’; and Jehu’s disclosure of his animating motive was meant to secure the alliance of that party through one of its chiefs. No doubt many elements of selfishness and many stains mingled with Jehu’s zeal. It was much on the same level as the fanaticism of the immediate successors of Mohammed; but, low as it was, look at its power. Jehu swept like a whirlwind, or like leaping fire among stubble, from Ramoth to Jezreel, from Jezreel to Samaria, and nothing stood before his fierce onset. Promptitude, decision, secrecy,-the qualities which carry enterprises to success-marked his character; partly, no doubt, from natural temperament, for God chooses right instruments, but from temperament heightened and invigorated by the conviction of being the instrument whom God had chosen. We may learn how even a very imperfect form of this conviction gives irresistible force to a man, annihilates fear, draws the teeth of danger, and gathers up all one’s faculties to a point which can pierce any opposition. We may all recognise that God has sent us on His errands; and if we cherish that conviction, we shall put away from us slothfulness and fear, and out of weakness shall be made strong.
But Jehu sets forth the possible imperfections of ‘zeal for the Lord.’ We may defer for a moment the consideration of the morality of his slaughter of the royal house and the Baal worshippers, and point to the taint of selfishness and to the leaven of deceit in his enthusiasm. We have not to analyse it. That is God’s work. But clearly the object which he had in view was not merely fulfilment of prophecy, but securing the throne; and there was more passion, as well as selfish policy, in his massacres, than befitted a minister of the divine justice, who should let no anger disturb the solemnity of his terrible task. Such dangers ever attend the path of the great men who feel themselves to be sent by God. In our humbler lives they dog our steps, and religious fervour needs ever to keep careful watch on itself, lest it should degenerate unconsciously into self-will, and should allow the muddy stream of earth-born passion to darken its crystal waters.
Many a great name in the annals of the Church has fallen before that temptation. We all need to remember that ‘the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,’ and to take heed lest we should be guided by our own stormy impatience of contradiction, and by a determination to have our own way, while we think ourselves the humble instruments of a divine purpose. There was a ‘Zelotes’ in the Apostolate; but the coarse, sanguinary ‘zeal’ of his party must have needed much purifying before it learned what manner of spirit the zeal of a true disciple was of.
Another point of interest is the divine emphatic approval of Jehu’s bloody acts {2Ki 10:30}. The massacre of the Baal worshippers is not included in the acts which God declares to have been ‘according to all that was in Mine heart,’ and it may be argued that it was not part of Jehu’s commission. Certainly the accompanying deceit was not ‘right in God’s eyes,’ but the slaughter in Baal’s temple was the natural sequel of the civil revolution, and is most probably included in the deeds approved.
Perhaps Elisha brought Jehu the message in 2Ki 10:30. If so, what a contrast between the two instruments of God’s purposes! At all events, Jehovah’s approval was distinctly given. What then? There need be no hesitation in recognising the progressive character of Scripture morality, as well as the growth of the revelation of the divine character, of which the morality of each epoch is the reflection. The full revelation of the God of love had to be preceded by the clear revelation of the God of righteousness; and whilst the Old Testament does make known the love of God in many a gracious act and word, it especially teaches His righteous condemnation of sin, without which His love were mere facile indulgence and impunity. The slaughter of that wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of divine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was entitled to slay them. To that question believers in a divine providence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship and the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab’s family were sufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in Jehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God’s was the hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life and death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers. Granted that the ‘long-suffering’ which is ‘not willing that any should perish’ speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice which smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is possible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a loose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at the thought of the ‘wrath of God,’ and recoils from the contemplation of His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness of His love.
From the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are not made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation’s history, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful system is to be crushed, there will be violence, at which easy-going people, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their hands in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law than Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love in the place of what was ‘said to them of old time.’ But let us, while we obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men of old ‘according to that which they had, and not according to that which they had not.’ Jehu’s bloody deeds are not held up for admiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us if we obey our better law as faithfully!
