2 Kings 10

1. Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and unto them that brought up the sons of Ahab, saying, And now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armour; look ye out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, the two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? And he that was over the household, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and they that brought up the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any man king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be on my side, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to-morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them unto him to Jezreel. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him: but who smote all these? Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. So Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house of the shepherds in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah: and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. And 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 thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD. So they made him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he smote all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake to Elijah. And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshippers, 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. And Jehu said, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. And 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 filled from one end to another. And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal; and he 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. And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him. And 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 slay 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. And they brought forth the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. And they brake down the pillar of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house, unto this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he 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. And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin. In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. Now 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? And Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years.

1-28. THE revolution initiated by the destruction of Joram and Jezebel is here traced through its second and its third stages. In verses 1-11 is related the action taken by him, so far as the descendants of Ahab were concerned, and his success in ridding himself of all rivals possessed of so strong a claim. Verses 12-14 relate his dealings with another body of Ahab’s relations, belonging to the neighboring kingdom of Judah. In verses 15-28 an account is given of the still more bloody and more sweeping measures by which he cowed the party opposed to him, and firmly established his dynasty in the Israelite kingdom. Hammond.

1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.** By “sons” we must understand “male descendants.” Most of the “seventy” were probably his grandsons (see verse 3); some may have been great-grandsons. They lived in Samaria; since Samaria was the principal residence of the court, Jezreel being simply a country palace. Hammond.—The term “sons” is evidently used for descendants, since there were among them children of Jehoram. (See verses 2, 3, 6, 13.) B. C.

2-5. To the persons in charge of the young princes in Samaria, Jehu wrote—for we now begin to hear of written communications more frequently than of old—a curious epistle. He assumed their devotion to the house of Ahab, and told them that, since they had the resources of the capital at their disposal, they had better set up one of the likeliest of the young princes as king, and uphold his cause by force of arms. There was a latent irony in this letter; as the writer must well have known the real state of the case, and how little likely it was that they would take up the cause of a fallen house—known to have been doomed of God. It so happened. The elders of Samaria, having conferred on the subject, sent in reply their unreserved submission to Jehu, declaring their readiness to obey his orders in all things. Kitto.

6,7,8. King’s sons.** Some of the royal children were actual sons of Jehoram, while others were probably his nephews—are now called in a general way “the king’s sons.”

8. The “two” heaps were probably placed one on either side of the gateway, to strike terror into the partisans of the late dynasty as they passed in and out of the town.

9. A serious address to those Jezreelites who had gone out of their town to see the sight. “Ye are just,” says Jehu, “and can judge aright. Judge between me and the party of Ahab who accuse me. I indeed slew my master, but they have slain these seventy youths.” Jehu keeps back the fact that they had done it at his command. B. C.—He concealed the orders to this effect that he had sent—and which no one else dared disclose—desirous of making it appear that this slaughter had been the spontaneous act of the leading men of the metropolis, in testimony of their adhesion to his cause. Kitto.

11. Having killed Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel, having secured the adhesion of the chief men in Samaria, and effected the destruction of all those who might naturally have claimed the succession and involved him in civil war, Jehu proceeded to greater lengths. He “slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel”—the princesses probably, as well as the princes—and further put to death all the leading partisans of the dethroned dynasty, the “great men,” perhaps even those who had worked his bloody will at Samaria, and the intimate friends and supporters of the house. Hammond.

12. The brethren of Ahaziah. Not the actual brothers of Ahaziah, who had all been slain by the Arabs before his accession to the throne (2 Chron. 21:17; 22:1); but his nephews, the sons of his brothers, as we learn from 2 Chron. 22:8. It is remarkable that they should have penetrated so far into the kingdom of Israel without having heard of the revolution. The children of the king and of the queen—i.e., “the sons of Jehoram, and the children (sons and grandsons) of the queen-mother, Jezebel.”

13. Neither left he any of them. These princes, it must be remembered, were descendants of Ahab through Athaliah, and so included in Elijah’s sentence (1 K. 21:21). B. C.

