2 Kings 3:2

And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Was guilty of idolatry: but not like his father, and like his mother; his father Ahab, and his mother Jezebel: for he put away the image of Baal that

And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. No JFB commentary on these verses.

He put away the image of Baal; not from any principle of conscience (for that would have reached the calves also); but either because he was startled at the dreadful judgments of God inflicted upon his father and brother for Baal worship; or because he needed God’ s help to subdue the Moabites, which he knew Baal could not do; or to gratify Jehoshaphat, whose help he meant to crave, which he knew he should never obtain without this; and for this reason, it seems, Jezebel was willing to connive at it, as a trick of state.

2 Kings 3:2 And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made.Ver. 2. But not like his father, and like his mother.] Not all out so bad; and yet not very much better than they. Optimi putantur si vel leviter mali sint, saith a Popish writer concerning the Popes of Rome, vel minus boni quam caeteri mortales esse solent. They are held very good popes if they be not grossly evil; or if somewhat less good than other men use to be. Think the same of the kings of Israel. For he put away the image of Baal.] This was somewhat toward a reformation, and he was drawn to it by good Jehoshaphat’ s persuasion likely, who hoping to work further with him, was content to be his confederate, as it followeth.

(2) Wrought evil.—Did the evil in the eyes, &c., i.e., maintained the illicit worship of the bullock at Beth-el (2 Kings 3:3). Like his mother.—Jezebel lived throughout his reign (2 Kings 9:30), which explains why he did not eradicate the Baal-worship (2 Kings 10:18-28). For he put away.—And he removed, scil., from its place in the temple of Baal. (Comp. 1 Kings 16:31-32.) It must have been afterwards restored, probably by the influence of Jezebel. (Comp. 2 Kings 10:26-27, and Notes.) The image.—Pillar. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 34:4.) The LXX., Vulg., and Arabic read “pillars” (a different pointing); and the LXX. adds at the end, “and brake them in pieces.” This seems original. Ahab would be likely to set up more than one pillar to Baal.

Verse 2. He put away the image of Baal] He abolished his worship; but he continued that of the calves at Dan and Beth-el.

2. And he wrought evil] R.V. And he did that which was evil. The change made frequently that the same Hebrew phrase may be regularly rendered by the same English. but not like his father, and like his mother] Jehoram was not so far gone in evil as his brother Ahaziah had been. He kept indeed to the calf-worship of Jeroboam, but put down the Baal-worship which had been introduced by Jezebel from Phœnicia. The writer makes a difference, as might be expected, between the sin of Jeroboam, grievous though that was, and the grosser idolatry which had been practised in the two last reigns. he put away the image [R.V. pillar] of Baal] The Hebrew word [maççebah] is first used of the stone (Genesis 28:18) which Jacob set up for a pillar at Bethel, and it seems likely, as it is used here and elsewhere in the accounts of Baal-worship, that these objects of worship were not figures, but of the nature of obelisks. They were probably for the most part of stone, though those mentioned as brought out of the house of Baal (2 Kings 10:26) and burned must have been of wood. Perhaps those under cover were made of wood, and overlaid with precious metals (cf. Hosea 2:8), while those out of doors were of stone. that his father had made] This was no doubt some special pillar which the king had erected near his palace for his own and Jezebel’s worship. This open token of devotion to the idols of the nations Jehoram put away. But there remained pillars of Baal and a house of Baal still for Jehu to destroy. Jehoram found it difficult to go far in a reformation among persons given up as his subjects were to idolatry, and all the more difficult because his own father had been the founder and fosterer of the evil.

On the “evil” done by Ahab, see especially 1 Kings 16:30-34. Jehoram, warned by the fate of his brother (2 Kings 1:4 note), began his reign by a formal abolition of the Phoenician state religion

2. He put away the image of Baal — Discountenanced, and at least partially abolished, the Baal worship that had gained such strength in Israel during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.