John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

2 Kings 9:1



INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 9



In this chapter we are told that one of the sons of the prophets was sent by Elisha to anoint Jehu king of Israel, and to order him to smite and destroy the whole house of Ahab, 2Ki 9:1, which being done unto him, and the order received by Jehu, he acquainted his captains with it, 2Ki 9:11, who set out with him immediately to Jezreel, 2Ki 9:16, where he slew Joram king of Israel, 2Ki 9:22, and Ahaziah king of Judah, 2Ki 9:27, and Jezebel, the widow of Ahab, and mother of Joram, 2Ki 9:30.



Ver. 1. And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets,.... Who the Jews generally say {k} was Jonah the son of Amittai:



and said, gird up thy loins; his loose and long garments about his loins, for quicker dispatch in travelling:



and take this box of oil in thine hand; for an use after directed to:



and go to Ramothgilead; where Joram had left his army with his captains, to keep the city from the Syrians.



{k} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 18. p. 47.





2 Kings 9:2



Ver. 2. And when thou comest thither,.... To Ramothgilead; but from whence he went is uncertain, doubtless where there was a school of the prophets, perhaps that which was erected near Jordan, on the other side of which lay Ramothgilead, 2Ki 6:1,



look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi; the same that Elijah was ordered to anoint, but it was deferred till now, a reprieve being granted to Ahab upon his humiliation, 1Ki 19:16,



and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren; the captains of the army:



and carry him into an inner chamber; a chamber within a chamber, as in the original; this he was to do for secrecy, that it might not be seen what he did to Jehu; and lest he should be prevented doing it by the captains, or be exposed to danger for doing it; since that might be deemed treason to do what he was to do, and did, as follows.





2 Kings 9:3



Ver. 3. Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head,.... When in the chamber together alone:



and say, thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel; which was done, not with the anointing oil in the temple, which could not be come by; and with which, as Kimchi from their Rabbins says, only the kings of the house of David were anointed, and they only when there was a division, or the crown was translated to another family, as was the case now; but with common oil, or the oil of balsam, such as the prophet had in his house:



then open the door and flee, and tarry not; lest he should be examined by the captains, and come into danger; though before he went out he was to say what is recorded in 2Ki 9:7.





2 Kings 9:4



Ver. 4. So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramothgilead. It is repeated, that it might be observed that it was a young man that went, who was more fit for this service than Elisha, partly because of his age, and partly because he would be less known; as also his age is remarked, this being a bold and daring action in a young man to anoint a new king, as well as it was honourable; and moreover, he was not only one of the sons of the prophets, but was a prophet himself, though young, and still a more fit person for such a service; though the Targum is, a young man, a disciple of the prophets.





2 Kings 9:5



Ver. 5. And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting,.... Either at a table, being at dinner, or at a council of war:



and he said, I have an errand unto thee, O captain; looking and directing his speech to Jehu; or, "I have a word to thee" {l}; something to say to thee, intimating that he desired to speak to him alone:



and Jehu said, unto which of all us? not perhaps at first thoroughly understanding who he meant; or however was willing to have it repeated and explained, that it might be manifest to the whole company that he was intended:



and he said, to thee, O captain; and to him only.



{l} Kyla yl rbd "verbum mihi ad te", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.





2 Kings 9:6



Ver. 6. And he arose, and went into the house,.... Into the inner chamber in it:



and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel; for though they were fallen into idolatry, and from the pure worship of God, yet the Lord had still a right unto them, and as yet he had not wrote a "Loammi" Ho 1:9 upon them; and there were many among them which had not bowed the knee to Baal.





2 Kings 9:7



Ver. 7. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master,.... For Jehu was one of Ahab's captains, as he was now one of his son's, as appears from 2Ki 9:25, but this was to be no objection with him to the destroying of his house, as being an act of high treason, since he had an order for it from the King of kings, and Lord of lords; which otherwise would have seemed unlawful and criminal, and what follows will sufficiently vindicate the justice of God in it:



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; who killed the prophets of the Lord, and caused to be put to death Naboth the servant of the Lord, and now their blood was to be avenged on her and her son Joram, and all her family.





2 Kings 9:8



Ver. 8. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish,.... Be cut off by death, and that in a violent manner, not one should escape:



and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel; of these phrases,

See Gill on "1Ki 14:10" see Gill on "1Ki 21:21"





2 Kings 9:9



Ver. 9. And I will make the house of Ahab, The same is threatened,

See Gill on "1Ki 21:22".





2 Kings 9:10



Ver. 10. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel,.... Or in the field of Jezreel; the Targum is, the inheritance of Jezreel; this is also threatened, 1Ki 21:23



and [there shall be] none to bury her; or nothing of her to bury, as Kimchi, all being eaten up but her skull, feet, and the palms of her hands, see 2Ki 9:35



and he opened the door, and fled; that is, the young man of the sons of the prophets, as soon as he had said the above words, as he was ordered, lest he should be taken up for a traitor.





2 Kings 9:11



Ver. 11. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord,.... The rest of the captains of the army, who served under Joram as he did:



and one said unto him, is all well? one of the captains, the greatest of them, as Kimchi; he inquired whether he brought any ill news, since he came and went in such haste:



wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? so profane men, especially the worshippers of Baal, as those captains might be, were wont to call the prophets of the Lord, because of their habit, their manner of living, and the gestures they sometimes used in prophesying, and especially because of the things they prophesied of; and even prophets were sometimes called so, because, in the time of their prophesying, they appeared as madmen {m}, and in a frenzy:



and he said unto them, ye know the man, and his communication; you saw by his habit of what profession he is, and you may easily guess what he talked of, as such men usually do, about religion, and one whimsical thing or another, reproving men for their sins, and telling them what they ought to do; and such like things you may well imagine he has been talking of to me; you rightly call him a mad fellow, and you may well suppose his discourse was agreeably to his character, and not worth relating and hearing; this he said, to put them off inquiring any further.



{m} David de Pomis, Lexic. p. 204. 3.





2 Kings 9:12



Ver. 12. And they said, [it is] false, tell us now,.... They did not believe he spoke truth, but concealed from them the real matter; which they concluded to be of some importance, by the hastiness of the messenger, the privacy between them, the countenance of Jehu, which discovered thoughtfulness and concern, and the trifling answer he sought to put them off with; all which increased their curiosity, and made them urgent and importunate to know the truth of the matter: and he said,



thus and thus spake he to me; such and such words as above: and particularly



saying, thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel; and no doubt told them that he poured oil on his head, and anointed him, and he might show them the oil.





2 Kings 9:13



Ver. 13. Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs,.... That is, under Jehu, that he might be raised higher, and put on an eminence above them, agreeably to the high rank and dignity he was raised unto, and which they hereby acknowledged; and that he might be conspicuous to others: and this was done upon the top of the stairs, the first and highest of them, which led up either to an upper room, or to a scaffold erected for this purpose; the Targum is, on the degree of hours, a sun dial, a stone on which were engraven the twelve hours of the day, and which, by the sun's shadow on it, it might be known what hour it was; and at, or upon this stone, they laid their clothes, for Jehu to sit upon; not their wearing apparel, but carpets, or pieces of tapestry, or such like things:



and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king; and they might come the more easily into such an acknowledgment of him as such, though he was anointed by one whom they had just called a mad fellow; being not so well affected to Ahab's family, and having a great respect for Jehu, the chief commander of the army, and especially being under a particular influence of the divine Providence, which moved them to take such a step.





2 Kings 9:14



Ver. 14. So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram,.... He and the captains with him entered into a confederacy to depose Joram, and set him up as king:



now Joram had kept Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; having taken it, he left his army in it, under the command of his captains, of which Jehu was the chief, to keep it from the king of Syria; which gave Jehu a fairer opportunity, having the army at his command, and at a distance from Joram, of forming a conspiracy against him.





2 Kings 9:15



Ver. 15. But King Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel,.... As is recorded, 2Ki 8:29 and here repeated for the reason above given:



and Jehu said, if it be your minds; to engage one and all, and heartily, in this conspiracy, and to make me king:



then let none go forth nor escape out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel; that so Joram might be surprised unawares, and have no opportunity either of fleeing or of preparing for his defence.





2 Kings 9:16



Ver. 16. So Jehu rode in a chariot,.... In great pomp and majesty as a king:



and went to Jezreel: set forward on a march thither with his captains, and part of his army at least, from Ramothgilead; which, according to Bunting {n}, was twenty four miles:



for Jordan lay there; to be cured of his wounds, as before observed:



and Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram; see 2Ki 8:29.



{n} Travels, &c. p. 166.





2 Kings 9:17



Ver. 17. And there stood a watchman on the tower of Jezreel,.... Who could see afar off when an enemy was coming, and his business was to give notice of it; and especially he was now on his watch tower, because the king was there, and this was necessary for his safety:



and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company; a troop of soldiers, though he did not know who they were, and to whom they belonged, whether they were Syrians or Israelites; which was reported to the king:



and Joram said, take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, is it peace? he might fear some ill had befallen his army at Ramothgilead, and the Syrians had got the advantage of them; or they had made an irruption into his country, and were coming to attack him at Jezreel; or there was an insurrection among his own people.





2 Kings 9:18



Ver. 18. So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, thus saith the king, is it peace?.... Are things well in the army, or any disturbance in the kingdom? are you come as friends or enemies?



and Jehu said, what hast thou to do with peace? or to ask such a question:



turn thee behind me; which he was obliged to do, Jehu having such a company of soldiers with him; and this he did, that he might carry no tidings to Joram, that he might not know as yet who he and his company were:



and the watchman told, saying, the messenger came to them, but he cometh not again; of this he sent word to the king what he had observed.