14. Jehonadab, the son of Rechab. Called Jonadab (Jer. 35:6, 14, 16, 19). It appears from 1 Chron. 2:55 that this personage belonged to the tribe of the Kenites, one of the most ancient in Palestine. Their origin is unknown, but their habits were certainly those of Arabs. They were constant nomads, and are found in various parts of Palestine at different periods—among the Midianites in the time of Moses, who took his wife from them—in Galilee, under the early judges (Judg. 4:10-17)—mixed up with Amalek, in the reign of Saul (1 S. 15:6). Owing to their connection with Moses, they formed a friendship with the Israelites, accompanied them in their wanderings, and finally received a location in the wilderness of Judah (Judg. 1:16). The character of this chief, Jonadab, is best seen in the rule which he established for his descendants (Jer. 35:6, 7)—a rule said to be still observed at the present day (Wolff, Pierotti). B. C.

If it be, give me thine hand. Jehu merely means to say, “If thou art heart and soul with me in the matter, put out thy hand, and I will take thee into my chariot.” Jehu intended at once to do honor to the Kenite chief, and to strengthen his own position by being seen to be so familiar with him. And he—i.e., Jehonadab—gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. There was always room in a chariot for at least three or four persons—the charioteer and the owner of the chariot in front, and one or two guards behind. Hammond.

Doubtless his heart was thoroughly in accord with Jehu’s heart in the purpose of rooting out the Baal worship. It is impossible that its sensuality and effeminacy (being joined with that of Astarte) should not have been revolting to a man of Jonadab’s temperament and race, a man of the free open air, with its necessary abstinence and scorn of luxury. The spiritual nature of such a man, quick and responsive from his constant communion with nature, would be the first to feel the power of teachings such as Elijah’s, and it is not surprising that he was moved by them to lay upon his tribe, in a time when luxury and indulgence were eating out the heart of the nation, the laws of abstinent and simple living, which, as we find, they obeyed for more than three hundred years (Jer. 35:1-10). Houghton.

As a protest against the corruption and luxury of his time, Jehonadab had withdrawn from life in cities, and had laid upon his sons a vow that they would drink no wine, neither build houses, nor plant vineyards, but would dwell in tents all their days. To get this man of ascetic virtue on his side would, Jehu felt, give color and repute to his proceedings. It is noticeable how anxious men who make no pretensions to godliness often are to get the countenance and approval of good men for their deeds. Hypocrisy has been called the homage which vice pays to virtue, and this desire for the approval of a holy man is, in another form, the tribute of worldly policy to the superior power of character. J. O.

In how many fields is the anxious inquiry made by faithful pastors, “Is thine heart right?” To this the response may be made by some, “It is.” What more reasonable than the further demand, “Give me thy hand?” The Church of God needs to-day as perhaps never before that every one whose heart is with its cause should pledge his fidelity by open confession and deliberate act. Jehonadab was not afraid to give his hand to the man who had taken upon himself the avenging of the honor of God’s name, “and he took him up into his chariot.” Before the eyes of all Israel he identified himself with this struggling cause. He did not wait for its complete triumph. He did not ask for its ideal perfection. He did require that it should renounce every doubtful follower. Prompt, decisive, unashamed, the man accepted the issue and the challenge, and to the loyalty of his heart he added the open pledging of his palm. Interior.

Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. Of Jehu’s “zeal,” in itself considered, there could be no question. His zeal is seen in his eager haste to attain his ends, in his scouting of difficulties, in the thoroughness with which each piece of work is accomplished, in the quickness and skill of his devices. Such zeal is in large measure a natural endowment—a thing of temperament. Still, it is an essential to success in practical undertakings, spiritual as well as worldly. “It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing” (Gal. 4 : 18). More doubtful is the quality of Jehu’s zeal “for the Lord.” Ostensibly it was God’s will Jehu was carrying out; outwardly it was God’s work he was doing. He may even have persuaded himself into the belief that he was honestly and disinterestedly serving God’s ends. But the result showed that in serving God it was really his own ends Jehu was serving. His zeal was impure. It was largely inspired by selfish ambition, by considerations of policy, by the thought of the reward to himself. It was impure also in its admixture of craft and worldly expediency. Similarly, how much that passes for “zeal for the Lord” in this world is of the same impure nature! How much of it is inspired by sectarian rivalry, by party spirit, by the desire to make “a fair show in the flesh” (Gal. 6 : 12), by self-interest and worldly policy. How largely is it alloyed with human passion and intrigue! Truly we do well to examine ourselves. Zeal is to be tested not by its passing and spasmodic exhibitions, but by its power of endurance amid good report and evil report. J. O.

