2 Kings 1
PATtower they placed Jehu, that all the people might see him, and hear him proclaimed their king. (Gousset in his Comment. Linguae Hcbraicae, p. 173.).. And blew with the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king J] They proclaimed him to be appointed by God to be king of Israel, which used to be done by the sound of the ttumpet. (1 Kings i. 32.) 3R2 A COMMENTARY UPON [CUAF. IX.
2 Kings 1:14
So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son 1 of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. Contrived, with the rest of the captains that commanded the army, how to destroy Joram. For which they had the fairer opportunity, because he was gone from, the army to Jczreel, as it’here follows. (Now Joram had kept Ramoth-Gilead, he and all Isrtibl, because of Hazael king of Syria.’] That is, kept a strong garrison there, upon the frontiers of his kingdom; and left his army also thereabout (for they are meant by all Israel), for fear Hazael should make any new attempt to recover it.
2 Kings 1:15
But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria). This was said before, but here repeated, to shew how Jehu came to effect his design so easily. Which was because Joram was absent from his army: among whom if he had continued, it is likely, some of them, if not all, would havo adhered to him, and fought for him. And Jehu said, If it be your minds.] If they were all agreed that he should be their king. Then let none go forth nor escape out of the city.] This shews that Ramoth-Gilead was in the possession of the Israelites. From whence he would have none to be sent, nor suffered to go forth, but the gates be narrowly watched. To go to tell it in Jezreeh] For he knew that secrecy and speed wore necessary to the execution of such great designs as he had in hand.
2 Kings 1:16
And Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel (for Joram lay there). AndAhaziah king ofJudah was come down to see JorcCm. This is repeated, to shew that Joram continued at Jezreel, whither he weilt from Ramoth: and that Ahaziah, who came to visit him, continued also with him.
2 Kings 1:17
And tliere stood a watchman on the tower of Jezreel. These watchmen seem to have been set on high places, in time of peace; as well as war, wheresoever tho king was, that he might not be surprised. For David at Jerusalem was admonished by the watchman that his sons were safe, when he feared they had been lost, (2 Sain. xiii. 3-4.) as afterward, thatnewswas coming from tho army that fought against Absalom, (xviii. 24, 25.) And he spied the company of Jehu as they came, and said, 1 see a company.] A troop, or squadron of horse, as we now speat. And Joram said, Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and say, Is it peace?] He was afraid the Syrians had got the better of his army; or some more of his subjects had revolted, as Libnah had done.
2 Kings 1:18
So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, TIius saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. The messenger spake in the king’s name; but he spake to a greater king, who bade him not to trouble himself about pe&ce of war, but follow him. Which he durst not refuse, seeing such a company of soldiers’ With Jehu. And the watchman said, TJie messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.] Which put them in doubt what to think.’ v
And he shit out a second on horseback, which came unto them, and said, Thu$$aith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thoxi to do with pkacel turn tltee behind me.~. To the same question the same ariswerwas returned; that it did not concern him, whether they were friends or enemies; but his safest way was to follow Jehu. Ven 20. And the watchman told, saying, He cdme even. unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like tlie driving of Jehu the son" 6f Nimshu] Who was his grandfather, but a mote eminent’p^rson/it is likely, than Jehoshaphat his father; and so he was commonly called his son. For he driveth furiously.] He was noted, it seems, for fierceness and eagerness in pursuing his designs. But the Chaldee paraphrast take'3 it quite otherwise, that he drove sloivly; as if he \vould entice Joram to come out of the city and meet him, having 1 n6 mind to engage in ah assault or siege of Jczreel.
And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. See the foregoing chapter, ver. 25..
And Jorain said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel, and Aha’zidh king of Judah; went out each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu. Not to fight him, but to meet him before he came to the city, that if there was any sedition he might compose it by his authority; or, perhaps, in honour of s Jehu, who he saw Would deliver the news himself,’ and n6t entrust a messenger with iL And met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.] -By a special providence of G6d, tohich brought them together in that place.*
And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, thctt he said, Is it peace, Jehu?. 1 Seeing him look sternly, T suppose, ho began to suspect some danger. And he answered, Wliat “peace, so long as the ivhoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, and her witchcrafts, are so many?] He means her idolatries, wherewith she bewitched the peoi pie, still continued, and were multiplied; Some think, indeed, that she added corporal fornication to her spiritual, and used evil arts to provoke men td filthy lusts. And, indeed, all manner of lewdness was wont to accompany idolatry; and in Rev. ii. 20. they who are compared to Jezebel are said to entice Christians to fornication, arid to eat things sacrificed to idols; unless by fornication we there understand idolatry, and by eating things sacrificed to idols, having communion with idolaters.
Joram turned his hands. The hand of him that drove the chariot. And fled.] Towards Jezreel; where if he had kept, and inquired what Jehu came for, he might have defended himself for some time agaihst him. And said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah!] Which he discovered too late, having no forces to resist those of Jehu.
And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms. Or shoulders; it being, I suppose, a chariot open behind. And the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot:] God so ordered r it, that he shot him quito through the heart, so that he died immediately.