2 Kings 9:19



Ver. 19. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said,.... The same as the first messenger did, and had the same answer, and was bid to do the same as in the preceding verse.





2 Kings 9:20



Ver. 20. And the watchman told, saying, he came even unto them, and cometh not again,.... Was detained, as the other was:



and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for, coming nearer, the watchman could discern the manner of his driving:



for he driveth furiously; in great haste, making much speed, being a man of a very warm and active spirit; and now being eager to come up with Joram, and seize him unprepared, and ascend the throne; the Targum is the reverse,



"for he driveth quietly or slowly,''



being desirous of drawing Joram out of the city, and get him into his hands, and slay him, that he might not have the trouble of besieging the place, which was able to hold out some time against him; and besides, he remembered the prophecy of Elisha, that Naboth's blood would be requited in the field of Jezreel, 2Ki 9:26, and therefore was desirous of drawing him out of the city, in order to slay him there.





2 Kings 9:21



Ver. 21. And Joram said, make ready,.... The chariot, put to the horses; bind them, as the word signifies, to the chariot:



and his chariot was made ready; by his servants immediately:



and Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot; not both in the same chariot, but each in his own, for the sake of greater magnificence:



and they went out against Jehu; not in an hostile manner, for they had no notion of him as an enemy; though it is much they had no suspicion of him by his detaining the messengers; but Joram perhaps thought he was desirous of delivering his message himself; and in honour to him, and also being eager to know what it was, went out to meet him:



and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite; which had been his, and where, or near it, he was stoned, and his blood shed; a very inauspicious place to meet him in.





2 Kings 9:22



Ver. 22. And it came to pass, when Joram saw, Jehu, that he said, is it peace, Jehu?.... Have things gone well at Ramothgilead? art thou come in triumph from thence? or obliged to fly from the Syrians? or art thou come in a peaceable, or in an hostile manner to me?



and he answered, what peace; canst thou expect at home or abroad, from me or others:



so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? which may be understood both literally of corporeal whoredom, and diabolical arts she was addicted to, and figuratively of idolatry, often called whoredom in Scripture, and of the wicked arts and methods she made use of to inveigle and entice persons into it; and both these very often went together; see Na 3:4 and of which Joram was guilty, at least in part; he connived at all in her, and did not attempt to restrain her, and therefore had no claim to peace, protection, and safety.





2 Kings 9:23



Ver. 23. And Joram turned his hand, and fled,.... Taking hold of the horses' reins with it to turn them, or by the motion of it directing the charioteer to turn them back towards Jezreel, whither he fled:



and said to Ahaziah, there is treachery, O Ahaziah; a conspiracy formed, and rebellion raised by the captains, at the head of which he supposed Jehu was.





2 Kings 9:24



Ver. 24. And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength,.... To give the arrow all the force he could;



and smote Jehoram between his arms; that is, between his shoulders, his back being turned to him, and the chariot an open one:



and the arrow went out at his heart: quite through him:



and he sunk down in his chariot; and died immediately.





2 Kings 9:25



Ver. 25. Then said [Jehu] to Bidkar his captain,.... Not Joram's, but Jehu's captain, though he had been the former's, and his father Ahab's also:



take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; near to which they were:



for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father; either in the same chariot, or on horseback side by side, his guards or retinue following him two and two:



the Lord laid this burden upon him; this heavy denunciation of vengeance by Elijah the prophet; and they being together, and pretty near, heard it, as he might remember, which follows.





2 Kings 9:26



Ver. 26. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth,.... These are the words of the Lord to Elijah the day after Naboth was put to death:



and the blood of his sons, said the Lord; who were put to death with him, that there might be no heirs to the estate:



and I will requite thee in this place: take vengeance here, as he now did on his son:



now therefore take [and] cast him into the plat [of ground], according to the word of the Lord; whereby it would be fulfilled, see

1Ki 21:19, more is here recited than there, which Jehu well remembered.





2 Kings 9:27



Ver. 27. But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this,.... That Joram was slain:



he fled by the way of the garden house, which perhaps stood upon the spot where Naboth's vineyard was, turned into a garden by Ahab:



and Jehu followed after him; as far as Samaria, where he was hid, 2Ch 22:9,



and said, smite him also in the chariot; this order he gave to his soldiers, to do to him as he had done to Joram: and they did so,



at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam; a city in the tribe of Manasseh, Jos 17:11,



and he fled to Megiddo; after he was wounded; another city in the same tribe, Jos 17:11,



and died there; at Megiddo; though some think that from thence he was had by his servants to Samaria, and there hid, and, being found, was brought from thence to Jezreel, where he was slain, and died. Jehu was ordered to destroy the whole house of Ahab, and Ahaziah was of that house by his mother's side, and walked in the way of it, and was in conjunction with it, and perished therewith; this, though here recorded, was after the death of Jezebel, and of the seventy sons of Ahab, and of the brethren of Ahaziah.





2 Kings 9:28



Ver. 28. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem,.... With the leave of Jehu, because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat, a sincere worshipper of God, 2Ch 22:9,



and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David; see 1Ki 22:50.





2 Kings 9:29



Ver. 29. And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. In 2Ki 8:25, it is said to be in the twelfth year of his reign; it was at the close of the eleventh, and the beginning of the twelfth; or he began to reign with his father in the eleventh as here, and in the twelfth as there, when his father was dead.





2 Kings 9:30



Ver. 30. And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it,.... And of what he had done to Joram:



and she painted her face; or put "stibium" on her eyes; a sort of paint, to make them look beautiful perhaps the same with powder of lead ore, the Moors now use to tinge their eyebrows with, and make them look black, which they reckon graceful, See Gill on "Eze 23:40", this custom now obtains among the white Indians, who, to heighten the lustre of their complexion, and render their eyes more languishing, put a little black about them {n}:



and tired her head; dressed her head in the most elegant manner; not with a view to tempt Jehu, which she could not expect, being an aged woman; but for grandeur and majesty, and in the pride and haughtiness of her spirit, which she retained to the last, and resolved to keep up and show in her extremity and calamity:



and looked out at a window; in a bravado, as fearless of Jehu, and to dash him out of countenance if she could; or she might hope, by such a graceful and majestic appearance she made, that he would be moved to spare her life; though this does not so well agree with what follows as the former.



{n} Agreement of Customs between East Indians and Jews, art. 15. p. 65.





2 Kings 9:31



Ver. 31. And as Jehu entered in at the gate,.... Either of the city of Jezreel, or of the king's palace:



she said, [had] Zimri peace, who slew his master? Elah the son of Baasha king of Israel; no, he had not; he reigned but seven days, and, being besieged, burnt the king's house over him, and died, 1Ki 16:10, suggesting that the like would be his fate, who had slain his master Joram; or the words may be rendered, "O Zimri, the slayer of his master"; calling Jehu so, because of his likeness to Zimri.





2 Kings 9:32



Ver. 32. And he lifted up his face to the window,.... On hearing the above words;



and said, who is on my side, who? and will assist in taking vengeance on this haughty, imperious, and abusive woman:



and there looked out to him two or three eunuchs; who used to wait on her, as such did on women of quality, and attend them in their bedchambers; these, by their looks, signified they were ready to do any thing Jehu should direct them, Jezebel having been, perhaps, a very cruel mistress to them, and so was hated by them; and they might hope, by pleasing Jehu, to be continued at court in their office.





2 Kings 9:33



Ver. 33. And he said, throw her down,.... Out of the window upon the ground:



so they threw her down; took her up, and cast her headlong, as they were bid:



and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall; of the palace where she was:



and on the horses; which drew the chariot of Jehu:



and he trod her underfoot; with his horses; according to Kimchi, her sentence, and so her death, was stoning, as a retaliation of Naboth; for stoning was done two ways, both by casting down persons on stones, and by casting stones upon them, See Gill on "Ac 7:58".





2 Kings 9:34



Ver. 34. And when he was come in,.... To the palace:



he did eat and drink; to refresh himself after so long a march, and doing such execution:



and said, go see now this cursed woman; who had been the means of bringing a curse on Israel through her idolatry, and upon Ahab and his family, and upon herself, body and soul, being cursed of God and of men:



and bury her; forgetting the prophecy concerning her, though afterwards he remembered it:



for she is a king's daughter: the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, 1Ki 16:31 and therefore, in honour to royal dignity, though a cursed woman, he ordered the interment of her; or "though" she is the daughter of one of the kings of the nations of the world, as Kimchi, yet honour must be given to whom it is due.





2 Kings 9:35



Ver. 35. And they went to bury her,.... The servants of Jehu, according to his orders and instructions;



but they found no more of her than the scull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands; the flesh, and even all the rest of her bones, being devoured by dogs, so that there was scarce anything of her to be buried, as in 2Ki 9:10, something similar to this happened to Ascletarion, a mathematician, as related by Suetonius {o}.



{o} In Vita Domitian. c. 15.





2 Kings 9:36



Ver. 36. Wherefore they came again, and told him,.... How things were, and what only could be found of Jezebel:



and he said, this is the word of the Lord; or the fulfilment of it:



which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying; as in

1Ki 21:23.





