You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.
Parallel Translations
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You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.
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And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.
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And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.
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Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 9:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 32:43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.
- 1 Kings 18:4 for when Jezebel cut off Yahweh’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
- 1 Kings 21:15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned, and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
- 1 Kings 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel.
- 1 Kings 21:25 But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
- 2 Kings 9:32-37 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.” ’ ”
- Psalms 94:1-7 Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs, you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out. Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve. Yahweh, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph? They pour out arrogant words. All the evildoers boast. They break your people in pieces, Yahweh, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless. They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
- Matthew 23:35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
- Luke 18:7-8 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
- Romans 12:19 Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”
- Romans 13:4 for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.
- Hebrews 10:30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me;” says the Lord, “I will repay.” Again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
- Revelation 6:9-10 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
- Revelation 18:20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.”
- Revelation 19:2 for his judgments are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 9:7 And thou shalt smite the house of…
2Ki 9:7 And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.
Ver. 7. And thou shalt smite.] See on 2Ki 9:1.
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 Smite, i.e. kill and destroy, as that word is…
Smite, i.e. kill and destroy, as that word is used, Gen 8:21, and elsewhere.
Thy master; thy former lord and king.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For the whole house of Ahab shall perish,.... Be…
For the whole house of Ahab shall perish,.... Be cut off by death, and that in a violent manner, not one should escape:
and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel; of these phrases; see Gill on Kg1 14:10, Kg1 21:21
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 I may avenge,&c. - That they were idolaters was…
I may avenge,&c. - That they were idolaters was bad enough: yet that is not mentioned here: the controversy God has with them, is for being persecutors. Nothing fills the measure of the iniquity of any prince so as this doth, nor brings a surer or sorer ruin.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab]…
Verse 7. Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab] For their most cruel murders they have forfeited their own lives, according to that immutable law, "HE that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." This and the two following verses contain the commission which Jehu received from the Lord against the bloody house of Ahab.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ki 9:7. And thou shalt smite the house of…
2Ki 9:7. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab — Thou shalt execute my judgment upon them, pronounced long ago. That I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, &c. — That they were idolaters was bad enough, and merited all that was brought upon them; yet this is not mentioned here; but the controversy God has with them is for their being persecutors. Nothing fills up the measure of the iniquity of any prince or people so much as this doth; nor brings a surer or sorer ruin. This was the sin which principally brought on Jerusalem both its first and its final destruction, 2Ch 36:16, and Mat 23:37-38. Jezebel’s whoredoms and witchcrafts were not so provoking to God as her persecuting the prophets and other faithful worshippers of God, killing some, and driving the rest into corners and caves, 1Ki 18:4.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Jezabel, who had persecuted the prophets unto death, 3…
Jezabel, who had persecuted the prophets unto death, 3 Kings xviii. 4.
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).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy…
7. thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master] The punishment of Ahab had been postponed because of his repentance (1Ki_21:29) but the sins of the father, which have blossomed and borne evil fruit in his children, will at last be thoroughly punished. The instrument chosen is one who had been in the service of Ahab, and so was aware of the evil that had been wrought by him.
my servants, the prophets] Although Obadiah was able to save a hundred, Jezebel still made havoc of the rest. And it appears from the words that follow that not the prophets only, but all the servants of the Lord, had been the objects of her rage. And she was yet alive and in power. There must have been much zeal for Jehovah to sustain the righteous spirit which manifests itself so frequently in the history of Elijah and Elisha.
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at the hand of Jezebel] i.e. God will require from her and her family the penalty for all the evil that has been wrought.
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 (7) The house of Ahab thy master.—Not Ahab thy…
(7) The house of Ahab thy master.—Not Ahab thy master, but the house of Ahab thy lords. The LXX. adds, from before me.
The blood of my servants the prophets.—See 1Ki_18:4; 1Ki_18:13.
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The blood of all the servants of the Lord.—We are not told elsewhere, but the thing is in itself probable, that Jezebel persecuted to the death those who clung to the exclusive worship of Jehovah.