Jehu’s zeal burned brightly and scorched up everything before it as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was “zeal for God when it answers my purpose,” not “zeal for God, cost me what it may.” He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God. Bp. H. Goodwin.

There is such a thing as a factitious zeal in the active service of religion; and that forms a ground of high pretension. You may have seen examples. Men in restless activity; full of scheme, and expedient, and experiment, and ostentatious enterprise; to promote, apparently, the work of God, the Christian cause; seeming ready to compass sea and land for the purpose. But an attentive observer could easily desery that the cause of God was a very secondary concern with them, even at the best interpretation. Their grand object, whether they were conscious of it or not, was their own notoriety; and the cause of religion happened to be that which would most effectually serve this purpose. “Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts.” The successes and progress, real or pretended, of a good cause, were recounted and proclaimed by them in no other form of story than that of their own exploits for it. J. F.

There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what the world calls zeal. There are so many passions which hide themselves under it, and so many mischiefs arising from it, that some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. Spectator.—Unholy ambition, a compound of the love of renown and the love of power, drives the ploughshare of ruin over the fairest portions of the world. It turns men into Ishmaelites. It reigns in the human heart from early childhood to the extremest age—from the tiny rival for maternal caresses up to the contender for a throne. The speciality of its unfitness for religious service is not so much that over the whole face of society it produces such a struggling of human spirits for mastery and power; but that the whole contest is pushed without a throb or a prayer for anything but personal aggrandizement; that it has no mercy and no forgiveness for any man, action or event which obstructs the designs of its inflexible ambition; that its strides are over that very truth and equity and happiness and order, to abet which God asks for the heart of humanity. C. White.

Let us take heed that we do not sometimes call that zeal for God and His Gospel which is nothing else but our own temptations and stormy passions. True zeal is a sweet, heavenly and gentle flame, which maketh us active for God, but always within the sphere of love. It never calls for fire from heaven to consume those that differ a little from us in their apprehensions. It is like that kind of lightning (which philosophers speak of) that melts the sword within, but singeth not the scabbard; it strives to save the soul, but it hurteth not the body. Cudworth.

17. Spake to Elijah.** This emphatic reiteration (compare verse 10) marks, first, how in the mind of the writer all this history is viewed as deriving its special interest from its being so full and complete an accomplishment of Elijah’s prophecies; and, secondly, how at the time Jehu carefully put forward the plea that what he did had this object. It does not indicate that a single-minded wish to execute God’s will was Jehu’s predominant motive. Even where he most strictly fulfilled the letter of prophecies, he was working for himself, not for God; and hence vengeance was denounced upon his house even for the very “blood of Jezreel” (Hos. 1:4). B. C.

18-28. Having thus obeyed the Divine injunction to “avenge the blood of the prophets and servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel and Ahab,” Jehu next proceeded to crush out the worship of Baal which Ahab and Jezebel had established in Israel. B.

18. The serving of false gods was by the law of Israel a capital offence (De. 13). It was right, therefore, for Jehu to use his power to put an end to the practice, and to inflict upon the perpetrators of this crime the penalty of the law. But in doing this he made use of falsehood and deceit; and his efforts to extinguish the worship of Baal were prompted not by a sincere loyalty to Jehovah, but with the view of establishing his own power. The adherents of Baal were naturally partial to the family of Ahab. If Jehu could exterminate them, he would rid himself of a party who were likely to be hostile to him, and he would at the same time secure the attachment of those who favored the old order of things. W. H. G.

19. All the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live.** His absence would be regarded as an act of contumacy verging on rebellion, and so as deserving of capital punishment. 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. Idolaters were by the law liable to death, and Jehu would have had a perfect right to crush the Baal worship throughout the land, by sending his emissaries everywhere, with orders to slay all whom they found engaged in it. But to draw some thousands of his subjects by false pretences into a trap, and then to kill them in it for doing what he had himself invited them to do, was an act that was wholly unjustifiable, and that savored, not of the wisdom which is from above, but of that bastard wisdom which is “earthly, sensual, devilish.” Jehu’s religious reformation did not succeed, and it was conducted in such a way that it did not deserve to succeed. A little more honest boldness and a little less frequent resort to subterfuge and craft might have had a different result, and have been better both for himself and for his people. Hammond.

