Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

9:1 Tie up your garments. See 1 Kings 18:46 and 2 Kings 4:29; speed will be important for this messenger from among the sons of the prophets (the prophetic communities over which Elisha presides; see note on 2:3). The army is still at Ramoth-gilead, even though the king has withdrawn to Jezreel (8:29).

9:2 Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Jehu was described in 1 Kings 19:16 only as "son of Nimshi" (cf. also 2 Kings 9:20), but Nimshi now turns out in fact to have been his grandfather rather than his father (who shares his name with a Judean king, Jehoshaphat). This use of Hebrew ben to mean "grandson" rather than "son" certainly occurs in the OT (e.g., Gen. 29:5; 31:28), but it is unusual for the grandfather to be referred to in citations of this particular kind; perhaps Nimshi was a particularly well-known person.

9:3 flask of oil. Elijah had been commanded to anoint Jehu king over Israel (1 Kings 19:16), but had failed to do so. It is left to Elisha now to fulfill his mission. Anointing with oil was a common practice in the ancient Near East to mark various rites of passage, and in Israel it was closely associated with the enthronement of kings (see 1 Sam. 16:13). It appears to be bound up with the king's legitimacy and right to rule; to be the "anointed of the Lord" is to be a person inviolable and sacrosanct (1 Sam. 24:6-7; 2 Sam. 19:21-22). The secret anointing that takes place here (in an "inner chamber"; 2 Kings 9:2) is particularly reminiscent of Samuel's anointing of Saul (cf. 1 Sam. 9:27-10:1). The reasons for Elisha's advice to the messenger to open the door and flee are not provided, but the reference to Jehu's reckless chariot driving in 2 Kings 9:20 perhaps suggests that he has a reputation for rash behavior and could be dangerous to the messenger.

9:7 you shall strike down the house of Ahab. The oracle actually delivered by the messenger is much longer than the one pronounced by Elisha in v. 3. The essence of the message is given there, with its fuller form being delayed until later, presumably so that repetition should not unnecessarily hold up the narrative. For the same reason, only the essence of the message is later communicated by Jehu to his fellow officers (v. 12), the details being subsumed under "Thus and so he spoke to me." the blood of my servants the prophets. Elijah did not explicitly state to Ahab in 1 Kings 21:21-24 that the Lord's action against Ahab's house would be partly a matter of vengeance for the blood of the prophets. This is implicit in 1 Kings 19:14-18, however, where God's response to Elijah's complaint about the murder of the prophets (1 Kings 18:4, 13) is precisely to send him to anoint Jehu (among others).

9:10 none shall bury her. Similarly, this is not explicitly stated in 1 Kings 21:23, nor indeed is it said that Jezebel's body would be like "dung on the face of the field . . . so that no one can say, ‘This is Jezebel’" (2 Kings 9:37); but these things are implicit in the statement that dogs shall eat Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23). It was considered a terrible thing in Israel not to be afforded a proper burial (cf. Deut. 28:25-26; Jer. 16:4).

9:13 they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, "Jehu is king." The people's eagerness to do this suggests that there was already unrest in the army because of Jehoram's lack of success in his military ventures.

9:17-20 I see a company. As Jehu approaches with his army, it is not at first clear to those within the city what is happening. The watchman initially sees only a company (lit., "a multitude"). Later, after the two messengers sent out to elicit information have failed to return, he deduces from the manner in which the lead chariot is being driven that Jehu is involved: he drives furiously.

9:22 Is it peace, Jehu? It seems improbable that Jehoram and Ahaziah would have left the safety of Jezreel to meet Jehu if there had been any doubt in their minds about his intentions. The Hebrew hashalom has the sense, "Is all well?" (cf. 4:26; 5:21; 9:11). Jehoram has sent messengers, and has now gone out himself, to discover what brings Jehu to Jezreel: has disaster overtaken Ramoth-gilead, and is this company all that remains of his army? Jehu's response is to ask how things can be well in a kingdom dominated by the Baal religion and the whorings of Joram's mother Jezebel. "Whorings" (Hb. zenunim), also linked with sorceries (Hb. keshapim) in Nah. 3:4, is a term associated with fertility religion in Hosea (Hos. 1:2; 2:2, 4; 4:12; 5:4). It is derived from the Hebrew verb zanah (cf. 1 Kings 3:16; 22:38).

