2 Kings 10:7

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE LETTER CAME TO THEM, THAT THEY TOOK THE KING'S SONS, AND SLEW SEVENTY PERSONS, AND PUT THEIR HEADS IN BASKETS, AND SENT HIM THEM TO JEZREEL._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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 10:7. _PUT THEIR HEADS IN BASKETS_] What cold-blooded wretches were the whole of these people!...

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 IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE LETTER CAME TO THEM,.... They did not in the least hesitate, but immediately complied with the contents of it: THAT THEY TOOK THE KING'S SONS, AND SLEW SEVENTY PERSONS; which was the whole number of them: AND PUT THEIR HEADS IN BASKETS, AND SENT THEM TO JEZREEL; as a present to Jehu, just as they carried the firstfruits, as Abarbinel observes....

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 ...

BASKETS. the baskets. Hebrew. _dud,_ for carrying fruit. Still used for this purpose. Not _sal_ (bread-basket), which Gideon (Judges 6:19), and Pharaoh's baker (Genesis 40:17) used....

_and slew seventy persons_ R.V. AND SLEW THEM, EVEN SEVENTY PERSONS. Though the pronoun is not expressed in the original, it is needed for the sense. The A.V. might signify any seventy persons. _in baskets_ The word is that which is used (Jeremiah 24:2) for the baskets in which the figs were gathered. _sent him_them _to Jezreel_ R.V. SENT THEM UNTO HIM. Before they come themselves, they take care that the price, by which they expect to purchase Jehu's favour, shall be paid down. The change in R.V. from the English idiom to a more close representation of the Hebrew seems altogether unnecessary....

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