I can commend the zeal of Jehu; I cannot commend the fraud of Jehu; we may come to our end even by crooked ways. He that bade him to smite for Him did not bid him to lie for Him. Falsehood, though it be but tentative, is neither needed nor approved by the God of truth: if policy have allowed officious untruths; religion never. Bp. H.—Jehu inflicted the merited punishment on these criminals, not by a fearless application of the law or a conscientious discharge of the regal office, but by perfidious subtlety and idolatrous hypocrisy. Gisborne.

20, 21. Jehu summons all the prophets, priests, and servants of Baal to a great sacrifice in the Temple of Baal at Samaria. Such solemn assemblies for religious observances were common among all nations and under all systems of religion. From every part of the land where altars to Baal had been erected all the resident priests were gathered, until the great “House of Baal was full.” They came in the expectation that Jehu was about to inaugurate his reign by the fresh enthronement of their god as the supreme object of worship. So had he led them to believe, in order to entrap and destroy them.

22-24. Preliminary preparations for the slaughter. First, he decked the victims from the vestry-room of the temple in gorgeous priestly garments. This was in seeming deference to their sacred office. Next, he, with Jehonadab the Rechabite, went among them and bade them search among themselves, that no servants of Jehovah might remain in their temple. His anxiety in this matter, too, seemed to express his zealous desire to exclude all the intruders from this special sacrifice. His real purpose was to make sure that no worshipper of Jehovah should be slain. Lastly, he placed eighty armed men without at the entrance, and charged them with the merciless slaughter of all within. B.

23. Jehu’s real object was undoubtedly to save the lives of any “servants of Jehovah” who might incautiously have mixed themselves up with the Baal-worshippers, out of curiosity, or to have their share in the general holiday. That he should have thought such a thing possible or even probable indicates the general laxity of the time and the want of any sharp line of demarcation between the adherents of the two religions. He cleverly masked his desire for the safety of his own religionists under a show of keen anxiety that the coming ceremonies should not be profaned by the presence of scoffers or indifferent persons. Hammond.

25-28. Massacre of the entire multitude and destruction of the images of Baal. The temple of Baal, like that at Jerusalem, had outer courts or enclosures where the altar was, and the sacrifices were offered. It had also an inner fortress-like sanctuary, called here “the city of the house of Baal,” where stood the great stone image of Baal, surrounded by smaller wooden images of his fellow-gods. Into the outer enclosures, thronged with the defenceless priests and people, at Jehu’s command the armed guard now entered and faithfully executed their work of slaughter. Then, when none were left alive, they penetrated into the inner court or “city” and brought forth the images of wood and burned them amid the heaped-up corpses. Last of all, they shattered the great stone image of Baal, and razed the entire structure to the ground, leaving the mass of débris as a sepulchre of the underlying dead, and a token of the Divine judgment against this impious and loathsome false worship. “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.” B.

28. The writer, picturing the wild scene, sums up with a touch of exultation: “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel,” where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the king, the god and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible deed. A. M. —The measures taken were effectual; the worship of Baal was put down, and is not said to have been revived in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. Moloch worship seems to have taken its place (see chap. 17: 17). Hammond.

The slaughter of that wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of Divine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was entitled to slay them. To that question believers in a Divine providence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship and the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab’s family were sufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in Jehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God’s was the hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life and death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers. Granted that the “long-suffering” which is “not willing that any should perish” speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice which smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is possible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a loose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at the thought of the “wrath of God,” and recoils from the contemplation of His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness of His love. From the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are not made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation’s history, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful system is to be crushed, there will be violence, which easy-going people, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their hands at in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law than Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love in the place of what was “said to them of old time.” But let us, while we obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men of old “according to that which they had, and not according to that which they had not.” Jehu’s bloody deeds are not held up for admiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us if we obey our better law as faithfully. A. M.

