View 2nd Kings 9 in the note window.
A prophet commissions Jehu to take upon him the government,
and destroy the house of Ahab, ver. 1 - 10.
Jehu communicates this to his captains, ver. 11 - 15.
Marches to Jezreel, ver. 16 - 20.
Kills Joram, ver. 21 - 26.
Ahaziah, ver. 27 - 29.
And Jezebel, ver. 30 - 37.
1: Ramoth - The kings of Israel and Judah were both absent,
and Jehu, as it seems, was left in chief command.
7: I may avenge,&c. - That they were idolaters was bad enough: yet
that is not mentioned here: the controversy God has with them, is for being
persecutors. Nothing fills the measure of the iniquity of any prince so as
this doth, nor brings a surer or sorer ruin.
11: Mad fellow - They perceived him to be a prophet by his habit, and
gestures, and manner of speech. And these prophane soldiers esteemed the
prophets mad - men. Those that have no religion, commonly speak of those that
are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack - brained. They said
of our Lord, He is beside himself; of St. Paul, that much learning
had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and
they that best understand themselves, as men beside themselves.
13: They hasted - God putting it into their hearts thus readily to
own him. Under him - Under Jehu. A ceremony used in the eastern
parts towards superiors, in token of reverence to his person, that they
would not have his feet to touch the ground, and that they put themselves
and their concerns under his feet, and into his disposal. The stairs - In
some high and eminent place, whence he might be seen and owned by all the
soldiers, who were called together upon this great occasion.
21: Portion of Naboth - The very sight of that ground was enough to
make Jehu triumph and Joram tremble. The circumstances of events
are sometimes so ordered by Divine providence, as to make the punishment
answer the sin, as face answers face in a glass.
22: Whoredoms, &c. - This may be understood, either literally;
spiritual whoredom, which is idolatry, being often punished with corporal:
and witchcraft was often practised by idolaters: or spiritually, of her
idolatry, which is often called whoredom, because it is a departing from
God, to whom we are tied by many obligations; and witchcraft, because
it doth so powerfully bewitch men's minds; and because it is a manifest
entering into covenant with the devil. He mentions not Joram's, but his
mother's sins; because they were more notorious and infamous: and because
they were the principal cause why God inflicted, and he was come to execute
these judgments. The way of sin can never be the way of peace.
24: The arrow - It was one of God's arrows, which he ordained
against the persecutor.
27: He died - The history is briefly and imperfectly described here,
and the defects supplied in (the book of Chronicles, is great part
written for that end, to supply things omitted in the book of Kings) out
of both it may be thus compleated: he fled first to Megiddo, and thence
to Samaria, where he was caught, and thence brought to Jehu, and by
his sentence was put to death at Megiddo.
31: Had Zimri - Remember thy brother traitor Zimri had but a very
short enjoyment of the benefit of his treason.
34: And said - It seems he had forgot the charge given him above,
ver.(10).
A king's daughter - He doth not say, because she was a king's wife,
lest he should seem to shew any respect to that wicked house of Ahab,
which God had devoted to utter destruction.
