Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
2 Kings 10:9-17
The Continuing Purge Of The House Of Ahab (2 Kings 10:9).
Had Jehu stopped there no blame would have been laid at his door. All would have recognised that he had done what was inevitable. But as can so often happen, having carried out YHWH's wishes he went to excess and in the end earned the disapproval of the prophets (Hosea 1:4). His first excess was to destroy the relatives of Ahaziah, king of Judah, who had unsuspectingly come visiting their royal relatives in Israel, presumably partly because they wanted to commiserate Jehoram for his wounds. As far as we know he had no grounds for knowing whether they were worshippers of Baal or YHWH. His second excess will later be to destroy all the worshippers of Baal without giving any opportunity for repentance. Thus he went far beyond his remit. Meanwhile he also finished off the purging of the house of Ahab, something which the prophetic author approved of as being in accordance with the prophecy of Elijah (2 Kings 10:17).
Analysis.
a And it came about in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him, but who smote all these?” (2 Kings 10:9).
b “Know now that there will fall to the earth nothing of the word of YHWH, which YHWH spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for YHWH has done what he spoke by his servant Elijah”. So Jehu smote all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining (2 Kings 10:10).
c And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah, and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen” (2 Kings 10:12).
d And he said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing-house, even forty two men, nor did he leave any of them (2 Kings 10:14).
c And when he departed from there, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” “If it is, give me your hand.” And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot (2 Kings 10:15).
b And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for YHWH.” So they made him ride in his chariot (2 Kings 10:16).
a And when he came to Samaria, he smote all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of YHWH, which he spoke to Elijah (2 Kings 10:17).
Note that in ‘a' Jehu speaks of those of the house of Ahab who have been smitten by the people and in the parallel he himself smites all who remained of Ahab. In ‘b' Jehu reveals his zeal for YHWH by smiting all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and in the parallel he tells Jehonadab that he will yet see his zeal for YHWH. In ‘c' he departed and went to Samaria and on the way met the brothers of Ahaziah, and in the parallel he departed from where he was (still going to Samaria) and met Jehonadab. Centrally in ‘d' the brothers (stepbrothers) of Ahaziah were slain.
‘And it came about in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him, but who smote all these?” Know now that there will fall to the earth nothing of the word of YHWH, which YHWH spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for YHWH has done what he spoke by his servant Elijah.”
Having allowed the heads of the king's sons to convey their message all that day and night, he went out next morning, and taking up an official stance, presumably in the part of the gate house where judgments were regularly made, (the city gate was where much public business was done. Compare Ruth 4:1 ff), he addressed the people. He was seeking to consolidate his position and win their approval. In the light of the final reference to the fulfilment of the word of YHWH we must probably see ‘You are righteous' as an indication of his official approval of what ‘they' had done. They had been even more righteous than he, for he had only slain two of those who were under YHWH's curse whereas they had slain seventy. And he wanted them to see it all as demonstrating that what YHWH had declared He had brought about through the effectiveness of His word of power (compare Isaiah 55:10), and that they had had their full part in it along with him. By this he was uniting them with him in what had happened.
Others, however, see the words ‘you are righteous' differently. They consider that we should see it as indicating a rarer meaning of the Hebrew word with the significance of ‘innocent', indicating a negative innocence as against a positive righteousness. In other words they must not blame themselves, any more than he should be blamed. Even others see it as sarcastic, with the idea being that he was saying, “see how ‘righteous' you are. You slew a lot more than I did.”
Whichever way we take it, it is clear that his main purpose was to vindicate his own actions, while seeking to maintain their (possibly reluctant) approval, in the light of what he was going to do next. For having dealt with all possible claimants to the throne in Samaria, he was now about to remove all supporters of Ahab's house in Jezreel.
‘So Jehu smote all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.'
Recognising that, next to Samaria, Jezreel was the place where Ahab's family had had most support (it had long been the site of the summer/winter palace of the house of Ahab) Jehu now set about destroying that support by ‘smiting' all the high officials, personal friends and idolatrous priests in Jezreel who owed loyalty to the house of Ahab and might seek to undermine his (Jehu's) position, continuing the process until none were left.
‘And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah, and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen.” '
Then he set out for Samaria in order to do the same in Samaria. To quite some extent this was a breach of the agreement which he had reached with Samaria, for Samaria had done all that he had asked, and had fulfilled the terms of the surrender. They therefore had a right not to be subjected to a purge. But he was a soldier and knew only one way to rule, and that was by force. Thus his aim was now to purge all support for the house of Ahab in Samaria regardless of how anyone saw it.