2 Kings 9:37



Ver. 37. And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel,.... For upon this spot her carcass fell when thrown out of the window of the king's palace, and here it was left; for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which was in the portion of Jezreel, was next to the palace, 1Ki 21:1, there seems to be some allusion to her name Jezebel, which signifies "where is dung?"



so that they shall not say, this is Jezebel; there being nothing left of her to be seen or pointed to, nor any grave nor monument over it on which was such an inscription, here lies Jezebel; or that might lead posterity to say, this is Jezebel's grave. Now though the words of this verse are not recorded elsewhere, as the words of the Lord, by Elijah, yet as Jehu was present when they were spoken, and within the hearing of them, he now remembered them, and could repeat them, these circumstances bringing them fresh to his mind.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

2 Kings 10:1



INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 10



This chapter gives a further account of the destruction of the house of Ahab by Jehu, or his orders, even of all his sons and relations, 2Ki 10:1, and also of the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, 2Ki 10:12, of his taking up Jehonadab the son of Rechab into his chariot, to be a witness of his zeal for the Lord, 2Ki 10:15, and of his gathering together the prophets, priests, and worshippers of Baal, and slaying them, 2Ki 10:18 and of his extirpation of the idolatry of Baal, 2Ki 10:26, nevertheless he continued the worship of the calves, 2Ki 10:29 wherefore Israel was distressed by the king of Syria, 2Ki 10:32 and the chapter is concluded with the reign and death of Jehu, 2Ki 10:34.



Ver. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria,.... These might not be all his immediate sons, but some of them his grandsons, as such are sometimes called in Scripture:



and Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel; who fled thither, perhaps on Jehu's coming to Jezreel, having slain Joram, being the metropolis of the kingdom, to consult about a successor, or how to oppose Jehu, and to frustrate his designs: but the Septuagint version is, "to the rulers of Samaria", which seems most likely to be the true reading:



to the elders; the civil magistrates of the city of Samaria:



and to them that brought up Ahab's children: who had the care of their education; who either always dwelt at Samaria, being the royal city, or were sent with their charge thither, when Joram went to Ramothgilead, for safety, supposing he should be worsted by the Syrians; or they fled thither with them upon the death of Joram:



saying; as follows.





2 Kings 10:2



Ver. 2. Now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you,.... Sons of Ahab, and some of Joram, and all either the sons or grandsons of Ahab:



and there are with you chariots and horses; military ones:



a fenced city also: as Samaria was, well walled and fortified, and able to hold out a long siege:



and armour; of all sorts, to arm themselves and people with in their defence.





2 Kings 10:3



Ver. 3. Look even out the best and meetest of your master's sons,.... Most fit for government, whether on account of age or proper qualifications, and wisdom, courage, &c.



and set him on his father's throne; proclaim him king:



and fight for your master's house; that the crown may continue in his family; all which he did not desire might be, but in this sarcastic and sneering manner dares them to do it.





2 Kings 10:4



Ver. 4. But they were exceedingly afraid,.... They were intimidated at once; for they saw the purport of those letters, that should they attempt anything of this kind, he would come upon them with his forces:



and said, behold, two kings stood not before him; the kings of Israel and Judah, Joram and Ahaziah; but they were unarmed, and therefore how should they stand before an armed body of men Jehu had with him? this shows the pusillanimity of these men to make use of such an argument as this:



how then shall we stand? that is, before Jehu; but they were in much better circumstances than the two kings, as they are truly represented in 2Ki 10:2.





2 Kings 10:5



Ver. 5. And he that was over the house,.... The king's palace in Samaria, who had the custody, care, and government of it:



and he that was over the city; the commander and governor of it, that had the highest post in it under the king;



the elders also all other subordinate officers and magistrates:



and the bringers up of the children; who had the education of the king's sons committed to them:



sent to Jehu, saying, we are thy servants, and will do all that thou shall bid us. They were ready to do homage, and swear allegiance to him as their king, and obey all his commands as faithful subjects:



we will not make any king; or set up any on the throne, no, not any of the sons or grandsons of Ahab:



do thou that which is good in thine eyes, we will never oppose thee.





2 Kings 10:6



Ver. 6. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them,.... Having gained his point by the former:



saying, if ye be mine, acknowledge yourselves my subjects and servants;



and if ye will hearken to my voice; obey my commands:



take ye the heads of the men your master's sons; that is, take off their heads:



and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time meaning with the heads along with them:



(now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up;) they were in their houses, and under their tuition, and so had an authority over them, and could dispose of them at pleasure; they were not ordinary persons to whose care they were committed, but the principal men of the city.





2 Kings 10:7



Ver. 7. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them,.... They did not in the least hesitate, but immediately complied with the contents of it:



that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons; which was the whole number of them:



and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jezreel; as a present to Jehu, just as they carried the firstfruits, as Abarbinel observes.





2 Kings 10:8



Ver. 8. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, they have brought the heads of the king's sons,.... Perhaps this messenger to Jehu came from the great men of Samaria themselves, to let him know that they had obeyed his orders:



and he said, lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning; very probably it was towards or at the evening they were brought; and he ordered them to be taken out of the baskets, and laid in two heaps at the entering of the gate of the city, that they might be taken notice of, and publicly viewed by the people that passed and repassed the gate; and where they met in great numbers, either on account of the market there, or court of judicature there held, especially in mornings; and here they were to remain till the morning, though not without a guard, that they might still be more exposed to view; Noldius {p} renders it, "without the door of the gate", for they were brought at night, when the gate was shut.



{p} Ebr. Conc. Part. p. 68. No. 340.





2 Kings 10:9



Ver. 9. And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people,.... Who were gathered together to this shocking sight, or on the above accounts:



ye be righteous; having had no concern in taking off the heads of those men:



behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him; I own it, and some may blame me for it, and charge me with treason and murder:



but who slew all these? not he, but the chief men of Samaria, and therefore must be more guilty than he, having shed the blood of so many persons, who had not offended against God and man to so great a degree as Joram; this he said to lessen his own sin, and wipe off the reproach of it, that his character might appear fairer in the eyes of the people, concealing, at the same time, his orders for the slaying of them.





2 Kings 10:10



Ver. 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,.... He would have them observe, that all this, and what else should follow of the same kind, were and would be brought about by the providence of God, according to divine predictions, and as just punishments on Ahab's family for their sins; and therefore neither he nor others were to be blamed for what was done, since they were only instruments made use of by the Lord, who both foretold all this, and gave orders for the execution of it:



for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah; see

1Ki 21:21.





2 Kings 10:11



Ver. 11. So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel,.... Which to do, and to justify himself in so doing, was the design of what he said in the preceding verses:



and his great men; his ministers of state and counsellors, that advised him to, and abetted him in his idolatrous practices, and so justly suffered for the same; and perhaps some of them at least were those very men that cut off the heads of his sons in complaisance to Jehu:



and his kinsfolks: more distantly related to him or his acquaintance and familiars, his associates in sin and wickedness:



and his priests: who officiated for him and offered his sacrifices to Baal; the priests he kept in his palace, and ate at his table:



until he left him none remaining; either of his kindred or his priests, that is, that were at Jezreel; for there were others at Samaria, 2Ki 10:17.





2 Kings 10:12



Ver. 12 And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria,.... To make a clear riddance there of all that belonged to Ahab, as at Jezreel, and abolish idolatry there:



and as he was at the shearing house in the way; or, "the house of the binding of the shepherds", who, in shearing their sheep, bind their legs together; the Targum is,



"the house of the gathering of the shepherds;''



where they used to meet and converse together; with some it is the proper name of a place, Betheked, a country village between Jezreel and Samaria. Jerom speaks {q} of a village of this name, situated in a large plain, about fifteen miles from a place called Legion, which village he takes to be this here.



{q} De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K.





2 Kings 10:13



Ver. 13. Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah,.... At the above place; these were the sons of his brethren, called his brethren, as Lot was called Abraham's brother, being his brother's son; for as for his brethren, they had been slain by the Arabians before he was made king, 2Ch 22:1,



and said, who are ye? though perhaps he knew who they were:



and they answered, we are the brethren of Ahaziah; the sons of his brethren:



and we go down to salute the children of the king, and the children of the queen; meaning either the children of Ahab and Jezebel, or of Joram and his queen; for they knew nothing of the death of Joram and Jezebel, and the revolution made in the kingdom, and therefore with great simplicity tell who they were, and where they were going, and on what account.





2 Kings 10:14



Ver. 14. And he said, take them alive,.... Gave orders to his guards to seize them, and make them captives:



and they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house; where they washed the sheep when they sheered them;



[even] forty and two men, neither left he any of them; they being, by their grandmother's side, of the house of Ahab, and so within the commission of Jehu to slay them, at least as he thought; though his chief view might be, lest they should make any pretensions to the crown, being descended from that house, or should hereafter attempt to avenge the death of their relations; but by the judgment of God they were cut off as idolaters.





2 Kings 10:15



Ver. 15. And when he was departed thence,.... From Betheked, or the shearing house:



he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; a Kenite, a descendant of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, a wise and good man, as appears by the laws and rules he gave to his posterity, who continued to the times of Jeremiah, and were then observant of them, Jer 35:6 this good man hearing of Jehu's coming to the throne, and of his destruction of the idolatrous family of Ahab, and of his zeal for the worship of God, and against idolatry, came forth from his tent to meet him, and congratulate him upon it:



and he saluted him; Jonadab saluted Jehu, according to Abarbinel; or "blessed him" {r}, wished him all happiness in his kingdom, and success in the reformation of it; though most understand it of Jehu's saluting Jonadab, which seems best to agree with the following:



and said to him, is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? that is, hast thou the same cordial affection and sincere respect for me as I have for thee?



and Jehonadab answered, it is: to which some join the next clause, and read, "and it is"; which is doubling the answer, for the confirmation of it, as Kimchi says; though he also observes, that the latter may be interpreted as the answer of Jehu, by way of interrogation, "is it?",



then give me thine hand; and to the same purpose is our version,



if it be, and he gave [him] his hand; Jonadab gave Jehu his hand as a token of sincere friendship {s}, and cordial respect, and for the confirmation of the covenant between them, as Ben Melech; who also observes, that Jehu might bid him give him his hand to help him up into the chariot, since it follows,



and he took him up to him into the chariot; to ride with him to Samaria; the company of such a man, so famous for wisdom and goodness, he knew would give him much countenance among the people, and sanction to what he did.



