Hostages; to assure their peaceable carriage towards him.
Returned to Samaria: he did not keep Jerusalem, nor seek to gain the possession and dominion of that kingdom; partly because he thought he could not keep it, considering the difficulty he found in keeping his own from such potent and near enemies as the Syrians were, and the great affection which all Judah bare to David’s house; and partly because God so inclined his heart, that he might make good his promise to David and his family.