As he was on the road to Samaria with his forces he came to ‘the shearing house of the shepherds', clearly a well known landmark, (or possibly Beth Eked of the shepherds, which some associate with Beit Qad, five kilometres (three miles) north of Jenin), and there he came across a group of obviously wealthy travellers. When he asked them who they were they replied in all innocence that they were brothers of Ahaziah of Judah on their way to visit the Israelite royal family, no doubt assuming that such a description would put them in good standing with this obviously Israelite commander. ‘Brothers' must be taken in a wide sense to include step-brothers, for Ahaziah's own brothers had been slaughtered by the Arabians (2 Chronicles 22:1).
‘And he said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing-house, even forty two men, nor did he leave any of them.'
There were ‘forty two' of them, and they were to receive the shock of their lives. For instead of receiving the respect that they were anticipating they found themselves forcibly arrested, as Jehu turned to his men and said, ‘Take them alive.' Then they were borne off to the pit at the shearing house (normally for use in shearing) where they themselves were put to death with not a single one being spared. They had been ‘sheared' indeed.
The number forty two Isaiah 2 x 3 x 7 and may thus be intended to indicate a complete and perfect number (as with ‘seventy'), for three signifies completeness, x 2 signifies in depth completeness, and seven indicates divine perfection. Others argue for it to be taken literally. It is always a problem in ancient literature as to when to take numbers literally, for numbers were very much used in a symbolic fashion as adjectives in order to teach a lesson (compare the ‘forty two' smitten by bears in 2 Kings 2:24) as possibly here.
‘And when he departed from there, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” “If it is, give me your hand.” And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot.'
As he proceeded on his way he met up with Jehonadab the son of Rechab who was coming to meet him, having no doubt heard about his activities and being desirous of influencing the future return (he hoped) to full Yahwism. Jehu then asked him if he was one with him in his reforms and his anti-Baalism, and Jehonadab assured him that he certainly was, at which Jehu took him up into his chariot. This act would put Jehu in well with discontented Yahwists who admired the conservatism and fervency of the Rechabites. This incident is mentioned in order to demonstrate that Jehu was not simply seen in Israel as being out for personal gain in all that had happened but was genuinely concerned for the honour of YHWH. Jehonadab was a fervent, primitive Yahwist, and much admired, and would have approved of his treatment of the idolatrous house of Ahab. He would want to join in with any revival of Yahwism. Elsewhere Jonadab was described as a faithful follower of YHWH who observed the Mosaic Law more strictly than most (see Jeremiah 35:6). Indeed it appears that his aim was to take Israel back to its wilderness days, and he encouraged his followers (the Rechabites) to abstain from strong liquor, to live in tents, to refuse to be involved in settled agriculture and to avoid city living, because, from his idealistic viewpoint, when Israel had lived like that they had been faithful to YHWH. To be associated with him was thus to be seen as a firm Yahwist.
Rechab, from whom the descendants of Jehonadab derived their tribal name, was the son of Hammath, and was descended from the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:55), the tribe to which Hobab the father-in-law of Moses had also belonged (Numbers 10:29). Thus the Rechabites may even have been descendants of Hobab, since the Kenites, the sons of Hobab, had gone with the Israelites from the Sinai desert to Canaan, and had there carried on their nomadic life (Judges 1:16; Judges 4:11; 1 Samuel 15:6).
‘And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for YHWH.” So they made him ride in his chariot.'
Jehu then called on Jehonadab to come to Samaria with him and see how zealous he was for YHWH, as a result of which Jehonadab was assisted up into Jehu's chariot. Being seen as on such terms with Jehonadab would undoubtedly have increased Jehu's reputation for ‘godliness'.
‘And when he came to Samaria, he smote all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of YHWH, which he spoke to Elijah.'
On arrival in Samaria Jehu carried out a purge of ‘all who remained to ‘Ahab' in Samaria. It cannot be denied that in doing so he went against the spirit of his earlier agreement with the people of Samaria. But he was now mopping up Ahab's supporters and close friends, and thereby seeking to destroy all the deep rooted influence of the house of Ahab in Samaria, fulfilling the word of YHWH spoken to Elijah. This indeed was the prophetic author's main aim, to demonstrate that through it all YHWH's purpose was being carried out. He was not, however, necessarily approving of the way in which Jehu was doing it.