When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.”
They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.” He said, “He said to me, ‘Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’ ”
Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.” So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’ ”
So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, “the king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!” The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”
Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “The king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
Joram said, “Get ready!” They got his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land.
When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”
Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him: ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in David’s city. In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window. As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”
He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
He said, “Throw her down!” So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot.
When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.”
They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, “This is Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel,
and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37 That is, the rest of the army, whom he…
That is, the rest of the army, whom he called before, his brethren, verse 2.
In this estimation the world hath the ministers of God: notwithstanding forasmuch as the world hath ever slandered the children of God (yea they called the Son of God a deceiver, and said he had the devil) therefore they ought not to be discouraged.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–37 2Ki 9:11 Then Jehu came forth to the servants…
2Ki 9:11 Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and [one] said unto him, [Is] all well? wherefore came this mad [fellow] to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.
Ver. 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] So God’s prophets were ever counted and called by the mad world, always besides itself in point of salvation. See Jer 29:26 Hos 9:7 Act 26:24 2Co 5:13. These profane ruffians could not name such a one without a flout, because the prophets declaimed against their wickedness, and condemned the world’s vanities, which they so much esteemed. But though their tongues thus spake after the wicked guise of it, miscalling the prophet’s innocency, yet their desire to know what he said and did, did abundantly show what credit they gave him secretly; and after, they make him king whom that mad fellow had anointed, to the hazard of their own lives. God giveth a secret authority to his despised servants, so as they which hate their persons yet reverence their truth; even very scorners cannot but believe them.
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Ye know the man, and his communication,] viz., That he is, as you say, a kind of a madman, and that what he saith is not much to be heeded. Or, That he is a prophet, and comes with a message from the Lord.
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 vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37 To the servants of his lord; to the rest…
To the servants of his lord; to the rest of the commanders and officers there present.
Is all well? is not this unlucky messenger come with some ill tidings?
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Wherefore came this mad fellow? they perceived him to be a prophet by his habit, and gestures, and manner of speech. And these profane soldiers esteemed the Lord’s prophets madmen; partly, because of their neglect of themselves, and contempt of all worldly wealth and honour, which the wise men of this world so greedily seek, and of their strange and uncouth manner of living; partly, because of their holy exercises to which they devoted themselves, which they esteemed nothing but a religious frenzy; and partly, because of those unusual and seemingly ridiculous gestures and actions which the prophets sometimes used in raptures of spirit, or in the fervours of devotion. Compare Jer 29:26; Joh 10:20; Act 26:24.
Ye know the man, and his communication; you rightly guess that he was a madman, and so it appears by his discourse with me, which was, after the manner of that sort of man, vain and impertinent, to tell me of my sins, or of my duty, or such things as are not worth my speaking, or your hearing.
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 vv11, 16, 30 Jehu, after some pause, returned to his place at…
Jehu, after some pause, returned to his place at the board, taking no notice of what had passed, but, as it should seem, designing, for the present, to keep it to himself, if they had not urged him to disclose it. Let us therefore see what passed between him and the captains.
I. With what contempt the captains speak of the young prophet (Kg2 9:11): "Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? What business had he with thee? And why wouldst thou humour him so far as to retire for conversation with him? Are prophets company for captains?" They are called him a mad fellow, because he was one of those that would not run with them to an excess of riot (Pe1 4:4), but lived a life of self-denial, mortification, and contempt of the world, and spent their time in devotion; for these things they thought the prophets were fools and the spiritual men were mad, Hos 9:7. Note, Those that have no religion commonly speak with disdain of those that are religious, and look upon them as mad. They said of our Saviour, He is beside himself, of John Baptist, He has a devil (is a poor melancholy man), of St. Paul, Much learning has made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and those that best understand themselves are looked upon as beside themselves. Perhaps Jehu intended it for a rebuke to his friends when he said, "You know the man to be a prophet, why then do you call him a mad fellow? You know the way of his communication to be not from madness, but inspiration." Or, "Being a prophet, you may guess what his business is, to tell me of my faults, and to teach me my duty; I need not inform you concerning it." Thus he thought to put them off, but they urged him to tell them. "It is false," say they, "we cannot conjecture what was his errand, and therefore tell us." Being thus pressed to it, he told them that the prophet had anointed him king, and it is probable showed them the oil upon his head, Kg2 9:12. He knew not but some of them either out of loyalty to Joram or envy of him, might oppose him, and go near to crush his interest in its infancy; but he relied on the divine appointment, and was not afraid to own it, knowing whom he had trusted: he that raised him would stand by him.
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II. With what respect they compliment the new king upon the first notice of his advancement, Kg2 9:13. How meanly soever they thought of the prophet that anointed him, and of his office, they expressed a grat veneration for the royal dignity of him that was anointed, and were very forward to proclaim him and sound of trumpet. In token of their subjection and allegiance to him, their affection to his person and government, and their desire to see him high and easy in it, they put their garments under him, that he might stand or sit upon them on the top of the stairs, in sight of the soldiers, who, upon the first intimation, came together to grace the solemnity. God put it into their hearts thus readily to own him, for he turns the hearts of people as well as kings, like the rivers of water, into what channel he pleases. Perhaps they were disquieted at Joram's government or had a particular affection for Jehu; or, however this might be, things it seems were ripe for the revolution, and they all came into Jehu's interest and conspired against Joram, Kg2 9:14.
III. With what caution Jehu proceeded. He had advantages against Joram, and he knew how to improve them. He had the army with him. Joram had left it, and had gone home badly wounded. Jehu's good conduct appears in two things: - 1. That he complimented the captains, and would do nothing without their advice and consent ("If it be your minds, we will do so and so, else not"), thereby intimating the deference he paid to their judgment and the confidence he had in their fidelity, both which tended to please and fix them. It is the wisdom of those that would rise fast, and stand firm, to take their friends along with them. 2. That he contrived to surprise Joram; and, in order thereto, to come upon him with speed, and to prevent his having notice of what was now done: "Let none go forth to tell it in Jezereel, that, as a snare, the ruin may come on him and his house." The suddenness of an attack sometimes turns to as good an account as the force of it.
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 vv11–33 Then they hasted, and took every man his garment,…
Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs,.... That is, under Jehu, that he might be raised higher, and put on an eminence above them, agreeably to the high rank and dignity he was raised unto, and which they hereby acknowledged; and that he might be conspicuous to others: and this was done upon the top of the stairs, the first and highest of them, which led up either to an upper room, or to a scaffold erected for this purpose; the Targum is, on the degree of hours, a sun dial, a stone on which were engraven the twelve hours of the day, and which, by the sun's shadow on it, it might be known what hour it was; and at, or upon this stone, they laid their clothes, for Jehu to sit upon; not their wearing apparel, but carpets, or pieces of tapestry, or such like things:
and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king; and they might come the more easily into such an acknowledgment of him as such, though he was anointed by one whom they had just called a mad fellow; being not so well affected to Ahab's family, and having a great respect for Jehu, the chief commander of the army, and especially being under a particular influence of the divine Providence, which moved them to take such a step.
