Tag Archives: 2 Kings 9

2 Kings 10 The Elimination of the Sons of Ahab and the Worshippers of Baal

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Part of the gift-bearing delegation of King Jehu, Black Obelisk, 841–840 BCE.

2 Kings 10: 1-14

  1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of the city, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying, 2 “Since your master’s sons are with you and you have at your disposal chariots and horses, a fortified city, and weapons, 3 select the son of your master who is the best qualified, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.” 4 But they were utterly terrified and said, “Look, two kings could not withstand him; how then can we stand?” 5 So the steward of the palace and the governor of the city, along with the elders and the guardians, sent word to Jehu, “We are your servants; we will do anything you say. We will not make anyone king; do whatever you think right.” 6 Then he wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time.” Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the leaders of the city, who were charged with their upbringing. 7 When the letter reached them, they took the king’s sons and killed them, seventy persons; they put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. 8 When the messenger came and told him, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons,” he said, “Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.” 9 Then in the morning when he went out, he stood and said to all the people, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who struck down all these? 10 Know, then, that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord that the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what he said through his servant Elijah.” 11 So Jehu killed all who were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his leaders, close friends, and priests, until he left him no survivor.
  12 Then he set out and went to Samaria. On the way, when he was at Beth-eked of the Shepherds, 13 Jehu met relatives of King Ahaziah of Judah and said, “Who are you?” They answered, “We are kin of Ahaziah; we have come down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother.” 14 He said, “Take them alive.” They took them alive and slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two in all; he spared none of them.

There is no avoiding the violence of this text. Jehu and those around him are blunt instruments removing the cancer of both the Omri dynasty and the cancer of Baalism from Israel. Back when I was working through the book of Esther, I did a short reflection on Violence and the Bible, but I still think most modern readers and interpreters find the bloody transition from the heirs of king Ahab to Jehu disconcerting.

The world of the bible was violent as was the ancient world that it was set within. It may not be quite the grimdark world of some recent fantasy made popular in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, since the world of the bible does assume there is a higher moral power involved in it, but as far as the shocking violence I think this, and the previous chapter, compete with almost anything written by modern authors. There were no bloodless coups in the ancient world. For the necessary transition to happen in both Israel and Judah drastic actions are required (in the view of 2 Kings).

Alex Israel in his writing on Jehu’s overthrown of the Omri dynasty believes that the detail provided is a critique of Jehu’s violence:

Kings is no stranger to military coups, yet not one of these mutinies revel in the explicit gore and detailed descriptions of murder that we find with Jehu. The narrative’s detail communicates Jehu’s barbarism. (Israel, 2019, p. 168)

Although Hosea 1:4 does view Jehu’s violence as excessive, I don’t believe that the narrator of 2 Kings does. Even though the other mention of seventy sons[1] being killed belongs to Abimelech in Judges 9, a story that has several connections with 2 Kings 10, Jehu’s actions are viewed in a positive light in 2 Kings. The violence does not all occur at Jehu’s hands as we will see as the narrative progresses, but Jehu’s evaluation is not tainted by his violent methods in overthrowing the Omri dynasty and the practices of Baal worship but instead that Jehu didn’t go far enough in removing the false worship practices from Northern Israel.

Jehu’s actions at the beginning of this chapter challenge the people with power in Samaria to choose one of the heirs of Ahab to rally behind and to prepare to meet him in battle. Jehu’s rule will never be secure as long as there is another line that can make a claim on the throne, but he does grant the leadership in Samaria the opportunity to make a fight for these heirs of Ahab. We don’t know how the line of Ahab was viewed within Samaria, and the text only mentions the terror of the leaders about this military commander’s ability to conquer whatever resistance they offer. These leaders entreat Jehu for peace and Jehu responds with the command to bring the heads of the seventy sons of Ahab. These leaders of will also have blood on their hands at the conclusion of the coup, but it may not have been necessary for them to directly participate in the bloodshed. As Choon-Leong Seow states on the Hebrew wordplay:

The word “heads” (ra’sim) is ambiguous, for it could refer literally the anatomical heads or figuratively to leaders. The officials assume the literal meaning and decapitate the remaining descendants of Ahab. (NIB III: 223)

There was a time when the leaders could have claimed innocence in this bloody transition since it was Jehu who killed the kings of Israel and Judah as well as Jezebel the queen mother, but now with the seventy heads of the sons of Ahab in baskets they share in this overthrow. Their hands are just as bloody as Jehu’s. Yet, for the narrator of 2 Kings, this bloody event is the fulfillment of the words of Elijah spoken against Jehu in Jezreel. (1 Kings 21)

Finally in this section there is the slaughter of the relatives of Ahaziah. These travelers from Judah seem completely unaware of the situation they walked into as they travel to visit Jezebel and the royal princes of Israel. These kin of Ahaziah are linked by marriage to Ahab’s line and in slaughtering these relatives Jehu weakens the remnants of the house of Ahaziah in Jerusalem. As we will see in the following chapter the remaining child of Ahab, his daughter Athaliah, will violently attempt to hold onto power in Jerusalem.  

