Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 9

Verse 1

And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramothgilead:

Ramoth — The kings of Israel and Judah were both absent, and Jehu, as it seems, was left in chief command.

Verse 7

And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel.

I may avenge,… — That they were idolaters was bad enough: yet that is not mentioned here: the controversy God has with them, is for being persecutors. Nothing fills the measure of the iniquity of any prince so as this doth, nor brings a surer or sorer ruin.

Verse 11

Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.

Mad fellow — They perceived him to be a prophet by his habit, and gestures, and manner of speech. And these prophane soldiers esteemed the prophets mad-men. Those that have no religion, commonly speak of those that are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack-brained. They said of our Lord, He is beside himself; of St. Paul, that much learning had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and they that best understand themselves, as men beside themselves.

Verse 13

Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king.

They hasted — God putting it into their hearts thus readily to own him.

Under him — Under Jehu. A ceremony used in the eastern parts towards superiors, in token of reverence to his person, that they would not have his feet to touch the ground, and that they put themselves and their concerns under his feet, and into his disposal.

The stairs — In some high and eminent place, whence he might be seen and owned by all the soldiers, who were called together upon this great occasion.

Verse 21

And Joram said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Portion of Naboth — The very sight of that ground was enough to make Jehu triumph and Joram tremble. The circumstances of events are sometimes so ordered by Divine providence, as to make the punishment answer the sin, as face answers face in a glass.

Verse 22

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

Whoredoms, … — This may be understood, either literally; spiritual whoredom, which is idolatry, being often punished with corporal: and witchcraft was often practised by idolaters: or spiritually, of her idolatry, which is often called whoredom, because it is a departing from God, to whom we are tied by many obligations; and witchcraft, because it doth so powerfully bewitch men’s minds; and because it is a manifest entering into covenant with the devil. He mentions not Joram’s, but his mother’s sins; because they were more notorious and infamous: and because they were the principal cause why God inflicted, and he was come to execute these judgments. The way of sin can never be the way of peace.

Verse 24

And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.

The arrow — It was one of God’s arrows, which he ordained against the persecutor.

Verse 27

But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. 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, and died there.

He died — The history is briefly and imperfectly described here, and the defects supplied in (the book of Chronicles, is great part written for that end, to supply things omitted in the book of Kings) out of both it may be thus compleated: he fled first to Megiddo, and thence to Samaria, where he was caught, and thence brought to Jehu, and by his sentence was put to death at Megiddo.

Verse 31

And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?

Had Zimri — Remember thy brother traitor Zimri had but a very short enjoyment of the benefit of his treason.

Verse 34

And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.

And said — It seems he had forgot the charge given him above, verse — 10.

A king’s daughter — He doth not say, because she was a king’s wife, lest he should seem to shew any respect to that wicked house of Ahab, which God had devoted to utter destruction.