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 vv11, 13, 21, 22, 24, 27, 31, 34 Mad fellow - They perceived him to be a…
Mad fellow - They perceived him to be a prophet by his habit, and gestures, and manner of speech. And these prophane soldiers esteemed the prophets mad-men. Those that have no religion, commonly speak of those that are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack-brained. They said of our Lord, He is beside himself; of St. Paul, that much learning had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and they that best understand themselves, as men beside themselves.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37 Verse 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?]…
Verse 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] Was it because he was a holy man of God that he was reputed by a club of irreligious officers to be a madman? In vain do such pretend that they fight for religion, and are the guardians of the public welfare and morals, if they persecute religion and scoff at holy men. But this has been an old custom with all the seed - the sons, of the serpent. As to religious soldiers, they are far to seek, and ill to find, according to the old proverb.
Ye know the man, and his communication.] Ye know that he is a madman, and that his message must be a message of folly. Jehu did not appear willing to tell them what had been done, lest it should promote jealousy and envy.
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 vv11, 13, 14, 17, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36 2Ki 9:11-12. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?…
2Ki 9:11-12. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? — What business has he with thee? And why wouldst thou gratify him so far as to retire to converse with him? They perceived him to be a prophet by his air, habit, and manner of speech, as well as by his accosting Jehu so boldly, and so suddenly vanishing when he had done his business. And these profane soldiers accounted the Lord’s prophets madmen, judging their neglect of themselves, and their contempt of temporal wealth and honours, which the wise men of this world so eagerly seek, with their rigid and obscure course of life, to be a kind of infatuation: and considering the holy exercises to which they devoted themselves as the effects of a religious phrensy. Indeed; those that have no religion commonly speak of those that are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack-brained. They said of our Lord, He is beside himself, and of St. Paul, that much learning had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and they that best understand themselves, as persons beside themselves. He said, You know the man, and his communication — You know him to be a prophet: why then do you call him a mad fellow? And, being a prophet, you may guess what his business is with me; that it is to teach me my duty. Thus he thought to have put them off; but they said, It is false — We do not know, and cannot conjecture, what was his errand: but that there is something extraordinary and of great importance in it we plainly perceive, by his calling thee into an inner chamber, by his great expedition, and by his gesture and carriage. Tell us now — His concealing the matter made them the more eager to know it.
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 vv11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 34 This mad fellow - The captains, seeing his excited…
This mad fellow - The captains, seeing his excited look, his strange action, and his extreme haste, call him (as soldiers would) “this wild fellow.”
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 vv11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37 Madman. The extravagant motions of the false prophets caused…
Madman. The extravagant motions of the false prophets caused even the true ones to be treated with contempt. Warriors are but too apt to give way to sentiments of irreligion, (Menochius) and to despise men who lead a retired and penitential life. (Haydock) --- How often were Ezechiel and Jeremias treated as fools, (Ezechiel xxxiii. 30., and Jeremias xxix. 26.; Calmet) as well as our divine Saviour? The pagans looked upon those who were inspired by Apollo in the same light. (Haydock) --- Ut primum cessit furor & rabida ora quierunt, Virgil, Æneid vi. "What authority has this fury, which you call divine, that the insane should behold what escapes the observation of the wise, and that he who has lost common (human) sense should possess divine?" ea videat insanus, & is qui humanos sensus amiserit, divinos assecutus sit? (Cicero, Divin. ii.)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 25, 26, 27, 30, 35, 36 Is all well? &c.--Jehu's attendants knew that the stranger…
Is all well? &c.--Jehu's attendants knew that the stranger belonged to the order of the prophets by his garb, gestures, and form of address; and soldiers such as they very readily concluded such persons to be crackbrained, not only from the sordid negligence of their personal appearance and their open contempt of the world, but from the religious pursuits in which their whole lives were spent, and the grotesque actions which they frequently performed (compare Jer 29:26).
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 vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 11. His lord — King Joram.
11. His lord — King Joram.
This mad fellow — משׁגע, pual part. of שׁגע; one who raves, or is frenzied and furious. This was spoken contemptuously of the prophet, though doubtless his hurried manner, his emotional bearing, and sudden departure and flight, gave occasion for the term mad or crazy.
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Ye know the man, and his communication — That is, ye know him to be mad, and his discourse is according to his wild character. Jehu wished at first to keep the matter to himself, and so avoided answering their question.
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 vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 11–26. Jehu is proclaimed, and goes to Jezreel. Joram…
11–26. Jehu is proclaimed, and goes to Jezreel. Joram is slain, and his body cast into the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite (Not in Chronicles)
11. to the servants of his lord] i.e. To the other captains with whom he had before been in conference. They were all Joram’s officers.
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wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] The visit had been made abruptly and in much haste, and amid the camp there would be but little respect for the garb of the prophet. We can see too from the words of the next verse that there was much of bluntness and rudeness in the speech of these soldiers to one another. We need not then suppose that they deemed the prophet a madman, but this is the term they are pleased to apply to him owing to his sudden movements.
Ye know the man] No doubt this applies to the appearance and dress of the prophets which distinguished them from others. It means, ‘Ye know to what class the man belongs, and so you can guess at the nature of his communication.’ Such a man in such haste comes only with a message. ‘Thus saith the Lord’. Others have referred the words to what the officers had before said, calling the messenger ‘mad’. This would make Jehu’s reply mean, ‘You call him mad, and of course then his communication must be only a madman’s raving.’ So R.V., and what his talk was.
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 vv11–37 (11) The servants of his lord.—Jehoram’s captains.
(11) The servants of his lord.—Jehoram’s captains.
And one said.—Many MSS. and all the versions, except the Targum, have “and they said.”
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Is all well?—They dreaded some sinister news.
This mad fellow.—They were struck by his wild demeanour and furious haste. Or, perhaps, “this inspired one,” in a tone of ridicule. (Comp. Hos_9:7.)
Ye know the man.—There is emphasis on the ye. Jehu apparently implies that the man was sent to him by his fellow-generals—that they had planned the whole thing. His purpose is to find out their disposition. Or, more probably, his reply may simply mean: “Why ask me, when you yourselves must have divined the right answer to your question?”
His communication.—Or, his meditation (comp. 1Ki_18:27)—i.e., the thing he had in his mind, his purpose in coming. Corn, à Lapide: “Ye know that he is mad, and accordingly what he says is mad, and therefore neither to be credited nor repeated.” LXX., “Ye know the man and his babble;” the Targum, “and his story;” the Syriac, “and his folly;” the Vulg., “and what he said;” the Arabic, “and his news.”
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 vv11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 Vers. 11-22. Conspiracy of Jehu against Jehoram.
Vers. 11-22. Conspiracy of Jehu against Jehoram.
Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord. After the young man the prophet had made his precipitate retreat, Jehu, too, quitted the inner chamber, and "came forth returned to the place where he had been sitting with "the servants of his lord the other captains of the host (ver. 5) and rejoined their company. And one said unto him, Is all well? One of the other captains of the host took the word and asked, in the ordinary phraseology of the time, "Is it peace?" (comp. vers. 17, 18, 19, 22) or, in other words, u Is all right?" "Is all well?" The sudden appearance and disappearance of the messenger had evidently created an impression that all was not well. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? He did not suppose the man to be actually mad. He calls him "this wild fellow scatterbrain," on account of the haste and strangeness of his conduct; but he quite expects to hear that there was "method in the madness," and that the communication had some serious import. And hei.e. Jehusaid unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication. Jehu suspected that the whole scene had been arranged beforehand; that Elisha and the young prophet and the captains of the host were in league, and had concerted a way of offering him the throne. He may have had reason to regard the captains as disaffected towards Jehoram, though this does not appear at all distinctly in the very brief narrative.
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Vers. 11-24. Political revolutions justifiable under certain circumstances.
In a general way, revolution, resistance to constituted authority, rebellions, risings against the civil power, seem to be condemned, or at any rate discountenanced, by the teaching of Scripture, whether in the Old Testament or the New. They arise, for the most part, from human ambitions, from lust of power, from greed, from unrestrained passions, from selfishness; they involve in their course untold sufferings to large numbers; they issue commonly in a condition of social and political life, not better, but worse, than that from which they sprang. "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers;" "Fear God: honor the king;" "Ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience" sake," are precepts of wide application and of great force, deriving additional weight from the fact that, when they were uttered, a Nero occupied the throne. Still, their force may be overstrained. Scripture does not require, under all circumstances, an absolute and entire submission to the civil rulers, but justifies resistance, and allows of the resistance being pushed, in extreme cases, to rebellion. Examples are:
1. The resistance offered by David, first to Saul, and then to Ishbosheth. According to human law, Ishbosheth was the legitimate ruler, against whom David rebelled. (2Sa_2:1-10)
2. The rebellion of Jeroboam. (1Ki_12:12-20)
3. The present instance the rebellion of Jehu.
4. The rebellion of the Maceabee princes, related in the first and second Books of the Maccabees, which enlist our sympathy strongly in their behalf, and are set before her members by the Church "for example of life, and instruction in morals." If we ask, "When is rebellion justifiable?" the answer would seem to be
I IN THE LAST RESORT, WHEN THE NATION MUST OTHERWISE BE IRRETRIEVABLY INJURED. In Jehu"s case "a family was on the throne which had introduced a licentious worship, had fostered it, and had persecuted the older and purer religion, which, if it had not succeeded in taking so firm a hold upon the people as to bind them to purity and virtue, at any rate had not been itself a deeply corrupting influence. The mischief had spread so far that it was time to try the last and severest measures, or to give up the contest entirely. The indictment was made out against the ruling house of corrupting the national honor, and undermining the national existence, of depriving the nation of a religion whose spirit was pure and elevating, and giving it one whose spirit was corrupting and licentious" (Bahr). In the case of the Maccabees, a foreign power, dominant over the country by right of conquest, had formed the design of completely sweeping away the Jewish religion and substituting for it the Greek, or rather the Syrian, polytheism and idolatry. The crisis was even more terrible than that in Jehu"s time, the danger more pressing and greater. In both these cases the nation seems to have waited with the utmost patience, until there was no other remedy. Either a convulsion had to be faced, or the national religion, the national morality, and the national self-respect, would have been swept away. The nation in each case preferred revolution to submission; and the sympathies of the sacred writers evidently go with them in their choice.
II WHEN THERE IS A FAIR PROSPECT OF SUCCESS IF A STAND IS MADE. Nemo tenetur ad impossibilia. If the force on the side of authority is overwhelming, if the national spirit opposed to it is weak and faint, if there is no reasonable hope that resistance may be effectual and save the nation from the evils suffered and apprehended, then, whatever their reluctance, though it be "pain and grief to them," patriots are hound to restrain themselves and to remain quiescent. As Plato says, they must shelter themselves under a wall while the storm rages; they must be content to keep themselves pure, as the seven thousand, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, did in Ahab"s reign; they must wait for better days. If, however, there be a fair chance of success, if it be reasonable to hope that the yoke which is doing deadly hurt to the nation may be thrown off, then no considerations of their own convenience or ease, no fear of blame, no shrinking from disturbance, or even bloodshed, should deter patriotic souls from initiating the struggle by which alone their country can be saved. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. If Elisha and Jehu had waited with folded hands for Joram and Jezebel to work out their wicked will, the Baal-worship would have been riveted upon the northern, perhaps even upon the southern, kingdom. If the Maccabee family had submitted to the agents of Antiochus Ephiphanes, and failed to raise the standard of revolt, Judaism would have been merged in heathenism, and have perished from the earth. It may be added that if, in our own country, no resistance had been offered to James II, but his commands had been submitted to and carried out, then Great Britain would have been recovered to the Roman obedience, and the witness to a purer Christianity than that of Rome, which has been held up to the world by the English Church during the last two centuries, would have been extinguished and crushed, with what loss to the nation, to Europe, and to the world generally, it is impossible to estimate.
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 vv11, 20, 22, 24, 31, 37 Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?
2Ki_9:11
Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?
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The reproach of true religion
The man who was spoken of in this contemptuous manner was a prophet of God, sent by another prophet to a fellow-subject, with the present of a kingdom in his hand. Before night (so it appears) that kingdom had been secured; two confederate kings had been swept out of the way; and a queen-mother, stronger than either, had been literally cast to the dogs. Such was the brief history of this message from heaven. No one called the prophet a madman at the close of that day. Many another true message from heaven has had a similar fate; and all such messages may expect it. They may expect a similar reproach in the first instance; and a similar vindication in the end.
I. Concerning the reproach. God hath spoken at sundry times and in divers manners to the world; but the messengers by whom He has spoken have seldom been recognised as such at the first. From the days of Noah to those of St. Paul, experience testifies this. Wherever God sends a special message to men, it clearly must be because a special message is required; in other words, because the knowledge and wisdom of man are not sufficient in his then existing circumstances to guide him. God sends him counsel because his own counsel is worthless, or worse. But this is just the thing which mans pride is unwilling to allow. Again, Gods counsel, like Himself, is certain to be holy; and mans natural purposes, on the other hand, are sure to be ungodly and sinful. Further yet, Gods wisdom is sure to be far-sighted and profound, while the faculties which attempt to scan it are always short-sighted and shallow. On all these grounds, therefore, the message, when it comes, will be something unwelcome and perplexing at the first. Its pretensions will be humiliating to mans pride; its tendency will be offensive to his nature; its contents will be confounding to his mind. I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. It is an aggravated illustration of the same principle which causes frivolity to despise enthusiasm; selfishness, generosity; the savage, mercy and truth; and the clown, the highest efforts of literature, science, and art. Men hate to believe in anything superior to themselves.
