II Kings 10, Destruction Continues

Jehu has killed kings of both Israel and Judah.  His taste for blood has not been satisfied; there will be more murder.  

The date is about 840 BC. 2 Chronicles 22 also covers this period, focusing on the kings of Judah.

2 Kings 10: 1-4, Jehu threatens the descendants of Ahab

Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab's children. He said, "As soon as this letter reaches you, since your master's sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons, choose the best and most worthy of your master's sons and set him on his father's throne. Then fight for your master's house."

But they were terrified and said, "If two kings could not resist him, how can we?"

Jehu's challenge is, "Put up your best king. I've just killed two -- and I will kill yours!" The challenge frightens the guardians of Ahab's children, as intended. (Hubbard argues that the term "children" may include grandchildren and the word "seventy" was often used to mean "a lot".)

2 Kings 10: 5-7, Slaughter of seventy sons of Ahab

So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: "We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best."

Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, "If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow." 

Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

The palace administrators quickly surrender to Jehu, promising to anoint him king.  Jehu's destruction of Ahab's family continues.  The proof of the murders is a collection of heads.  Many of the murdered princes were children who were being reared by "leading men" of the city.

Collecting heads and displaying them was a common ancient Near East display of power.

2 Kings 10: 8, Pile of heads

When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, "They have brought the heads of the princes." 

Then Jehu ordered, "Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning."

A very gory collection of bloody heads is piled outside the entrance to the city.Collecting heads and displaying them was a common ancient Near East display of power.

2 Kings 10: 9-11, The end of the line of Ahab

The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? Know then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The LORD has done what he promised through his servant Elijah."

So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.

Jehu has brutally killed everyone associated with Ahab. He formally declares the city innocent of the murder of the princes. (See the concept of a city's blood guilt in Deuteronomy 21: 1-9.) Jehu then connects the massacre with the prophecy of Elijah that Ahab's line would be murdered (I Kings 21: 20-24.)

2 Kings 10: 12-14, Relatives of Ahaziah

Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds, he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, "Who are you?" 

They said, "We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother."

"Take them alive!" he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked--forty-two men. He left no survivor.

Beth Eked, says Hubbard, is probably at modern Beit Qad, in northern Israel. Hubbard argues that this is a strange place for a people who are merely going to visit Ahaziah of Judah and as Jehu has already killed Ahaziah, he views them as a threat and so slaughters them also. (After all, his hands are already pretty bloody!)

2 Kings 10: 15-17, The rest of Ahab's family

After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Recab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, "Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?" 

"I am," Jehonadab answered. 

"If so," said Jehu, "give me your hand." So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot. Jehu said, "Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD." Then he had him ride along in his chariot. When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab's family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD spoken to Elijah.

We are briefly introduced to a man named Jehonadab, son of Recab. After siding with Jehu, Jehonadab disappears from the scroll of Kings. However, in Jeremiah 35, his descendants appear as a commune of Rechabites. If Jeremiah is the author of the scroll of Kings, this might explain Jehonadab's appearance here.

Jehu's purge continues. The rest of Ahab's family are murdered.

2 Kings 10: 18-24a, Assembly in honor of Baal

Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his ministers and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live." But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the ministers of Baal.
 

Jehu said, "Call an assembly in honor of Baal." So they proclaimed it. Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the ministers of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, "Bring robes for all the ministers of Baal." So he brought out robes for them.

Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Recab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the ministers of Baal, "Look around and see that no servants of the LORD are here with you--only ministers of Baal." So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. 

Jehu invites all the priests of Baal to the temple of Baal. We are alerted that this is a deception. Jehu wants to make sure that only priests of Baal are there, not priests of YHWH. Of particular importance (says Hubbard) are the robes the priests were to wear, clearly identifying them as priests of Baal, not YHWH.

There may be wordplay in verse 18. Hubbard says that Jehu claimed to "serve" ('abad) Baal when he reaaly intended to "destroy" (ka'abid) Baal. Furthermore, the word zebah translated "sacrifice" and also mean "slaughter."

2 Kings 10: 24b-27, Massacre of priests

Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: "If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life."  As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: "Go in and kill them; let no one escape." 

So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

 

Jehu's men massacre the priests of Baal, destroy the temple and use the sacred stone as a latrine.

2 Kings 10: 28-31, Jehu, good and bad

So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit--the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
 

The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."
 

Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

Despite the destruction of the worship of Baal, Jehu still supports the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, set up several centuries before by Jeroboam.

2 Kings 10: 32-36, 

In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

As for the other events of Jehu's reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

The large kingdom created by Solomon is in decline.  To the northeast, Hazael of Damascus enlarges his domain.  

So ends the bloody reign of Jehu. According to the author of the scroll of Kings, Jehu was zealous for YHWH but occasionally vacillating in his commitment. His bloodshed achieved the promised elimination of Ahab's descendants.  

The dynasty of Jehu will last almost a century, from about 842 BC to about 750 BC, when his great-great-grandson Zechariah will be assassinated (2 Kings 15: 8-12.)