2 Kings 10:1

JEHU; THE BLOODTHIRSTY KILLER; ON A RAMPAGE;

JEHU CHALLENGED THE GUARDIANS OF AHAB'S ROYAL FAMILY

"Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria unto the rulers of Jezreel, even the rulers, and unto them that brought up the sons of Ahab, saying, And now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor; look ye out the best and meetest of your masters sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, the two kings stood not before him; and then how shall we stand? And he that was over the household, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and they that brought up the children sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any man king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes."

"For barbarity and hypocrisy Jehu has few parallels; and the cowardice and baseness of the nobles mentioned here have seldom been equaled."[1]

"Letters sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel" (2 Kings 10:1). Of course, that type of scholarship which is always fooling with the sacred text and changing it to what they think it should have said has `done their thing' on this verse making it read, "Letters sent to Samaria (omitting Jezreel) to the rulers of the city, etc." (RSV). This writer accepts the ASV as accurate. The rulers of Jezreel, the elders, and the guardians of the royal family were actually in Samaria at the time of Jehu's letters due to its being considered a safer place than Jezreel during the war in which Israel was at that time engaged. Therefore, it was perfectly true that Jehu sent all of those important leaders of Jezreel letters addressed to them in Samaria where they were located at the time he wrote.

"And now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria" (2 Kings 10:1). This is not necessarily a statement that they lived in Samaria, as supposed by Hammond,[2] but that they were in Samaria upon the occasion of this letter. Cook mentioned the fact that "sons" as used here would include grandsons and other close relatives.[3]

Such a large number of sons, however, is by no means impossible. "Rehoboam had thirty-eight sons; Abdon had forty; Tola had thirty; Ahab had seventy; and Gideon had seventy-one."[4]

"Set him on his father's throne, and fight for your masters house" (2 Kings 10:3). "Jehu neither desired that they should do this nor expected them to do so; he was merely upbraiding them with their cowardice and incompetence to challenge him."[5]

C. F. Keil lamented the fact that, "We cannot discover any reason why the court-officials living in Samaria should be called "the princes of Jezreel";[6] but, as we have already noted, those officials were there for greater protection in the stronghold of Samaria during the war in progress. There is no need whatever to adjust the text as in the RSV and other versions. Ahab's court, in a sense occupied two capitals, both Samaria and Jezreel.

"We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any man king" (2 Kings 10:5). These were the same pusillanimous cowards who had obeyed to the letter the vicious orders of Jezebel to murder Naboth and his sons. "These elders of Jezreel had been wickedly obsequious to Jezebel in Naboth's murder (1 Kings 21:11), and that same base spirit made them just as pliable and ready to obey Jehu's order for the murder of Ahab's whole family."[7]