2 Kings
2 Kings 9
1Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, “Put your belt on your waist, take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2When you come there, find Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him rise up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room. 3Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “I have anointed you king over Israel.” ’ Then open the door, flee, and don’t wait.”
4So the young man, even the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead. 5When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting. Then he said, “I have a message for you, captain.”
Jehu said, “To which of us all?”
He said, “To you, O captain.” 6He arose, and went into the house. Then he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel. 7You must strike your master Ahab’s house, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel. 8For the whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 9I will make Ahab’s house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10The dogs will eat Jezebel on the plot of ground of Jezreel, and there shall be no one to bury her.’ ” Then he opened the door and fled.
11When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?”
He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.” 12They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.”
He said, “He said to me, ‘Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’ ”
13Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
14So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; 15but king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.” 16So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. 17Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.”
Joram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’ ”
18So one went on horseback to meet him, and said, “the king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ”
Jehu said, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
The watchman said, “The messenger came to them, but he isn’t coming back.”
19Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, “The king says, ‘Is it peace?’ ”
Jehu answered, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me!”
20The watchman said, “He came to them, and isn’t coming back. The driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.”
21Joram said, “Get ready!”
They got his chariot ready. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him on Naboth the Jezreelite’s land. 22When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?”
He answered, “What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?”
23Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, “This is treason, Ahaziah!”
24Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. 25Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, “Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him: 26‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
27But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu followed after him, and said, “Strike him also in the chariot!” They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. 28His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in David’s city. 29In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.
30When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window. 31As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, “Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”
32He lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?”
Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33He said, “Throw her down!”
So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. 34When he had come in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.”
35They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. 36Therefore they came back, and told him.
He said, “This is Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, 37and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”
Commentary
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What others are saying
5 commentators · 90 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry4
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
We have here the anointing of Jehu to be king, who was, at this time, a commander (probably commander-in-chief) of the forces employed at Ramoth-Gilead, Kg2 9:14. There he was fighting for the king his master, but received orders from a higher king to fight…
Jehu, after some pause, returned to his place at the board, taking no notice of what had passed, but, as it should seem, designing, for the present, to keep it to himself, if they had not urged him to disclose it. Let us therefore see what passed between him…
From Ramoth-Gilead to Jezreel was more than one day's march; about the mid-way between them the river Jordan must be crossed. We may suppose Jehu to have marched with all possible expedition, and to have taken the utmost precaution to prevent the tidings from…
John Gill37
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets,.... Who the Jews generally say (k) was Jonah the son of Amittai: and said, gird up thy loins; his loose and long garments about his loins, for quicker dispatch in travelling: and take this box…
And when thou comest thither,.... To Ramothgilead; but from whence he went is uncertain, doubtless where there was a school of the prophets, perhaps that which was erected near Jordan, on the other side of which lay Ramothgilead, 2 Kings 6:1, look out there…
Then take the box of oil, and pour it on his head,.... When in the chamber together alone: and say, thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel; which was done, not with the anointing oil in the temple, which could not be come by; and with…
Adam Clarke27
The linguist of this set. Expect Hebrew and Greek word study, oriental custom, and geography — and an Arminian reading of grace and free will where Gill or Henry would read election. Note one real divergence: Clarke denied the eternal sonship of Christ, a position most of the tradition rejects, so read him closely on the person of Christ.
Why this voice is here: Where you want to know what a word actually says, Clarke is the one who will tell you — with the caveat above on Christ’s sonship.
One of the children of the prophets - The Jews say that this was Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai. Gird up thy loins - What thou hast to do requires the utmost despatch.
The young man the prophet - This should be translated, The servant of the prophet; that is, the servant which Elisha now had in place of Gehazi.
King over the people of the Lord - This pointed out to Jehu that he was to rule that people according to God's law; and consequently, that he was to restore the pure worship of the Most High in Israel.
Keil & Delitzsch7
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
Anointing of Jehu by Command of Elisha. - While the Israelitish army was at Ramoth, Elisha executed the last of the commissions which Elijah had received at Horeb (Kg1 19:16), by sending a pupil of the prophets into the camp to anoint Jehu the…
Jehu's Conspiracy against Joram. - Kg2 9:11. When Jehu came out again to his comrades in arms, after the departure of the pupil of the prophets, they inquired השׁלום, i.e., "is it all well? why did this madman come to thee?" not because they were afraid that…
Slaying of the Two Kings, Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. - Kg2 9:16. Jehu drove without delay to Jezreel, where Joram was lying sick, and Ahaziah had come upon a visit to him. Kg2 9:17-21 As the horsemen, who were sent to meet him on the announcement…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown15
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
carry him to an inner chamber--both to ensure the safety of the messenger and to prevent all obstruction in the execution of the business.
I have anointed thee king over Israel--This was only a part of the message; the full announcement of which is given (Kg2 9:7-10). flee, and tarry not--for fear of being surprised and overtaken by the spies or servants of the court.
So the young man . . . went to Ramoth-gilead--His ready undertaking of this delicate and hazardous mission was an eminent proof of his piety and obedience. The act of anointing being done through a commissioned prophet, was a divine intimation of his…
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