2 Kings 9:17

And there stood a watchman R.V. Now the watchman stood. While such danger was threatening one part of the land, and the army was in the field, the watchman would be kept permanently on the lookout for any messenger that might be seen coming. The tower was probably some lofty part of the royal palace, for the news seems easily to have been conveyed to the king.

Is it peace? There would be much anxiety in the king's mind, though he would not expect what was coming. He might suppose that the army in Ramoth had been defeated, and that the hasty messenger was coming to announce that Ramoth was again in the hand of Syria. So the -Is all well?" of the margin of R.V. gives an excellent sense, and is the rendering of the same phrase in verse 11, though it does not admit of the reply which Jehu gives in the next verse.