For Teaching

2 Kings 10: What the Passage Says

137 claims across 36 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 2 Kings 10 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jehu writes to the leaders of Samaria and forces them to kill Ahab's seventy sons, then wipes out the rest of Ahab's household, his officials, close friends, and priests, along with forty-two relatives of King Ahaziah of Judah. With Jehonadab son of Rechab beside him, Jehu pretends to be a devoted worshiper of Baal, gathers every Baal worshiper into Baal's temple, has them killed, and turns the temple into a latrine. The chapter closes by noting that Jehu kept the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, that the LORD promised him four generations on the throne, that Hazael took Israelite land east of the Jordan, and that Jehu reigned twenty-eight years.

Claim by Claim

10:1
- Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.
- Jehu wrote letters.
- Jehu sent the letters to Samaria.
- Jehu addressed the letters to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to those who brought up Ahab's children.
10:2
- Jehu's letter said: as soon as this letter comes to you.
- Jehu's letter said your master's sons are with you.
- Jehu's letter said chariots and horses are with you.
- Jehu's letter said a fortified city is with you.
- Jehu's letter said armour is with you.
10:3
- Jehu told them to select the best and most fitting of their master's sons.
- Jehu told them to set that son on his father's throne.
- Jehu told them to fight for their master's house.
10:4
- They were exceedingly afraid.
- They said that two kings did not stand before Jehu.
- They asked how they themselves could stand.
10:5
- The one over the house sent word to Jehu.
- The one over the city sent word to Jehu.
- The elders sent word to Jehu.
- Those who brought up the children sent word to Jehu.
- They said they were Jehu's servants.
- They said they would do everything Jehu told them.
- They said they would not make any man king.
- They told Jehu to do what was good in his eyes.
10:6
- Jehu wrote a second letter to them.
- Jehu asked in the letter whether they were on his side.
- Jehu asked in the letter whether they would obey his voice.
- Jehu told them to take the heads of the men who were their master's sons.
- Jehu told them to come to him at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.
- The king's sons were seventy men.
- The great men of the city were bringing the king's sons up.
10:7
- When the letter came to them, they took the king's sons.
- They slaughtered seventy men.
- They put the heads in baskets.
- They sent the heads to Jehu at Jezreel.
10:8
- A messenger came to Jehu.
- The messenger told Jehu they had brought the heads of the king's sons.
- Jehu ordered the heads to be put in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.
10:9
- In the morning Jehu went out and stood.
- Jehu said to all the people that they were righteous.
- Jehu said he had conspired against his master.
- Jehu said he had killed his master.
- Jehu asked who had killed all these.
10:10
- Jehu told them to know that nothing of the word of the LORD would fall to the earth.
- The LORD had spoken that word concerning the house of Ahab.
- The LORD had done what he spoke by his servant Elijah.
10:11
- Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel.
- Jehu killed all Ahab's great men.
- Jehu killed Ahab's acquaintances.
- Jehu killed Ahab's priests.
- Jehu left him no survivor.
10:12
- Jehu arose and departed and went toward Samaria.
- He was at Beth-eked of the shepherds on the way.
10:13
- Jehu met the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah.
- Jehu asked them who they were.
- They answered that they were the brothers of Ahaziah.
- They said they were going down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.
10:14
- Jehu said to take them alive.
- They took them alive.
- They slaughtered them at the pit of Beth-eked.
- They were forty-two men.
- He left none of them.
10:15
- Jehu departed from there.
- Jehu found Jehonadab son of Rechab coming to meet him.
- Jehu greeted him.
- Jehu asked him whether his heart was right, as Jehu's heart was with his heart.
- Jehonadab answered that it was.
- Jehu said to give him his hand.
- Jehonadab gave his hand.
- Jehu took him up to himself into the chariot.
10:16
- Jehu said to come with him.
- Jehu said to see his zeal for the LORD.
- They made him ride in Jehu's chariot.
10:17
- Jehu came to Samaria.
- Jehu killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria.
- Jehu killed them until he had destroyed him.
- This was according to the word of the LORD which he spoke to Elijah.
10:18
- Jehu gathered all the people together.
- Jehu said to them that Ahab served Baal a little.
- Jehu said that Jehu would serve Baal much.
10:19
- Jehu said to call to him all the prophets of Baal.
- Jehu said to call all Baal's servants.
- Jehu said to call all Baal's priests.
- Jehu said no man should be missing.
- Jehu said he had a great sacrifice to make to Baal.
- Jehu said whoever was missing would not live.
- Jehu acted in cunning.
- Jehu's purpose was to destroy the worshippers of Baal.
10:20
