2 Kings 10:1

_AND AHAB HAD SEVENTY SONS IN SAMARIA. AND JEHU WROTE LETTERS, AND SENT TO SAMARIA, UNTO THE RULERS OF JEZREEL, TO THE ELDERS, AND TO THEM THAT BROUGHT UP AHAB'S CHILDREN, SAYING,_ Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Since it appears (2 Kings 10:13) that grandsons are included, it is probable that this number comprehended the whole posterity of Ahab. Their being all assembled in that capital might arise from their being left there on the king's departure for Ramoth-gilead, or from their taking refuge in some of the strongholds of that city on the news of Jehu's conspiracy. JEHU WROTE LETTERS, AND SENT TO SAMARIA, UNTO THE RULERS OF JEZREEL. [The Septuagint has: pros tous archontas Samareias, which is probably the correct reading.] It may be inferred from the tenor of Jehu's letters that their first intention was to select the fittest of the royal family and s

1-14 In the most awful events, though attended by the basest crimes of man, the truth and justice of God are to be noticed; and he never did nor can command any thing unjust or unreasonable. Jehu destroyed all that remained of the house of Ahab; all who had been partners in his wickedness. When we think upon the sufferings and miseries of mankind, when we look forward to the resurrection and last judgment, and think upon the vast number of the wicked waiting their awful sentence of everlasting fire; when the whole sum of death and misery has been considered, the solemn question occurs, Who slew all these? The answer is, SIN. Shall we then harbour sin in our bosoms, and seek for happiness from that which is the cause of all misery?...

CHAPTER X _Jehu sends an ironical letter to the elders of Samaria, telling_ _them to choose one of the best of their master's sons, and put_ _him on the throne; to which they return a submissive answer_, 1-6. _He writes a second letter, and orders them to send him the_ _heads of Ahab's_ seventy _sons; they do so, and they are laid in_ _two heaps at the gate of Jezreel_, 7, 8. _Jehu shows them to the people, and excuses himself, and states_ _that all is done according to the word of the Lord_, 9, 10. He destroys all the kindred

SEVENTY SONS - i. e., descendants; there were included among them children of Jehoram (2 Kings 10:2, etc.)....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 10:1 THE REIGN OF JEHU OVER ISRAEL. 2 KINGS 10:1 The revolution initiated by the destruction of Joram and Jezebel is here traced through its second and its third stages. The immediate question, after Joram's death, was—Would any member of his family rise up as a claimant of the throne, and dispute the succession with Jehu? Ahab had seventy male descendants, all of them resident in Samaria: would there be any one among their number bold enough to come forward and assert his hereditary fight? Jehu regarded this as the most pressing and imminent danger, wherefore his first step was to challenge such action, and either pr

AND AHAB HAD SEVENTY SONS IN SAMARIA,.... These might not be all his immediate sons, but some of them his grandsons, as such are sometimes called in Scripture: AND JEHU WROTE LETTERS, AND SENT TO SAMARIA, UNTO THE RULERS OF JEZREEL; who fled thither, perhaps on Jehu's coming to Jezreel, having slain Joram, being the metropolis of the kingdom, to consult about a successor, or how to oppose Jehu, and to frustrate his designs: but the Septuagint version is, "to the rulers of Samaria", which seems most likely to be the true reading: TO THE ELDERS; the civil magistrates of the city of Samaria: AND TO THEM THAT BROUGHT UP AHAB'S CHILDREN: who had the care of their education; who either always dwelt at Samaria, being the royal city, or were sent with their charge thither, when Joram went to Ramothgilead, for safety, supposing he should be worsted by the Syrians; or they fled thither with the...

2. JEHU'S JUDGMENTS, BAAL-WORSHIP DESTROYED, AND HIS DEATH CHAPTER 10 _ 1. The judgment upon the house of Ahab (2 Kings 10:1)_ 2. The relations of Ahaziah slain (2 Kings 10:12; 2 Chronicles 22:8) 3. Jehonadab spared (2 Kings 10:15) 4. The Baal worship destroyed (2 Kings 10:18) 5. Jehu's record (2 Kings 10:29) 6. Israel cut short ...

DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF AHAB AND OF THE BAAL WORSHIPPERS. The same source is continued, but 2 Kings 10:28 are from a Deuteronomist. The whole story is one of the most terrible in the OT, Ahab had a large family in Samaria. Jehu with a sort of rude chivalry invited the elders of the city to choose one of them as king, and to fight for the throne. But the cowardly rulers promised submission, and at Jehu's command sent the heads of the seventy sons to Jezreel in baskets (2 Kings 10:7). A further massacre of all Ahab's adherents at Jezreel followed, and of forty-two of the family of Ahaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 10:13). Jehu next ...

SONS. Put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of Part), for grandsons and greatgrandsons. UNTO. Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "and unto". RULERS. elders. OF JEZREEL. Doubtless they had fled to Samaria, being in great fear (2 Kings 10:4) from what Jehu had done in Jezreel....

2 Kings 10:1-11. Jehu destroys the whole family of Ahab (Not in Chronicles) 1. _And_[R.V. NOW] _Ahab had seventy sons_ The conjunction is the usual copulative, but it is somewhat in the style of O.T. translation to commence a new section of the narrative with -Now". _in Samaria_ It would seem that the name here is for the whole _district_, as some of those slain appear to have been in Jezreel (see verse 11). But in verse 2 we have an allusion to a fenced city as though the _city_of Samaria were specially intended. _And Jehu wrote letters_ Josephus (_Ant._IX. 6. 5) says - _two_letters, one to the bringers up of the children, the other to the authorities of Samaria". _sent_to _Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel_ There is a difficulty here. We cannot see why the rulers of Jezreel should be in Samaria, or w