‏ 2 Kings 9

CHAPTER IX

Elisha sends one of the disciples of the prophets to Ramoth-gilead, to anoint Jehu king of Israel, 1-3.

He acts according to his orders, and informs Jehu that he is to cut off the whole house of Ahab, 4-10.

Jehu's captains proclaim him king, 11-14.

He goes again Jezreel; where he finds Joram and Ahaziah king of Judah, who had come to visit him; he slays them both: the former is thrown into the portion of Naboth; the latter, having received a mortal wound, gives to Megiddo, and dies there, and is carried to Jerusalem, and buried in the city of David, 15-29.

He commands Jezebel to be thrown out of her window; and he treads her under the feet of his horses; and the dogs eat her, according to the word of the Lord, 30-37.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX

Verse 1. One of the children of the prophets] The Jews say that this was Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai.

Gird up thy loins] What thou hast to do requires the utmost despatch.

Verse 4. The young man the prophet] This should be translated, The servant of the prophet; that is, the servant which Elisha now had in place of Gehazi.

Verse 6. King over the people of the Lord] This pointed out to Jehu that he was to rule that people according to God's law; and consequently, that he was to restore the pure worship of the Most High in Israel.

Verse 7. Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab] For their most cruel murders they have forfeited their own lives, according to that immutable law, "HE that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." This and the two following verses contain the commission which Jehu received from the Lord against the bloody house of Ahab.

Verse 10. The dogs shall eat Jezebel] How most minutely was this prophecy fulfilled! See 2Ki 9:33, &c.

Verse 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] Was it because he was a holy man of God that he was reputed by a club of irreligious officers to be a madman? In vain do such pretend that they fight for religion, and are the guardians of the public welfare and morals, if they persecute religion and scoff at holy men. But this has been an old custom with all the seed-the sons, of the serpent. As to religious soldiers, they are far to seek, and ill to find, according to the old proverb.

Ye know the man, and his communication.] Ye know that he is a madman, and that his message must be a message of folly. Jehu did not appear willing to tell them what had been done, lest it should promote jealousy and envy.

Verse 12. They said, It is false] Or, as the Chaldee has it, Thou liest. Or, perhaps, it might be thus understood, "We know he has said nothing but folly and lies, nevertheless, let us hear what he has said."

Verse 13. Took every man his garment] This was a ceremony by which they acknowledged him as king; and it was by such a ceremony that the multitudes acknowledged Jesus Christ for the Messiah and King of Israel, a little before his passion: see Mt 21:7, and the note there. The ceremony was expressive: "As we put our garments under his feet, so we place every thing under his authority, and acknowledge ourselves his servants."

On the top of the stairs] The Chaldee, the rabbins, and several interpreters, understand this of the public sun-dial; which in those ancient times, was formed of steps like stairs, each step serving to indicate, by its shadow, one hour, or such division of time as was commonly used in that country. This dial was, no doubt, in the most public place; and upon the top of it, or on the platform on the top, would be a very proper place to set Jehu, while they blew their trumpets, and proclaimed him king. The Hebrew maaloth is the same word which is used 2Ki 20:9-11, to signify the dial of Ahaz; and this was probably the very same dial on which that miracle was afterwards wrought: and this dial, maaloth, from alah, to go up, ascend, was most evidently made of steps; the shadows projected on which, by a gnomon, at the different elevations of the sun, would serve to show the popular divisions of time. See Clarke on 2Ki 20:9, &c., and the diagram at the end of that chapter.

Verse 14. Joram had kept Ramoth-gilead] The confederate armies appear to have taken this city; but they were obliged to watch their conquests, as they perceived that Hazael was determined to retake it if possible.

Verse 16. Jehu-went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there.] From the preceding verse we learn, that Joram had been wounded in his attack on Ramoth-gilead, and had gone to Jezreel to be cured; and neither he nor Ahaziah knew any thing of the conspiracy in Ramoth-gilead, because Jehu and his captains took care to prevent any person from leaving the city; so that the two kings at Jezreel knew nothing of what had taken place.

