2 Kings 10:5

_AND HE THAT WAS OVER THE HOUSE, AND HE THAT WAS OVER THE CITY, THE ELDERS ALSO, AND THE BRINGERS UP OF THE CHILDREN, SENT TO JEHU, SAYING, WE ARE THY SERVANTS, AND WILL DO ALL THAT THOU SHALT BID US; WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY KING: DO THOU THAT WHICH IS GOOD IN THINE EYES._ He that was over the house - the governor or chamberlain of the palace. THE BRINGERS-UP OF THE CHILDREN. Anciently, and still, also, in many Eastern countries, the principal grandees were charged with the support and education of the royal princes. This involved a heavy expense, which they were forced to bear, but for which they endeavoured to find some compensation in the advantages of their connection with the court....

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?...

Verse 2 Kings 10:5. _HE THAT WAS OVER THE HOUSE, C._] Thus all the constituted authorities agreed to submit. _WILL DO ALL THAT THOU SHALT BID US_] They made no conditions, and stood pledged to commit the horrid murders which this most execrable man afterwards commanded....

The officer who had the charge of the place (1 Kings 4:6 note) and the governor of the town (1 Kings 22:26 note) seem to correspond to the “rulers” of 2 Kings 10:1....

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 THAT WAS OVER THE HOUSE,.... The king's palace in Samaria, who had the custody, care, and government of it: AND HE THAT WAS OVER THE CITY; the commander and governor of it, that had the highest post in it under the king; THE ELDERS ALSO all other subordinate officers and magistrates: AND THE BRINGERS UP OF THE CHILDREN; who had the education of the king's sons committed to them: SENT TO JEHU, SAYING, WE ARE THY SERVANTS, AND WILL DO ALL THAT THOU SHALL BID US. They were ready to do homage, and swear allegiance to him as their king, and obey all his commands as faithful subjects: WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY KING; or set up any on the throne, no, not any of the sons or grandsons of Ahab: DO THOU THAT WHICH IS GOOD IN THINE EYES, we will never oppose thee....

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 ...

_And_he _that_was _over the house_ R.V. HOUSEHOLD. This was an official personage, the chief of the royal personal officers. So it appears from the enumeration in this verse that all the authorities yielded at once. The LXX. gives the phrase in the plural -they that were over the household &c." With the singular it is not necessary to think of one officer merely. -Every one of the king's personal servants" is implied. _the bringers up_of [R.V. THEY THAT BROUGHT UP] the children] Thus the word is translated in the same manner in both verses. _and will do all that thou shalt bid us_ As the extermination of every person who might hereafter put forward a claim to the throne was the general rule in Eastern revolutions, we shall hardly be wrong in supposing that these men knew, when they tendered their service to Jehu, the sort of work he would wish them to undertake. _we will not make any k...

III. THE AFTERMATH OF THE _COUP_ 10:1-27 In chapter 10 the historian discusses some of the consequences of the revolution of 841 B.C. He discusses the bloody massacre of the house of Omri (2 Kings 10:1-11) and of the royal house of Judah (2 Kings 10:12-14). He then inserts a note to show how Jehu gained the support of the more conservative elements of the nation (2 Kings 10:15-17). The chapter reaches its climax in the account of how Jehu deceitfully gathered and then slew the Baal worshipers (2 Kings 10:18-27). A. THE EXTERMINATION OF THE HOUSE OF OMRI 10:1-11 TRANSLATION