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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 King 10:1 - 10:1
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Extermination of the Seventy Sons of Ahab in Samaria. - 2Ki 10:1-3. As Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria (בָּנִים in the wider sense, viz., sons, including grandsons see at 2Ki 10:13, as is evident from the fact that אֹמְנִים, foster-fathers, are mentioned, whereas Ahab had been dead fourteen years, and therefore his youngest sons could not have had foster-fathers any longer), Jehu sent a letter to the elders of the city and to the foster-fathers of the princes, to the effect that they were to place one of the sons of their lord upon the throne. There is something very strange in the words הַזְּקֵנִים יִזְרְעֶאל אֶל־שָׂרֵי, “to the princes of Jezreel, the old men,” partly on account of the name Jezreel, and partly on account of the combination of הַזְּקֵנִים with שָׂרֵי. If we compare 2Ki 10:5, it is evident that הַזְּקֵנִים cannot be the adjective to יז שָׂרֵי, but denotes the elders of the city, so that the preposition אֶל has dropped out before הזקנים. יִזְרְעֶאל שָׂרֵי, the princes or principal men of Jezreel, might certainly be the chief court-officials of the royal house of Ahab, since Ahab frequently resided in Jezreel. But against this supposition there is not only the circumstance that we cannot discover any reason why the court-officials living in Samaria should be called princes of Jezreel, but also 2Ki 10:5, where, instead of the princes of Jezreel, the governor of the city and the governor of the castle are mentioned. Consequently there is an error of the text in יזרעאל, which ought to read אֶל הָעִיר, though it is older than the ancient versions, since the Chaldee has the reading יזרעאל, and no doubt the Alexandrian translator read the same, as the Septuagint has sometimes τῆς πόλεως, like the Vulgate, and sometimes Σαμαρείας, both unquestionably from mere conjecture. The “princes of the city” are, according to 2Ki 10:5, the prefect of the palace and the captain of the city; the זְקֵנִים, “elders,” the magistrates of Samaria; and אַחְאָב אֹמְנִים, the foster-fathers and tutors appointed by Ahab for his sons and grandsons. אַחְאָב is governed freely by הָאֹמְנִים. In 2Ki 10:2 the words from וְאִתְּכֶם to הַנֶּשֶׁק form an explanatory circumstantial clause: “since the sons of your lord are with you, and with you the war-chariots and horses, and a fortified city and arms,” i.e., since you have everything in your hands, - the royal princes and also the power to make one of them king. It is perfectly evident from the words, “the sons of your lord,” i.e., of king Joram, that the seventy sons of Ahab included grandsons also. This challenge of Jehu was only a ruse, by which he hoped to discover the feelings of the leading men of the capital of the kingdom, because he could not venture, without being well assured of them, to proceed to Samaria to exterminate the remaining members of the royal family of Ahab who were living there. עַל נִלְחַם, to fight concerning, i.e., for a person, as in Jdg 9:17.