Verse 17. A watchman on the tower] These watchmen, fixed on elevated places and generally within hearing of each other, served as a kind of telegraphs, to communicate intelligence through the whole country. But, in some cases, it appears that the intelligence was conveyed by a horseman to the next stage, as in the case before us. At this time, when the armies were at Ramoth-gilead, they were, no doubt, doubly watchful to observe the state of the country, and to notice every movement. See on 2Sa 13:34.

Verse 18. What hast thou to do with peace?] "What is it to thee whether there be peace or war? Join my company, and fall into the rear."

Verse 20. He driveth furiously] Jehu was a bold, daring, prompt, and precipitate general. In his various military operations he had established his character; and now it was almost proverbial.

Verse 21. Joram-and Ahaziah-went out] They had no suspicion of what was done at Ramoth-gilead; else they would not have ventured their persons as they now did.

Verse 22. What peace, so long as the whoredoms] Though the words whoredom, adultery, and fornication, are frequently used to express idolatry, and false religion, in general; yet here they may be safely taken in their common and most obvious sense, as there is much reason to believe that Jezebel was the patroness and supporter of a very impure system of religion; and to this Jehu might refer, rather than to the calf-worship, to which himself was most favourably disposed.

Verse 23. There is treachery, O Ahaziah.] This was the first intimation he had of it: he feels for the safety of his friend Ahaziah, and now they fly for their lives.

Verse 24. Drew a bow with his full strength] The marginal reading is correct: He filled his hand with a bow. That is, "He immediately took up his bow, set his arrow, and let fly." This is the only meaning of the passage.

Between his arms] That is, between his shoulders; for he was now turned, and was flying from Jehu.

Verse 25. Cast him in the portion of the field] This was predicted, 1 Kings 21; and what now happened to the son of Ahab is foretold in 1Ki 21:29 of that chapter.

Verse 26. The blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons] We are not informed in 1 Kings 21 that any of Naboth's family was slain but himself: but as the object both of Ahab and Jezebel was to have Naboth's vineyard entirely, and for ever, it is not likely that they would leave any of his posterity, who might at a future time reclaim it as their inheritance. Again, to secure this point, Jezebel had Naboth convicted of treason and atheism; in order that his whole family might be involved in his ruin.

Verse 27. Fled by the way of the garden] The account of the death of Ahaziah, as given in 2Ch 22:8, 9, is very different from that given here: When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab-he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu; and when they had slain him, they buried him. "The current of the story at large is this," says Dr. Lightfoot: "Jehu slayeth Joram in the field of Jezreel, as Ahaziah and Joram were together; Ahaziah, seeing this, flees, and gets into Samaria, and hides himself there. Jehu marcheth to Jezreel, and makes Jezebel dogs' meat: from thence he sends to Samaria for the heads of Ahab's children and posterity: which are brought him by night, and showed to the people in the morning. Then he marcheth to Samaria, and by the way slayeth forty-two of Ahab's kinsmen; and findeth Jehonadab, the father of the Rechabites. Coming into Samaria, he maketh search for Ahaziah: they find him hid, bring him to Jehu, and he commands to carry him up towards Gur, by Ibleam, and there to slay him. It may be, his father Joram had slain his brethren there, as Ahab had done Naboth, in Jezreel. They do so; smite him there in his chariot; and his charioteer driveth away to Megiddo before he dies. The story in the book of Kings is short: but the book of Chronicles shows the order." Lightfoot's Works, vol. i., p. 88.

Verse 29. In the eleventh year of Joram] The note in our margin contains as good an account of this chronological difficulty as can be reasonably required: Then he began to reign as viceroy to his father in his sickness; 2Ch 21:18, 19. But in Joram's twelfth year he began to reign alone; 2Ki 8:26.

Verse 30. She painted her face, and tired her head] She endeavoured to improve the appearance of her complexion by paint, and the general effect of her countenance by a tiara or turban head-dress. Jonathan, the Chaldee Targumist, so often quoted, translates this vechachalath bitsdida eynaha: "She stained her eyes with stibium or antimony." This is a custom in Astatic countries to the present day. From a late traveller in Persia, I borrow the following account:-

"The Persians differ as much from us in their notions of beauty as they do in those of taste. A large soft, and languishing black eye, with them constitutes the perfection of beauty. It is chiefly on this account that the women use the powder of antimony, which, although it adds to the vivacity of the eye, throws a kind of voluptuous languor over it, which makes it appear, (if I may use the expression,) dissolving in bliss. The Persian women have a curious custom of making their eye-brows meet; and if this charm be denied them, they paint the forehead with a kind of preparation made for that purpose." E. S. Waring's Tour to Sheeraz, 4to., 1807, page 62.

