Bible Commentaries

Over 75 Online Commentaries

Jehu's revolution (9:11-10:14)

On hearing of Jehu's anointing as king, Jehu's senior officers swore their immediate allegiance (11-13). Without allowing time for news of the rebellion to leak out, Jehu set off for Jezreel (14-16). As he approached the city, Joram and Ahaziah, unaware of the rebellion, went out to meet him. Joram was killed on the spot, appropriately at Naboth's vineyard (17-26; cf. 1 Kings 21:17-19). Ahaziah was killed after a chase (27-29). Jehu quickly went on to Jezreel to deal with the queen mother, Jezebel. Knowing she could expect the same fate as Joram, she prepared herself to meet the executioner with royal dignity. She died a horrible death, as the prophet had foretold (30-37; cf. v. 10).

The massacre continued. After arranging for the execution of Ahab's seventy surviving male descendants in Samaria, Jehu displayed their heads as a warning to any likely rebels (10:1-8). He tried to make the people believe that the seventy had been killed directly by God, but they were probably not convinced. They well knew that the only way Jehu could make his throne safe was to kill all Ahab's descendants. God's earlier announcement of judgment on the family of Ahab gave Jehu the opportunity to carry out his plans (9-11; cf. 9:7-9). Since the late Ahaziah was a descendant of Ahab, Jehu killed Ahaziah's relatives as well (12-14).

End of Jezebel's Baalism in Israel (10:15-36)

Jehu next put into operation a plan to rid Israel of all Jezebel's Baal-worshipping followers. In this he had the cooperation of Jehonadab, a man who had led his people to give up the agricultural life (possibly because of its tendencies to Baal worship) and go back to the simple way of life followed by Abraham and the early Israelites (15-17; cf. Jeremiah 35:6-10). Through deceit and butchery, Jehu wiped out Jezebel's Baal worshippers (18-27).

However, Jehu did not remove the idol worship established earlier by Jeroboam. This gives further indication that his anti-Baal campaign resulted from political, rather than religious, motives. Nevertheless, he destroyed the dynasty of Omri along with its particular form of Baal worship, and for this God rewarded him. His dynasty would last longer than any other in the northern kingdom (28-31).

As the story in Kings shows, Jehu went far beyond what was necessary to bring God's judgment on the dynasty of Omri. His needless butchery, still talked about a century later, would be the reason why his own dynasty would come to a bloody end (Hosea 1:4).

Jehu's massacre of all the nation's leading administrators left the nation's internal government weak and unstable (see 10:11). The slaughter of Jezebel's descendants brought the long-standing treaty with Tyre and Sidon in the north to a sudden end. The murder of Judah's king and his relatives lost Israel the support of her sister nation to the south. Jehu's withdrawal of Israel's troops from Ramoth-gilead to support his revolution weakened Israel's eastern border (see 9:4-5,11-14). Syria's king Hazael was quick to attack, and over a time seized most of Israel's territory east of Jordan. Elisha's prophecy was coming true (32-36; cf. 8:12).