Tfien saidJelm to Bidkar his captain, Take him, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. Part of which Ahab had made a garden; but the rest remained a field. For remember how that, when land thou rode together after’Ahab his father.] With the rest of his guard, when he M-6nt to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard. In the Hebrew the words are exactly thus: Remember, thou and I were among those ivhb rode two and two together after Ahab, Sec. That is, he was attended by his guard, who’wert wont to ride in pairs, two and two, and Jehu and Bidkar rode at that time together, and heard Elijah’s words. The Lord laid this burden upon him.’] This punishment, which is frequently by the prophets called a burden, Isa. xiii. 1, &c. was denounced against Ahab, and extended to his son, ] Kings x*i. 19. where theso very words are not recorded; but Elijah said more than is there set down, which Jehu well remembered.
Surely, I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,saith the Lord. Some think that Jezebel contrived the death of Naboth’s sons, together with their father, that they might lay no claim to the possession of their father. But these words may signify no more (as Grotius and others have observed) than the poverty to which they were Teduccd. For all punishments and miseries are called blood among the Hebrews; (Lev. xvii. 4.) and to take away their estate, upon which they should have lived, was in effect to take away their blood, in which is the life of every creature; as we say now of grievous oppressors, that they suck tho blood of others; and commonly call them blood-suckers. And I will requite it in this plat, saith the Lord. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the Lord.] Without any burial; that, according to the prophecy, he might be eaten by the fowls of the air, (1 Kings xxi. 24.)
But when Ahaziah king of Jndah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden-house. Which was built upon part of Naboth’s vineyard. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him -also in the chariot. And they did so, at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo.] He could not get to his own country, and so sheltered himself at Megiddo, which was not far from Samaria, whither.his servants carried him, as a safer place (for he. was not mortally wounded), and there he hid himself for fear of Jehu, as we read 2 Chron. xxii. 9. * 1 4 And he died there.] Not at Megiddo; but being searched for and taken in Samaria, he w r as brought to Jehu at Jezreel, where he commanded him to be slain.’ Which seems to be beyond his commission; but as he was an idolater, so he was of the bloody house of Ahab by his mother’s side,- who was Ahab’s daughter: (viii. 18.) and his destruction was of God, (as the author of the second book of Chronicles observes, xxii. 7.) who prompted Jehu thus to understand his command. Thus Abarbinel understands those words, he died there. Not in Megiddo, mentioned before, but in that execution of God’s judgments on the house of Ahab.
And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers, in the city of David. Which honour Jehu permitted to be done him, because he was desec;ded from the good prince Jehoshaphat. (See 2 Chron. xxii. 9.)
And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard ofit;‘and she painted her face, and tired, her head, and looked out at a windoiv. In the Hebrew it is, she put her eyes in paint; that is, in stibium, which made the eyes look hlack, and was accounted beautiful; and also dilated. tho eyebrows, and made the eyes appear big; which, m some countries, was also thought very amiable. (Sec Grotius.) This was not intended to tempt Jehu with her beauty; but to keep up her dignity and state to the very last: for she was extremely proud.
And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who sleiu his master?. She thought, perhaps, he w r ould not meddle with a woman; and therefore took upon her to rebuke and upbraid him with what he had done against her son; bidding him remember what became of Zimri, who was cut off by Omri his father-in-law, the founder of Ahab’s family.. ■
And he lifted up his face to the windoiv, and said, Who is on my side, who? • And there looked out to him two or three eunuclis. Who, according to the custom of the. eastern countries, wxre wont to attend upon queens in their chambers.
And he said, Throw her dozen. So they threw her down. See how suddenly courtiers change with the fortune of their master.. And some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and ore. the horses: and he trod her under foot.] With his horses* This some of the Jewish doctors, particularly Ralbag and Kirachi, look upon a§ a punishment, according to the lex talionis, like for like. As she had done, so she suffered. For she caused Naboth to be stoned; and now she was condemned to be stoned herself: for there were two ways of stoning; either by throwing stones at malefactors, till they had knocked, them down and killed them; or by throwing them down upon the stones from a high place, and breaking them to pieces. As Amaziah did with the captives he took of Mount Seir, 2 Chron. xxv. 12. (See Selden, lib. i. dc Synedriis, cap. 5. p. 76, &c.)
And when he was come in, he >did eat and drink, and said, Go, see noiv this cursed woman, and bury her. That is, go and take care of her body, to see it decently buried. For she is a king’s daughter.] And was also the wife and the mother of a king, which moved him to have this regard to her, as all men naturally have to royal dignity; forgetting, in the mean time, what Elijah had prophesied against her in his hearing. Which he might easily do when he was merry, it is like, with eating and drinking liberally.
And they went out to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. All the rest being eaten by the dogs. For it is probable, when the horsemen were gone, who trod her under foot, the footmen stripped her, and left her naked in her own blood; exposed to the hungry dogs, that camo out of the city and devoured her. r
Wherefore they came again, and told him: and he said, Tliis is the ivord of the Lord, tvhich he spake by his CHAP. X. THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. servant Elijah the prophet.] Which he now called to mind, as he did his prophecy concerning Ahab and his sons. Saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh ofJezebeL] See 1 Kings xxi. 23. -•* • - •,
And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field, in the portion of Jezreel; so that they sliall not say, This is JezebeL~. No memory of her, nothing whereby to know there had been such a woman as Jezebel, should remain of her; suppose a picture, or effigies, to which men might point, and say, This is Jezebel. In our language, perhaps we should have said, they shall not say, Here lies Jezebel: for no monument was made for her, she having no sepulchre but in the belly of dogs. These words are not mentioned in 1 Kings xxi. being sufficiently included in what is there recorded: but perfectly remembered by Jehu; who now more largely recites the words of Elijah. ) ■-