Chapter Ten

1–17. The destruction by Jehu of the nearest descendants of Ahab. 18–28. The destruction of the priests of Baal, his temple in Samaria, and all the remaining traces of the cult of Baal. 29–36. The zeal of Jehu for the worship of calves, God’s judgment upon the house of Jehu, the beginning of the reduction of the boundaries of the Israelite kingdom, and the death of Jehu.

2 Kings 10:1. Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, the elders, and the guardians of the children of Ahab, saying: 2 Kings 10:2. “When this letter reaches you, since your master’s sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and weapons, 2 Kings 10:3. choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and place him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. 2 Kings 10:4. But they were exceedingly afraid and said, “Behold, two kings could not stand before him; how then can we stand? 2 Kings 10:5. So the steward of the royal household, the governor of the city, the elders, and the guardians sent word to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants; all that you command us we will do; we will not make anyone king; do what you think best. 2 Kings 10:6. And he wrote them a letter the second time, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey my voice, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” [Now the royal sons numbered seventy; the leading men of the city were rearing them.] 2 Kings 10:7. And when the letter reached them, they took the royal princes and slaughtered them—seventy of them—and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. 2 Kings 10:8. And a messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the royal princes.” And he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning. 2 Kings 10:9. The next morning he went out, and standing there, he said to all the people, “You are innocent. Behold, I conspired against my master and killed him; but who killed all these? 2 Kings 10:10. Know then that not one word that the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail; the Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah. 2 Kings 10:11. So Jehu struck down all who were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men, his close friends, and his priests, so that not one of them was left. The cruel wholesale destruction of Jehu of not only all the relatives of the house of Ahab but also all those close to him is partly explained by the general custom, still maintained, in the East that a usurper of the throne mercilessly destroys all male offspring of the overthrown royal house (cf. Judg 9:1 and following; 2 Kgs 11:1): the seventy sons of Ahab (verse 1, 6) were indeed all the male descendants of Ahab, including grandsons and so forth. In the Israelite kingdom, with its frequent revolutions, such bloody reprisals were not uncommon. However, Jehu’s monstrous bloodthirstiness (verse 8) and his hypocritical attempt to shift the murder of members of the royal house from himself (verse 9) show that much depended in this case on Jehu’s personal qualities, his natural severity and cruelty. These qualities of Jehu explain the calculation of his actions, by which he did not dare to directly attack Samaria, but first intimidated the elders and guardians (Hebrew: omanim—“uncles,” cf. 2 Chr 11:23) of the royal children by a threatening and sarcastic letter (verses 2–3), then by the following letter (verse 6) demands from the leaders and guardians the personal murder of members of the house of Ahab, the bringing of the heads of the murdered—a common trophy in the East (1 Sam 17:54; 2 Macc 15:30). When this was done, Jehu found it necessary to clear himself before the people of the murder of the king’s relatives and at the same time to dispose the people to fully go over to Jehu’s side by pointing out that the fall of the house of Ahab is the fulfillment of a terrible judgment of God (1 Kgs 21:19 and following); after which he committed yet another series of murders (verse 11) of trusted people of Joram.

2 Kings 10:12. And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. On the way at the Shearing House of the Shepherds, 2 Kings 10:13. Jehu encountered the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” They answered, “We are the relatives of Ahaziah; and we go down to greet the sons of the king and the queen mother. 2 Kings 10:14. And he said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive, and slaughtered them at the well of the Shearing House—forty-two men—and he left not one of them. Now Jehu proceeds unimpeded to Samaria. But on the way there, at a place called Beth Eked (in the LXX: Beibakath, Vulgate: camera pastorum, cf. Onomasticon, 203), called the Shearing House (probably from the folds for livestock that existed here), he committed another murder of forty-two relatives of Ahaziah of Judah (cf. 2 Chr 22:8).

2 Kings 10:15. And when he departed from there, he encountered Jehonadab son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as my heart is to your heart?” And Jehonadab said, “Yes.” “Then give me your hand.” And he gave him his hand. And he took him up with him into the chariot, 2 Kings 10:16. and said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” And they rode on together. 2 Kings 10:17. When he came to Samaria, he struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Samaria, until he had completely destroyed it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Elijah. Now, having met the pious Jehonadab son of Rechab, known for his godly zeal and ancient patriarchal simplicity of life (he was the founder of the Rechabites, who were a kind of Nazirites, Jer 35:1-19), Jehu hastens to express his favor to him and show before the people that his own zeal for the Lord is approved by so authoritative a figure in the eyes of the people as the pious Jehonadab; therefore he takes him on his chariot so that together with him he might for the first time enter the capital (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 33).

2 Kings 10:18. And Jehu gathered all the people and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. 2 Kings 10:19. Now therefore summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu was acting with cunning in order to destroy the servants of Baal. 2 Kings 10:20. And Jehu said, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” And they proclaimed it. 2 Kings 10:21. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the servants of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the temple of Baal, and the temple of Baal was filled from one end to the other. 2 Kings 10:22. And he said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring out vestments for all the servants of Baal.” And he brought them out. 2 Kings 10:23. And Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab, and said to the servants of Baal, “Search and see that no servants of the Lord are here among you, but only the servants of Baal. 2 Kings 10:24. Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu stationed eighty men outside the house and said, “If any of the men whom I deliver into your hands escapes, the one who lets him escape shall forfeit his own life. 2 Kings 10:25. And when the burnt offering was finished, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, “Go in and strike them down; let none escape.” So they put them to the sword. The guard and the officers cast them out and then went to the interior of the house of Baal. 2 Kings 10:26. And they brought out the sacred pillars from the house of Baal and burned them. 2 Kings 10:27. And they demolished the pillar of Baal, and destroyed the house of Baal, and made it a place for refuse, until this day. 2 Kings 10:28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. Now Jehu carries out an act of zeal for the Lord by destroying the priests, temples, and statues of Baal and defiling his worship (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 34); his cunning succeeds all the more readily because the people probably regarded Jehu only as a usurper of the throne, not as a religious reformer. From verse 22 it is clear that special garments were assigned to the priests of Baal.

2 Kings 10:29. However, Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin—the golden calves at Bethel and the golden calves at Dan. 2 Kings 10:30. And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. 2 Kings 10:31. But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. 2 Kings 10:32. In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel, 2 Kings 10:33. from the east of the Jordan, all the land of Gilead, the land of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, from Aroer, which is on the Arnon, as far as Gilead and Bashan. 2 Kings 10:34. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his mighty deeds, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 2 Kings 10:35. So Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place. 2 Kings 10:36. The length of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years. The zeal of Jehu for the Lord did not extend beyond the overthrow of the cult of Baal. Then he stopped at the general politico-religious cult of the calves, which was common to all the kings of the Israelite kingdom and was intended to prevent the union of the Israelite kingdom with the Judahite, but actually served only for the ruin of the first kingdom, the beginning of which was laid during Jehu himself, when the best eastern provinces of the Israelite kingdom were cut off by Hazael of Syria (verses 32–33). After the twenty-eight-year reign of Jehu and his death, his son Jehoahaz ascended the throne (verse 35).