2 Kings 9:22

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JORAM SAW JEHU, THAT HE SAID, IS IT PEACE, JEHU? AND HE ANSWERED, WHAT PEACE, SO LONG AS THE WHOREDOMS OF THY MOTHER JEZEBEL AND HER WITCHCRAFTS ARE SO MANY?_ When Joram saw Jehu ... he said, Is it peace, Jehu? Until that moment Joram had no apprehension of danger; but the defiant tone of Jehu, the obloquy cast upon the king's mother, and the outburst of national indignation against her foul idolatries, which through him was about to discharge itself, showed at once both the nature and the gravity of the crisis х_ ZªNUWNEEY_ (H2183) ... _ 'IMªKAA_ (H517), whoredoms (spiritually), idolatries; _ UWKSHAAPEYHAA_ (H3785), sorceries; Septuagint, farmaka]....

16-29 Jehu was a man of eager spirit. The wisdom of God is seen in the choice of those employed in his work. But it is not for any man's reputation to be known by his fury. He that has rule over his own spirit, is better than the mighty. Joram met Jehu in the portion of Naboth. The circumstances of events are sometimes ordered by Divine Providence to make the punishment answer to the sin, as face answers to face in a glass. The way of sin can never be the way of peace, Isaiah 57:21. What peace can sinners have with God? No peace so long as sin is persisted in; but when it is repented of and forsaken, there is peace. Joram died as a criminal, under the sentence of the law. Ahaziah was joined with the house of Ahab. He was one of them; he had made himself so by sin. It is dangerous to join evil-doers; we shall be entangled in guilt and misery by it....

Verse 2 Kings 9:22. _WHAT PEACE, SO LONG AS THE WHOREDOMS_] Though the words _whoredom, adultery_, and _fornication_, are frequently used to express _idolatry_, and _false religion_, in general; yet here they may be safely taken in their _common_ and most _obvious_ sense, as there is much reason to believe that Jezebel was the patroness and supporter of a very impure system of religion; and to this Jehu might refer, rather than to the _calf-worship_, to which himself was most favourably disposed....

Joram had asked the usual question, “Is it peace?” - meaning simply, “Is all well?” In Jehu’s reply, by “whoredoms” we are probably to understand “idolatries,” acts of spiritual unfaithfulness; by “witchcrafts,” dealings with the Baal prophets and oracles. Compare 2 Kings 1:2 note....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 9:1 THE ANOINTING OF JEHU. His MURDER OF JEHORAM AND AHAZIAH. THE DEATH OF JEZEBEL. 2 KINGS 9:1 Elisha is still the primary figure in the historical drama; but at this point his personality merges in the general account of the kingdom of Israel, which it is one of the objects of the writer to trace from beginning to end. Elisha here performs his last public act, being commissioned, and carrying out his commission, to transfer the kingdom of Israel from the unworthy dynasty of Omri, which on account of its p

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JORAM SAW, JEHU, THAT HE SAID, IS IT PEACE, JEHU?.... Have things gone well at Ramothgilead? art thou come in triumph from thence? or obliged to fly from the Syrians? or art thou come in a peaceable, or in an hostile manner to me? AND HE ANSWERED, WHAT PEACE; canst thou expect at home or abroad, from me or others: SO LONG AS THE WHOREDOMS OF THY MOTHER JEZEBEL AND HER WITCHCRAFTS ARE SO MANY? which may be understood both literally of corporeal whoredom, and diabolical arts she was addicted to, and figuratively of idolatry, often called whoredom in Scripture, and of the wicked arts and methods she made use of to inveigle and entice persons into it; and both these very often went together; see Nahum 3:4 and of which Joram was guilty, at least in part; he connived at all in her, and did not attempt to restrain her, and therefore had no c

III. THE PERIOD OF DECLENSION AND APOSTASY 1. Jehu, King of Israel and His Deeds CHAPTER 9:11-37 _ 1. Jehu is king (2 Kings 9:11)_ 2. Jehoram, King of Israel slain (2 Kings 9:14) 3. Ahaziah slain (2 Chronicles 22:9) 4. Jezebel and her end (2 Kings 9:30) Jehu revealed the secret anointing as King over Israel, and under the blare of the trumpets the army hails him as King. “Jehu is King!” Oh! for that day when our Lord Jesus will be hailed as King to begin His righteous judgment over the earth. The Assyrian monuments bear interesting testimony to a good deal of the histo

2 KINGS 9:1 TO 2 KINGS 10:31. THE REVOLUTION AND OVERTHROW OF THE BAAL WORSHIP. This spirited narrative is probably derived from the same source as 1 Kings 20, 22; and, if we strike out the short Deuteronomic portion (2 Kings 9:7), we cannot fail to notice the detachment of the writer, who neither condemns nor approves, but merely relates the tragedy. Hosea (Hosea 1:4), a little more than a century later, evidently condemns the whole transaction, and traces the fall of Jehu's house to the blood of Jezreel. This is in strong contrast with the Deuteronomic passage,...

WHOREDOMS. idolatry. Joined together. Compare WITCHCRAFTS. spiritism. Numbers 24:1; Numbers 25:1; Numbers 31:16....

_What peace_ i.e. How can there be any peace, while the evil doings of Jezebel continue as great as before. By -whoredoms" the Scripture writers continually signify -the practice of idolatry" and that is probably the sense here. Cf. Exodus 34:15-16; Deuteronomy 31:6: Judges 8:27; Jeremiah 3:6 &c. -The witchcrafts" probably allude to the incantations and charms employed to obtain responses from the heathen gods. In Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12, where the word is rend