2 Kings 10: 15-36

  15 When he left there, he met Jehonadab son of Rechab coming to meet him; he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart as true to mine as mine is to yours?” Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. 16 He said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.” So he had him ride in his chariot. 17 When he came to Samaria, he killed all who were left to Ahab in Samaria, until he had wiped them out according to the word of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah.

  18 Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab offered Baal small service, but Jehu will offer much more. 19 Now therefore summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu was acting with cunning in order to destroy the servants of Baal. 20 Jehu decreed, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they proclaimed it. 21 Jehu sent word throughout all Israel; all the servants of Baal came, so that there was no one left who did not come. They entered the temple of Baal until the temple of Baal was filled from wall to wall. 22 He said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring out the vestments for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out the vestments for them. 23 Then Jehu entered the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab; he said to the servants of Baal, “Search and see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you but only servants of Baal.” 24 Then they proceeded to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.
  Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, saying, “Whoever allows any of those to escape whom I deliver into your hands shall forfeit his life.” 25 As soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and to the officers, “Come in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they put them to the sword. The guards and the officers threw them out and then went into the citadel of the temple of Baal. 26 They brought out the pillar that was in the temple of Baal and burned it. 27 Then they demolished the pillar of Baal and destroyed the temple of Baal and made it a latrine to this day.
  28 Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. 29 But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to commit: the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. 30 The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what I consider right and in accordance with all that was in my heart have dealt with the house of Ahab, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” 31 But Jehu was not careful to follow the law of the Lord the God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam that he caused Israel to commit.

  32 In those days the Lord began to trim off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: 33 from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the Wadi Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan. 34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his power, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 35 So Jehu slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz succeeded him. 36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Jehu now meets Jehonadab son of Rachab. The two men are loyal to one another but also share a zeal for the LORD. The descendants of Jehonadab son of Rechab will be the Rechabites that the prophet Jeremiah encounters in Jerusalem who do not drink wine or grow vineyards in obedience to their ancestor’s way. (Jeremiah 35) Now this ancestor of the Rechabites and Jehu move with cunning against the entrenched worship of Baal in Samaria.

In the ancient world the political and religious realms are interconnected, and it would not be surprising for a new ruler to pay for a sacrifice to the gods worshipped in the land. Jehu’s religious connections may not be well known in Samaria, and the prospect of having the new king as a patron would be enticing to the cult of Baal in the land. Yet, Jehu is acting with ‘cunning.’[2] Many modern readers may be confused by the dishonesty of Jehu’s actions, but 2 Kings views these actions positively. After attempting to ensure that only worshippers of Baal are present Jehu orders his guards to slaughter those participating and not to allow any to escape. Jehu in this action eliminates the worship of Baal during his reign and in the view of 2 Kings this causes God to grant him the longest running dynasty in the Northern Kingdom.

Yet the final evaluation of Jehu is negative not because of his violence or dishonesty but because he didn’t go far enough. He allowed the shrines at Bethel and Dan to remain. One the one hand it would be difficult for Jehu to remain in control in Samaria if people had to return to Jerusalem to worship, but in the view of the narrator of 2 Kings this is evidence of idolatry. Northern Israel is slowly losing control of its border to Hazael’s forces out of Damascus, but Jehu and his sons will maintain control in Samaria for four generations.

[1] Seventy is one of the ‘representative’ numbers in Hebrew which may be literal or may represent a large number. Typically multiples of three, seven, and twelve have a connotation of completeness in Hebrew thought.

[2] The Hebrew word for cunning is ‘aqob. This is also the name Jacob. Jacob’s original name and his character in Genesis is that of one who acts with cunning. The trickery here by Jehu is not evaluated in a negative light.