The idolatrous defection in Israel imperilled at once the nation and the Church. If continued, it would utterly destroy not only the national hopes of the Jews, but the world’s hope of redemption to be developed along the line of the covenant people. All nations had a stake in bringing Israel back to the worship of one God and keeping true the words of the Lord’s prophets. Idolatry must be destroyed by the destruction of those who had set up its altars. And therefore, for the salvation of the nation and the Church, the supreme Lord of nations ordered the destruction of the idolaters. That it was a just punishment of their own sins is also apparent. They had carried on a most ruthless and relentless persecution of the Lord’s people, their hands had been steeped in the blood of the saints, and their fell purpose was to blot from the records of Israel forever the worship of the true God. And that God, who by His providence is ever punishing sin, did it in this case by a direct command. Nor is His agency more real in the one case than in the other. Therefore, Jehu is not condemned in the Bible, and is not to be condemned by us, for executing vengeance on the false prophets. Behind the king stands God, who anointed the king for this work of revolution. To say that God permitted but did not authorize the work of Jehu is to solve no difficulty and to speak in the face of the record. If the Bible makes anything clear, it is that in the exigencies of Old Testament times God assumed the direct punishment of people and the protection of His cause by methods which differ from those usually accounted providential only in making men the declared and commanded instruments of His justice. C. L. Thompson.

For God’s work of salvation He uses consecrated men. Jehu was of use as a destroyer, as an image breaker, but he was no national or moral reformer in the true sense. He was of no spiritual benefit to others. For such work God uses only those who themselves have received spiritual blessing. C. H. I.

Introduced by Ahab with his queen Jezebel from Phoenicia, Baal worship was thus extinguished with his dynasty. And as this open displacing of Jehovah by an idol was the preeminent sin of Ahab, by which his wickedness was distinguished above even that of Jeroboam, so the leading adherents of Ahab’s dynasty were specially characterized by this form of idolatrous worship. One, therefore, who sought to obliterate all remaining influences of Ahab’s power must eradicate this worship out of the land. It was not, then, zeal for God, but a politic regard to his own interests that led Jehu to lay the foundation of a new dynasty in the destruction of the priests and the demolition of the temple of Baal. The party of Baalites was small as compared with those who still maintained the calf worship of Jeroboam. Yet its power was great, having been so long in possession of prominent offices. Its basis and rallying point being now exterminated, Jehu could look for abiding support from the mass of the nation. Therefore, having coolly perpetrated this great slaughter from motives of selfish policy, from the same motives

29-31. Jehu falls into the exact way of Jeroboam, in worship and life. To the law of the Lord he gave no heed. It had no influence over his heart, nor effect upon his life. He renewed the first great breach that had been made by Jeroboam in the form and spirit of worship. He revived among the people an utter disregard of the second commandment from Sinai, after himself enacting God’s fearful judgment against those who had led the people in impious disobedience to the first. The Baal worship was the “having other gods before Jehovah.” The calf worship was a professed worship of Jehovah, but under the form of an image. Policy and self-interest led him to fall back into Jeroboam’s way of worship. The larger part of the people preferred this way. And Jeroboam’s own reason for devising and using it still existed: it prevented the return of the people to worship at Jerusalem. But Jehu was no worshipper of Jehovah under any form. He had obeyed special Divine commands in the line of his soldier-like tastes. He had slain and slaughtered, and driven over a pathway of corpses to the throne. But self-interest had prompted his obedience thus far.

Yet (and it is a strangely instructive fact) God expresses approval of his obedience. He even rewards it with a great and distinguishing favor, prolonging his dynasty upon the throne of Israel beyond the period of any other family. In this approval there is no commendation of the falsehood and treachery by which the end was reached. The destruction of Ahab’s house and of Baal’s worship was “right in His eyes,” and “according to all that was in His heart.” This, when commanded, Jehu had zealously fulfilled. And, without reference to any wrong method or selfish spirit in the doing, God shows Himself accurately just, and more than generous, in the reward He gives. Thus He shows that He will never be in debt to any man. With more than generous measure He will repay the little good that men may do in obedience to His command.