{r} whkrbyw "et benedixit ei", V. L. Montanus. {s} "Ipse pater dextram Anchises", &c. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 3. prope finem. Vid. Servium in ib. Vid. Cornel. Nepot. Vit. Themistocl. l. 2. c. 8. & Datam. l. 14. c. 10.





2 Kings 10:16



Ver. 16. And he said, come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord of hosts,.... In destroying idolaters and idolatry, with an intent to do which he was going to Samaria; this seems to savour very much of vain glory, hypocrisy, and a pharisaical spirit:



so they made him ride in his chariot; the servants of Jehu by his order opened the chariot door, and assisted Jonadab in getting into it.





2 Kings 10:17



Ver. 17. And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria,.... All that were in any connection with him, as related to his family, or as ministers of his in civil or religious things:



till he had destroyed him; his whole house, as he was ordered:



according to the word of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah; which is observed, to show the exact fulfilment of prophecy, see 1Ki 21:21.





2 Kings 10:18



Ver. 18. And Jehu gathered all the people together,.... The people of Samaria, at least the principal of them:



and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little, [but] Jehu shall serve him much; which some understand as spoken ironically; but the words seem to be spoken with a design to deceive the idolatrous inhabitants of Samaria, making them to believe that he was hearty in the worship of Baal, and should show a greater respect to it, and more constantly attend it, than Ahab had done; and this he said with a view to draw them to the temple of Baal, and there destroy them, as the sequel shows; and in which he is not to be justified, however good his intention was; for evil is not to be done that good may come.





2 Kings 10:19



Ver. 19 Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests, let none be wanting,.... All that were employed in the several parts of religious worship given him, and in performing any rite and ceremony belonging to it; in invocation of him, and singing praises to him, as the prophets; in offering sacrifices to him, as the priests; or in assisting them in their service, who may be meant by his servants or ministers:



for I have a great sacrifice [to do] to Baal; by which, though he might mean a sacrifice of his prophets, priests, servants, and worshippers, he would have it otherwise understood, and his design was to deceive, which cannot be justified:



whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live: but be put to death; this he said, pretending his great zeal for Baal, when his view was by this threatening to get all his worshippers together to destroy them, that none might escape as follows:



but Jehu did it in subtlety, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal: the Targum renders it, "with wisdom"; but Jarchi and Ben Gersom much better, "in deceit"; the word signifies supplantation, such as Esau charged Jacob with.





2 Kings 10:20



Ver. 20. And Jehu said, proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal,.... Such as with the Jews was an holy convocation, when they were forbidden and restrained from doing any work on that day; and such a day Jehu would have appointed and proclaimed for Baal, that the people might be at leisure to attend:



and they proclaimed it; according to his order, in Samaria.





2 Kings 10:21



Ver. 21. And Jehu sent through all Israel,.... Persons to proclaim this solemn assembly:



and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not; some no doubt came cheerfully, having no suspicion of him, and the rather, as he might have been a worshipper of Baal in the times of Ahab; and as for what he had done to Baal's priests, they might consider that only as they were in connection with Ahab's family, whom to destroy was his political interest; and they were glad at heart their new king was so affected to Baal, and fond to see such a grand solemnity as they expected this to be; and others that might be suspicious of him, yet as they must die if they did not appear, and there was a possibility they might live, chose therefore to come:



and they came into the house of Baal; the temple which Ahab had built for him in Samaria, 1Ki 16:32



and the house of Baal was full from one end to the other; not only the body of the temple, but all the outward court, every mouth, or corner, as in the original text: and this single house might be sufficient for all in the land; since the number of them might be greatly lessened by the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, as well as by the destruction the former made of the prophets of Baal; and by the schools of the prophets set up in various places, from whence prophets were sent out to instruct the people; and by Joram's putting away the image of Baal, which no doubt lessened the number of his worshippers.





2 Kings 10:22



Ver. 22. And he said unto him that was over the vestry,.... That had the care of the garments, in which the priests of Baal ministered:



bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal; not for the priests only, but for all that worshipped; and this he ordered for the greater solemnity of this service, as he would have it thought; but, in truth, that the worshippers of Baal might be separated, and distinguished from the worshippers of the Lord, that not one of them might be among them:



and he brought them forth vestments; out of the chamber or wardrobe in which they were, and they put them on.





2 Kings 10:23



Ver. 23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal,.... Who no doubt was led into the secret, and knew the design of Jehu, or he would not have gone into such an idolatrous place:



and said unto the worshippers of Baal, search and look, that there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only; pretending a great regard to the purity of their worship and sacrifices, that they might not be profaned {t} by the company of such who were not worshippers of Baal, but of Jehovah; whereas his view was to prevent any of the worshippers of God perishing with them, who might out of curiosity go in among them, to behold the manner of their service.



{t} "----procul, o procul este profani". Virgil. Aeneid. 6. ver. 258.





2 Kings 10:24



Ver. 24. And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings,.... To Baal, all things being ready for them:



Jehu appointed eighty men without; without the temple of Baal, at the several doors and avenues of it:



and said, if any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him; should be put to death for it in his room; the life of a watchman set to guard should go for the life of one that escaped.





2 Kings 10:25



Ver. 25. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering,.... The chief of the priests of Baal, whose office it was to do this service:



that Jehu said to the guard, and to the captains, go in and slay them, let none come forth; this he said to the eighty men set to guard the temple, and the officers over them; and perhaps they might also have a reinforcement, since such a number seems scarcely sufficient to destroy so many as were here; though indeed it must be considered they were armed men:



and they smote them with the edge of the sword; put them all to death:



and the guard and the captains cast them out; those that were slain, as the Targum, their dead bodies; but it can hardly be thought they would be at the trouble of casting them out, when the house was to be pulled down, and made a jakes (a common sewer or dung house) of, as follows; rather therefore it should be rendered, "they cast" or "flung themselves" {u} with great force, and in great haste, as Kimchi, and rushed out of the temple, being eager to do as follows:



and went to the city of the house of Baal; to pull it down; to some city near Samaria where was a temple of Baal; or rather this may design the buildings about the temple of Baal, in which the priests and their families lived, and were so large that they might be called a city of themselves.



{u} yklvyw "et proripuerunt se", De Dicu.





2 Kings 10:26



Ver. 26. And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burnt them. Lesser images, the images of other deities, or what were placed as decorations of the temple.





2 Kings 10:27



Ver. 27. And they broke down the temple of Baal,.... Which some take to be Belus, others Saturn, others the sun, which seems most probable:



and broke down the house of Baal; his temple, demolished it:



and made it a draught house until this day; a common sewer, a jakes; a fit place for dunghill gods to be thrown into, and an idol temple to be turned into.





2 Kings 10:28



Ver. 28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. His images and temples being served thus in all places, throughout the land of Israel, where there were any.





2 Kings 10:29



Ver. 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,.... Which is the common character given of that king, a blot never to be wiped off:



Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan: he did not abstain from the worship of them, partly because he might not think it idolatry, because God was worshipped in them; hence he calls the worshippers of the calves the servants of the Lord, 2Ki 10:23, and partly that he might not displease the princes of the people of Israel, who generally gave in to the worship of them; but chiefly lest the kingdom of Israel should return to the house of David, the worship of the calves being a piece of state policy, to keep them from going to Jerusalem to worship, lest thereby they should be drawn off from their allegiance to the king of Israel.





2 Kings 10:30



Ver. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu,.... By a prophet, he not being one himself; and this is generally supposed, by the Jews {w}, to be Jonah the son of Amittai:



because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes: in rooting out the idolatry of Baal, which was right in the sight of God, and was materially a good work, though it might not be done from a good principle, nor every step taken in doing it justifiable:



and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart: that he had decreed within himself should be done, and had foretold by his prophets would be done, the doing of which was acceptable and well pleasing to him:



thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel; as they did, namely, Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, though the last reigned but six months, just enough to fulfil this promise.



{w} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 19.





2 Kings 10:31



Ver. 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart,.... As to his moral conversation, he was not careful that it was according to the law of God, and what he did agreeable to it, it was not sincerely, and from the right principle:



for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin; which he would, if he had had a cordial respect to all the commandments of the law.





2 Kings 10:32



Ver. 32. In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short,.... To bring their dominions into a narrower compass; this was done in the days of Jehu, though he was so active and courageous, wherefore the hand of God was the more seen in it:



and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; which bordered on his country, when he did what Elisha foretold he would, 2Ki 8:12.





2 Kings 10:33



Ver. 33. From Jordan eastward,.... This was principally the coast on which Hazael smote them, to the east of the land of Canaan:



all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Moabites; the country on the other side Jordan, given to these tribes by Moses, at their request, which were before the kingdoms of Sihon and of Og:



from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan: countries which the Israelites first conquered, and were the first they lost.





2 Kings 10:34



Ver. 34. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?] Of the preceding kings from the times of Jeroboam, in which their several acts were recorded, and his also.





2 Kings 10:35



Ver. 35. And Jehu slept with his fathers,.... Died as they did:



and they buried him in Samaria; where Omri and Ahab, his predecessors, were buried, 1Ki 16:28



and Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead; who reigned seventeen years, 2Ki 13:1.