II. Concerning the vindication. Wisdom is justified of all her children. Where a message is really from God, it compels belief at the last. This may be easily seen in all the cases already referred to. The flood of waters justified Noah; the fire from heaven justified Lot; the Exodus justified Moses; and the victory over the Philistines justified David. Exactly in proportion to the original contempt was the final honour in each case. It was the same with the apparently habitual scorn of all true prophecy in old days; true prophecy has long been fully revenged. Similar justice, also, has long been measured out to the once despised evangelists and apostles, and to that equally despised Master whom they obeyed. In proof of this you have only to consider that no greater praise can now be given to any man, than to say his conduct is truly apostolical, or his character really Christian. It is nothing that, in short, but the old proverb, Magna est veritas, et praevalebit. A true message from heaven has heavenly resources behind it. It is like a bank with very large liabilities, but with assets much larger still. Consequently, whatever it dares, it can do; whatever the doubts, and surmises, and panic, it can meet them all with a smile. We may apply this as an excellent test of the various religions of the world. There are some that make no pretensions, that do not oppose mens desires, nor perplex their minds, nor offend their prejudices. That is condemnation enough by itself. God would hardly have sent us a message which we could have devised for ourselves. There are other religions which are all pretensions; which go on shouting for centuries that the Diana they worship is very great; and which are perpetually singing in chorus, We are right, and you are wrong, we are saved, and you are lost; but without any real proof of it all. Such religions offer no reason, and so require no reply. They are simply gigantic systems of self-praise; and it is no recommendation to them. These are not the marks of the true message--If I honour myself, my honour is nothing. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v15 2Ki_9:21. Each in his chariot went out against Jehu—Rather,…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2Ki_9:21. Each in his chariot went out against Jehu—Rather, to meet Jehu. They would not have ridden out in royal equipages for a hostile attack on him. This self-indulgent king, who had been idling in his summer palace with Ahaziah, now found himself well enough to exert himself.
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2Ki_9:22. Is it peace, Jehu?—Anxiety in the enquiry; fear of bad tidings as to the war, or of conspiracy against himself. What peace, so long as, &c.—Such a rebuke from a subject would at once convey to Joram Jehu’s revolt. Her witchcrafts are so many—Her many witchcrafts continue נְכו נִים, spiritual whoredom, idolatry, and כְּשׁפַים magical incantations, witchcrafts in general.
2Ki_9:25. Remember how … the Lord laid this burden upon him—Or “took up this oracle concerning him.” A divine sentence against a person or place is commonly called “a burden” (Isa_13:1, &c.) משָׂא means burden; something uttered, a sentence; and נָשָׂא means to take up, lift up; hence גָשָׂא מַשָּׂא אַל took up a sentence or oracle. Jehu and his lieutenant were together in Ahab’s retinue, and overheard the prophet’s sentence.
2Ki_9:27. Smite him also in the chariot—After these words there is an omission in the MS., which is, however, naturally supplied by inserting the verb of execution, וַיַּכֻּהוּ.
2Ki_9:30. Jezebel painted her face and tired her head—i.e., decorated herself royally, brightening her eyes, or darkening her eyelids with antimony or lead-ore powder, and building up her head adornments, or put on her crown. Her object was surely less to captivate Jehu than to overawe him with her majesty as queen.
2Ki_9:31. Had Zimri peace—Warning Jehu of a like fate (1Ki_16:10-18).—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_9:15-37
THE TERRIBLE WORK OF REVENGE
I. Is entered upon with prudence and decision.
1. The avenger secures a powerful following. “If it be your minds, let none tell it in Jezreel” (2Ki_9:15). This politic appeal to the army gained its purpose. The brother-officers of Jehu were fully committed to the new order of things, and there was no drawing back. With the army devoted to his cause, Jehu was prepared to carry out his work of vengeance without faltering. It is folly to attempt any enterprise involving risk and difficulty without the most careful and judicious preparation.
2. The avenger acts with promptness and energy (2Ki_9:16-19). Jehu mounts his chariot and drives towards Jezreel, determined to be the first to confront the deposed king. The messengers sent out by Joram are detained prisoners. Still uncertain of the purpose of Jehu, the two kings drive out of the city to meet him, little dreaming of the fate that awaited them; and there is surely something specially ominous in the fact, mentioned in the narrative with such severe and artless simplicity, that they “meet him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite” (2Ki_9:21). The rapidity and decisiveness of Jehu’s movements gave no opportunity to his victims to protect themselves. They were at once placed in his power. The man of promptness and decision has the advantage in every enterprise.
II. Is committed to one who is every way fitted to carry it out. “The driving is the driving of Jehu, for he driveth furiously” (2Ki_9:20). In this one reference we have the key to Jehu’s character, a man who having once made up his mind to a certain course, will pursue it with a wild, reckless, madcap energy, utterly indifferent to all sentiment and feeling. It was horrible work that Jehu had to do. An ordinary man would have recoiled from it with fear and loathing. Jehu was cautious, crafty, and perhaps slow in committing himself to a certain course of action; but having done so, he prosecuted it with a hot, hasty, and unrelenting energy, unmoved either by pity or fear. “He did not shrink from difficulties, did not hesitate at harsh means of accomplishing his purpose, did not feel pity in striking down those who stood in his way, did not leave behind him anything that might, at a later time, rise up to mar or overthrow his work. His is not a lovely character. It does not present the amiable virtues—patience, pity, mercy, kindness. It is not a character to be imitated in modern civilised life; neither ought it to be measured or judged by the standards of a society trained to peace and order, fearful of revolution and encased in law. In the providence of God suchmen are often raised up for great crises in church and state. The man is swallowed up in the movement. His personal virtues and faults are lost sight of in the stormy, tumultuous crises in which he lived. He was needed and was called; he responded and accomplished his calling well. That is his place in the history, and that is the judgment on his career.”
III. Falls upon the leading representatives of the wickedness to be punished (2Ki_9:22-35). Joram, Ahaziah, Jezebel—a royal trio—representatives of the idolatrous curse that had blighted both Israel and Judah, and brought down the judgment of heaven. Jezebel, whose end was so ignominious, and which is described with such dramatic vigour, was at the roof of the nation’s apostasy, and her crimes hastened the catastrophe. Joram, though taking his part in war, as his wound testified, appears in general “in the light of an oriental monarch, indolent, careless, luxurious, fond of ease. His death fulfilled a malediction upon his father. Ahaziah seems to have been one of those weak men who float on in the direction which their education and family traditions have given them. He followed the family traditions down to the family ruin. The two kings appear to be to a great extent the victims of the sins of their ancestors; and as Jezebel had controlled Ahab, we are led back to her as the origin of all this individual, family, and national calamity. She was one of those strong, bold, wicked women who have played such important roles in history. By Ahab’s marriage with this woman, the licentiousness of the worship of Baal and Astarte, the freedom of manners of the Phœnician court, the luxury and sensuality of the heathen nations, were imported into Israel. It became her aim to override and destroy all that was peculiar and national in Israel, but in so doing she was contravening all that belonged to and sustained God’s plan for Israel in human history. She braved the conflict, and re-asserted it in her last hour; and she and her descendants went down in the catastrophe” (Editor of Lange). The stroke of God’s vengeance never misses its object, and never mistakes its victim. The leaders of iniquity are sure to be smitten.