And in the face of such Divine promise and reward Jehu’s life was like Jeroboam’s—self-seeking and indulgent. After this, we hear of no obedience to God, and of no further approval. Enthroned by God’s appointment and hand, he secures his power by his own policy. Receiving supreme advancement and an excess of earthly gifts, he intimates no grateful feeling, manifests no faith in God, no care for His will. Thus for twenty-eight years, during which “the Lord began to cut Israel short” (verse 32), on account of their continued disobedience and counterfeit worship, Jehu led them in the sins of Jeroboam. Untaught by multiplying calamities which gradually but surely narrowed the confines of the nation, to the end king and people together bowed before altars and images reared in express violation of God’s commands. B.

So far as might serve the elevation of Jehu to the crown of Israel, to setting him on the throne, so far he goes in the ways of God’s command, but no farther. So let God command anything that may hit with a man’s own ends, and be suitable to him, and he seems to be very obedient to God; but let God go on further, and require something that will not serve his turn, that will not agree with his own ends; and here God may seek for a servant; as for him he will go no farther. Burroughs.

Here the motives which influenced Jehu stand displayed. Though raised to the throne by the hand of God, he now looked for the security of it to his own policy. Destitute of faith in Him to whom he was indebted for all, he trusted not to the King of kings for the permanence of the gifts which He bestowed. Destitute of gratitude to his gracious Benefactor, he returned for unmerited kindness habitual and presumptuous disobedience. While regard to the commandments of God conducted him in the path of advancement, he was eager to obey; but now, to his worldly apprehension, obedience and interest ceased to coincide. He who had been exalted to sovereign power, for the express purpose of annihilating idolaters, converted his authority and example into instruments of upholding and perpetuating idolatry among his subjects. Nor was his dereliction of God the crime of a moment or the error of sudden surprise. During a reign of twenty-eight years, unmoved by the judicial calamities with which the Lord “cut Israel short,” this obdurate monarch bowed down, together with his people, before the images erected in violation of God’s commands, before altars reared in express opposition to His holy temple. Gisborne.

30. And the Lord said unto Jehu. Probably by the mouth of Elisha. Jehu had been expressly ordered to “smite the house of Ahab” (2 K. 9 : 7); and thus to a certain extent his bloody measures were acts of obedience, for which God might see fit to assign him a temporal reward. Thy children to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. This was accomplished in the persons of Jehoahaz (2 K. 13 : 1), Joash (ibid., verse 9), Jeroboam (14 : 16), and Zachariah (15 : 8), the son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson of Jehu. It is noticeable that no other family sat upon the throne of Israel so long. The house of Omri, which furnished four kings, held the crown for three generations only and for less than fifty years—that of Jehu reigned for five generations and for above a hundred years. B. C.

31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Jehovah, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He abolished the worship of Baal, but did not keep up the worship of God nor walk in His law. He showed great care and zeal for the rooting out of a false religion, but in the true religion showed no care, took no heed, lived at large, was not at all solicitous to please God and do His duty; took no heed to the Scriptures, to the prophets, to his own conscience, but walked at all adventures. Those that are heedless, it is to be feared, are graceless; for where there is a good principle in the heart it will make men cautious and circumspect, desirous to please God and jealous of doing anything to offend Him. H.

He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves. That shows the impurity of his “zeal,” which flamed only against what it was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and older idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be “all in all, or not at all.” We may not compound for sins we are inclined to, by zeal against those we have no mind to. Our consciences are apt to have insensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough to remove the grosser evils, and leave the less. But white ants will eat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little use if we keep the calves at Dan and Bethel. Nothing but walking in the law of the Lord “with all the heart” will secure our walking safely. A. M.

Personal ambition had been at the bottom of his heart, and he had destroyed that form of idolatry which was identified with the house of Ahab. But having achieved his end, he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord. His zeal for righteousness did not turn inward and burn up his own sins. When there was nothing left to destroy, his occupation was gone. The same thirst for blood which had marked him passed down, a ghastly bequeathment, to his children, and brought the Divine curse upon them. W. Benham.