2 Kings 10:36



Ver. 36. And the time that Jehu reigned was twenty and eight years. Which was longer than any king of Israel had reigned.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

2 Kings 11:1



INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 11



This chapter relates how that Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, being hid and preserved, when his grandmother murdered all the seed royal, after six years was produced, 2Ki 11:1, when Jehoiada the priest set a sufficient guard about him, and the king's house, and anointed him king, 2Ki 11:4, and Athaliah his grandmother, who had reigned six years, was put to death by the order of the priest, 2Ki 10:13, and then a covenant was made between the Lord, and the king, and the people, and between the king and the people; and he was placed on the throne, to the satisfaction of the people, and the quiet thereof, 2Ki 10:17.



Ver. 1. And when Athaiah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead,.... Who was the daughter of Ahab, and granddaughter of Omri 2Ki 8:18, she arose,



and destroyed all the seed royal; that were left, for many had been slain already; the sons of Jehoshaphat, the brothers of Joram, were slain by him, 2Ch 21:4 and all Joram's sons, excepting Ahaziah, were slain by the Arabians, 2Ch 22:1, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah were slain by Jehu, 2Ki 11:8, these therefore seem to be the children of Ahaziah, the grandchildren of this brutish woman, whom she massacred out of her ambition of rule and government, which perhaps she was intrusted with while her son went to visit Joram king of Israel; other reasons are by some assigned, but this seems to be the chief. For the same reason Laodice, who had six sons by Ariarathes king of the Cappadocians, poisoned five of them; the youngest escaping her hands, was murdered by the people {x}, as this woman also was.



{x} Justin. e Trogo, l. 37. c. 1.





2 Kings 11:2



Ver. 2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram,.... Not by Athaliah, but another woman; for an high priest, as her husband was, would not have married the daughter of such an idolatrous woman, nor would she have married her to him:



sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain: among whom he lay; either being cast there by the murderer, or her associates, supposed to be dead, or by his nurse, that he might be thought to be so, who acquainting his aunt with it, went and privately took him away:



and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain; that is, Jehosheba and her husband hid him and his nurse in a bedchamber; or "chamber of beds" {y}, in which there were more beds than one; one of the chambers of the priests and Levites in the temple, that is, which were adjoining to it; for into the sanctuary itself it was not usual to bring beds {z}; wherefore



the house of the Lord, in the next verse, must be understood largely as including all the appendages of it.



{y} twjmh rdxb "in cubiculo lectorum", Pagninus, Montanus. So Sept. &c. {z} T. Bab. Tamid, c. 1. fol. 26. 2.





2 Kings 11:3



Ver. 3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years,.... In the temple; not in the holy of holies, as Jarchi, but in a chamber of the priests and Levites, of which there were several in a temple, as Kimchi, and others; and the husband of Jehosheba, being high priest, had one of them for his own use; and here the child was hid six years, so that he was but a year old when he was first taken and preserved, for he was made king when seven years of age, 2Ki 11:21,



and Athaliah did reign over the land; the only instance we hear of a woman reigning in Israel, and this was not by right, but by usurpation; and so, according to the Jewish canons, a woman might not rule; which thus runs {a}, they do not set a woman in the kingdom, as it is said, De 17:15, "a king over them", not a queen; and so, in all places of power and authority in Israel, they put in them none but a man.



{a} Maimon. Hilchot Melachim, c. 1. sect. 5.





2 Kings 11:4



Ver. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard,.... This was the husband of Jehosheba, who was high priest, 2Ch 22:11 these



rulers over hundreds were not those appointed over the people for civil affairs, as by the advice of Jethro, but over the priests and Levites in their courses; five of whom are mentioned by name, and were employed in gathering together the Levites, and the chief of the fathers, throughout all the cities of Judah, 2Ch 23:1, and the "captains" here are the heads of the fathers there, who were the heads of the courses they were sent to gather; and the "guard", those of the late king, whom Athaliah had turned out of their post, and took in others in their room, unless rather the temple guard is meant:



and brought them to him into the house of the Lord; the temple, that part of it where was the court of the priests and Levites:



and made a covenant with them; to join with him, assist him, and stand by him in the restoration of the king, and the reformation of the kingdom:



and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord; to keep secrecy, and be faithful to him:



and showed them the king's son; for the truth of which he could produce his wife, the sister of the late king, and also the nurse of this child with him.





2 Kings 11:5



Ver. 5. And he commanded them, saying, this is the thing that ye shall do,.... These were the rulers over hundreds among the priests and Levites, and which he, as high priest, could command, and whom he could convene without suspicion, being such as he had a connection with, and were unarmed men: and for the better understanding of what follows, it should be observed, that the priests, in the times of David, were divided into twenty four courses, which were by turns to serve a week in the temple; the course that came in entered when the sabbath began, and that which went out went out when it ended, and each course consisted of a thousand men: now with respect to both these courses, both that which went in and that which went out, Jehoiada gave them the following charge:



a third part of you that enter in on the sabbath; on the beginning of it, to do duty in the temple the week following:



shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house, which, according to some, was that part of the temple where the king was hid and brought up, supposed to be the north part of it: or rather these were set at the north gate of the temple, which led to the royal palace, lest any should rush out of that, and kill the king.





2 Kings 11:6



Ver. 6. And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur,.... Generally thought by the Jews to be the eastern gate, so called, as they say, because such as were defiled were bid to depart, or go back, as this word signifies, and not enter the temple; it is called "the gate of the foundation", 2Ch 23:5 because, according to Ben Gersom, here the foundation of the sanctuary was first laid; it is said {b} to have five other names besides these:



and a third part at the gate behind the guard; the temple guard, which had a captain of them, Ac 4:1 this gate is supposed to be the same with "sippim", or the threshold gate, 2Ch 23:4 and to be the southern one:



so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down; guard the temple, that none break or rush into it, of Athaliah's party.



{b} T. Hieros. Yoma apud Beckium in Targ. in 2 Chron. xxiii. 5.





2 Kings 11:7



Ver. 7. And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath,.... The course that went out of service at the end of the sabbath; these were not suffered, not any of them, to go into the country, but were detained for the present purpose, and divided into two parts:



even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king, these were placed in the temple where the king was, or where he should be brought forth, and be a guard on his right and left; this interpretation seems to be agreeably to the order of the text here, and is the sense of Jarchi; but there is this objection to it, that, by such a distribution of both courses, no provision is made for the services of the temple; wherefore Dr. Lightfoot {c} divides them into six parts, each into three, one third of the course that came in for service, the other to keep the watch at the king's house, and the other third at the gate Sur; and the course that went out, one third of them was placed at the gate behind the guard, and the other two to keep the watch of the house for the king's safety; but according to the account in 2Ch 23:4, there were but three ranks or orders of them in all; wherefore the sense of Kimchi, Ben Gersom, and Abarbinel, seems most agreeable, that the first consisted of those that went in on the sabbath, not of all, but half of them, the other half being employed in the service of the sanctuary; and the other two of the course that went out, even all of them, they being entirely at leisure, who were divided into two parts, and disposed of as above.



{c} Prospect of the Temple, c. 20.





2 Kings 11:8



Ver. 8. And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand,.... Afterwards given them, 2Ki 11:10,



and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain; any strange man that was not of them, that came into the ranks in which they were formed, was to be put to death as a spy, who might go and inform the queen what was doing; according to Jarchi, the word for "ranges" signifies the place through which the king went from his own house to the house of God {d}; and here it seems the guards were placed:



and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in when brought forth to be crowned and anointed, and returned again.



{d} Vid. David. de Pomis Lexic. fol. 205. 3.





2 Kings 11:9



Ver. 9. And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded,.... Of whom see 2Ki 11:4



and they took every man his men; everyone his hundred:



that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath; both the courses, of which see 2Ki 11:5



and came to Jehoiada the priest; with the said courses, at least as many of them as were to be employed in the present service.





2 Kings 11:10



Ver. 10. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give King David's spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord. Such as he had taken in war from his enemies, and had dedicated for the service of the temple, to defend it on occasion, and laid up there; those the priests gave to the captains, to arm their men with, who came unarmed, and so unsuspected, and in this way might be armed without being seen and known.





2 Kings 11:11



Ver. 11. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king,.... As ordered, 2Ki 11:8



from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple from the northeast to the southeast:



along by the altar and the temple: the altar of burnt offering, which stood in the court.





2 Kings 11:12



Ver. 12. And he brought forth the king's son,.... Out of the apartment in the temple where he had been brought up:



and put the crown upon him; the crown royal, which seems to have been kept in the temple:



and gave him the testimony; the book of the law, which he was to read in all his days, and according to it govern the people; and which was a testimony of the will of God both to him and them: Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of royal garments put upon him:



and they made him king, and anointed him; proclaimed and declared him king, and anointed him, for the confirmation of it, because of the pretension Athaliah made to the kingdom; otherwise, as the Jewish writers say, the son of a king was not anointed; and hence, they say, it was, that Solomon was anointed, because of the claim of Adonijah:



and they clapped their hands; in token of joy:



and said, God save the king; or, "let the king live"; or, "may he prosper", as the Targum; may health and prosperity attend him in his government. In 2Ch 23:11, it is said; "Jehoiada and his sons anointed him", and said those words; among whom must be Zechariah, whom this king afterwards slew, which was an instance of great ingratitude, 2Ch 24:20.





2 Kings 11:13



Ver. 13. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard, and of the people,.... Their acclamations and shouts at the coronation of the king; for by this time the people had some knowledge of the affair, and ran, and came flocking to see the new king, and express their joy on this occasion, and whom they greatly praised, 2Ch 23:12



she came to the people into the temple of the Lord; the outward court, where the people were assembled; and she seems to come alone, unattended, in great surprise and consternation, and was admitted to pass the guards, being the queen, and alone, and perhaps by the particular order of Jehoiada, though contrary to the general orders he gave, 2Ki 11:8.





