CHAPTER 10

(884 B.C.)

JEHU KILLS AHABS SONS

¹And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them who brought up Ahabs children, saying (the word sons in the Hebrew being used as well for grandsons and even great-grandsons, most of these probably refer to his grandsons; however, Ahab showed he was doing all within his power to continue his dynasty.

Jezreel is the scene of the cruel murder of Naboth and his sons, with it now becoming the theater of the just wrath of God upon Naboths murderers. Here may be learned something of how God regards sin and judges it. If, in longsuffering Grace, He delays the judgment, this longsuffering heightens the terror of the Divine anger. In harmony with this, how appalling is the expression in the Book of Revelation, the wrath of the Lamb not the wrath of the lion, but the wrath of the Lamb),

²Now as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your masters sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armour;

³Look even out the best and meetest of your masters sons, and set him on his fathers throne, and fight for your masters house.

⁴But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? (The kings addressed are Joram and Ahaziah, who had confronted Jehu, and had met their deaths.)

⁵And he who was over the house, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants, and will do all that you shall bid us; we will not make any king: do you that which is good in your eyes.

⁶Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If you be mine, and if you will hearken unto my voice, take you the heads of the men your masters sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the kings sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up (Jezreel was not more than twenty miles from Samaria).

⁷And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the kings sons, and killed seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel (Jehu had told them to personally bring the heads to him; but this was a degradation to which they did not feel bound to submit; they, therefore, sent the heads by trusted messengers).

⁸And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the kings sons. And he said, Lay you them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning (thus, all who entered into the town or left the town would see them and, being struck by the ghastly spectacle, would make inquiry and learn the truth Pulpit).

⁹And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, You be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him: but who killed all these? (Politically, Jehu seeks to absolve himself of blame concerning the deaths of these individuals.)

¹⁰Know now that there shall fall unto the Earth nothing of the Word of the LORD, which the LORD spoke concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD has done that which He spoke by His Servant Elijah (Jehu declares that what has been done has been according to the Word of the Lord, and so it was [I Ki. 21:19, 21, 28-29]).

¹¹So Jehu killed all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining (the entire Ahab faction was blotted out).

JEHU KILLS THE PRINCES OF JUDAH, DESCENDANTS OF AHABS DAUGHTER

¹²And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria (the capital of Israel). And as he was at the shearing house in the way,

¹³Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are you? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah (who had been king of Judah); and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen (hearing of the great unrest in Samaria, they had probably been sent by Athaliah to render any assistance that they could to the house of Ahab).

¹⁴And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them (as well, these were also descendants of Ahab).

THE BALANCE OF AHABS HOUSE IN SAMARIA KILLED BY JEHU AS THE LORD INSTRUCTED

¹⁵And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot (Jehonadab was the founder of the sect of the Rechabites [Jer. 35:6-19]; he joins affinity with Jehu).

¹⁶And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD. So they made him (Jehonadab) ride in his (Jehus) chariot (man can be very zealous for God, as Jehu, and yet not know Him, but this zeal only goes as far as it suits personal interests or religious and political pursuits; the zeal of such persons only lasts so long as it suits their purposes).

¹⁷And when he came to Samaria, he killed all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the LORD, which he spoke to Elijah (I Ki. 21:17-22]).

JEHU KILLS THE WORSHIPPERS OF BAAL

¹⁸And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much (probably, as yet, no suspicion had touched the public mind that Jehu would be a less zealous worshipper of Baal than his predecessor).

¹⁹Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal (subtilty was characteristic of Jehu, who always preferred to gain his ends by cunning rather than in a straightforward way).

²⁰And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it (no opposition was made to the kings wish; however, they had no idea as to what he was about to do).

²¹And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end to another (Ahab had erected a temple to Baal in Samaria shortly after his marriage to Jezebel [I Ki. 16:32]; so this is where they would gather).

²²And he said unto him who was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments (the keeper of the wardrobe obeyed the order given him, and supplied the vestments to all the worshippers, whatever those vestments may have been).

²³And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal, and said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the LORD, but the worshippers of Baal only.

²⁴And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him.

²⁵And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and kill them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal (they made their way into the inner sanctuary).

²⁶And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them (they were evidently made of wood).

²⁷And they broke down the image of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day (made it into a garbage dump).

²⁸Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel (the measures taken were effective; the worship of Baal was put down, and is not said to have been revived in the kingdom of the ten tribes; regrettably, Moloch-worship seems to have taken its place Pulpit).

²⁹Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan (it seems that Jehu was not prepared to eradicate all idol worship in Israel; his zeal for Jehovah did not reach so far; thus his reformation of religion was but a half-reformation, a partial turning to Jehovah, which brought no permanent blessing upon the nation).

A SUMMARY OF JEHUS KINGSHIP

³⁰And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because you have done well in executing that which is right in My eyes, and have done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel (these four generations were: Jehoahaz [13:1-9], Joash [13:10-25; 14:1-16], Jeroboam II [14:16-29], and Zachariah [14:28-29; 15:8-12]).

³¹But Jehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.

³²In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;

³³From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. (What a golden opportunity Jehu had to incur the Blessings of God, but he had no real love for the Lord. Everything he did only suited himself. So now the Lord will allow troubles to begin in Israel, which will finally culminate in her ceasing to be as a nation, and all because of sin.)

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³⁵And Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead.

³⁶And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years. (Jehus reign was the longest reign of an Israelite king, with the exception of Jeroboam II, who is said in 14:23 to have reigned 41 years. The kings of Judah, it seems, by and large, were longer-lived. In fact, not one single king of the northern confederation of Israel was said by the Lord to be righteous.)