33. There is other evidence, besides this, that Hazael was one of the most warlike of the Syrian kings. We find him, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II., mentioned as a stubborn adversary of the Assyrian arms. In the seventeenth campaign of Shalmaneser a great battle was fought between the two monarchs. Hazael brought into the field more than twelve hundred chariots, but was defeated and obliged to retreat, his camp falling into the hands of the enemy. Four years later Shalmaneser invaded Hazael’s territory, and took, according to his own account, four cities or fortresses belonging to him. He does not claim, however, to have made him a tributary; and by his later annals it is evident that he avoided further contest, preferring to turn his arms in other directions. Hammond.—In Jehu’s reign we are brought into contact for the first time, since the mention of Chedorlaomer, with the great monarchies of Western Asia. We possess in the British Museum an obelisk of black basalt, brought by Mr. Layard from Nimroud, which was set up by Shalmaneser I., king of Assyria, to commemorate his victories. It appears that, while Benhadad II. and Hazael were warring against Israel, they had to sustain a conflict with Assyria; and among the tributaries to Shalmaneser appears the name of “Jehu (or Yahua), the son of Khumri” (Omri). The erroneous patronymic is accounted for by Omri’s being regarded as the founder of the kingdom of Samaria, the name of the city itself appearing on the obelisk in the form “Beth-khum-ri” (house of Omri). P. S.

36. In Samaria was twenty and eight years.** Twenty-eight years was a long reign for an Israelite king, only exceeded by one other king in the entire list—viz., Jeroboam II., who is said in chap. 14:23 to have reigned forty-one years. The kings of Judah were longer lived. Hammond.

The state of the kingdom under Jehu, and still more under his son and successor Jehoahaz, was, in a political aspect, a very unfortunate one; for Hazael, who had been raised according to prophecy to the throne of Damascus as a Divine scourge to Israel repeatedly and successfully invaded the land, treating with especial harshness the part of Palestine east of the Jordan (Amos 1:3), which became for some time subject to the kingdom of Damascus. During this period of distress the opposition of the prophets was withdrawn; nay, when the kingdom was reduced to the last extremity it was by the mouth of the prophets that Divine deliverance was once more announced, the dying Elisha first promising to the dejected Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, victory over the Syrians (2 K. 13:14 sqq.), and Jonah, the son of Amittai, subsequently predicting the restoration of the ancient boundaries of the kingdom (14:25). Joash was successful in his wars against Damascus and Judah; but the glory of the kingdom was still further enhanced under his valiant son Jeroboam II., who not only restored the ancient limits of the kingdom, but even conquered a portion of Syria. External success, however, effected no internal change; on the contrary, its internal corruption continuing to increase, it was during the period in which, to human eyes, it was attaining a hitherto unparalleled prosperity, that the state, together with its royal house, was hastening toward those judgments which the prophets Amos and Hosea were raised up under Jeroboam II. to proclaim. First, it was the shepherd of Tekoa who came from Judah and testified to the tyrannical nobles of Samaria, revelling in proud security, and to the multitude trusting in their mistaken and hypocritical piety, the approach of the day of the Lord (Amos 5:10 sqq., 6:1-6). Afterward, probably toward the end of Jeroboam the Second’s reign, Hosea appeared; and when the respite granted by the prophetic word (2 K. 10:30) to the house of Jehu had nearly expired, he announced first to the latter, and then to the kingdom of Samaria in general, that judgment was now at hand, and continued his testimony during the terrible times beginning with Jeroboam’s death. O.

The Jehu type of character has always been familiar in Church and State. Such a man may be zealous, even violent, for special reforms which somewhere touch personal interests or stir personal feelings. But in no wise is he better than others in reference to the daily stringent demands of a pure and an unselfish life. Not that his zeal is altogether hypocritical, although it may employ sharp devices. It may be genuine and right enough as far as it goes; but its rightness is only partial, and its reach is limited. It does not cover the actual needs of the spirit’s daily life. As a general result, such a reformer falls back out of sight when the issue has been reached. And when the dust raised by his apparent zeal is stilled, all can see and rightly estimate his selfish motive. So the ultimate effect of his acting is to add another to the many living examples that spur selfish men to self-seeking. B.—His sin was the sin of Jeroboam; he made Israel to sin for his own advantage. It is the sin of the present day, the debasing of the ideal from motives of policy. It is the sin which every one commits, who says that it is not practical to conduct business or order conduct on high religious principles. Houghton.

23d of Joash to 15th of Amaziah, of Judah.