2 Kings 9 The Violent End of the Omri Dynasty Begins

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John Liston Byram Shaw, Jezebel. Museum: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK

2 Kings 9: 1-13 The Anointing of Jehu

1 Then the prophet Elisha called a member of the company of prophets and said to him, “Gird up your loins; take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2 When you arrive, look there for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi; go in and get him to leave his companions, and take him into an inner chamber. 3 Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.”
  4 So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 5 He arrived while the commanders of the army were in council, and he announced, “I have a message for you, commander.” “For which one of us?” asked Jehu. “For you, commander.” 6 So Jehu got up and went inside; the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel: I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. 7 You shall strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. 8 For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 9 I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and no one shall bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.
  11 When Jehu came back to his master’s officers, they said to him, “Is everything all right? Why did that madman come to you?” He answered them, “You know the sort and how they babble.” 12 They said, “Liar! Come on, tell us!” So he said, “This is just what he said to me: ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’ ” 13 Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”

In the previous chapter the long-delayed mission given to Elijah in 1 Kings 19: 15-18 to bring about the end of the Omri dynasty begins in earnest with the prophet Elisha acting as a catalyst in the rise of Hazael “son of nobody” to kill his master Ben-hadad and become the king of Aram. Now Elisha sets in motion God’s second instrument in the destruction of the Omri dynasty, Jehu. The prophet sends another member of the sons of the prophets (NRSVue company of prophets) to carry out this task of anointing Jehu, one of the commanders of the army, as the new king of Israel. Elisha may have been too well known to enter into the camp at Ramoth-gilead without creating whispers, but this young prophet goes in his stead to set Jehu in motion.

Choon Leong-Seow makes an educated assumption that these officers may be already plotting a coup based on how quickly they fall in line behind Jehu. (NIB III:217) Ultimately the narrative of 2 Kings does not give us any indication of this as the young prophet approaches, but a wounded and beaten leader recovering away from his military leaders is often viewed as vulnerable. It is also possible that some of these leaders may have viewed Elijah and Elisha favorably, and Jehu in particular is very aware of the words of Elijah and may even have a relationship with the sons of the prophets. This is all speculative, but it makes Jehu’s quick following of the young prophet to a place where he is anointed plausible.

The commissioning of Jehu as king is instrumental in his fulfilling of Elijah’s earlier condemnation of King Ahab’s line and Jezebel in the aftermath of the murder of Naboth in Jezreel to allow the king to take possession of his vineyard. (1 Kings 21) Jehu is named as the son of Jehoshaphat and the grandson of Nimshi, and while the inclusion of the grandfather in the patronym is unusual and may indicate the grandfather’s greater stature in the memory of the people than the father, it is likely that the inclusion of the grandfather’s name is to differentiate his line from Jehoshaphat son of Asa, the former king of Judah. Jehu is not coming from a royal bloodline, yet he is not a nobody. He is a commander of the army who the other commanders quickly acknowledge publicly as their leader.

In the aftermath of the prophet’s dangerous action and rapid departure, Jehu is questioned by his fellow officers about the message of ‘that madman.’ Prophets may have been viewed as mad because they were known to have ecstatic experiences, but they also were frequently (during the Omri dynasty) people who challenged the royal power. The anointing of Jehu is a dangerous action for Jehu if his colleagues view him as a traitor and he initially downplays the prophet’s purpose and message. After being convinced by his fellow officers to speak, these fellow officers join in this public act of declaring Jehu king. This act echoes the coming together of religious leaders and military leaders who anoint and blow the trumpet to declare Solomon king at the instructions of David. (1 Kings 1: 32-40) Jehu anointed by both the prophets and the military leaders moves quickly to become God’s instrument (in the view of 2 Kings) to remove the descendants of Ahab and his former wife Jezebel from their positions of power in Israel.


2 Kings 9: 14-29 Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah

  14 Thus Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead against King Hazael of Aram, 15 but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. So Jehu said, “If this is your wish, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” 16 Then Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, where Joram was lying ill. King Ahaziah of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
  17 In Jezreel, the sentinel standing on the tower spied the company of Jehu arriving and said, “I see a company.” Joram said, “Take a horseman; send him to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’ ” 18 So the horseman went to meet him; he said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu responded, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” The sentinel reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.” 19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’ ” Jehu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me.” 20 Again the sentinel reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. It looks like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi, for he drives like a maniac.”
  21 Joram said, “Get ready.” And they got his chariot ready. Then King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu; they met him at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. 22 When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the many prostitutions and sorceries of your mother Jezebel continue?” 23 Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, “Treason, Ahaziah!” 24 Jehu drew his bow with all his strength and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot. 25 Jehu said to his aide Bidkar, “Lift him out and throw him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember when you and I rode side by side behind his father Ahab how the Lord uttered this oracle against him: 26 ‘For the blood of Naboth and for the blood of his children that I saw yesterday, says the LORD, I swear I will repay you on this very plot of ground.’ Now, therefore, lift him out and throw him on the plot of ground in accordance with the word of the LORD.”

