2 Re 10:30 Commento

We have in this chapter, I. A further account of Jehu's execution of his commission. He cut off, I. All Ahab's sons (Kg2 10:1-10). 2. All Ahab's kindred (Kg2 10:11-14, Kg2 10:17). 3. Ahab's idolatry: his zeal against this he took Jonadab to be witness to (Kg2 10:15, Kg2 10:16), summoned all the worshippers of Baal to attend (Kg2 10:18-23) and slew them all (Kg2 10:24, Kg2 10:25), and then abolished that idolatry (Kg2 10:26-28). II. A short account of the administration of his government. 1. The old idolatry of Israel, the worship of the calves, was retained (Kg2 10:29-31). 2. This brought God's judgments upon them by Hazael, with which his reign concludes (Kg2 10:32-36).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 10 This chapter gives a further account of the destruction of the house of Ahab by Jehu, or his orders, even of all his sons and relations, Kg2 10:1, and also of the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, Kg2 10:12, of his taking up Jehonadab the son of Rechab into his chariot, to be a witness of his zeal for the Lord, Kg2 10:15, and of his gathering together the prophets, priests, and worshippers of Baal, and slaying them, Kg2 10:18 and of his extirpation of the idolatry of Baal, Kg2 10:26, nevertheless he continued the worship of the calves, Kg2 10:29 wherefore Israel was distressed by the king of Syria, Kg2 10:32 and the chapter is concluded with the reign and death of Jehu, Kg2 10:34.

In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short,.... To bring their dominions into a narrower compass; this was done in the days of Jehu, though he was so active and courageous, wherefore the hand of God was the more seen in it: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; which bordered on his country, when he did what Elisha foretold he would, Kg2 8:12.

Jehu sends an ironical letter to the elders of Samaria, telling them to choose one of the best of their master's sons, and put him on the throne; to which they return a submissive answer, Kg2 10:1-6. He writes a second letter, and orders them to send him the heads of Ahab's seventy sons; they do so, and they are laid in two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, Kg2 10:7, Kg2 10:8. Jehu shows them to the people, and excuses himself, and states that all is done according to the word of the Lord, Kg2 10:9, Kg2 10:10. He destroys all the kindred of Ahab that remained in Jezreel, Kg2 10:11. He also destroys forty-two men, the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Kg2 10:12-14. He meets with Jehonadab, and takes him with him in his chariot, Kg2 10:15, Kg2 10:16. He comes to Samaria, and destroys all that were of the kindred of Ahab there, Kg2 10:17. He pretends a great zeal for the worship of Baal, and gathers all his priests together, under the pretense of a grand sacrifice, and slays them all, Kg2 10:18-25. He burns Baal's images, and makes his temple a draught house, Kg2 10:26-28. But he does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, and does not prosper, Kg2 10:29-31. Hazael vexes Israel, Kg2 10:32, Kg2 10:33. Jehu dies, having reigned over Israel, in Samaria, twenty-eight years, Kg2 10:34-36.

Thy children of the fourth generation - These four descendants of Jehu were Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam the second, and Zechariah; see 2 Kings 14 and 15. This was all the compensation Jehu had in either world, as a recompense of his zeal for the Lord.

JEHU CAUSES SEVENTY OF AHAB'S CHILDREN TO BE BEHEADED. (2Ki. 10:1-17) Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria--As it appears (Kg2 10:13), that grandsons are included it is probable that this number comprehended the whole posterity of Ahab. Their being all assembled in that capital might arise from their being left there on the king's departure for Ramoth-gilead, or from their taking refuge in some of the strongholds of that city on the news of Jehu's conspiracy. It may be inferred from the tenor of Jehu's letters that their first intention was to select the fittest of the royal family and set him up as king. Perhaps this challenge of Jehu was designed as a stroke of policy on his part to elicit their views, and to find out whether they were inclined to be pacific or hostile. The bold character of the man, and the rapid success of his conspiracy, terrified the civic authorities of Samaria and Jezreel into submission.

Extermination of the Brothers of Ahaziah of Judah and of the Other Members of Ahab's Dynasty. - Kg2 10:12. Jehu then set out to Samaria; and on the way, at the binding-house of the shepherds, he met with the brethren of Ahaziah, who were about to visit their royal relations, and when he learned who they were, had them all seized, viz., forty-two men, and put to death at the cistern of the binding-house. ויּלך ויּבא, "he came and went," appears pleonastic; the words are not to be transposed, however, as Bttcher and Thenius propose after the Syriac, but ויּלך is added, because Jehu did not go at once to Samaria, but did what follows on the way. By transposing the words, the slaying of the relations of Ahaziah would be transferred to Samaria, in contradiction to Kg2 10:15. - The words from וגו בּית הוּא onwards, and from ויהוּא to יהוּדה מלך, are two circumstantial clauses, in which the subject יהוּא is added in the second clause for the sake of greater clearness: "when he was at the binding-house of the shepherds on the road, and Jehu (there) met with the brethren of Ahaziah, he said..." הרעים בּית־עקד (Βαιθακάθ, lxx) is explained by Rashi, after the Chaldee רעיּא כנישׁת בית, as signifying locus conventus pastorum, the meeting-place of the shepherds; and Gesenius adopts the same view. But the rest of the earlier translators for the most part adopt the rendering, locus ligationis pastorum, from עקד, to bind, and think of a house ubi pastores ligabant oves quando eas tondebant. In any case it was a house, or perhaps more correctly a place, where the shepherds were in the habit of meeting, and that on the road from Jezreel to Samaria; according to Eusebius on the Onom. s.v. Βαιθακάθ, a place fifteen Roman miles from Legio (Lejun, Megiddo), in the great plain of Jezreel: a statement which may be correct with the exception of the small number of miles, but which does not apply to the present village of Beit Kad to the east of Jenin (Rob. Pal. iii. p. 157), with which, according to Thenius, it exactly coincides. עחזיהוּ אחי, for which we have אח אחי בּני, Ahaziah's brothers' sons, in Ch2 22:8, were not the actual brothers of Ahaziah, since they had been carried off by the Arabians and put to death before he ascended the throne (Ch2 21:17), but partly step-brothers, i.e., sons of Joram by his concubines, and partly Ahaziah's nephews and cousins. לשׁלום, ad salutandum, i.e., to inquire how they were, or to visit the sons of the king (Joram) and of the queen-mother, i.e., Jezebel, therefore Joram's brothers. In Ch2 22:1 they are both included among the "sons" of Ahab.

Jehu is promised the possession of the throne to the fourth generation of his sons for having exterminated the godless royal house of Ahab (vid., Kg2 15:12). The divine sentence, "because thou hast acted well to do right in mine eyes. (because thou) hast done as it was in my heart to the house of Ahab," refers to the deed as such, and not to the subjective motives by which Jehu had been actuated. For it is obvious that it had not sprung from pure zeal for the honour of the Lord, from the limitation added in Kg2 10:31 : "but Jehu did not take heed to walk in the law of Jehovah with all his heart, and did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam."