Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 King 10:1 - 10:14

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 King 10:1 - 10:14


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



The Relatives of Ahab Slain

v. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, all his male descendants. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, to the prefect of the royal palace, the captain of the city, and the magistrates, and to them that brought up Ahab's children, their educators, or tutors, saying,

v. 2. Now, as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you,
all the princes of the royal blood being in Samaria at that time, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armor, all the power by which they might expect to uphold the dynasty of Ahab,

v. 3. look even out the best and meetest of your master's sons,
the ablest among the sons of Joram, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. This was a satirical and scornful challenge and at the same time a stratagem intended to find out the attitude of the most powerful men in Samaria over against the rule of Jehu.

v. 4. But they,
noting the object of the letter, were exceedingly afraid and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him, 2Ki_9:24-27, how, then, shall we stand?

v. 5. And he that was over the house,
the prefect of the royal palace, and he that was over the city, the captain of the garrison, the elders also, the magistrates, and the bringers up of the children, all the tutors of the royal family, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us, thus submitting unconditionally. We will not make any king; do thou that which is good in thine eyes.

v. 6. Then he,
feeling it to be an important matter to be acknowledged by all the people as soon as possible, wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, if they had chosen, his part and stood on his 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 tomorrow this time. He expected them to do homage to him, but only in such a manner as to convince all the people that the pretenders to the crown, without exception, were dead, and that the most influential men of the kingdom had entirely broken with the house of Ahab. Now, the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up, they were in their care, in their power.

v. 7. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel,
a gruesome proof of their allegiance to Jehu.

v. 8. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons,
of all the male descendants of Ahab, of all the royal princes. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning, it being the custom of the times to display the heads of the vanquished in the sight of all men.

v. 9. And it came to pass in the morning that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous, as just men they could pass a correct judgment; behold, I conspired against my master and slew him; but who slew all these?
It was another trick to place himself in the most advantageous light by carefully concealing the main point, namely, that the men had been put to death by his command.

v. 10. 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.
Even if some of the people felt inclined to blame him for the wholesale slaughter, they were to remember that nothing but the divine ordinance, the sentence of the Lord, had been carried out, 1Ki_21:19 to 1Ki_21:29.

v. 11. So Jehu,
encouraged by his success up to this point, and feeling sure that the people would raise no objection, slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men, all the most powerful officers of the fallen dynasty, and his kinsfolks, his nearest friends and adherents, and his priests, all those who remained of the heathen priests at his court, until he left him none remaining.

v. 12. And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria,
where he no longer feared any opposition. And as he was at the shearing-house in the way, probably a place of assembly for the shepherds of the entire district,

v. 13. Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judab, and said, Who are ye? And they,
in total ignorance of what had happened at Jezreel, answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah, in this connection his cousins and other near relatives; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen, to pay their respects, to make a friendly visit at the court.

v. 14. And he said,
to his companions, the members of his guard,Take them alive. And they took them alive, captured them in spite of any show of resistance, and slew them at the pit of the shearing-house, at the cistern, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. Since they were friendly to the house of Ahab, he feared that they might resist his royal authority, and therefore he chose the simplest and most effective method to get rid of them. It was the judgment of God upon idolatrous people.