IV. Fulfils the Divine word with significant exactitude (2Ki_9:36-37). Fifteen years had passed away since Elijah prophesied—“The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel” (1Ki_21:23); and now the Divine word is fulfilled with such precision that the body of the proud, luxurious Jezebel is not recognizable—not a vestige is left but a few bones. “Though so great a woman by her birth, connexions, and alliances, she has not the honour of a tomb. There was not even a solitary stone to say, Here lies Jezebel! not even a mound of earth to designate the place of her sepulture! Judgment is God’s strange work; but when he contends, how terrible are His judgments!” Thrones totter and fall, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.
LESSONS:—
1. The triumph of iniquity is short-lived.
2. Jehovah is slow to punish, but when he does so it is with terrible severity.
3. The threatenings of God should lead to repentance and reformation; if disregarded and defied, ruin is inevitable.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_9:15. Jehu is no less subtle than valiant. He knew that the notice of this unexpected change might work a busy and dangerous resistance. He therefore gives order that no messenger of the news may anticipate his personal execution, that so he might surprise Jehoram in his palace of Jezreel, whether tending his late wounds, or securely feasting his friends, and dreaming of nothing less than danger. Secresy is the safest guard of any design. Disclosed projects are either frustrated, or made needlessly difficult.—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_9:17-20.—The minister of God’s word, a watchman.
1. He occupies an elevated and conspicuous position.
2. He keeps a vigilant lookout.
3. He is quick to discern the signs of the times.
4. He is faithful in reporting what is good, and in warning of coming danger.
5. He has keen insight into character, and the tendency of human conduct.
2Ki_9:17. There was usually in ancient times a watch-tower over the royal residence, where a man was always stationed, night and day, to keep a good look-out in all directions from which any sort of tidings might be expected. What he beheld that he deemed of any consequence, he declared below in the courts of the palace.
The Agamemnon of Æschylus opens with the soliloquy of such a watchman—
For ever thus? O keep me not, ye gods,
For ever thus, fixed in the lonely tower
Of Atreus’ Palace, from whose height I gaze
O’er-watched and weary, like a night-dog still
Fixed to my post; meanwhile the rolling year
Moves on, and I my wakeful vigils keep
By the cold star-light sheen of spangled skies.
In the present case, the frequency of reports from the seat of war, and the king’s desire for intelligence, naturally kept the attention of the watchman much in that direction.—Kitto.
2Ki_9:20. Reckless drivers. “Like the driving of Jehu, for he driveth furiously.” By the flash of that one sentence, we discover Jehu’s character. He came with such speed, not merely because he had an erraud to do, but because he was urged on by a headlong disposition, which had won him the name of a reckless driver, even among the watchmen. The chariot plunges until you almost expect the wheels to crash under it, or some of the princely party to be thrown out, or the horses to become utterly unmanageable. But he always goes so; and he becomes a type of that class of persons to be found in all the communities, who in worldly and religious affairs may be styled reckless drivers.
I. To this class belong all those who conduct their worldly affairs in a headlong way, without any regard to prudence or righteousness. Many a man sits in his pew on Sunday night, and sings Rock of Ages, and rolls up his eyes very piously, who, on coming out at the close of the service, shuts the pew-door and says, “Good-bye religion, I will be back next Sunday!” A religion that does not work all the week, as well as on Sunday, is no religion at all. There are to-day in our midst, many of our best citizens who have come from affluence into straightened circumstances, because there was a partner in their firm, or a cashier in their bank, or an agent representing their house, or one of the largest creditors, who, like Jehu, the son of Nimshi, was a furious driver. Once in a while a swindler is arrested, and if the case be too notoriously flagrant, the culprit is condemned, but the officials having him in charge must take the express train, and get to Sing Sing in briefest time, or the governor’s pardon gets there before him. We have feet of lightning when we get on the track of a woman who has stolen a paper of pins, or a freezing man who has abstracted a scuttle of coals; but when we go out in pursuit of some man who has struck down the interests of a hundred, and goes up along the Hudson to build his mansion, the whole city hangs on our skirts, crying, “Don’t you hurt him!” If a teamster, passing down the street, dashes heedlessly along and runs down a child, the authorities catch him; but for the reckless commercial drivers, who stop not for the rights of others, and who dash on to make their fortunes over the heads of innocence, virtue, and religion—no chastisements. When I see in the community men with largo incomes, but larger outgoes, rushing into wildest undertakings, their pockets filled with circulars about gold in Canada, and lead in Missouri, and fortunes everywhere, launching out in expenditures to be met by the thousands they expect to make, with derision dashing across the path of sober men, depending upon their industry and honour for success, I say, “Here he comes, the son of Nimshi, driving furiously.”
II. Now you may, in worldly affairs, be cautious, true, honourable, and exemplary; but all those who are speeding towards eternity without preparation—flying with the years, and the months, and the weeks, and the days, and the moments, and the seconds, towards an unalterable destiny, yet uncertain as to where they speed, are reckless drivers. What would you think of a stage-driver with six horses and twenty passengers, in the midnight, when it is so dark that you cannot see your hand before your face, dashing at full run over bridges, and along by dangerous precipices? Such a man is prudent, compared with one who, amid the perils of this life, dashes on towards an unknown eternity, not knowing where he goes. If, in driving, you come to the forks of a road, and one goes to the right, and the other to the left, you stop and make enquiry as to which road you ought to take. Tonight, you have come to the forks of a road. One leads to heaven, and the other to hell. Which road will you take? I see multitudes of people who do not even stop at the forks to make enquiry. The coursers behind which they go are panting with the speed, nostrils distended, foam dropping from the bit and whitening the flanks, but still urged on with lash, and shout, and laughter; the reins undrawn, the embankments unwatched, the speed unnoticed. Alas, for the reckless drivers! They may after awhile see the peril and seize the reins, and lay back with all their might, and put on the brakes, and cry for help until the hands are numb, and their eyes start from their sockets, and the breath stops, and the heart chills, as over the rocks they plunge, courser and chariot and horsemen tumbling in long resounding crash of ruin.
III. Some are drawn along by sinful pleasures—a wild team that ran away with all who have persisted in riding behind them. Once fully under way, no sawing of the bit can stop them. They start at every sudden sight or sound, and where it needs a slow step and great care, they go with bound terrific. Their eyes are a flame with terrors, and their hoofs red with the blood of men whose life they have dashed out, and, what is worse, the drivers scourge them into more furious speed. We come out and tell them of dangers ahead, but with jeer they pass on. The wild team smoke with the speed, and their flying feet strike fire, and the rumbling of swift wheels over rotten bridges that span awful chasms is answered by the rumbling of the heavens, “Because I called and ye refused, and stretched out my hands and no man regarded, therefore I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh!” When this world gets full power over a man, he might as well be dead—he is dead! When Sisera came into the house of Jael, she gave him something to drink, and got him asleep on the floor. Then she took a peg from the side of her tent, and a mallet, and drove the peg through the brain of Jael into the floor. So the world feeds a man, and when it has him sound asleep, strikes his life out. Perhaps there are some who say, “Would God I could stop my bad practices! But I cannot stop. I know that I am on the wrong road, and that I have been a reckless driver; but I try to rein in my swift appetites, yet they will not heed.” I tell such that there is an Almighty hand which can pull back these wild racers. He whose beck the stars answer, and at whose mandate the chariots of heaven come and go, is more than a master for these temptations. Helpless yourself, and unable to guide these wild coursers, give Jesus Christ the reins; mighty to save unto the uttermost. Better stop now. Some years ago near Princetown, New Jersey, some young men were skating on a pond around an air-hole, and the ice began to break in. Some of them stopped, but a young man said, “I am not afraid, give us one round more!” He swung nearly round, when the ice broke, and not until next day was his lifeless body found.—Talmage.
