2 Kings 10:21

_AND JEHU SAID, PROCLAIM A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY FOR BAAL. AND THEY PROCLAIMED IT._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-28 Is thine heart right? This is a question we should often put to ourselves. I make a fair profession, have gained a reputation among men, but, is my heart right? Am I sincere with God? Jehonadab owned Jehu in the work, both of revenge and of reformation. An upright heart approves itself to God, and seeks no more than his acceptance; but if we aim at the applause of men, we are upon a false foundation. Whether Jehu looked any further we cannot judge. The law of God was express, that idolaters were to be put to death. Thus idolatry was abolished for the present out of Israel. May we desire that it be rooted out of our hearts....

In order to understand how such numbers could find room, we must remember that the ancient temples had vast courts around them, which could contain many thousands....

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 JEHU SENT THROUGH ALL ISRAEL,.... Persons to proclaim this solemn assembly: AND ALL THE WORSHIPPERS OF BAAL CAME, SO THAT THERE WAS NOT A MAN LEFT THAT CAME NOT; some no doubt came cheerfully, having no suspicion of him, and the rather, as he might have been a worshipper of Baal in the times of Ahab; and as for what he had done to Baal's priests, they might consider that only as they were in connection with Ahab's family, whom to destroy was his political interest; and they were glad at heart their new king was so affected to Baal, and fond to see such a grand solemnity as they expected this to be; and others that might be suspicious of him, yet as they must die if they did not appear, and there was a possibility they might live, chose therefore to come: AND THEY CAME INTO THE HOUSE OF BAAL; the temple which Ahab had built for him in Samaria, 1 Kings

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 ...

FULL, &C.. so full [that they stood] mouth to mouth. _Ellipsis_ to be thus supplied, as in Authorized Version margin....

_And Jehu sent through all Israel_ Here the LXX. adds the words of the notice; -saying, And now all ye worshippers, and all his priests and all his prophets, let no one be absent, for I am about to make a great sacrifice: whosoever shall be absent, he shall not live". Similarly after -And all the worshippers of Baal came" there is inserted -and all his priests and all his prophets". These amplifications are no evidence that the Hebrew text ever had more than now stands in it. The LXX. often exhibits a desire to round off a narrative in a way very unlike Hebrew. _not a man left that came not_ They had been largely encouraged in previous reigns, but now they were to be elevated above all others. Hence all that desired to be popular with the new king and could establish their claim to be counted Baalites, would reckon it a good chance, and come without fail. _the house of Baal_ -House" is...

SO THAT THERE WAS NOT A MAN LEFT THAT CAME NOT— It may be asked, how all the worshippers of Baal could be induced, after Jehu's conduct, to assemble together? To which it may be replied, that as Jehu was a person of known indifference in matters of religion, (see the note on 2 Kings 10:31.) who in this respect had always conformed to the humours of the court, and in the reign of king Ahab had been a strenuous worshipper of Baal; the people could not tell, when they read his proclamation of a great feast to Baal, but that he had returned in good earnest to the religion which he once embraced, and only deserted for a while in complacency to others. But whether they deluded themselves into this persuasion or not, they knew by experience that Jehu was a man of a fierce and bloody temper, who would not fail to put his threats in execution; and therefore reading in the same proclamation, Whos