2 Kings 10
BBC2 Kings 10:1
10:1-11 Jehu’s next step was to slay seventy descendants (“sons”) of Ahab who were living in Samaria. He first gave their guardians an ultimatumchoose the best qualified of Ahab’s descendants as kings and fight against Jehu and his men. But they remembered how two kings (Joram and Ahaziah) had been powerless against Jehu at Jezreel, so they sent back word that they would be obedient servants. He wrote back that they could demonstrate their loyalty to him by delivering the heads of Ahab’s seventy male descendants to Jezreel the next day. They agreed to this. In the morning Jehu went out to see the heads, lying in two heaps at the entrance of the gate.
Perhaps the assembled people expected him to be angry at this wholesale destruction, not knowing that he had ordered it. Quickly he set their minds at ease, saying in effect: You are innocent of this deed. I am innocent too. It is true that I killed my master, Joram, but who killed these? It must have been God, fulfilling what He predicted to His servant Elijah. In further fulfillment of Elijah’s prophecy, Jehu proceeded to kill all of Ahab’s relatives, great men, close acquaintances, and his priests in Jezreel. 10:12-14 On the way to the capital, Samaria, Jehu met . . . forty-two of Ahaziah’s relatives. “Brothers” (v. 13) means cousins, nephews, etc., since Ahaziah’s brothers had been slain (2Ch_21:17). These people had come from Judah to visit the royal family of Israel. Realizing that they had ties with the house of Ahab, Jehu ordered them to be killed at the well of Beth Eked. 10:15-17 Jehu also met Jehonadab (also called Jonadab), a Rechabite. On the assurance that Jehonadab was loyal to him, Jehu invited him to ride to Samaria and witness his zeal for the LORD. Jeremiah 35 tells us a little more about Jehonadab. He ordered his descendants to return to the early lifestyle that Israel had known under Moses and Joshua, in an attempt to keep them from following the kingdom into apostasy, the national sin of Israel. Upon hearing of Jehu’s purge, he went with the new king, who immediately welcomed him as a great ally in the fight against Baalism. In Samaria, Jehu slew all the remaining relatives of Ahab. Morgan warns: He [Jehu] was proud of his own zeal. How subtle the peril! And it is a peril. Wherever it exists it leads to other evil things. While this man was carrying out the judgments of God upon Israel, he was in his own life corrupt.
2 Kings 10:18
- Jehu’s Purge of the Baal-Worshipers (10:18-36)10:18-28 The new king’s next assault was aimed at the worshipers of Baal. In order to identify them, he ordered a great holiday in honor of Baal. The temple of Baal was filled with worshipers from all parts of Israel, wearing special identifying vestments. Care was taken to see that no worshipers of Jehovah were present. As soon as Jehu had offered the burnt offering, he gave the signal for his guard and . . . captains to kill all the idolaters. Eighty men were stationed outside to prevent anyone from escaping. Jehu’s men went into the inner room of the temple of Baal, removed the sacred pillars that were there, and burned them. They tore down the temple of Baal, converting it into a latrine or refuse dump. 10:29, 30 In many ways Jehu was one of the best, perhaps the best of the kings of Israel. He executed God’s judgment on the house of Ahab and purged the land of Baal-worshipers. The Lord rewarded what was praiseworthy by promising that his dynasty would continue to the fourth generation (i.e., Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah). 10:31-36 However, Jehu continued to promote the worship of the golden calves, which Jeroboam had inaugurated. Also, he is condemned in Hos_1:4 for his extreme cruelty in exterminating the house of Ahab. As a result of his failures, the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael, the king of Syria, captured the land east of the Jordan that had originally been occupied by the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Elisha had foreseen the activity of Hazael (2Ki_8:12). The Syrian king was carrying out the judgment of the Lord on the house of Israel even as Jehu had executed judgment on the house of Ahab. Behind the activities of these wicked kings the spiritual eye can see the sovereign hand of Jehovah making the wrath of man accomplish His purposes.