This casts light enough on Jezebel's painting, &c., and shows sufficiently with what design she did it, to conquer and disarm Jehu, and induce him to take her for wife, as Jarchi supposes. This staining of the eye with stibium and painting was a universal custom, not only in Asiatic countries, but also in all those that bordered on them, or had connections with them. The Prophet Ezekiel mentions the painting of the eyes, Eze 23:40.

That the Romans painted their eyes we have the most positive evidence. Pliny says, Tanta est decoris affectatio, ut tinguantur oculi quoque. Hist. Nat. lib. xi., cap. 37. "Such is their affection of ornament, that they paint their eyes also." That this painting was with stibium or antimony, is plain from these words of St. Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosynis, Inunge aculos tuos non stibio diaboli, sed collyrio Christi, "Anoint your eyes, not with the devil's antimony, but with the eye-salve of Christ." Juvenal is plain on the same subject. Men as well as women in Rome practiced it:-

Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes Attollens oculos.

SAT. ii., ver. 93.

"With sooty moisture one his eye-brows dyes,

And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes."

The manner in which the women in Barbary do it Dr. Russel particularly describes:-"Upon the principle of strengthening the sight, as well as an ornament, it is become a general practice among the women to black the middle of their eye-lids by applying a powder called ismed. Their method of doing it is by a cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe. This they wet with water, in order that the powder may stick to it, and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the eye-lids upon it, and so drawing it through between them, it blacks the inside, leaving a narrow black rim all round the edge. This is sometimes practiced by the men, but is then regarded as foppish." RUSSEL'S Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, page 102. See Parkhurst, sub voc.

Verse 31. Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?] Jarchi paraphrases this place thus: "If thou hast slain thy master, it is no new thing; for Zimri also slew Elah, the son of Baasha;" which words were rather intended to conciliate than to provoke. But the words are understood by most of the versions thus: Health to Zimri, the slayer of his master!

Verse 33. So they threw her down] What a terrible death! She was already, by the fall, almost dashed to pieces; and the brutal Jehu trampled her already mangled body under his horse's feet!

Verse 34. She is a king's daughter.] Jezebel was certainly a woman of a very high lineage. She was daughter of the king of Tyre; wife of Ahab, king of Israel; mother of Joram, king of Israel; mother-in-law of Joram, king of Judah; and grandmother of Ahaziah, king of Judah.

Verse 35. The skull-the feet, and the palms of her hands.] The dogs did not eat those parts, say Jarchi and Kimchi, because in her festal dances she danced like a dog, on her hands and feet, wantonly moving her head. What other meaning these rabbins had, I do not inquire. She was, no doubt, guilty of the foulest actions, and was almost too bad to be belied.

How literally was the prediction delivered in the preceding book, (1Ki 21:23, The dogs shall eat Jezebel, by the wall of Jezreel,) fulfilled! And how dearly did she and her husband Ahab pay for the murder of innocent Naboth!

Verse 37. And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung] As it was not buried under the earth, but was eaten by the dogs, this saying was also literally fulfilled.

They shall not say, This is Jezebel.] As she could not be buried, she could have no funeral monument. Though so great a woman by her birth, connections, and alliances, she had not the honour of a tomb! There was not even a solitary stone to say, Here lies Jezebel! not even a mound of earth to designate the place of her sepulture! Judgment is God's strange work; but when he contends, how terrible are his judgments! and when he ariseth to execute judgment, who shall stay his hand? How deep are his counsels, and how terrible are his workings!

‏ 2 Kings 10

CHAPTER X

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,

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, 7, 8.

Jehu shows them to the people, and excuses himself, and states that all is done according to the word of the Lord, 9, 10.

He destroys all the kindred of Ahab that remained in Jezreel,

11.

He also destroys forty-two men, the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, 12-14.