9:25-26 plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. See the prophecy of Elijah to Ahab in 1 Kings 21:17-24, which precipitated that king's death (1 Kings 22, esp. v. 38; see also note on 1 Kings 21:19) in circumstances similar to those of his son Jehoram (death by arrow, 1 Kings 22:34).

9:27-28 he fled to Megiddo and died there. Linked with Ahab in marriage and at one with him in religion, Ahaziah also shares in his fate. He is shot . . . in the chariot, later to be transported dead to his capital city for burial (cf. 1 Kings 22:34-37). The shooting takes place near Ibleam, one of the cities that guarded access to and from the southern end of the Jezreel Valley, as Ahaziah flees south from Jezreel back toward Samaria; but after the attack he abruptly changes direction and heads northwest for Megiddo in the western part of the Jezreel Valley. Megiddo was an important and strategic city in ancient times, controlling the main international highway running from Egypt to Damascus as it entered the valley. Israelite remains at Megiddo from the period of the divided monarchy are numerous. An imposing water tunnel, probably cut during Ahab's reign (9th century b.c.), was discovered here. A large vertical shaft (115 feet/35 m) was cut into bedrock, and then a 200-foot (61-m) horizontal shaft was dug to reach a spring outside the city. A series of buildings was discovered that probably served as either storehouses or stables in the time of Ahab.

9:29 the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab. In 8:25 one reads of "the twelfth year." Accession dates could be reckoned in different ways, particularly in terms of the way that part-years were handled, resulting in such apparent discrepancies. The new information is given here to clarify how it could be that both men died at the same time if Jehoram reigned for 12 years (3:1) yet Ahaziah, who came to the throne in Jehoram's "twelfth year," reigned for one year. The fragmentary ninth-century b.c. Tell Dan inscription probably alludes to the deaths of these same kings, although the Syrian king responsible for the inscription there claims responsibility for the deaths of the Judean and Israelite kings mentioned--a good example of the oversimplification and hyperbole that is typical of victory monuments in the ancient Near East. Perhaps Hazael regarded Jehu as a vassal, and felt justified in claiming Jehu's feats as his own.

9:30 she painted her eyes and adorned her head. This could mean only that Jezebel met her end proudly, dressed up as a queen should be. Her posture, however, echoes the "woman in the window" motif found on carved ivory plaques from various ancient Near Eastern sites (see note on 2 Sam. 6:16-19), which may represent the goddess Astarte, one of the wives of Baal; so perhaps Jezebel is being represented as the very incarnation of the religion that she brought into Israel from Sidon.

9:31 Is it peace, you Zimri? "Is it peace?" is a question intricately tied to the demise of Ahab and his dynasty (see note on v. 22; cf. vv. 18-19; 1 Kings 22:28). Jezebel asks, sarcastically, whether "all is well" (knowing that all is far from well) and she taunts Jehu as one who is unlikely to survive his own revolution (Zimri's reign was a "seven-day wonder"; see 1 Kings 16:8-20).

9:32 It was common practice in the ancient world for the king to have a harem (cf. 1 Kings 11:3), and for the harem to be provided with guards. These guards were typically eunuchs (castrated males), so that the king could be sure that the males close to his women were not capable of sexual relations with them. Eunuchs also performed an important role in the official hierarchy of the ancient Near East more generally. In neo-Assyrian sources, e.g., they are attested at the royal court, in the army, in the bureaucracy, and in the provincial administration. They functioned, among many other roles, as the king's personal attendants, cooks, palace guards, scribes, and ambassadors.