2 Kings 11:14



Ver. 14. And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was,.... Of kings, when they came into the temple on any occasion, civil or religious, therefore it is called his pillar, 2Ch 23:13, some think this was the brazen scaffold erected by Solomon, 2Ch 6:13, though Vitringa {e} and Bishop Patrick suppose it to be the post of the east gate of the inner court, from

Eze 46:2, according to Jacob Leo {f}, this was the royal throne in the court of the Israelites, near the high or upper gate, on a marble pillar, where the kings of the house of David sat, when they came into the sanctuary to see the Lord in the second temple; this throne was like an high tower, standing upon two pillars, each twenty cubits high, and their circumference twelve; here sat Joash, and Hezekiah, and Josiah; however, Athaliah saw Jehoash with the crown on his head, and in the place where kings used to sit or stand:



and the princes and the trumpeters by the king; the rulers of the courses of the priests, and the Levites, blowing the trumpets:



and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; it is added, in 2Ch 23:13 that the singers played also on musical instruments; that were then and there assembled:



and Athaliah rent her clothes; through grief, and as one almost distracted:



and cried, treason, treason! to try if she could get any to take her part, and seize on the new king, and those that set him up.



{e} Proleghom. de Synagog. Vet. c. 4. p. 32. {f} Apud Wagenseil. Sotah, p. 680.





2 Kings 11:15



Ver. 15. But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host,.... Of the priests and Levites:



and said unto them, have her forth without the ranges; the ranks of the guards, which were at the gate leading to the palace, or rather "within" them {g}; the meaning is, that he ordered her to be had out of the court of the temple, and be put within their ranks, and enclosed by them, that her blood might not be shed in the temple, and yet not escape them:



and him that followeth her, kill with the sword: that takes her part, and offers to help and assist her, passing through the ranks after her, dispatch him at once:



for the priest had said, let her not be slain in the house of the Lord: that it might not be defiled with her blood; by which it appears that the guards had orders concerning her before, should she come to the temple, see 2Ki 11:13.



{g} trdvl tybm "intra ordines", Munster, Junius, Tremellius, Piscator, Noldius, p. 79. No. 365. So Jarchi, Kimchi, Ben Gersom, & Ben Melech.





2 Kings 11:16



Ver. 16. And they laid hands on her,.... Or rather,



"set a place for her'',



as the Targum; so Jarchi and Kimchi; made a space, opened a way for her to come out of the temple into their ranks, that she might be there taken and slain, and not in the temple:



and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house; either the high road in which the horses and carriages went to the palace, or the way to the king's stables near the palace: and there was she slain; they let her go so far, which was far enough from the temple, and then they slew her.





2 Kings 11:17



Ver. 17. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people,.... Renewed the covenant between the Lord on the one part, and the king and the people on the other; assuring them, that as God had declared that he would be their God, he would yet be their God to bless and protect them, they continuing in obedience to him; and obliging them to promise that they would serve the Lord their God, and him only, and root out all idolatry from the land, and restore, and continue in, the pure worship of God:



between the king also and the people; he promising, on his part, that he would govern them according to the law of God, and protect them in their rights and properties, privileges and liberties; and they, on their part, that they would honour and obey him, and be his faithful subjects. In 2Ch 23:16 Jehoiada is said to make this covenant between him, &c. which may be understood of the Lord; or if of himself, the meaning is, that it was made between him, the king and people, and the Lord.





2 Kings 11:18



Ver. 18. And all the people of the land,.... That were at Jerusalem, and the parts adjacent, that came from the country, hearing what was done: went into the house of Baal; a temple of his Athaliah had built, either in Jerusalem, or near it; perhaps on the mount of Olives, called the mount of corruption, 2Ki 23:13 from the idolatry there committed:



and brake it down, his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly; made an entire destruction of them all, temple, altars, the images of Baal and other deities:



and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altar; either as he was sacrificing, or that he might be a sacrifice, or where he had fled for refuge:



and the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord; priests to offer sacrifices, Levites to sing the praises of God, porters at the door of the temple, and watches in it, and restored the courses of the priests, and everything to its proper order, which had been neglected, or had ceased, during the usurpation of Athaliah; see 2Ch 23:18.





2 Kings 11:19



Ver. 19. And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard,.... Of which 2Ki 11:4 and all the people of the land; as many as were assembled together on this occasion:



and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord; the temple, which was built on an eminence:



and came by the way of the gate to the king's house; the gate of the royal palace, where the king's guards were placed, and did their duty: and he sat on the throne of the kings: where the kings of Judah used to sit, and this finished the formality of his being made king.





2 Kings 11:20



Ver. 20. And all the people of the land rejoiced,.... That one of the house of David was set upon the throne, which they might fear was extinct, as it very near was; the lamp of David was almost quenched, only this single life left, from whom a line of kings proceeded, and the King Messiah; the promise of God cannot fail see Ps 132:11, this occasioned great joy:



and the city was quiet: was very easy at, yea, pleased with, the dethroning and death of Athaliah; there was no tumult on account thereof, nor such disturbances as she occasioned in her life:



and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house; as related in 2Ki 11:16 where she was buried, or what became of her carcass, is not said; some have thought she was cast into the brook Kidron, because Josephus says {h} Jehoiada ordered her to be had into that valley, and there slain.



{h} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 7. sect. 3.





2 Kings 11:21



Ver. 21. Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign. Being a year old when his father was killed and having been hid six years in the temple.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

2 Kings 12:1



INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 12



In this chapter some account is given of the reign of Jehoash, that it was long, and the beginning of it good, during the life of Jehoiada, 2Ki 12:1 how urgent he was to have the temple repaired, and what methods were taken for that purpose, 2Ki 12:4, how meanly, as well as impiously, he behaved, when the king of Syria was about to come up to Jerusalem and besiege it, 2Ki 12:17, and the chapter is closed with an account of his death, and the manner of it, 2Ki 12:19.



Ver. 1. In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign,.... So that he reigned twenty one or twenty two years contemporary with Jehu's reign, for Jehu reigned twenty eight years:



and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem; the same number of years David and Solomon reigned:



and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba; a city in the tribe of Simeon, in the extreme part of the land of Canaan southward; her name in the Chaldee dialect is Tabitha, the same with Dorcas in Greek, Ac 9:36.





2 Kings 12:2



Ver. 2. And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days,.... Worshipping the only true God, and ruling and walking according to the law of God:



wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him; and so long as he observed his instructions, and as long as that priest lived, he reigned well; for to that period "all his days must be limited"; for after his death he was seduced by the princes of Judah to idolatry, and lived scandalously, and died ignominiously; see 2Ch 24:2.





2 Kings 12:3



Ver. 3. But the high places were not taken away,.... Used before the temple was built, or set up in Rehoboam's time, 1Ki 14:23 contrary to the law of God, which required that sacrifices should only be offered in the place the Lord chose to dwell in, De 12:4 the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places; as they had done in the times of Athaliah, and though the pure worship of God was restored at Jerusalem; and indeed this they did in all preceding reigns; nor was it in the power of the best of kings, at least they did not think it safe to attempt to remove them till Hezekiah's time; so fond were the people of them because of their antiquity and supposed sanctity, and for the sake of ease.





2 Kings 12:4



Ver. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests,.... Being minded or having it in his heart, to repair the temple, as in 2Ch 24:4 not only because it was the sanctuary of the Lord, though that chiefly, but because it had been a sanctuary to him, where he was hid and preserved six years:



all the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the Lord: or rather, "that is to be brought", as De Dieu, and others render it, the particulars of which follow:



even the money of everyone that passeth [the account]; or that passeth among them that are numbered, as in Ex 30:13 that were upwards of twenty years of age, and bound to pay the half shekel for the ransom of their souls; and it is called the collection or burden Moses laid on them in the wilderness, 2Ch 24:6



the money that every man is set at; the price the priest set upon or estimated a man at, or whomsoever that belonged to him, that he devoted to the Lord, which by the law he was bound to pay for his redemption, and, till that was done, he and they were not his, but the Lord's, of which see Le 27:1 and here the Targum calls it, the money of the redemption of souls, which is the gift of a man for the redemption of his soul:



and all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the Lord: vows and freewill offerings made of their own accord.





2 Kings 12:5



Ver. 5. Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance,.... Of those that were most known by them; for the priests had cities assigned them in several parts of the land, and they that dwelt with them in them, or in the parts adjacent to them, were best known by them; and they were sent into all the cities, some to one and some to another, where they were most acquainted, to collect money, both what was due by law, and what the people should freely give, see 2Ch 24:5



and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found: that is, of the temple, which, according to the Jewish chronology {i}, had been built but one hundred and fifty five years; and being built very strong, would have needed no considerable repairs as yet, but that it had been broken up and misused by Athaliah and her sons, 2Ch 24:7.



{i} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 18.





2 Kings 12:6



Ver. 6. But it was so, that in the twenty and third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Either the people being backward to pay in the money, or the priests converted it to their own use: or, however, were negligent of doing the work enjoined them by the king, either in collecting the money, or in using it as they were directed.





2 Kings 12:7



Ver. 7. Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests,.... The common priests, Jehoiada being high priest:



and said unto them, why repair ye not the breaches of the house? in which they appeared to him very dilatory; the reason might be, the people were not forward to pay in their money, and they might not choose to begin the repairs until they had got it all in, or at least what was sufficient to carry them through them:



now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance; suspecting that what they had received they kept for their own use:



but deliver it for the breaches of the house; into other hands for that use, and so dismissed them at once from collecting the money, and being concerned in the repairs of the temple.





2 Kings 12:8



Ver. 8. And the priests consented to receive no [more] money of the people,.... And delivered up what they had:



neither to repair the breaches of the house; being very willing to be stop both services, and especially since they seemed to be suspected.