The last point in the story is the imperfection of the obedience of Jehu. He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves. That shows the impurity of his ‘zeal,’ which flamed only against what it was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and older idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be ‘all in all, or not at all.’ We may not ‘compound for sins we are inclined to, by’ zeal against those ‘we have no mind to.’ Our consciences are apt to have insensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough to remove the grosser evils, and leave the less, but white ants will eat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little use if we keep the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Nothing but walking in the law of the Lord ‘with all the heart’ will secure our walking safely. ‘Unite my heart to fear Thy name’ needs to be our daily prayer. ‘One foot on sea and one on shore’ is not the attitude in which steadfastness or progress is possible.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Jehu's Extermination of Baal Worship
Jehu's Extermination of Baal Worship
1. Ahab.. sons] These were probably his grandchildren rather than his children. Unto the rulers of Jezreel] LXX has 'unto the rulers of Samaria,' which the sense requires.
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2. A fenced city] i.e. Samaria. Ahab's dynasty had obtained the throne by force of arms (1Ki_16:21-22), and Jehu implied that its supporters must defend it by the same means.
4. Two kings] Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah.
5. Over the house.. over the city] These officials are also alluded to in 1Ki_4:5 to 1Ki_22:26; 2Ki_18:18; Isa_22:15.
6. Take ye the heads] By slaying the young princes the rulers and elders would be implicated in Jehu's treason and would therefore in self-defence have to support him.
9. Ye be righteous] Jehu appeals to the people to judge between him and any that might accuse him. The fact that the elders of the city had put Jehoram's sons to death argued that the overthrow of Ahab's dynasty was not due solely to Jehu's private ambition but to widespread disaffection against a guilty house. But Jehu unfairly concealed his own communications with the elders (2Ki_10:1-3).
10. The word of the Lord] see 1Ki_21:19, 1Ki_21:29.
Though Ahab had repented of his murder of Naboth, and the chastisement he had incurred was for a time postponed, and though Jehoram seems to have attempted some religious reform (2Ki_3:2), yet the evil influence of Jezebel had spread widely (see 2Ki_10:19.), and eventually brought judgment upon the impious family.
13. The king.. the queen] i.e. Joram and Jezebel (the term 'queen' denoting the queenmother).
14. The pit] i.e. the tank or pool where the sheep were washed.
15. Jehonadab] Jehonadab was a Kenite (1Ch_2:55), the tribe of Arabian nomads to which Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, belonged (Jdg_1:16). If it be] spoken by Jehu (so the LXX). Give me thine hand] i.e. as a pledge: cp. Ezr_10:19; Eze_17:18.
18. And Jehu, etc.] Jehu proceeded to use the same crafty secrecy in the extirpation of Baal worship as he had displayed in destroying Ahab and his house (2Ki_9:16 f; 2Ki_10:1.).
22. The vestry] Part of the Temple where the 'changes of raiment,' usually worn on festal occasions, were stored.
25. To the city of the house of Baal] This seems unintelligible, and the word 'city' is probably a corruption of the word 'oracle' (see 1Ki_6:5), the Hebrew being somewhat similar.
26. The images] RV 'the pillars': and so in 2Ki_10:27. They were probably mere columns, not figures of the human form.
27. Draught house] equivalent to a dunghill: cp. Ezr_6:11; Dan_2:5. Unto this day] see on 1Ki_8:8.
30. Of the fourth generation] see 2Ki_15:12. The four generations were Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah. Jehu's dynasty sat longer than any other on the throne of Israel.
31. Jehu took no heed.. heart] Jehu was a worshipper of the Lord (Jehovah), and, in his violent extirpation of the house of Ahab, was doubtless actuated by religious zeal as well as by motives of ambition, whilst his desire to suppress the worship of Baal which had been encouraged by Ahab and Jezebel was reinforced by indignation at the tyranny manifested by the reigning house in the matter of Naboth: cp. 2Ki_9:25, 2Ki_9:26. But the combined revolution and reformation which he effected were accompanied by massacres which, at a later date, excited the abhorrence of the prophet Hosea (Hos_1:4); and though the religion of Jehovah was restored by him to its previous supremacy, it retained the idolatrous character which Jeroboam I had given it by representing the Deity under the figure of a young bull.
32. Coasts] i.e. borders. For Hazael's barbarities in Gilead (2Ki_10:33) see Amo_1:3, Amo_1:4.
34. The rest of the acts of Jehu] An Assyrian inscription (now in the British Museum) records that Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser II. That king in 842 b.c. defeated Hazael the king of Syria; and the injuries that the latter inflicted upon Israel (2Ki_10:32-33) would naturally lead Jehu to court the friendship of his conqueror. Among the gifts that formed part of Jehu's tribute were 'bars of silver, bars of gold, a golden ladle, golden goblets, golden pitchers, bars of lead, a staff for the hand of the king, shafts of spears' (Schrader, Cor, i, 199).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v15 Called Jonadab, Jer 35:6; Jer 35:8; Jer 35:10; Jer…
Jehonadab
Called Jonadab, Jer 35:6; Jer 35:8; Jer 35:10; Jer 35:14; Jer 35:16; Jer 35:18; Jer 35:19.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 2. Jehu’s Judgments, Baal-worship Destroyed, and His Death
2. Jehu’s Judgments, Baal-worship Destroyed, and His Death
CHAPTER 10
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1. The judgment upon the house of Ahab (2Ki 10:1-11)
2. The relations of Ahaziah slain (2Ki 10:12-14; 2Ch 22:8)
3. Jehonadab spared (2Ki 10:15-17)
4. The Baal worship destroyed (2Ki 10:18-28)
5. Jehu’s record (2Ki 10:29-31)
6. Israel cut short (2Ki 10:32-33)
7. Jehu’s death (2Ki 10:34-36)
And now Jehu, the instrument, chosen for judgment, continued his judgment work without showing mercy. The long threatened national judgment upon Israel had begun.
The hint which Jezebel had given him concerning Zimri and the possibility of a rebellion may have influenced Jehu to put away the descendants of Ahab. There were seventy sons, which, according to Hebrew phraseology, means his grandsons and their offspring. He concocts a clever scheme by which the elders of Samaria and the guardians of the grandsons of Ahab were forced to kill the seventy. This was done probably to head off a rebellion against him. Then, according to the custom of those days, the ghastly evidence of the deed was piled in two heaps at the entering in of the gate. Then he addressed the people, showing that while he had slain his master, they were also guilty in slaying these seventy persons, and finally he added the justification of the deeds. “‘Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the Word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab, for the LORD hath done that which He spake by His servant Elijah.’ So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.”
Then forty-two princes and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah (2Ch 22:8) were slain. They were on the way to Jezreel, which showed their guilty affiliation with the wickedness of Jezebel. They were taken alive and then were slain at the pit of the shearing house, probably a cistern called Beth Eged.
Next he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab. The Rechabites belonged to the Kenites (1Ch 2:55). They are first mentioned in Gen 15:19. A part of this tribe had followed Israel (Num 10:29-32) and settled in the south of Judah (Jdg 1:16), where they became attached to the Amalekites (1Sa 15:6). Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, was a Kenite (Jdg 1:16) and so was Jael, who slew Sisera (Jdg 4:17). See the record of Jehonadab and his work for the tribe in Jer 35:1-16. Jehu recognized him as a friend and took him into his chariot. He may have been acquainted with Elijah; and the great work he did, as made known by Jeremiah, in separating them unto the Lord may have been brought about by the threatened judgment by Elijah and its execution through Jehu, of which Jehonadab knew and part of which he witnessed.
Then in great subtility Jehu destroyed the worshippers of Baal who appeared at his summons in their festive vestments. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. But the summary of Jehu’s reign gives a mournful picture. Like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Jehu did not depart from the golden calves at Beth-el and at Dan. Nor did he take heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart. He is a sad illustration of a man who may be used of God and yet is disobedient in his own life; executing God’s plans, yet knowing nothing of real communion. But the LORD did not forget even this imperfect service (verse 30).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 15, 29 The Relatives of Ahab Slain
The Relatives of Ahab Slain
v. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, all his male descendants. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, to the prefect of the royal palace, the captain of the city, and the magistrates, and to them that brought up Ahab’s children, their educators, or tutors, saying,
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v. 2. Now, as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, all the princes of the royal blood being in Samaria at that time, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armor, all the power by which they might expect to uphold the dynasty of Ahab,
v. 3. look even out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, the ablest among the sons of Joram, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. This was a satirical and scornful challenge and at the same time a stratagem intended to find out the attitude of the most powerful men in Samaria over against the rule of Jehu.