At the hand of Jezebel.—Comp. Gen_9:5. Jezebel (Heb., ’Izèbel) means immaculata—i.e., virgo. Is it the original of Isabel, Isabella, Isbel?
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 And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy…
And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master. This is plainly a command, not a prophecy. Jehu is expressly ordered by God to "smite," i.e. destroy utterly, the whole house of Ahab. This command he carried out (vers. 24, 33; 2Ki_10:1-11) and his obedience to it obtained for him the temporal reward that his children to the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel. (2Ki_10:30) Yet still his conduct in destroying the house of Ahab is spoken of by the Prophet Hosea as a sin, and God declares, by Hosea"s mouth, that he will "avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu". (Hos_1:4) It is naturally asked could Jehu"s shedding this blood, at God"s command and in fulfillment of his will, be a sin?" And it is rightly answered, "Because, if we do what is the will of God for any end of our own, for anything except God, we do in fact our own will, not God"s. It was not lawful for Jehu to depose and slay the king his master, except at the express command of God, who, as the supreme King, sets up and puts down earthly rulers as he wills. For any other end, and done otherwise than at God"s express command, such an act is sin. Jehu was rewarded for the measure in which he fulfilled God"s commands, as Ahab, "who had sold himself to work wickedness," had yet a temporal reward for humbling himself publicly, when rebuked by God for his sin, and so honoring God, amid an apostate people. But Jehu, by cleaving, against the will of God, to Jeroboam"s sin 2Ki 11:29) which served his own political ends, showed that, in the slaughter of his master, he acted, not as he pretended, out of zeal for the will of God, (2Ki_10:16) but served his own will and his own ambition only. By his disobedience to the one command of God, he showed that he would have equally disobeyed the other, had it been contrary to his own will or interest. He had no principle of obedience. And so the blood which was shed according to the righteous judgment of God, became sin to him that shed it in order to fulfill, not the will of God, but his own" (see Dr. Pusey"s "Minor Prophets, with a Commentary," p. 9,col 1). That I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets. Comp. 1Ki_18:4 1Ki_19:14. Elijah believed all the prophets of Jehovah, except himself, to have been either slain or banished under Ahab, as we see from 1Ki_18:22 1Ki_19:10, 1Ki_19:14. And the blood of all the servants of the Lord. There had evidently been a general persecution of the followers of Jehovah, and not merely a persecution of the prophets. It was only after a number of martyrdoms that the followers of Jehovah in Israel were reduced (1Ki_19:18) to the scanty number of "seven thousand." At the hand of Jezebel. Jezebel was at the bottom of all the persecutions. Sometimes she took matters into her own hands, gave her own orders, and saw them carried out. (1Ki_18:13 1Ki_21:8-14) At other times she was content to "stir her husband up" (1Ki_21:25) and incite him to evil courses.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
The young prophet continues to speak to Jehu, whom he had just anointed as king over Israel.
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I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh
Here the "blood" of the prophets and the servants refers to their deaths. AT: "I may avenge the deaths of my servants the prophets and all the servants of Yahweh" or "so that I may punish them for murdering my servants the prophets and all the servants of Yahweh" (See: Metonymy)
the blood
The understood verb may be supplied. AT: "avenge the blood" (See: Ellipsis)
who were murdered by the hand of Jezebel
This can be stated in active form. AT: "whom Jezebel commanded her servants to murder" or "whose deaths were commanded by Jezebel" (See: Active or Passive)
by the hand of Jezebel
This means that Jezebel commanded the people to be killed. AT: "by an order from Jezebel" or "by Jezebel's command" (See: Metonymy)
For the whole family of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male child
Here to be "cut off" means to be killed. AT: "For the whole family of Ahab will perish, and I will cause every male child in his family to be killed" or "Every member of Ahab's family will die, including every male child" (See: Euphemism)
every male child
This phrase is used to refer to every male, but it specifies "child" to emphasize that it includes children. AT: "every male" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
Ahab
lord
avenge
blood
servant
hand
Jezebel
perish
cut off
free
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.