2 Kings 10:1 - Meaning and Application

We left Jehu in calm control of Jezreel, after his victory over Joram and Jezebel. Now we follow his next moves. He knew that the whole house of Ahab had to be cut off, so he carried out this bloody task fully and openly, not in a hidden or half-done way (Jeremiah 48:10).

First, he had the heads of all Ahab’s sons cut off by their own guardians in Samaria. Ahab had seventy sons, or grandsons, a number like Gideon’s family (Judges 8:30). With so many bearing his name, his family might have seemed secure, but it was wiped out at once. A family may be large and powerful, but if it is wicked, it should not expect long success.

These sons of Ahab were then at Samaria, a strong city. They may have been brought there because of the war with Syria, as a place of safety, or after hearing of Jehu’s revolt. With them were the rulers of Jezreel, the leading officials of the court, who had gone to Samaria to protect themselves or decide what to do. Some of the young princes were still under tutors, who were trusted with their education in keeping with their rank, though they probably raised them in the idol worship of Ahab’s house and made them all followers of Baal.

Jehu did not march his army against Samaria to destroy them. Instead, he let the hand of God appear more clearly by making their own guardians their murderers. He sent a challenge to their supporters to defend them (2 Kings 10:2-3). He was saying, in effect, “You who are loyal to the house of Ahab, now is your chance. Samaria is strong. You control it. You have soldiers. Choose the best of the royal family, set him on his father’s throne, and stand by him with all you have.”

Jehu did not really want them to do this, and he did not expect them to succeed. He was exposing their weakness and showing that they could not stand against God’s plan. In effect, he said, “Go ahead, if you dare, and see what happens.” People who abandon true religion often lose both good sense and courage, and they deserve to be shamed for it.

This led them to submit to him. They reasoned among themselves, “Look, two kings could not stand before him, but fell like sacrifices to his anger. How then can we stand?” (2 Kings 10:4). So they sent word back that they were his servants and would do whatever he commanded, right or wrong, and they would set up no rival to him. They saw that fighting him was useless, so they chose what was safest for them.

There is a lesson here for us. We can reason ourselves into submission to the great God with even more force. Many kings and important men have fallen under his judgment because of their evil, so how can we stand? Do we make the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he? No. We must either bow or break.

Jehu then used their surrender to make them the ones who carried out the sentence on the very princes they had been trusted to raise (2 Kings 10:6). He told them, “If you are on my side, bring me the heads of your master’s sons by this time tomorrow.” He knew it must be done, and he did not want to do it himself, but it seems surprising that he expected them to do it. Could they betray such a trust? Could they be cruel to the sons of their master? Yet they bowed so low before the new ruler that they did it. They cut off the heads of the seventy princes and sent them to Jehu in baskets as a gift (2 Kings 10:7).

From this we should learn not to trust too much in a friend, or in a guide who is not ruled by conscience. A person who has been false to God can hardly be expected to stay faithful to an earthly ruler. But we should also notice God’s justice in their wrongdoing. These elders of Jezreel had once obeyed Jezebel’s order to murder Naboth (1 Kings 21:11). She likely boasted of the power she had over them, and now the same low spirit made them just as ready to obey Jehu’s order to kill Ahab’s sons. No one should seek unchecked power, because the same force they use on others may one day come back on them. Rulers who make their people into slaves are often preparing their own rebels, and by forcing consciences, as Jezebel did, they lose real loyalty.

When the severed heads were brought to Jehu, he sharply exposed the men who had carried out this judgment. The heads were piled in two heaps at the city gate, the proper place for judgment. There he cleared the people before God and the world, saying, “You are righteous” (2 Kings 10:9), and by what the rulers of Samaria had now done, he also seemed to clear himself by comparison. He had killed only one man, he said, while they had killed all these. He had acted by plot and purpose, but they had done this in simple compliance and blind obedience. So no one in Samaria, and no friend of Ahab’s house, should blame him for what he had done when their own elders, even the guardians of orphans, had done worse.

People who have done something shameful often try to make their own guilt look smaller by getting others to do something worse. But Jehu also saw all this as part of God’s righteous judgment (2 Kings 10:10). “The Lord has done what he spoke through Elijah.” God is never the author of sin. Still, even when people act from evil motives, God can use their deeds to carry out his purpose and glorify his name. He is righteous in what men do wickedly. When Assyria becomes the rod of God’s anger and the tool of his justice, it does not mean Assyria understands or intends that purpose (Isaiah 10:7).

Next, Jehu destroyed everything left of Ahab’s house, not only his descendants but all who were tied to him in any way. That included the officers of his household, state officials, his close associates who shared in his wickedness, and his priests, or household chaplains, who served in his idolatrous worship and helped keep him in evil (2 Kings 10:11). After doing this in Jezreel, he did the same in Samaria, killing all that remained of Ahab there (2 Kings 10:17). This was bloody work, and it should not be used as a pattern for us today. Let the guilty suffer, but not the innocent for their sake.

Perhaps such terrible acts were meant to point ahead to the final destruction of all the ungodly. God has a sword, bathed in heaven, that will come down on the people under his curse and be filled with blood (Isaiah 34:5-6). Then he will not spare, and he will not pity.

Finally, as Jehu kept carrying out this judgment, God’s providence brought him the brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and he killed them too (2 Kings 10:12-14).

Ahaziah’s brothers had already been killed by the Arabians (2 Chronicles 22:1). But these were the sons of his brothers, as is explained later (2 Kings 10:8). They were also called princes of Judah, and they served Ahaziah.

Several things made them part of the judgment Jehu was carrying out. First, they were connected to Ahab’s family through Athaliah, so they fell under Jehu’s charge. Second, they had likely shared in the sins of Ahab’s house. Third, they were on their way to pay respects to the royal family of Ahab, to greet the king’s children and the queen, Joram and Jezebel. That showed they were bound to them in heart as well as by family ties.

These princes were forty-two in all. They were like sheep set apart for slaughter, and they were killed in a formal way at the pit of the shearing house. The Lord makes himself known through these judgments that he carries out.