9:36 the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah. Using the language of covenant curses, Elijah earlier prophesied the "cutting off" of all the males of Ahab's house (1 Kings 21:21-22; 2 Kings 9:8-9) as well as the gruesome death of Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23; 2 Kings 9:10). dogs shall eat. The exposure of Jezebel's corpse to devouring dogs meant disgrace since burial was now impossible. Now that Jezebel is dead, Jehu turns his attention to Ahab's sons (see note on 10:1).

10:1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Elijah had prophesied that the Lord would consume Ahab's descendants and cut off from him every last male in Israel (1 Kings 21:21; cf. the previous prophecies against Jeroboam and Baasha in 1 Kings 14:10; 16:3). Jehu now looks to fulfill this prophecy. The guardians of the sons of Ahab are probably those in general who were loyal to Ahab and to his house, as distinct from the rulers and the elders with their specific roles.

10:3 fight for your master's house. By writing letters to the leading citizens and challenging them to place one of Ahab's potential heirs on his father's throne, Jehu forces them to choose sides.

10:5 he who was over the palace . . . he who was over the city. These are the "rulers of the city" mentioned in v. 1. The position of palace administrator was an important one (cf. 15:5; 18:18, 37; 19:2), and his power at least in Judah is indicated in Isa. 22:22. Both the title ("he who was over the palace") and sometimes the names of its holders are found in extrabiblical inscriptions. The joint reply of these two officials along with the elders and the other former Ahab loyalists (the "guardians") reveals that they are no longer Ahab's or Jehoram's, but are now Jehu's servants.

10:7 they took the king's sons and slaughtered them. This fulfills the word of the Lord in 9:7-9 and is similar to other instances in which entire groups of people are put to death (e.g., Dan. 6:24, which likewise does not commend the action; cf. note on 2 Sam. 21:3-6). This kind of drastic action against a royal household was not at all uncommon in the ancient world, as the present incumbents of thrones tried to ensure a future free of retaliation. For example, the Aramaic Panammuwa Inscription (c. 733-727 b.c.) records that Panammuwa of Sam’al was the survivor of a palace coup in which a brother killed his father Barsur, along with 70 brothers of his father. This text and the biblical text in Judg. 9:5, where Abimelech kills 70 of his brothers before being crowned king, may suggest that the number seventy in such contexts is a round number, or a matter of literary convention, rather than an exact number. In any case, the number of sons of such a monarch could be quite large.

10:8-10 two heaps at the entrance of the gate. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II records in an inscription that during his siege of the city of Damdammusa he cut off the heads of 600 of his enemy's troops and, in an act of intimidation, "built a pile of heads before his gate." Jehu's aim is similar: to convince the people that resistance is futile. He knows who struck down all these, but the people do not; and he invites them to believe that the heads mean that the revolution is bigger than he is, involving mysterious powers more lethal than his (he killed only his master); it is truly the Lord who is at work in overthrowing the house of Ahab. As fair-minded (implied by innocent) people, they should be able to arrive at the correct interpretation of the evidence.

10:13-14 His work in Jezreel complete, Jehu leaves for Samaria. On the way, he encounters some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah. The Judean royal family keeps being drawn into the events, even though there was no prophetic forewarning. Cf. 9:27 for the death of Ahaziah. they took them alive and slaughtered them. This new king is thorough in exterminating all traces of the past, and the consequences for Judah will be dire (11:1).

10:15 Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours? The Hebrew vocabulary of yashar ("right," "true") and lebab ("heart") appears in other places in 1-2 Kings (e.g., 1 Kings 14:8), including 2 Kings 10:30 in relation to Jehu himself: "you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart." The wording here underlines that the theme throughout the chapter is "who is on the Lord's side; who is in the right?" Jehonadab, who is on the right side, reappears in Jeremiah 35 ("Jonadab") as the founder of a purist religious group committed to Israel's older ways.