He meets with Jehonadab, and takes him with him in his chariot,

15, 16.

He comes to Samaria, and destroys all that were of the kindred of Ahab there, 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, 18-25.

He burns Baal's images, and makes his temple a draught house,

26-28.

But he does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, and does not prosper, 29-31.

Hazael vexes Israel, 32, 33.

Jehu dies, having reigned over Israel, in Samaria, twenty-eight

years, 34-36.

NOTES ON CHAP. X

Verse 1. Ahab had seventy sons] As he had several wives, he might have many children. The Israelites, from the earliest part of their history, were remarkably fruitful. How amazingly did they multiply in Egypt, even under the hand of the severest oppression! And as to the individuals of whose families we have an account, they are quite remarkable: Rehoboam had thirty-eight sons; Abdon had forty; Tola had thirty; Ahab, seventy; and Gideon, seventy-one.

Unto the rulers of Jezreel] It certainly should be, unto the rulers of Samaria; for to them and to that city the whole context shows us the letters were sent. See 2Ki 10:6.

To them that brought up Ahab's children] It appears that the royal children of Israel and Judah were intrusted to the care of the nobles, and were brought up by them, (see 2Ki 10:6;) and to these, therefore, Jehu's letters are directed. It is supposed Isaiah (Isa 49:23) alludes to this custom: Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers.

Verse 2. A fenced city also] All here seems to refer to Samaria alone; in it were the magazines and implements of war, &c. No reader need be told that these letters were all ironical. It was the same as if he had said, "Ye have no means of defence; Israel is with me: if you yield not up yourselves and the city, I will put you all to the sword."

Verse 4. Two kings stood not before him] That is Joram and Ahaziah.

Verse 5. He that was over the house, &c.] Thus all the constituted authorities agreed to submit.

Will do all that thou shalt bid us] They made no conditions, and stood pledged to commit the horrid murders which this most execrable man afterwards commanded.

Verse 6. Come to me to Jezreel] Therefore the letters were not written to Jezreel, but from Jezreel to Samaria.

Verse 7. Put their heads in baskets] What cold-blooded wretches were the whole of these people!

Verse 8. Lay ye them in two heaps] It appears that the heads of these princes had arrived at Jezreel in the night time: Jehu ordered them to be left at the gate of the city, a place of public resort, that all the people might see them, and be struck with terror, and conclude that all resistance to such authority and power would be vain.

Verse 9. Ye be righteous] Another irony, intended partly to excuse himself, and to involve them in the odium of this massacre, and at the same time to justify the conduct of both, by showing that all was done according to the commandment of the Lord.

Verse 11. Jehu slew all] So it appears that the great men who had so obsequiously taken off the heads of Ahab's seventy sons, fell also a sacrifice to the ambition of this incomparably bad man.

Verse 12. The shearing house] Probably the place where the shepherds met for the annual sheep shearing.

Verse 13. The brethren of Ahaziah] The relatives of his family; for it does not appear that he had any brethren, properly so called: but we know that the term brethren among the Jews signified the relatives of the same family, and especially brothers' and sisters' children: and that these-were such, see 2Ch 22:8.

We go down to salute, &c.] So promptly had Jehu executed all his measures, that even the nearest relatives of the murdered kings had not heard of their death, and consequently had no time to escape. They were all taken as in a net.

Verse 14. The pit of the shearing house] Probably the place where they washed the sheep previously to shearing, or the fleeces after they were shorn off.

Verse 15. Jehonadab the son of Rechab] For particulars concerning this man, his ancestry, and posterity, see the notes on Jer. 35.

Is thine heart right] With me, in the prosecution of a reform in Israel; as my heart is with thy heart in the true religion of Jehovah, and the destruction of Baal?

It is.] I wish a reform in the religion of the country; I am his friend who shall endeavour to promote it.

Give me thine hand.] This has been generally considered as exacting a promise from Jehonadab; but does it mean any more than his taking him by the hand, to help him to step into his chariot, in which Jehu was then sitting? Jehonadab was doubtless a very honourable man in Israel; and by carrying him about with him in his chariot, Jehu endeavoured to acquire the public esteem. "Jehu must be acting right, for Jehonadab is with him, and approves his conduct."