- Jehu said to consecrate a solemn assembly for Baal.
- They proclaimed it.
10:21
- Jehu sent word through all Israel.
- All the worshippers of Baal came.
- Not a man was left who did not come.
- They came into the house of Baal.
- The house of Baal was filled from end to end.
10:22
- Jehu spoke to the man over the wardrobe.
- Jehu told him to bring out garments for all the worshippers of Baal.
- The man brought out garments for them.
10:23
- Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rechab went into the house of Baal.
- Jehu told the worshippers of Baal to search and see that none of the servants of the LORD were there with them.
- Jehu said only the worshippers of Baal should be there.
10:24
- They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.
- Jehu stationed eighty men outside.
- Jehu said that if any of the men he was delivering into their hands escaped, the one who let him go would forfeit his own life for that life.
10:25
- Jehu finished offering the burnt offering.
- Jehu said to the runners and the officers to go in and kill them.
- Jehu said to let no man come out.
- They struck them with the edge of the sword.
- The runners and the officers cast them out.
- The runners and the officers went to the city of the house of Baal.
10:26
- They brought out the sacred pillars of the house of Baal.
- They burned them.
10:27
- They broke down the sacred pillar of Baal.
- They broke down the house of Baal.
- They made it into a latrine.
- It remains so to this day.
10:28
- Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
10:29
- Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.
- Jeroboam son of Nebat made Israel to sin.
- Those sins were the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.
10:30
- The LORD said to Jehu that he had done well in doing what was right in the LORD's eyes.
- The LORD said Jehu had done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in the LORD's heart.
- The LORD said Jehu's sons to the fourth generation would sit on the throne of Israel.
10:31
- Jehu did not take heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart.
- Jehu did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam.
- Jeroboam made Israel to sin.
10:32
- In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short.
- Hazael struck them in all the territory of Israel.
10:33
- The territory struck was from the Jordan eastward.
- It included all the land of Gilead.
- It included the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites.
- It extended from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon.
- It included Gilead and Bashan.
10:34
- The rest of the acts of Jehu, all that he did, and all his might are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
10:35
- Jehu slept with his fathers.
- They buried him in Samaria.
- Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.
10:36
- Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-eight years.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1: Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel; Jezreel, where Jehu is, was a second royal city about twenty-five miles away. "Seventy sons" means Ahab's whole male line, sons and grandsons; seventy is a round number used elsewhere for a complete royal family. Ahab himself was already dead. Royal sons were commonly fostered out to be raised in the households of leading men of the city, which is why the letters go to guardians rather than to a palace nursery. The Hebrew of "the rulers of Jezreel" is awkward here, since the letters are sent to Samaria; some ancient copies read "the rulers of the city."
10:2: Jehu is listing what the men in Samaria have and daring them to use it, a challenge, not advice. A "walled city" was the basic unit of defense: a town with fortifications that could withstand a siege.
10:3: The throne of Israel was not strictly hereditary by birth order in the north, so "the best and most fit" son was a real choice, not an empty phrase.
10:4: The two kings are Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah, both killed by Jehu in the previous chapter.
10:5: "He that was over the house" is the palace administrator, the highest official in the royal household, roughly a chief of staff who controlled the king's estates and property. "Do that which is good in thine eyes" is a formal phrase of total surrender: you decide, we will not resist.
10:6: The Hebrew phrase "take the heads of your master's sons" is deliberately double-edged: "heads" can mean the chief men, so the sentence could be read as "bring the leading ones of your master's sons to me." The recipients read it the other way, and Jehu never has to admit he gave the order.
10:7: Wiping out the previous royal family was standard practice for anyone founding a new dynasty in this period, since any surviving son was a permanent rallying point for rebellion. The heads are sent as proof the job was done.
10:8: The city gate was the public square of an ancient town, where elders sat, judgments were given and business was done. Displaying the severed heads of enemies at a gate was a known practice of the period, both a proof of what had happened and a warning.
