2 Kings 10:6

THE SPINELESS ELDERS OF JEZREEL OBEYED JEHU IN THE SLAUGHTER OF THE HOUSE OF AHAB

"Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be on my side, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the kings sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city who brought them up. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them unto him to Jezreel. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning. And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye are righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and smote him; but who smote all these? Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of Jehovah, which Jehovah spake concerning the house of Ahab: for Jehovah hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. So Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining."

"Ye are righteous" (2 Kings 10:9). This was Jehu's appeal to the people for their approval of what he did. He was saying, "Look, you are righteous people; can't you see that God really approves of what I did. I only killed Ahab; but look how God has finished the job! "Here Jehu pretended that he had nothing to do with the murder of the king's sons, that, on the contrary, it was a divine fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy concerning the fate of the house of Ahab."[8]

"For Jehovah hath done that which he spake through his servant Elijah" (2 Kings 10:10). This was Jehu's flat denial; "I didn't do it; God did"! Of course, the man Jehu was a consummate liar. Every man does what he commands those under him to do.

"And Jehu smote all his great men ... friends ... priests ... left him none remaining" (2 Kings 10:11). Jehu did not stop murdering with the slaughter of Ahab's descendants. "This means that he put to death all of the most powerful supporters of Ahab's rule."[9] "Those great men who had so obsequiously taken off the heads of Ahab's sons fell also a sacrifice to the ambition of this incomparably bad man."[10]