v. 4. But they, noting the object of the letter, were exceedingly afraid and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him, 2Ki 9:24-27, how, then, shall we stand?
v. 5. And he that was over the house, the prefect of the royal palace, and he that was over the city, the captain of the garrison, the elders also, the magistrates, and the bringers up of the children, all the tutors of the royal family, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us, thus submitting unconditionally. We will not make any king; do thou that which is good in thine eyes.
v. 6. Then he, feeling it to be an important matter to be acknowledged by all the people as soon as possible, wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, if they had chosen, his part and stood on his side,and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. He expected them to do homage to him, but only in such a manner as to convince all the people that the pretenders to the crown, without exception, were dead, and that the most influential men of the kingdom had entirely broken with the house of Ahab. Now, the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up, they were in their care, in their power.
v. 7. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel, a gruesome proof of their allegiance to Jehu.
v. 8. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons, of all the male descendants of Ahab, of all the royal princes. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning, it being the custom of the times to display the heads of the vanquished in the sight of all men.
v. 9. And it came to pass in the morning that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous, as just men they could pass a correct judgment; behold, I conspired against my master and slew him; but who slew all these? It was another trick to place himself in the most advantageous light by carefully concealing the main point, namely, that the men had been put to death by his command.
v. 10. Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord hath done that which He spake by His servant Elijah. Even if some of the people felt inclined to blame him for the wholesale slaughter, they were to remember that nothing but the divine ordinance, the sentence of the Lord, had been carried out, 1Ki 21:19 to 1Ki 21:29.
v. 11. So Jehu, encouraged by his success up to this point, and feeling sure that the people would raise no objection, slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men, all the most powerful officers of the fallen dynasty, and his kinsfolks, his nearest friends and adherents, and his priests, all those who remained of the heathen priests at his court, until he left him none remaining.
v. 12. And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria, where he no longer feared any opposition. And as he was at the shearing-house in the way, probably a place of assembly for the shepherds of the entire district,
v. 13. Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judab, and said, Who are ye? And they, in total ignorance of what had happened at Jezreel, answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah, in this connection his cousins and other near relatives; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen, to pay their respects, to make a friendly visit at the court.
v. 14. And he said, to his companions, the members of his guard,Take them alive. And they took them alive, captured them in spite of any show of resistance, and slew them at the pit of the shearing-house, at the cistern, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. Since they were friendly to the house of Ahab, he feared that they might resist his royal authority, and therefore he chose the simplest and most effective method to get rid of them. It was the judgment of God upon idolatrous people.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 23, 25, 29, 32, 34 seventy descendants
seventy descendants
"70 descendants" (See: Numbers)
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Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria
This means that Jehu sent a messenger to deliver the letters. AT: "Jehu wrote letters and sent a messenger to deliver them in Samaria" (See: Metonymy)
saying, "Your master's
"The letters said, 'Your master's"
set him on his father's throne
Here, sitting on the king's throne means to be appointed as king. AT: "make him king in his father's place" (See: Metonymy)
for your master's royal line
"your master's descendants." Here the man that they selected to be king is referred to as Ahab's royal line of descendants. AT: "to defend your master's descendant" or "to defend him" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
Ahab
descend
Samaria
Jehu
send
rule
Jezreel
elder
lord
chariot
horse
armor
throne
royal
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31 10:1-27 The writer focuses on two important events of…
10:1-27 The writer focuses on two important events of Jehu’s reign: his murder of all who might claim Joram’s throne (10:1-17), and his execution of the priests of Baal (10:18-27).
10:1 Ahab’s sons (the term can include grandsons) may have been with Joram at Jezreel temporarily while he was recovering from his wounds (8:29) but had fled to Samaria to escape Jehu’s purge.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.