2 Kings 12:9



Ver. 9. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest,.... By the commandment of the king, 2Ch 24:8, to put the money collected into, to prevent any fraud, or suspicion of any:



and bored a hole in the lid of it; to drop the money into, by which means it could not be taken out without taking off the lid:



and set it beside the altar; the altar of burnt offering, in the court:



on the right side, as one cometh into the house of the Lord; that is, on the north; for the entrance into the temple was at the east: in

2Ch 24:8, it is said to be set without at the gate of the house; which Dr. Lightfoot {k} thinks respects another time, and that either another chest was made, or the same that was first placed by the altar, in the court of the priests, and so in their hands, and the money not coming in apace, was removed without the court at the entrance of it, whither the people brought it readily:



and the priests that kept the door; the door of the outward court, the levites, the porters, or rather, as the Targum, the priests, the treasurers, who were appointed to this service in the room of the others dismissed; and so Kimchi and other Jewish commentators interpret this of the keepers of the vessels of the sanctuary, and not of the doors of it:



these put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord; by the people from the several parts of the country, who, by proclamation, were required so to do, and very readily did, 2Ch 24:9.



{k} Prospect of the Temple, ch. 30. p. 20, 22.





2 Kings 12:10



Ver. 10. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest,.... Which might easily be guessed at by the number of the people which contributed:



that the king's and the high priest came up; to the temple; the high priest did not choose to come alone, lest he should be suspected, but to have the king's secretary with him, that the money might be taken out of the chest, and told in the presence of them both: in 2Ch 24:11 instead of the "high priest", it is the "high priest's officer", which the Targum there calls the Sagan of the high priest, or his deputy, who, perhaps, attended when the high priest could not:



and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the Lord; that is, they poured the money out of the chest, or emptied it, as in 2Ch 24:11 and counted it, and very likely set down the sum in writing, and put it up in bags, very probably sealed.





2 Kings 12:11



Ver. 11. And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the Lord,.... Who were appointed overseers of the workmen employed in the repairs of the temple; which overseers were laymen, and not priests, they being discharged from any concern in the repairs: this money "told", Kimchi interprets of its being coined; he supposes money coined and uncoined to be brought, which was put in separate bags; and that, which was not coined, they coined it before they delivered it to the overseers to pay the workmen with:



and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders that wrought upon the house of the Lord; paid them with it, some that wrought in cutting the timber, and others in building with it.





2 Kings 12:12



Ver. 12. And to masons, and hewers of stone,.... Which they cut out of the mountain, and the masons repaired the stone walls with:



and to buy timber; felled in Lebanon:



and hewed stone; fitted for building with:



to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord; where both timber and stone were wanting:



and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it; in whatsoever else it needed, as iron and brass to mend it, 2Ch 24:12.





2 Kings 12:13



Ver. 13. Howbeit there were not made for the house of the Lord, bowls of silver,.... Either to hold the blood of the sacrifices, or the drink offerings of wine:



snuffers; to trim the lamps; or, as Jarchi and other writers, both Jewish and Christian, musical instruments:



basins; vessels to sprinkle the blood with, as the word signifies:



trumpets; silver ones, to call the assembly, blow over the sacrifices, &c.



any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver; for any other use: these were not made



of the money that was brought into the house of the Lord; yet, in

2Ch 24:14, it is said they were, which is to be reconciled thus; they did not make any of those things at first, until the house was repaired, and the charges of it defrayed; and then of what remained they made vessels for the house, which were wanting, that Athaliah had bestowed on Baalim, 2Ch 24:7.





2 Kings 12:14



Ver. 14. But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord. They took care that the workmen should first be paid for the repairs of the temple.





2 Kings 12:15



Ver. 15. Moreover, they reckoned not with the men into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on the workmen,.... That is, the king's secretary and the high priest, or his officer, never called to account the overseers of the workmen, to whom they committed the money to pay them with; never examined how they laid it out, and for what:



for they dealt faithfully; they saw they acted such an honest and upright part, and such an high opinion had they of them, that they never examined their accounts, or called for their bills.





2 Kings 12:16



Ver. 16. The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the Lord,.... Which was the money persons at a distance sent for their trespass and sin offerings instead of cattle, with which the sacrifices were bought; and what remained of the money was not brought into the temple, and made use of in the above manner:



it was the priest's; the overplus of it, and such of the sacrifices which by the law were appropriated to them.





2 Kings 12:17



Ver. 17. Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it,.... When Jehoiada was dead, and Jehoash was become an apostate, the Lord suffered the king of Syria to be a scourge to him; who first attacked Gath, and took it, which was formerly one of the principalities of the Philistines, but was subdued by David, and had been in the hands of the Israelites ever since; the king of Syria began with this, as nearest to him, to open the way for what he had further in view:



and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem; he made such preparations, and took such measures, as plainly indicated what his design was.





2 Kings 12:18



Ver. 18. And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated,.... To sacred uses, and had laid up in the temple:



and his own hallowed things: which he had devoted to the same uses:



and all the gold [that was] found in the treasures of the house of the Lord: which were gifts and presents from divers persons for sacred services:



and sent it to Hazael king of Syria, and he went away from Jerusalem; to bribe him, that he might desist from his purpose; which showed a meanness of spirit, and was the effect of his idolatry and apostasy, having forsaken the Lord, and being forsaken by him; in whom should have been his trust and confidence, and then he need not have been afraid to meet the king of Syria.





2 Kings 12:19



Ver. 19. And the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?] In the registers and annals of those princes; some of them are to be met with in 2Ch 24:1.





2 Kings 12:20



Ver. 20. And his servants arose,.... This was after he had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who reproved him for his idolatry; and after a second expedition of the king of Syria, who came to Jerusalem, and spoiled it, and left Jehoash diseased, as is recorded in 2Ch 24:23,



and made a conspiracy; not to get the kingdom into their hands, for his son succeeded him, but to avenge the death of Zechariah;



and slew Jehoash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla; these are both names of places; perhaps the latter is mentioned, to distinguish this Bethmillo from Millo in Zion; or rather that itself is meant, and described by the descent from it to a causeway, as Silla may signify, which led to the royal palace.





2 Kings 12:21



Ver. 21. For Jozachar the son of Shimeath,.... Said to be an Ammonitess, and this man's name Zabad, 2Ch 24:26,



and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants; who is said in the same place to be the son of Shimrith a Moabitess:



these smote him, and he died; justly did he fall by the hands of such persons for his idolatry:



and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David; but not in the sepulchres of the kings, because of his idolatry and murder of a priest of the Lord:



and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead; the conspirators not seeking the kingdom, but vengeance on him for his sins, which, whether right in them to do, was suffered by the Lord.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.

2 Kings 13:1



INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 13



This chapter gives an account of the wicked reign of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel, and of the low estate he was brought into by the Syrians, 2Ki 13:1, and of the reign of his son Joash, 2Ki 13:10, and of the sickness and death of Elisha; of the visit Joash made him in his sickness; and of his prediction of the king's success against the Syrians; and of the reviving of a dead man cast into the prophet's sepulchre, 2Ki 13:14 and of the success of Joash against the Syrians, according to the prediction of the prophet, 2Ki 13:22.



Ver. 1. In the twenty and third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah,.... The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, 2Ki 12:6,



Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, 2Ki 10:36, and 2Ki 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe:



and reigned seventeen years; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see 2Ki 13:10





2 Kings 13:2



Ver. 2. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry:



and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; worshipping the golden calves:



he departed not therefrom; from the worship of them.





2 Kings 13:3



Ver. 3. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel,.... They doing as their kings did:



and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all [their] days; the word "their" should not be supplied, since it was not true that Israel was delivered into the hands of both those kings of Syria as long as they lived; for they were delivered out of the hands of Benhadad, 2Ki 13:25, but the word "his" should be inserted for it as to be understood of the days of Jehoahaz, see 2Ki 13:22.





2 Kings 13:4



Ver. 4. And Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him,.... He did not apply in his distress to the calves he worshipped, but to the Lord; who had a regard to his prayer, not for his sake, or any righteousness of his, or even his repentance and humiliation, which were only external; but for the sake of Israel, and because they were oppressed, who were his people, and he their God, though they had sadly departed from him:



for he saw the oppression of Israel; not only with his eye of omniscience, but with an eye of mercy and compassion:



because the king of Syria oppressed them; by his incursions upon them, and wars with them.





2 Kings 13:5



Ver. 5. And the Lord gave Israel a saviour,.... Not an angel sent by him, nor a captain raised up among them, nor the prophet Elisha, who predicted their deliverance, nor Jehoahaz himself, but his son Joash, 2Ki 13:25



so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; were not in subjection to them, nor harassed by them, nor in fear of them:



and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as before time; in peace and safety.





2 Kings 13:6



Ver. 6. Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, but walked therein,.... Continued to worship the calves still, which was an instance of great ingratitude; the Syriac and Arabic versions read, "he departed not"; Jehoahaz the king:



and there remained the grove in Samaria; which Ahab made there, 1Ki 16:33, neither Jehu nor his son had it cut down, though Baal was destroyed.





2 Kings 13:7



Ver. 7. Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen,.... This is to be connected with 2Ki 13:4, the verses

2Ki 12:5, being to be read in a parenthesis, as in our version, and to be understood of the king of Syria, who left no more to the king of Israel, not of the people of the land, but of his army, than fifty horsemen, all the rest being either taken and carried captive by him, or slain:



and ten chariots; military chariots, with the men they carried:



and ten thousand footmen; foot soldiers; to so small a number was his army reduced through wars with the Syrians:



for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing: as corn or chaff may be reduced to dust by too much threshing; or as mire and clay by treading on it.





