In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short ,.... To bring their dominions into a narrower compass; this was done in the days of Jehu, though he was so active and courageous, wherefore the hand of God was the more seen in it: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel ; which bordered on his country, when he did what Elisha foretold he would, 2 Kings 8:12 . read more
From Jordan eastward ,.... This was principally the coast on which Hazael smote them, to the east of the land of Canaan: all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Moabites ; the country on the other side Jordan, given to these tribes by Moses, at their request, which were before the kingdoms of Sihon and of Og: from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan : countries which the Israelites first conquered, and were the first they lost. read more
The Lord began to cut Israel short - The marginal reading is best: The Lord cut off the ends; and this he did by permitting Hazael to seize on the coasts, to conquer and occupy the frontier towns. This was the commencement of those miserable ravages which Elisha predicted; see 2 Kings 8:12 . And we find from the next verse that he seized on all the land of Gilead, and that of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; in a word, whatever Israel possessed on the east side... read more
THE REIGN OF JEHU OVER ISRAEL . read more
Half-heartedness punished by God as severely as actual apostasy from true religion. The temper of the Laodiceans is no uncommon one. Men may even think that they have a "zeal for the Lord" ( 2 Kings 10:16 ), and yet show by their acts that it is every half-hearted zeal—a zeal that goes a certain length, and then stops suddenly. There is no reason to doubt that Jehu honestly disliked, nay, perhaps detested, the religion of Baal. It was an effeminate, sensual, weakening, debasing system,... read more
The reign of Jehu. Under this head we note— I. JEHU 'S REWARD . 1. Four generations on the throne . Jehu had outwardly fulfilled the commission given him by God, and had wrought a great deliverance for Israel. This public service God acknowledged by the promise that his sons should sit upon the throne to the fourth generation. The service was outward, and the reward was outward. Approval of Jehu's deeds did not extend to approval of every detail in his conduct. The... read more
In those days the Lord began to out Israel short. It is certainly not stated in direct terms that the ill success of Jehu's foreign wars was a punishment on him for his continued maintenance of the calf-idolatry; but the juxtaposition of 2 Kings 10:31 and 2 Kings 10:32 naturally raises the idea, and constitutes a strong presumption that it was in the writer's mind. The "theocracy" under the kings was carried on mainly, as the writer of Chronicles clearly saw, by the bestowal of worldly... read more
Jehu's wars, length of reign, and successor. read more
From Jordan eastward. The territory west of the Jordan was not attacked at this time. Hazael's expeditious were directed against the trans-Jordanic region, the seats of the three tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. This tract was far easier of access than the other, and was more tempting, being the richest part of Palestine. The region comprised all the land of Gilead — i.e. the more southern region, reaching from the borders of Moab on the south to the Hieromax or Sheriat-el-Mandhur... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Kings 10:29-36
Here is all the account of the reign of Jehu, though it continued twenty-eight years. The progress of it answered not to the glory of its beginning. We have here, I. God's approbation of what Jehu had done. Many, it is probable, censured him as treacherous and barbarous?called him a rebel, a usurper, a murderer, and prognosticated ill concerning him, that a family thus raised would soon be ruined; but God said, Well done (2 Kgs. 10:30), and then it signified little who said otherwise. 1. God... read more