2 Kings 10:12-14

B. THE MASSACRE OF THE ROYAL HOUSE OF JUDAH 10:12-14

TRANSLATION

(12) And he arose, departed, and came to Samaria. When he was at Beth-eked in the way, (13) Jehu met the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are brethren of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother. (14) And he said, Take them alive! And they took them alive, and slew them at the well of Beth-eked, forty-two men, and he left not a man of them.

COMMENTS

Having eliminated all potential opposition both in Jezreel and throughout the land, Jehu set out for Samaria. At Betheked,[564] an insignificant and unidentified spot en route (2 Kings 10:12), Jehu happened upon a group of forty-two relatives[565] of the deceased King Ahaziah of Judah. When interrogated as to who they were and what business they might have, these men indicated that they were on their way to Jezreel to visit their Northern cousins, the children of King Joram and also the queen mother Jezebel (2 Kings 10:13). This explanation sounds suspicious. For one thing, it would a priori be unlikely that forty- two princes would set off suddenly to visit relatives at another capital. Furthermore, it is hardly possible that these forty-two men could still be ignorant of the bloody revolution which had taken place in the North. Several days must have passed since King Joram was slain, and it would appear from 2 Kings 9:28 that the body of King Ahaziah had already been brought to Jerusalem and buried. Even if these men had left Jerusalem before the arrival of the king's corpse, surely they would have encountered many travelers who would have filled them in about the bloody deeds perpetrated against the house of Ahab. The only conclusion to which one can come is that these men from Judah were coming north to give aid and assistance to their relatives of the house of Ahab. But Jehu was not deceived. He at first ordered these men taken alive, but afterwards thought it would be safer to have them put out of the way. And so these forty-two, who were also descendants of Ahab, were slain at the well of Beth-eked (2 Kings 10:14).

[564] A spot where the shepherds of the area were accustomed to shear their flocks. Beth-eked literally means the house of binding, and takes its name from the practice of tying the sheep's four feet together before shearing.

[565] The actual brethren of Ahaziah had been carried off and slain by the Arabians (2 Chronicles 21:17; 2 Chronicles 22:1); the youths here mentioned were their sons (2 Chronicles 22:8), and therefore Ahaziah's nephews.