—Impetuosity of disposition.
1. A valuable power when used in a good cause.
2. Should be under control without being utterly crushed.
3. Absolutely necessary to accomplish certain results.
4. May hurry one into dangerous excesses.
—Dilatory and careless people do not accomplish anything. Only diligent and energetic persons succeed. Test thyself to see what spirit moves thee. The right motive power is the Holy Spirit, which never guides to folly. One may conduct spiritual affairs and manage the concerns of the kingdom of God with folly, want of judgment, and heat (Rom_10:2). Those only are children of God who are moved by the spirit of God (Rom_8:14).—Osiander.
2Ki_9:21-37. A terrible day of judgment.
1. It comes with awful suddenness.
2. It brings destruction to three notable monarchs when they little expected.
3. It is irresistible, and leaves no possible way of escape.
4. It fulfils and confirms the Divine threatenings.
2Ki_9:22-23. Wicked tyrant! What speakest thou of peace with men, when thou hast thus long waged war with the Almighty? That cursed mother of thine hath nursed thee with blood and trained thee up in abominable idolatries. Thou art not more hers than her sin is thine; thou art polluted with her spiritual whoredoms and enchanted with her hellish witchcrafts. Now that just God, whom thou and thy parents have so heinously despised, sends thee by me this last message of His vengeance, which, while he spake, his hand is drawing up that deadly arrow which shall cure the former wounds with a worse. Too late now doth wretched Jehoram turn his chariot and flee and cry, Treason, O Ahaziah! There was treason before, O Jehoram! Thy treason against the majesty of God is now revenged by the treason of Jehu against thee.—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_9:22. “Is it peace?” So it is to-day also: a false peace is demanded of those who are sent to make known the stern truth, in order that hoary evils may not be exposed. Those who have not true peace, generally want an external, shameful peace at any price (Eze_13:16). Ask thyself first of all, “Is there peace in thy heart?” and seek peace from Him who is our peace (Eph_2:14). There can be no lasting peace where there is apostasy from the living God and His word; there licentiousness, injustice, tyranny, strife, and war, with all their attendant miseries and horrors, must come. Though His sword rests for a time, yet it does not rest in its scabbard.—Lange.
2Ki_9:23-29. The death of the kings of Israel and Judah. It was sudden, unforeseen, and fell upon them in their security and blindness. The proverb applies to Ahaziah: “Hunt with the fox, and you will be hung with him.” Refrain from bad companions, if thou wouldst not be punished with them. The one is thrown upon Naboth’s field, and left without a grave; the other is brought indeed to the sepulchre of his fathers, but what is the use of a royal sepulchre to him who has lost his soul?—Wurt. Summ.
2Ki_9:25-26. The inflexible exactitude of retribution.
1. Is not affected by the changes of time.
2. Is the operation of a Divine law which is startlingly minute in its application.
3. Makes the place of the sin the place of the punishment. “I will requite thee in this plat.”
4. Should lead the evil-doer to pause and think.
—How just are the judgments of God! It was in the field of Naboth wherein Jehoram met with Jehu; that very ground called to him for blood. And now this new avenger remembers that prophecy which he heard out of the mouth of Elijah in that very place, following the heels of Ahab, and is careful to perform it. Little did Jehu think, when he heard that message of Elijah, that his hands should act it. Now, as zealous of accomplishing the word of a prophet, he gives charge to Bidkar his captain that the bleeding carcase of Jehoram should be cast upon that very plat of Naboth. O Naboth’s blood well paid for! Ahab’s blood is licked by dogs in the very place where those dogs licked Naboth’s.—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_9:25. Jehu remembers, and in substance repeats, the word of the Lord by Elijah (1Ki_21:19; 1Ki_21:29), and, conscious that he himself is the minister of judgment, he fulfils the word of the Lord. “This,” says Kitto, “completes the first act of this awful tragedy, which reads like the old Greek dramas—but far less old than this—of accomplished fate. The appointed executer of the doom was himself the witness of its being imposed. All is complete.”
2Ki_9:27. The danger of evil associations.
1. Begets a distaste to that which is good.
2. Leads to apostasy from God, and to excesses of wickedness at one time indignantly deemed impossible.
3. Results in suffering and premature death.
2Ki_9:30-37. What does the frightful end of Jezebel teach?
1. The transitoriness and nothingness of human might and glory. Jezebel relies upon her might. Before her the people tremble. She controlled and directed three kings. She raged against all who did not submit unconditionally to her will. Now she lies, thrown down from her height, like dung upon the field, so that no one could say, “That is the great and mighty queen Jezebel.”
2. The certainty of Divine retribution. Jezebel was an enemy of the living God and of His word. She seduced old and young to apostasy. She persecuted all who still held firmly to Jehovah. Her terrible end proves that such a temper is certainly punished. Her end has no parallel in Israelitish history. It calls aloud to all unto this day, “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness” (Jer_22:13), and it is a pledge of the truth of this assertion, “Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked Psa_91:8).—Lange.
2Ki_9:30-35. Jezebel: the ignominious fall of pride and beauty.
1. The proud queen, defiant to the last, decks herself with ornaments, not hoping to captivate the impetuous Jehu with the charms of her beauty, but to awe him into submission by her imperious assumption of royal state and authority.
2. Her untamed, undaunted spirit is evident in the stinging reproof she uttered to Jehu as soon as he came within earshot, and which she seemed almost to hiss between her clenched teeth—“Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?” This is her last glory, to remind her enemy of the fate of one who had, like him, usurped the royal power, and killed his king, and, as Kitto says, “to cast one bitter burning word upon the head of the destroyer, such as should haunt and scorch him all his life.” But Jehu was not the man to be intimidated by words, though such fierce expressive words, and from the lips of such a woman.
3. She is instantly deserted and betrayed by those she considered her obsequious and obedient slaves. At the word of command, which they saw it was dangerous to disobey, her decked and painted body is ignominiously flung out of the window, dashed to the ground, and the last spark of life crushed out of it by the horses and chariot of the furious driver, the blood of the royal victim splashing against the wall, and sprinkling the horses. “This is one of the most terribly vivid and fearful pictures in all the annals of tragedy.”
4. Her body is left to be devoured by the pariah dogs, is denied even common sepulture, and, in a short time—quicker than it takes the king to banquet—a few bones are all that is left of the once imperious, queenly, but cruel and idolatrous Jezebel.
—The tidings of the revolution under Jehu, and of the death of Joram, spread with the greatest rapidity throughout Jezreel, and quickly reached the ears of the haughty Jezebel. One would suppose that, on hearing it, she would have trembled with terror, and gone to hide herself in some dark recess of the palace; but her fierce, masculine, vindictive spirit asserts its pre-eminence to the very last, and if she has to perish with the rest of Ahab’s house, she resolves to die the regal mistress she had lived.—Whedon.