10:9: "You are righteous" here means "you are in the clear, no charge against you", a legal sense, not a moral compliment. Jehu's point in the question that follows is that others besides him have blood on their hands.
10:10: "Nothing shall fall to the ground" is a Hebrew idiom for a word that fails or comes to nothing, like something dropped and lost. The saying of Elijah referred to is his sentence on Ahab's household in 1 Kings 21.
10:11: "Kinsfolks" in the King James renders a Hebrew word for intimates or close acquaintances rather than blood relatives. The "priests" are those attached to Ahab's court and its Baal worship, not the priests at Jerusalem.
10:12: The King James "shearing house" is an attempt to translate the place name Beth-eked, which appears to mean something like "house of binding", probably a spot where sheep were tied and sheared.
10:13: "Brethren" covers relatives generally, not only full brothers; Ahaziah's actual brothers had already been carried off. "The queen" translates a Hebrew title for the king's mother, who held a recognized official position at court, here Jezebel. The travelers do not yet know that Jehu has seized power and killed both kings.
10:14: The "pit" was a cistern or well, a large lined pit for storing water, common at a place where flocks were watered and worked.
10:15: Jehonadab son of Rechab was head of the Rechabites, a group who kept a deliberately austere, tent-dwelling life and drank no wine (described in Jeremiah 35). His public backing carried weight as a mark of strict devotion to the LORD. Giving the hand was a formal gesture sealing an agreement, and taking a man up into your chariot displayed the alliance for everyone on the road to see.
10:16: "Zeal" here translates a Hebrew word for fierce, jealous ardor, the same word used of a husband's jealousy. It describes intensity of commitment, not enthusiasm in the mild modern sense.
10:18: Baal was the Canaanite storm and fertility god; his worship had been promoted in Israel under Ahab and his wife Jezebel. To "serve" a god meant to maintain his temple, staff and sacrifices, a public, state-funded business, not a private opinion.
10:19: "Let none be wanting" means let no one be absent. "Subtilty" in 1611 English means cunning or trickery, a stronger and more negative word than modern "subtlety."
10:20: A "solemn assembly" translates a Hebrew term for a sacred convocation, the word normally used of the great festival gatherings held for the LORD. Calling one for Baal announced a state occasion that no worshiper could plausibly skip.
10:21: The "house of Baal" means Baal's temple, not someone's home.
10:22: Special garments were put on for worship at major temples; a temple official kept them in store and issued them. Here the robes also serve Jehu's purpose, since they mark out exactly who is a Baal worshiper.
10:24: A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar, as opposed to a sacrifice from which the worshipers ate a share. "His life shall be for the life of him" is the standard formula for a substitute penalty: the guard forfeits his own life in place of the man he let escape.
10:25: "The guard" translates a word meaning "the runners", the king's armed bodyguard, who ran alongside his chariot. The King James "city of the house of Baal" is obscure; the Hebrew seems to mean the innermost or walled part of the temple complex, where the image stood.
10:26: The objects are standing stones, upright pillars set up as sacred markers at a shrine. Burning stone is odd, and some think the word here has been confused with the wooden cult poles that also stood at such sites.
10:27: Turning a demolished temple into a latrine made the ground permanently unusable for worship, since human waste rendered a site ritually unclean. "Unto this day" is the writer speaking to readers of his own generation, long after the events.
10:29: When the kingdom split after Solomon, Jeroboam I set up golden calf images at Bethel and Dan, at the southern and northern ends of his territory, so that his people would not travel to the temple in Jerusalem. The books of Kings treat this as the founding fault of every northern king, and measure each one against it.
10:30: "Four generations" was fulfilled in Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II and Zechariah, the longest-lasting dynasty the northern kingdom had.
10:31: The law of the LORD means the teaching God gave Israel through Moses, written down and kept for the people.
10:32: Hazael was king of Aram, the kingdom centered on Damascus, north-east of Israel and its main rival for the territory east of the Jordan.
10:33: This is the whole Israelite territory east of the Jordan River. Gilead is the hill country immediately east of the river; Bashan lies north of it; Aroer sits on the north rim of the Arnon gorge, the traditional southern boundary. Gad, Reuben and Manasseh were the tribes settled on that side of the Jordan.
10:34: This is a royal record kept by the northern kingdom, now lost, not the biblical books of Chronicles. The writer repeatedly refers readers to it for the political and military detail he leaves out.
10:35: "Slept with his fathers" is the standard Hebrew phrase for dying peacefully and being buried in the family tomb, as opposed to being killed.

Read 2 Kings 10