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

10:18-19 Jehu assembled all the people. Samaria had been the focal point for the Baal cult (cf. 1 Kings 16:32-33), to which Jehu now gives his attention. His strategy is to feign enthusiasm while preparing for destruction; he tells the people that although the dynasty has changed, the religious policy will remain the same (Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much).

10:20 Sanctify a solemn assembly. This phrase is unparalleled in Hebrew, but a Ugaritic text concerned with gaining protection for the royal ancestors of King Ammurapi of Ugarit suggests that it represents genuine Canaanite religious terminology.

10:25 inner room. The Hebrew is ‘ir, which normally means "city." In this context it presumably refers to some "city-like" aspect of the temple, behind its own walls--perhaps an inner room or a walled courtyard.

10:27 the pillar of Baal . . . the house of Baal. See 1 Kings 16:32-33 and 2 Kings 3:2. Baal worship in Israel is officially at an end. It has neither royal patronage nor royal tolerance.

10:29 did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam. The worship of Baal was only a particularly bad form of the idolatry practiced in Israel. Jehu has dealt with Baal worship, but he does nothing at all about the golden calves . . . in Bethel and in Dan that Jeroboam installed after leading Israel in revolt against the house of David (1 Kings 12:25-30). The symbolism of these calves encouraged a blurring of the distinction between Mosaic and Canaanite religion; the high god of the Canaanite pantheon, El, is frequently called "the bull" in Ugaritic materials (signifying his strength and fertility), and Baal himself is also represented as a bull. Archaeologists have discovered bull icons at numerous sites in Syria-Palestine, including Byblos, Ugarit, and Hazor.

10:30 Since Jehu does not abolish the golden calves in Bethel and Dan (v. 29; cf. v. 31), it is surprising to find him addressed as someone who has carried out what is right (Hb. yashar) in the eyes of the Lord. In other places, the authors of Kings use yashar only positively, with regard to David (1 Kings 15:5) and the relatively good (i.e., non-idolatrous) kings of Judah (1 Kings 15:11; 22:43; 2 Kings 12:2; 14:3; 15:3, 34; 18:3; 22:2). It is even more surprising to find Jehu receiving a David-like dynastic promise. His descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. This is not the same thing as a promise of eternal dynasty, but it is nevertheless extraordinary; Jeroboam was promised a dynasty like David's if he did "what was right" in the Lord's eyes (1 Kings 11:38), but then he failed and lost this opportunity (1 Kings 14:8). Evidently what Jehu has done that is right (eradication of Baal worship) far outweighs what he continues to do that is wrong.

10:32-33 the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. First Kings 19:15-18 pointed to a time when God's judgment would fall on Israel because of Baal worship. Jehu would deal with those who escaped Hazael, and Elisha with those who escaped Jehu. Implicit in such an ordering was that Hazael would turn out to be the greatest destroyer of the three--something to which 2 Kings 8:12 also pointed, with its emphasis on Hazael's brutality. It is no surprise, therefore, to find now an account of Hazael's aggression against Israel. He is said to have conquered Transjordan as far south as the Valley of the Arnon, the southern limit of Israelite Transjordanian territory (cf. Josh. 12:2). This military success occurred during the lull in Assyrian aggression against Syria-Palestine between the campaign of Shalmaneser III's twenty-first year (838 b.c.), when he captured four of Hazael's cities and accepted tribute from the peoples of the Phoenician coast, and the campaign of the fifth year of Adad-nirari III (806). This respite enabled Damascus to turn its full attention toward Israel and Judah and to subject these kingdoms to prolonged pressure in the last decades of the ninth century. More of Hazael's conquests will be reported later (2 Kings 12:17-18; 13:3-7, 22-23).

10:34 the rest of the acts of Jehu. Jehu appears in Assyrian records describing an event that must have taken place shortly after his accession to the throne, during the western campaign of Shalmaneser III's eighteenth year (841 b.c.). During that campaign King Shalmaneser besieged Damascus, marched on to the Hauran Mountains in southern Syria, then through Gilead to the south of the Sea of Galilee and through Jezreel to Ba’li-ra’si (perhaps Mount Carmel) near Tyre. Hosea 10:14 may preserve a memory of this march through northern Palestine, since "Shalman" there is probably an abbreviated form of Shalmaneser's name. At this time, Shalmaneser collected tribute from "Jehu the Israelite" as well as from Tyre and Sidon. The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (854-824 b.c.), found at the site of Nimrud, depicts the Israelite king Jehu giving tribute. Jehu, or perhaps his emissary, lies prostrate before the king while other Israelites present tribute that includes gold and silver objects. If the figure is Jehu, then it is the only extant pictorial representation of an Israelite king from antiquity. Shalmaneser III, after having received tribute from Jehu, also plundered Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia. In commemoration of this successful campaign, Shalmaneser had his portrait carved on the cliffs of the Dog River, north of Beirut.