2Ki_9:30. How accurately this description fits many of her sex. The highest occupation they can conceive of is to adorn themselves, to conquer, and produce effects. Thou fool! If God demands thy soul of thee to-day, what shall all paint and powder upon the face avail before Him who tries the heart and the reins? Can velvet and silk cover thine inner stains (Isa_3:16)? There could be no sterner reproof of vanity, pride, and coquetry, and no more severe warning to take to heart the apostle’s words (1Pe_3:3) than the fate of Jezebel. Lange.
—Who would not have looked that Jezebel, hearing of this bloody end of her son and pursuit of her ally, and the fearful proceedings of this prosperous conspiracy, should have put herself into sackcloth and ashes; and now, finding no means either of defence or escape, should have cast herself into such a posture of humiliation as might have moved the compassion of Jehu? Her proud heart could not suddenly learn to stoop; rather she recollects her high spirits, and, instead of humbling her soul by repentance, and addressing herself for an imminent death, she paints her face, and, as one that vainly hopes to daunt the courage of an usurper by the sudden beams of majesty, she looks out and thinks to fright him with the challenge of a traitor, whose either mercy or justice could not be avoided. Extremity finds us such as our peace leaves us. Our last thoughts are spent upon that we most care for. Those that have regarded their face more than their soul, in their latter end are more taken up with desire of seeming fair than being happy. It is no marvel if a heart, obdured by the custom of sin, shut up gracelessly. Counterfeit beauty agrees well with inward uncleanness:—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_9:31. Who can be more perverse and pitiful than a man who boasts and puts on airs in the very face of death, and passes out of the world with abuse and insults against God, instead of begging for pity, and crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” Jezebel, who murdered the prophets, and Naboth, who revolted against the Lord of heaven and earth, calls Jehu a murderer and a rebel. The blind and stubborn human heart always finds in others just those sins of which it is itself guilty in a far higher degree.—Lange.
2Ki_9:34. This scene of hilarity and cheer in the midst of such fearful bloodshed makes one shudder. But the minister of doom to Ahab’s guilty house must needs be such a one as Jehu. Tenderness and sympathy would unfit the avenger of blood for his work of death. Not till after his feast does Jehu reflect that so much royalty and greatness have fallen. He had left the mangled corpse of the once mighty Jezebel on the mounds of offal outside the gate, a prey to the dogs which in the East ever prowl about such spots.—Whedon.
2Ki_9:35. The vanity of human greatness. I. Its external splendours fade. II. Its wicked and ambitious schemes are overthrown. III. Its boasted and bewitching beauty is represented at last by a few revolting fragments.
—In illustration of this shocking end of the corpse of Jezebel, it remains to remark that the more than half-wild street dogs of the East, living upon their own resources, and without owners, soon make a rapid clearance of the flesh of dead bodies left exposed, whether of human creatures or beasts. An Eastern traveller, describing the remains of some human bodies that had been devoured by dogs, says: “The only portion of the several corpses I noticed that remained entire and untouched, were the bottoms of the feet, and the insides of the hands; a proof of the rooted antipathy the dog has to prey upon the human hands and feet.” Dr. Thomson supposes that the dogs under Jezebel’s palace may have been taught to devour the wretched victims of her cruelty, in which case the retribution would be remarkably striking.
—The dogs have anticipated Jehu in his purpose, and have given Jezebel a living tomb, more ignoble than the worst of the earth. Only the skull, hands, and feet remain—the skull, which was the roof of all her wicked devices; the hands and feet, which were the executioners—these shall remain as the monuments of those shameful exequies, that future times, seeing these fragments of a body, might say: “The dogs were worthy of the rest.” Thus Jezebel is turned to dung and dog’s meat, Elijah is verified, Naboth is revenged, Jezreel is purged, Jehu is zealous. and, in all, God is just.—Bp. Hall.
2Ki_9:36-37. The infallibility of the Divine word.
1. Seen in the precision with which its threatenings are fulfilled.
2. Is acknowledged and declared by those who are called to carry out its threats.
3. Is as precise and full in the fulfilment of its promises of blessing.
—The story of the end of Jezebel is given with particular detail, because therein the prophet’s threat was fulfilled with especial frightfulness. As the sin of the house, Ahab was represented to the fullest extent in Jezebel, the originator and patroness of idolatry, so her terrible end forms the crisis of the Divine punishment. Ahaziah is fatally wounded, and dies in a strange place. Joram falls dead, pierced through the heart; but is thrown upon the field of Naboth, and not buried. Jezebel is thrown down from the window by her own attendants; as she lies weltering in her own blood, she is trodden under foot by horses, and the corpse lies unburied, “like dung upon the fields.” She appears here, in her last moments, such as she had ever been—proud and impudent—arrogant and domineering—defiant and insolent. She places herself at the window, painted and grandly dressed, and presumes upon her assumed majesty. Instead of recognising in the judgment which is failing upon her house the just recompense for her misdeeds, instead of sucing for grace, she, who had shed so much innocent blood, and had exalted herself against the God of Israel, insults the instrument of the Divine vengeance as a murderer and a traitor, demands that he shall submit to her, and threatens him, relying upon her imagined power, with destruction if he persists. Just here, judgment overtakes her; her nearest attendants forsake the hated queen, and hurl her down from her position. She does not reach the rest of the grave, and remains, even in death, marked with infamy for all time—a proof of the truth of the words: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”—Lange.
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.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v11 1. Jehu, King of Israel and His Deeds
III. THE PERIOD OF DECLENSION AND APOSTASY
1. Jehu, King of Israel and His Deeds
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CHAPTER 9:11-37
1. Jehu is king (2Ki 9:11-13)
2. Jehoram, King of Israel slain (2Ki 9:14-26)
3. Ahaziah slain (2Ch 22:9)
4. Jezebel and her end (2Ki 9:30-37)
Jehu revealed the secret anointing as King over Israel, and under the blare of the trumpets the army hails him as King. “Jehu is King!” Oh! for that day when our Lord Jesus will be hailed as King to begin His righteous judgment over the earth.
The Assyrian monuments bear interesting testimony to a good deal of the history contained in 2 Kings. Our space forbids a fuller mention of this. The name of Jehu has a place in the obelisk of black marble which Layard discovered at Nimrood. The Assyrian form of his name is “Yahua.” Shalmaneser II (860- 825 B.C.) erected this obelisk and inscribed on it the annals of his reign in 190 lines in cuneiform characters. Five rows of bas-relief illustrate the annals. The second row pictures the bearers of the tribute of Jehu to the Assyrian King. The obelisk is in the British Museum.
He begins at once his awful judgment-work. He is just an instrument used by a holy and righteous God to execute His vengeance. Of real communion with the Lord he knew nothing. Nothing of the fear of the Lord or exercise of soul towards Him is recorded, nor do we read that he ever worshipped or called upon the name of the Lord. There was zeal and obedience in the execution of the judgments of the Lord.
