Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 King 9:16 - 9:16

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 King 9:16 - 9:16


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Slaying of the Two Kings, Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. - 2Ki 9:16. Jehu drove without delay to Jezreel, where Joram was lying sick, and Ahaziah had come upon a visit to him.

2Ki 9:17-21

As the horsemen, who were sent to meet him on the announcement of the watchman upon the tower at Jezreel that a troop was approaching, joined the followers of Jehu, and eventually the watchman, looking down from the tower, thought that he could discover the driving of Jehu in the approaching troop, Joram and Ahaziah mounted their chariots to drive and meet him, and came upon him by the portion of the ground of Naboth the Jezreelite. The second שִׁפְעַת in 2Ki 9:17 is a rarer form of the absolute state (see Ges. §80, 2, Anm. 2, and Ewald, §173, d.). - וּלְשָׁלֹום מַה־לְּךָ: “what hast thou to do with peace?” i.e., to trouble thyself about it. אֶל־אַחֲרַי סֹב: “turn behind me,” sc. to follow me. כם הַמִּנְהֲג: “the driving is like the driving of Jehu; for he drives like a madman.” בְּשִׁגָּעֹון, in insania, i.e., in actual fact in praecipitatione (Vatabl.). “The portion of Naboth” is the vineyard of Naboth mentioned in 1 Kings 21, which formed only one portion of the gardens of the king's palace.

2Ki 9:22

To Joram's inquiry, “Is it peace, Jehu?” the latter replied, “What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her many witchcrafts continue?” The notion of continuance is implied in עַד (see Ewald, §217, e.); זְנוּנִים is spiritual whoredom, i.e., idolatry. כְּשָׁפִים, incantationes magicae, then witchcrafts generally, which were usually associated with idolatry (cf. Deu 18:10.).

2Ki 9:23

Joram detecting the conspiracy from this reply, turned round (יָדָיו יַהֲפֹךְ as in 1Ki 22:34) and fled, calling out to Ahaziah מִרְמָה, “deceit,” i.e., we are deceived, in actual fact betrayed.

2Ki 9:24

But Jehu seized the bow (בַּקֶּשֶׁת יָדֹו מִלֵּא, lit., filled his hand with the bow), and shot Joram “between his arms,” i.e., in his back between the shoulders in an oblique direction, so that the arrow came out at his heart, and Joram sank down in his chariot.

2Ki 9:25-26

Jehu then commanded his aide-de-camp (שָׁלִישׁ, see at 2Sa 23:8) Bidkar to cast the slain man into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, and said, “For remember how we, I and thou, both rode (or drove) behind his father Ahab, and Jehovah pronounced this threat upon him.” וָאַתָּה אֲנִי are accusatives, written with a looser connection for וְאֹותְךָ אֹתִי, as the apposition רֹכְבִים shows: literally, think of me and thee, the riders. The olden translators were misled by אֲנִי, and therefore transposed זְכֹר into the first person, and Thenius naturally follows them. צְמָדִים רֹכְבִים, riding in pairs. This is the rendering adopted by most of the commentators, although it might be taken, as it is by Kimchi and Bochart, as signifying the two persons who are carried in the same chariot. מַשָּׂא, a burden, then a prophetic utterance of a threatening nature (see the Comm. on Nah 1:1). For the connection of the clauses וגו וַיהֹוָה, see Ewald, §338, a. In 2Ki 9:26 Jehu quotes the word of God concerning Ahab in 1Ki 21:19 so far as the substance is concerned, to show that he is merely the agent employed in executing it. “Truly (אִם־לֹא, a particle used in an oath) the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons have I seen yesterday, saith the Lord, and upon this field will I requite him.” The slaying of the sons of Naboth is not expressly mentioned in 1Ki 21:13, “because it was so usual a thing, that the historian might leave it out as a matter of course” (J. D. Mich., Ewald). It necessarily followed, however, from the fact that Naboth's field was confiscated (see at 1Ki 21:14).

2Ki 9:27-29

When Ahaziah saw this, he fled by the way to the garden-house, but was smitten, i.e., mortally wounded, by Jehu at the height of Gur near Jibleam, so that as he was flying still farther to Megiddo he died, and was carried as a corpse by his servants to Jerusalem, and buried there. After הַכֻּהוּ, “and him also, smite him,” we must supply וַיַּכֻּהוּ, “and they smote him,” which has probably only dropped out through a copyist's error. The way by which Ahaziah fled, and the place where he was mortally wounded, cannot be exactly determined, as the situation of the localities named has not yet been ascertained. The “garden-house” (הַגָּן בֵּית הַגָּ) cannot have formed a portion of the royal gardens, but must have stood at some distance from the city of Jezreel, as Ahaziah went away by the road thither, and was not wounded till he reached the height of Gur near Jibleam. מַעֲלֵה־גוּר, the ascent or eminence of Gur, is defined by Jibleam. Now, as Ahaziah fled from Jezreel to Megiddo past Jibleam, Thenius thinks that Jibleam must have been situated between Jezreel and Megiddo. But between Jezreel and Megiddo there is only the plain of Jezreel or Esdrelom, in which we cannot suppose that there was any such eminence as that of Gur. Moreover Jibleam or Bileam (1Ch 6:55, see at Jos 17:11) was probably to the south of Jenin, where the old name בִּלְעָם has been preserved in the well of Arab. bl'mh, Belameh, near Beled Sheik Manssûr, which is half an hour's journey off. And it is quite possible to bring this situation of Jibleam into harmony with the account before us. For instance, it is a priori probable that Ahaziah would take the road to Samaria when he fled from Jezreel, not only because his father's brothers were there (2Ki 10:13), but also because it was the most direct road to Jerusalem; and he might easily be pursued by Jehu and his company to the height of Gur near Jibleam before they overtook him, since the distance from Jezreel (Zerîn) to Jenin is only two hours and a half (Rob. Pal. iii. p. 828), and the height of Gur might very well be an eminence which he would pass on the road to Jibleam. But the wounded king may afterwards have altered the direction of his flight for the purpose of escaping to Megiddo, probably because he thought that he should be in greater safety there than he would be in Samaria.

(Note: In 2Ch 22:8-9, the account of the slaying of Ahaziah and his brethren (2Ki 10:12.) is condensed into one brief statement, and then afterwards it is stated with regard to Ahaziah, that “Jehu sought him, and they seized him when he was hiding in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu and slew him, “from which it appears that Ahaziah escaped to Samaria. From the brevity of these accounts it is impossible to reconcile the discrepancy with perfect certainty. On the one hand, our account, which is only limited to the main fact, does not preclude the possibility that Ahaziah really escaped to Samaria, and was there overtaken by Jehu's followers, and then brought back to Jehu, and wounded upon the height of Gur near Jibleam, whence he fled to Megiddo, where he breathed out his life. On the other hand, in the perfectly summary account in the Chronicles, בְשֹׁמְרֹון מִתְחַבֵּא וְהוּא may be understood as referring to the attempt to escape to Samaria and hide himself there, and may be reconciled with the assumption that he was seized upon the way to Samaria, and when overtaken by Jehu was mortally wounded.)

- In 2Ki 9:29 we are told once more in which year of Joram's reign Ahaziah became king. The discrepancy between “the eleventh year” here and “the twelfth year” in 2Ki 8:25 may be most simply explained, on the supposition that there was a difference in the way of reckoning the commencement of the years of Joram's reign.