  27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth-haggan. Jehu pursued him, saying, “Shoot him also!” And they shot him in the chariot at the ascent to Gur, which is by Ibleam. Then he fled to Megiddo and died there. 28 His officers carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his ancestors in the city of David.
  29 In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.

Both King Joram of Samaria and King Ahaziah of Judah are at Jezreel and Joram lies ill after the battle with the Arameans. With the rest of the military remaining at Ramoth-gilead, Jehu acts quickly with his co-conspirators, preventing word from reaching Jezreel in advance of Jehu’s plot. Jehu mounts his chariot and heads west from Ramoth-gilead, across the Jordan river to Jezreel. Jehu is not traveling alone and is, in the later words of the sentinel driving his company like a madman[1] which is something Jehu is apparently known for. The sentinel dispatches a first horsemen who asks on behalf of the king, “Is it shalom (peace)” to which Jehu responds “What have you to do with shalom? Fall in behind me.” The first and later the second horseman, which echoes these words, obediently fall in behind Jehu rather than return to their post in Jezreel. Jehu is apparently a commander who the men respect and follow even in the violation of their king’s orders.

Finally, both Kings Joram and Ahaziah each mount up in their chariots to meet this approaching company under Jehu, and they meet at the property that once belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. King Joram once again asks Jehu, ”Is it shalom?” Jehu’s response leaves no doubt his intentions are not peaceful, and King Joram is able to cry to Ahaziah “treason” before he is shot with a single arrow, similar to his father Ahab’s death in 1 Kings 22: 34. Unlike his father he is likely shot in the back while fleeing (the shot is literally between the arms so technically could be from the front but it is less likely to pierce the heart if the king is wearing a breastplate) and unlike his father who receives a royal burial in Samaria he is cast in the field taken from the murdered Naboth.

King Ahaziah of Judah also married into the family of King Ahab, and we learned that he was practicing the ways of the Omri dynasty as well. He is also mortally wounded in the conflagration, but he is taken to Jerusalem for a royal burial. In this moment of treachery, in the view of Joram and Ahaziah, or judgment, in the view of Jehu and Elisha, the leaders of both Samaria and Jerusalem are gone. Now Jehu turns his attention Jezebel who the texts views as the force behind the corruption of the leaders in both Israel and Judah.


2 Kings 9: 30-37 The Death of Jezebel

  30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. 31 As Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” 32 He looked up to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 33 He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down; some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, which trampled on her. 34 Then he went in and ate and drank; he said, “See to that cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. 36 When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; 37 the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, ‘This is Jezebel.’ ”

Jezebel is viewed by 1&2 Kings as a corrupting influence on Israel and recently Judah through the marriage of her daughter Athaliah to Jehoram, who is the mother of the current king Ahaziah. Jezebel had brought the practices of royalty in Tyre to Samaria. Yet, in the midst of Jehu’s uprising she puts on makeup and dresses in a way that denotes her position as the queen mother. Most modern readers discount Jehu’s accusation of Jezebel’s prostitutions and sorceries (v. 22) as reflecting her worship of other gods and practices outside the laws and statues of Israel, but it is entirely possible that Jehu believes that she practices magic of some type. She mocks Jehu from her tower with the memory of Zimri (1 Kings 16: 9-16) another army officer who reigned briefly after striking down his king. Ironically Zimri was defeated by an army led by Omri, the father of Ahab-Jezebel’s late husband.

Two or three eunuchs throw Jezebel from her tower which in a moment, “transformed the narcissistic queen to a piece of rubbish in the streets.” (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 388) Jehu is unbothered by this gory site and enters the tower to eat and drink after his chariot ride and bloody work. He sends men to see to her body, although his remark that she is a king’s daughter may be ironic since he has already cast a king’s son out on the land of Naboth. Ultimately, there is not enough of Jezebel to bury which fulfills Elijah’s words in 1 Kings 21:23. The assassination of Jezebel does end a half-century alliance between Samaria and Tyre (Cogan, 1988, p. 120) but the writer of 2 Kings ultimately views this as a positive. The prophet Hosea would later criticize Jehu (Hosea 1:4) but the author of 2 Kings views his actions in this time as a necessary violence to bring about the needed end of the Omri dynasty which had corrupted northern Israel as well as Judah.

[1] This is the same Hebrew word, shuggah, used to refer to the young prophet in the previous section.