2 Kings 10:6

_THEN HE WROTE A LETTER THE SECOND TIME TO THEM, SAYING, IF YE BE MINE, AND IF YE WILL HEARKEN UNTO MY VOICE, TAKE YE THE HEADS OF THE MEN YOUR MASTER'S SONS, AND COME TO ME TO JEZREEL BY TO MORROW THIS TIME. NOW THE KING'S SONS, BEING SEVENTY PERSONS, WERE WITH THE GREAT MEN OF THE CITY, WHICH BROUGHT THEM UP._ Take ye the heads of the men your master's sons. The barbarous practice of a successful usurper slaughtering all who may have claim to the throne, has been frequently exemplified in the ancient and modern histories of the East....

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 10:6. _COME TO ME TO JEZREEL_] Therefore the letters were not written to Jezreel, but from Jezreel to Samaria....

The heads of rivals, pretenders, and other obnoxious persons are commonly struck off in the East, and conveyed to the chief ruler, in order that he may be positively certified that his enemies have ceased to live. In the Assyrian sculptures we constantly see soldiers conveying heads from place to place, not, however, in baskets, but in their hands, holding the head by the hair....

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

THEN HE WROTE A LETTER THE SECOND TIME TO THEM,.... Having gained his point by the former: SAYING, IF YE BE MINE, acknowledge yourselves my subjects and servants; AND IF YE WILL HEARKEN TO MY VOICE; obey my commands: TAKE YE THE HEADS OF THE MEN YOUR MASTER'S SONS; that is, take off their heads: AND COME TO ME TO JEZREEL BY TOMORROW THIS TIME meaning with the heads along with them: (NOW THE KING'S SONS, BEING SEVENTY PERSONS, WERE WITH THE GREAT MEN OF THE CITY, WHICH BROUGHT THEM UP;) they were in their houses, and under their tuition, and so had an authority over them, and could dispose of them at pleasure; they were not ordinary persons to whose care they were committed, but the principal men of the city....

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 ...

MINE. for me. THE MEN. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14. PERSONS. Hebrew. _'ish._ MEN. Hebrew. _'ish_. App-14....

_a letter the second time_ Before he presents himself to them, he will let their alarm involve them more deeply than he is involved in the destruction of the royal family. _take ye the heads_ So Nicanor's head (1Ma 7:47; 2Ma 15:30) was struck off and brought to Jerusalem, and David smote off the head of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:54) and brought it with him from the battle-field. _come to me to Jezreel_ From what follows we should not discover that they obeyed this part of the order. But no doubt they did, and were ready at the gate, when Jehu came forth on the morrow, to hear what he would say of their prompt obedience. The distance between Jezreel and Samaria was only a journey of a few hours. The heads seem to have been delivered to their new master on the evening of the day on which they were asked for. _Now the king's sons_, &c. This parenthetic sentence