Bible Commentaries

Jehu's Extermination of Baal Worship

1. Ahab.. sons] These were probably his grandchildren rather than his children. Unto the rulers of Jezreel] LXX has 'unto the rulers of Samaria,' which the sense requires.

2. A fenced city] i.e. Samaria. Ahab's dynasty had obtained the throne by force of arms (1 Kings 16:21-22), and Jehu implied that its supporters must defend it by the same means.

4. Two kings] Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah.

5. Over the house.. over the city] These officials are also alluded to in 1 Kings 4:5 to 1 Kings 22:26; 2 Kings 18:18; Isaiah 22:15.

6. Take ye the heads] By slaying the young princes the rulers and elders would be implicated in Jehu's treason and would therefore in self-defence have to support him.

9. Ye be righteous] Jehu appeals to the people to judge between him and any that might accuse him. The fact that the elders of the city had put Jehoram's sons to death argued that the overthrow of Ahab's dynasty was not due solely to Jehu's private ambition but to widespread disaffection against a guilty house. But Jehu unfairly concealed his own communications with the elders (2 Kings 10:1-3).

10. The word of the Lord] see 1 Kings 21:19, 1 Kings 21:29.

Though Ahab had repented of his murder of Naboth, and the chastisement he had incurred was for a time postponed, and though Jehoram seems to have attempted some religious reform (2 Kings 3:2), yet the evil influence of Jezebel had spread widely (see 2 Kings 10:19.), and eventually brought judgment upon the impious family.

13. The king.. the queen] i.e. Joram and Jezebel (the term 'queen' denoting the queenmother).

14. The pit] i.e. the tank or pool where the sheep were washed.

15. Jehonadab] Jehonadab was a Kenite (1 Chronicles 2:55), the tribe of Arabian nomads to which Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, belonged (Judges 1:16). If it be] spoken by Jehu (so the LXX). Give me thine hand] i.e. as a pledge: cp. Ezra 10:19; Ezekiel 17:18.

18. And Jehu, etc.] Jehu proceeded to use the same crafty secrecy in the extirpation of Baal worship as he had displayed in destroying Ahab and his house (2 Kings 9:16 f; 2 Kings 10:1.).

22. The vestry] Part of the Temple where the 'changes of raiment,' usually worn on festal occasions, were stored.

25. To the city of the house of Baal] This seems unintelligible, and the word 'city' is probably a corruption of the word 'oracle' (see 1 Kings 6:5), the Hebrew being somewhat similar.

26. The images] RV 'the pillars': and so in 2 Kings 10:27. They were probably mere columns, not figures of the human form.

27. Draught house] equivalent to a dunghill: cp. Ezra 6:11; Daniel 2:5. Unto this day] see on 1 Kings 8:8.

30. Of the fourth generation] see 2 Kings 15:12. The four generations were Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah. Jehu's dynasty sat longer than any other on the throne of Israel.

31. Jehu took no heed.. heart] Jehu was a worshipper of the Lord (Jehovah), and, in his violent extirpation of the house of Ahab, was doubtless actuated by religious zeal as well as by motives of ambition, whilst his desire to suppress the worship of Baal which had been encouraged by Ahab and Jezebel was reinforced by indignation at the tyranny manifested by the reigning house in the matter of Naboth: cp. 2 Kings 9:25, 2 Kings 9:26. But the combined revolution and reformation which he effected were accompanied by massacres which, at a later date, excited the abhorrence of the prophet Hosea (Hosea 1:4); and though the religion of Jehovah was restored by him to its previous supremacy, it retained the idolatrous character which Jeroboam I had given it by representing the Deity under the figure of a young bull.

32. Coasts] i.e. borders. For Hazael's barbarities in Gilead (2 Kings 10:33) see Amos 1:3, Amos 1:4.

34. The rest of the acts of Jehu] An Assyrian inscription (now in the British Museum) records that Jehu paid tribute to Shalmaneser II. That king in 842 b.c. defeated Hazael the king of Syria; and the injuries that the latter inflicted upon Israel (2 Kings 10:32-33) would naturally lead Jehu to court the friendship of his conqueror. Among the gifts that formed part of Jehu's tribute were 'bars of silver, bars of gold, a golden ladle, golden goblets, golden pitchers, bars of lead, a staff for the hand of the king, shafts of spears' (Schrader, Cor, i, 199).