2 Kings 10:22

_AND HE SAID UNTO HIM THAT WAS OVER THE VESTRY, BRING FORTH VESTMENTS FOR ALL THE WORSHIPPERS OF BAAL. AND HE BROUGHT THEM FORTH VESTMENTS._ Bring forth vestments. The priests of Baal were clad, probably, in robes of white byssus while they were engaged in the functions of their office, and these were kept under the care of an officer, in particular wardrobe of Baal's temple. This treacherous massacre, and the means taken to accomplish it, are paralleled by the slaughter of the Janissaries and other terrible tragedies in the modern history of the East....

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....

Verse 2 Kings 10:22. _HE SAID UNTO HIM THAT_ WAS _OVER THE VESTRY_] The word _vestry_ comes from _vestiarium_, and that from _vestes, garments_, from _vestio, I clothe_; and signifies properly the _place_ where the _sacerdotal robes_ and _pontifical ornaments_ are kept. The priests of Baal had their robes as well as the priests of the Lord; but the garments were such that one could be easily distinguished from the other....

THE VESTRY - The sacred robes of the Baal priests seem to have been of linen, and were probably white. The vestry here mentioned may, probably, be the robe-chamber of the royal palace, from which the king gave a festal garment to each worshipper....

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 HE SAID UNTO HIM THAT WAS OVER THE VESTRY,.... That had the care of the garments, in which the priests of Baal ministered: BRING FORTH VESTMENTS FOR ALL THE WORSHIPPERS OF BAAL; not for the priests only, but for all that worshipped; and this he ordered for the greater solemnity of this service, as he would have it thought; but, in truth, that the worshippers of Baal might be separated, and distinguished from the worshippers of the Lord, that not one of them might be among them: AND HE BROUGHT THEM FORTH VESTMENTS; out of the chamber or wardrobe in which they were, and they put them on....

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 ...

_he said unto_him _that_was _over the vestry_ The vestry must have belonged to the house of Baal; we cannot suppose that the king's wardrobe-keeper had a stock of robes to supply such a multitude of worshippers. Probably because of the control which had been exercised there by the house of Ahab, Jehu could give orders in Baal's temple and have them obeyed. It appears from the narrative that vestments were not used only by the priests, but by all the worshippers as well. Perhaps there was some distinction between the character and material of the robes....

BRING FORTH VESTMENTS— It was the custom of almost all idolaters, to be very curious about the external pomp of their ceremonies, wherein, indeed, the chief part of their worship consisted. All the priests of Baal were clothed in fine linen, and their chief priest, no doubt, had some particular ornaments to distinguish them. _Baal_ and _Astarte_ were Phoenician deities; and therefore, as Silius Italicus, lib. 1: in his description of the feasts of Hercules, has given us an account in what manner the Phoenician priests, when in their offices, were habited, we have reason thence to suppose that the dress of the prices of Baal was much of the same kind. The _worshippers of Baal,_ in the text, probably do not mean all the people in general, because they wore no distinct garments in their worship, either of GOD or Baal, but the priests and ministers only. These were the great support of the p...