2 Kings 13:8



Ver. 8. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might,.... Which he exerted against the Syrians, being a man of courage, though not successful, because the Lord was not with him, but against him:



are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? where their acts, and the events of their reigns, were recorded.





2 Kings 13:9



Ver. 9. And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers,.... Died, as they did:



and they buried him in Samaria; where Omri, and all the kings of Israel, that descended from him, were buried:



and Joash his son reigned in his stead; of whom a short account is given in the following verses.





2 Kings 13:10



Ver. 10. In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah, began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria,.... But inasmuch as his father began to reign in the twenty third of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, 2Ki 13:1 this king must begin to reign in the thirty ninth or fortieth of Joash; for the reconciling of which it may be observed, that two of the years of his reign may be supposed to be imperfect; or rather that his son reigned two or three years in his lifetime, being raised up before his father's death to be a saviour of Israel from the Syrians; and so his father lived to see his prayer answered, 2Ki 13:4,



and reigned sixteen years.





2 Kings 13:11



Ver. 11. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... As his father did, and his character is described in the same words, see 2Ki 13:2.





2 Kings 13:12



Ver. 12. And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did,.... Though none of his acts as yet are recorded, but his sinful ones:



and his might; or valiant actions in war with the Syrians, 2Ki 13:25,



and wherewith he fought against Amaziah king of Judah; of which there is an account in the following chapter:



are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? in the history of the transactions of their reigns.





2 Kings 13:13



Ver. 13. And Joash slept with his fathers,.... Or died:



and Jeroboam sat upon his throne; who was his son; it is not said that he began to sit on it, or to reign, nor to reign in his father's stead; hence it is concluded, as by Kimchi and others, that his father set him on his throne in his lifetime; and the Jewish chronology {l} expressly asserts that he reigned with him one year:



and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; see

2Ki 13:9, the history of his life and actions does not cease here, but, after an account of the sickness and death of Elisha, it is reassumed, which was necessary to interpose to lead on to it.



{l} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 19.





2 Kings 13:14



Ver. 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died,.... The prophets do not live for ever; this sickness was unto death; Elisha died, and was not translated as Elijah was:



and Joash the king came down unto him; from his palace to the prophet's house, to visit him in his sickness; which was an instance of great condescension and respect, and especially in a wicked prince that could not be reformed by him:



and wept over his face; held his head over him, and wept, perceiving he was near his end, and sensible that his death would be a public loss; the nation having often reaped the benefit of his prayers, though his counsel and advice were neglected and despised:



and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; the same words Elisha said to Elijah, as he went up to heaven, which very probably Joash had heard of;

See Gill on "2Ki 2:12", and here, as there, the Targum is,



"my master, my master, who was better to Israel by his prayers than chariots and horsemen.''





2 Kings 13:15



Ver. 15. And Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows,.... The usual instruments of war in those days: and he took unto him bow and arrows; which though they might not be had in the house of the prophet, he could have some from his guards that attended him.





2 Kings 13:16



Ver. 16. And he said unto the king of Israel, put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it,.... His left hand:



and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands; on both his hands, which were put, the one on the bow, the other on the arrow {m}; hereby signifying, that though the king would draw the bow in battle, the Lord, whom the prophet represented, would give the success; and that it would be by his help, and through his blessing on his arms, that he would obtain victory over his enemies.



{m} See Virgil. Aeneid. 11. ver. 831, 862.





2 Kings 13:17



Ver. 17. And he said, open the window eastward,.... Syria lying east of the land of Israel, as the Jewish commentators in general observe, and for which they quote Isa 9:12, but it lay northeast, or rather more to the north; wherefore this may respect the eastward part of the land of Israel, which the Syrians had got possession of, and should be recovered, as this sign showed, see 2Ki 10:33,



and he opened it: then Elisha said, shoot, and he shot; the arrow, out of the window, being opened:



and he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; meaning, that that arrow was a sign of the Lord's deliverance of Israel from the Syrians, by whom they had been sadly oppressed, and reduced very low:



for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou hast consumed them; not the whole nation, but that army they should bring thither; which was a city in the land of Israel, where the Syrians were routed in Ahab's time; 100,000 were slain near it on one day, and 27,000 by the fall of the wall of it, 1Ki 20:26 hence some read the words here, "as in Aphek."





2 Kings 13:18



Ver. 18. And he said, take the arrows, and he took them,.... The rest of them:



and he said unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground; the floor of the room in which the prophet lay:



and he smote thrice, and stayed; made a stop, ceased smiting; he might think this action trifling, and beneath him, only was willing to please the prophet, but did not do it with a good will, and therefore smote no more; though this was an emblem of his smiting the Syrians, which he might not understand.





2 Kings 13:19



Ver. 19. And the man of God was wroth with him,.... Because he ceased smiting, and smote no oftener; for it was revealed to the prophet, by an impulse upon his mind, that by the number of times he smote on the ground, it would be known how often he should get the victory over his enemies; but this was to be left to the king's own will, how often he would smite, and thereby the prophet would know also with what spirit he would pursue his victories, and the advantages he would gain:



and said, thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it; as a nation, as well as routed their several armies:



whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice; beat them only three times in battle, according to the number of his smitings on the ground.





2 Kings 13:20



Ver. 20. And Elisha died, and they buried him,.... In Samaria. Epiphanius says {n}, in Sebastopolis of Samaria, Samaria itself was called Sebaste in later times; though the Jews say {o} he was buried in Mount Carmel, in the cave of Elijah; according to the Jewish chronology {p}, he died in the tenth year of Joash, and he prophesied more than sixty years; sixty six, as Abarbinel, since he began to prophesy in the nineteenth year of Jehoshaphat; and, according to Clemens {q} of Alexandria, when he was forty years of age; but it seems rather, as Kimchi observes, that he died in the beginning of the reign of Joash, and even before his father's death, when he was a partner with him in the throne, and before any salvation or deliverance from the Syrians was wrought:



and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year; at the spring of the year, when there was fruit on the earth, those troops of robbers came to plunder and spoil; several of the Jewish writers observe, that in the word for "coming", h is instead of

a, and so may be rendered "in that year", in that selfsame year that Elisha died; and so read the Syriac, Arabic, and the Vulgate Latin versions.



{n} De Vitis Prophet. c. 6. {o} Cippi Heb. p. 46. {p} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 19. {q} Stromat. l. 1. p. 326.





2 Kings 13:21



Ver. 21. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man,.... That is, as they were going to bury him; for as yet they were not come to the place they designed to bury him at, as appears by what follows:



that, behold, they spied a band of men; one of the bands of the Moabites, which came to rob and plunder, and which was about the place where they intended to bury the man; or they supposed would be there by that time they got to it, or at least before they could bury him, and therefore being frightened stopped:



and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; that being nearest, they opened it, or rather rolled away the stone from it, and threw the body in great haste:



and when the man was let down, and touched the bone's of Elisha; or "went and touched" {r}; that is, as Kimchi interprets it, being cast in, he rolled till he came to the body of the prophet, and touched it:



he revived, and stood upon his feet; which might serve to confirm the faith of Joash in the predictions of the prophet concerning his victories; is a proof of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal life, and an emblem of our being quickened through the death of Christ. The Jews say {s} this man was Shallum the son of Tikvah, and husband of Huldah the prophetess, and was a good man, much given to alms, for which he was rewarded; and they further say, he went to his own house, and lived many years, and begat children, and particularly Hananeel, mentioned in Jer 32:7, which is not likely; though others say {t} he was a wicked man, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah, 1Ki 22:24 and therefore not suffered to continue in the prophet's grave; but the former is more probable; and, according to Josephus {u}, it was the band of robbers that left this man, whom they had murdered, in the grave of Elisha. This grave seems to have been in the field, where the Jews of old, and in later times, buried, as in the field of Hebron, the potter's field, &c. so the Greeks, as Pausanias relates {w}, and the Romans also {x}, buried by the wayside.



{r} egyw Klyw "abit et tetigit", Pagninus, Montanus. {s} Pirke Eliezer, c. 33. {t} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol, 47. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 2. {u} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 8. sect. 6. {w} Corinthiac. sive, l. 2. p. 97. {x} Vid. Kirchman. Funer. Roman. l. 2. c. 22.





2 Kings 13:22



Ver. 22. But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. That he reigned alone, at least, before he took his son Joash to reign with him.





2 Kings 13:23



Ver. 23. And the Lord was gracious to them,.... To Israel, notwithstanding their apostasy from him, and the idolatry of the calves they were guilty of:



and had compassion on them; being in oppression and distress:



and had respect unto them; looked upon them with an eye of pity and mercy:



because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; made so long ago he still remembered:



and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet; or suffered them to be carried captive into another land, as he afterwards did in the times of Hoshea.





2 Kings 13:24



Ver. 24. So Hazael the king of Syria died, and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead. This was Benhadad the third; the first of this name was of the Damascene kings; but though the kingdom was now in another family, yet this name, being respectable with the Syrians, was retained in it.





2 Kings 13:25



Ver. 25. And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war,.... Which were in the countries of Gilead and Bashan, and belonged to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, 2Ki 10:33,



three times did Joash beat him: in so many pitched battles, but where is not said, no doubt one of them was in Aphek, at least, 2Ki 13:17, and perhaps the other two on the other side Jordan; this agrees with the three times he smote the ground, significant thereof, 2Ki 13:18



and recovered the cities of Israel; those before mentioned; otherwise, if those had not been recovered, not ten tribes, only seven and a half, would have been carried captive by the king of Assyria; whereas Josephus {y} says expressly, the ten tribes were carried captive.



{y} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 1.

 

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