“But how awful in its character! On what a fearful journey does it send this sword of the Lord! From Ramoth to the vineyard of Naboth, from thence to the going up to Gur, from thence to Jezreel, from thence to the shearinghouse, and from thence to Samaria, and all the road marked by blood!--blood, too, appointed in righteousness to be shed! For though the sword that shed it cared not for righteousness, yet in its action the Lord was pleading with the flesh of Ahab and his house--as, by and by, He will have a greater pleading, even with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. And what shall be the rapidity and the stretch of the divine judgment then! What will be the journey of the sword of the Lord, or the ‘grounded staff’ in that day, when ‘as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be!’“
The record itself of how Joram and Ahaziah fell under the judgment executed by Jehu needs but little comment. Jehoram sent messengers from Jezreel, which Jehu detained, while he drove on furiously. Then Joram, with his nephew Ahaziah, King of Judah, went to meet Jehu. When they met, the arrow of Jehu, pierced Joram’s heart and his body was cast into the field of Naboth, the Jezreelite, “according to the word of the LORD.” Ahaziah fled, but was smitten “at the going up of Gur.” He tried to reach Megiddo and there he died.
Then comes Jezebel, the wicked. She died as she had lived, in wickedness and pride. She knew she had to die. The evil tidings had reached Jezreel, where once in younger days she was queen and mistress. She painted her face to make herself look beautiful. Did she attempt to attract Jehu? Hardly that, for she was an old woman, having a grandson twenty-two years old (2Ki 8:26). It was a proud defiance--she would meet death like a queen. The miserable, doomed woman, the dunghill of all vileness (Jezebel means “dunghill”), the instigator of crimes, looked out of the window, while Jehu’s chariot came thundering on. Then she spoke, “Is it peace--Zimri! murderer of his master?” It was a bold taunt. Zimri had murdered his master, but reigned only seven days (1Ki 16:9-19). She reminds him of Zimri’s deed and Zimri’s fate. Eunuchs threw her out of the window. The blood bespattered the wall and the prancing horses. The chariot of Jehu rushed on over her body. He did not pay any attention to her mangled body. Jehu entered the royal palace to feast and afterwards gave command to bury the cursed woman. But little was left of her. And Jehu said, “This is the word of the LORD, which He spake by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.” God’s judgments are often slow, but they are sure.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 27 Death of Joram
Death of Joram
v. 11. Then Jehu came forth, out of the inner chamber, to the servants of his lord, his fellow-councilors and companions in arms; and one said unto him, Is all well? They all were anxious to know whether it was a favorable message which he had received. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? The young prophet had been wild and unusual in his behavior, a fact which naturally did not escape their observation. And he said unto them, Ye know the man and his communication. He wanted to sound them out whether they had already received notice of the information which he had received and his promised elevation to the position of king.
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v. 12. And they said, It is false; tell us now. They denied the charge, but on their part demanded the truth. He could not escape them so easily. And he, unable to help himself against their importunities, said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.
v. 13. Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, the upper garment, which was really only a large square piece of cloth, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, namely, those of the house in which their meeting had been held, thus improvising a throne and stairway and giving him homage,and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king! Thus the garments of the generals served both as a pathway and as a carpet from the place where Jehu was standing when he made his announcement to the head of the stairway.
v. 14. So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram, for by permitting himself to be proclaimed as king he rebelled against the authority of the reigning monarch. (Now Joram had kept Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael, king of Syria, who had again made an attempt to gain control of the city.
v. 15. But King Joram, just at the time when this incident occurred, was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael, king of Syria, 2Ki 8:29. ) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, if they agreed with him, if they were sincere in their rebellion against King Joram, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel, to make known the fact that Jehu had been proclaimed king and thus to warn Joram.
v. 16. So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there, practically recovered from his wounds, but still unable or unwilling to return to the army. And Ahaziah. king of Judah, was come down to see Joram, 2Ki 8:29.
v. 17. And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he, faithful in the performance of his duty while the kings were enjoying their visit in the palace, spied the company of Jehu as he came and said, making a report at once as his work required, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace? The question referred to the condition of affairs in camp, whether his coming had the purpose of announcing a new attack by the Syrians.
v. 18. So there went one on horseback to meet him and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu, energetic and resourceful as he was, said, What hast thou to do with peace? He should not worry about it, should not make it his business. Turn thee behind me; for by joining his little band he would be prevented from bringing any alarming report to the king. And the watchman, observing the actions of Jehu and the messenger from his post, told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.
v. 19. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, Jehu and his men, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu, with the same energy and intention as before, answered, What hast thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me.
v. 20. And the watchman, again observing the strange behavior of the messenger, told, saying, He came even unto them and cometh not again; and the driving, the advancing of the small band with the chariot of Jehu in the lead, is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously, with the fierce recklessness which characterized him.
v. 21. And Joram said, Make ready, equivalent to our: Put on the harness, hitch up! And his chariot was made ready. And Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, that is, to meet him as quickly as possible, for they had now grown apprehensive, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite, which was now a part of the royal park.
v. 22. And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? He was anxious to know the state of affairs, still believing that Jehu’s strange behavior concerned the campaign against the Syrians. And he, boldly laying bare his hostility to the king, answered, What peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? Most of the guilt really fell upon her, for she had introduced idolatry in its worst forms, which also included the practice of immoral customs and other heathen rites and ceremonies.
v. 23. And Joram turned his hands and fled, he tried to get away with all speed, for he suddenly realized the seriousness of the situation, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah! They had been deceived, betrayed, they had fallen a prey to treason.
v. 24. And Jehu, as the king turned to flee, drew a bow with his full strength and smote Jehoram between his arms, between the shoulder-blades, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
v. 25. Then said Jehu to Bidkar, his captain, Take up and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, the part of the royal park which had formerly been his vineyard; for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab, his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him, 1Ki 21:29.
v. 26. Surely, that was the Lord’s oath, I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord, for the sons had evidently also been put to death at the time when Naboth was executed; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord, the punishment would strike the house of Ahab on this very piece of ground. Now, therefore, take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the Lord. Cf 1Ki 21:19. Thus the sin of Ahab was visited upon his son Joram, who followed his father in his wickedness, just as God today visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.
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 vv11, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 33, 35 the servants of his master
the servants of his master
This refers to the other officers who were serving King Ahab.
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mad fellow
"crazy man"
You know the man and the kinds of things he says
Jehu says that he is a young prophet and they all are familiar with the kinds of things young prophets generally say. AT: "You know what kinds of things young prophets like him say"
Tell us
"Tell us what he said"
He said this and that to me
"He talked about some things"
took off his outer garment and put it under Jehu
In this culture, putting clothing on the ground was a way of honoring the king, so that his feet would not touch the dirty ground. AT: "took off their outer clothes and put them in front of Jehu for him to walk on" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
They blew the trumpet and said
Not every man blew a trumpet. It is likely only one man blew a trumpet. AT: "One of them blew the trumpet and they all said" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
Jehu
anoint
king
kingdom of Israel
trumpet
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 vv11, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34 9:11 madman: God’s faithful servants are often disdained as…
9:11 madman: God’s faithful servants are often disdained as mad by others (see Jer 29:26; Hos 9:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.