Verse 16. Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.] O thou ostentatious and murderous hypocrite! Thou have zeal for Jehovah and his pure religion! Witness thy calves at Dan and Bethel, and the general profligacy of thy conduct. He who can call another to witness his zeal for religion, or his works of charity, has as much of both as serves his own turn.

Verse 18. Ahab served Baal a little] Jehu had determined to have no worship in Israel but that of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel; therefore he purposes to destroy all the worshippers of Baal: and that he may do it without suspicion, he proclaims a great sacrifice; and that he may do it the more easily, he gathers them all together into one place.

Verse 19. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live.] Because, as he will thereby show himself without zeal for the service of his God, he will justly forfeit his life. All this was done in the very spirit of deceit.

Verse 22. He said unto him that was over the vestry] The word vestry comes from vestiarium, and that from vestes, garments, from vestio, I clothe; and signifies properly the place where the sacerdotal robes and pontifical ornaments are kept. The priests of Baal had their robes as well as the priests of the Lord; but the garments were such that one could be easily distinguished from the other.

Verse 23. None of the servants of the Lord] Though he was not attached to that service, yet he would tolerate it; and as he was led to suppose that he was fulfilling the will of Jehovah in what he was doing, he would of course treat his worship and worshippers with the more respect.

He might have ordered the search to be made on pretense of expelling any of those whom they would consider the profane, especially as this was "a solemn assembly for Baal," as was the custom with the heathen when any extraordinary exhibition of or for their god was expected; thus Callimachus, (Hymn to Apollo,) after imagining the temple and its suburbs to be shaken by the approach of Apollo, cries out, εκαςεκαςοστιςαλιτρος. To prevent any suspicion of his real design, such might have been Jehu's plea, else alarm must have been excited, and perhaps some would have escaped.

Verse 25. As soon as he had made an end of offering] Had Jehu been a man of any conscientious principle in religion, he would have finished the tragedy before he offered the burnt-offering; but to a man of no religion, the worship of Jehovah and of Baal are alike. If he prefers either, it is merely as a statesman, for political purposes.

To the guard and to the captains] leratsim uleshalashim; to the couriers or runners, and the shalashim, the men of the third rank, those officers who were next to the nobles, the king and these being only their superiors. The runners were probably a sort of light infantry.

The city of the house of Baal.] Does not this mean a sort of holy of holies, where the most sacred images of Baal were kept? A place separated from the temple of Baal, as the holy of holies in the temple of Jehovah was separated from what was called the holy place.

Verse 27. Made it a draught house] A place for human excrement; so all the versions understand it. Nothing could be more degrading than this; he made it a public necessary.

Verse 30. 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.

Verse 31. Jehu took no heed] He never made it his study; indeed, he never intended to walk in this way; it neither suited his disposition nor his politics.

Verse 32. The Lord began to cut Israel short] The marginal reading is best: The Lord cut off the ends; and this he did by permitting Hazael to seize on the coasts, to conquer and occupy the frontier towns. This was the commencement of those miserable ravages which Elisha predicted; see 2Ki 8:12. And we find from the next verse that he seized on all the land of Gilead, and that of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; in a word, whatever Israel possessed on the east side of Jordan.

Verse 34. Are they not written in the book of the chronicles] We have no chronicles in which there is any thing farther spoken of this bad man. His reign was long, twenty-eight years; and yet we know nothing of it but the commencement.

FOR barbarity and hypocrisy Jehu has few parallels; and the cowardliness and baseness of the nobles of Samaria have seldom been equalled. Ahab's bloody house must be cut off; but did God ever design that it should be done by these means? The men were, no doubt, profligate and wicked, and God permitted their iniquity to manifest itself in this way; and thus the purpose of God, that Ahab's house should no more reign, was completely accomplished: see 1Ki 21:19, 21, 29. And by this conduct Jehu is said to have executed what was right in God's eyes, 2Ki 10:30. The cutting off of Ahab's family was decreed by the Divine justice; the means by which it was done, or at least the manner of doing, were not entirely of his appointing: yet the commission given him by the young prophet, 2Ki 9:7, was very extensive. Yet still many things seem to be attributed to God, as the agent, which he does not execute, but only permits to be done.