Commentaria in IV Regum
Chapter 10. Synopsis of the Chapter
Jehu slew the seventy sons of Achab, and the forty-two brothers of Ochozias, and by guile all the worshippers of Baal, whence he deserved offspring in the kingdom to the fourth generation. Yet he worshipped the golden calves of Jeroboam, and therefore his house was at length cut off.
1. Now Achab had seventy sons in Samaria: so Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the chief men of the city, and to the ancients, and to them that brought up Achab’s children, saying: 2. As soon as you receive these letters, you that have your master’s sons, and chariots, and horses, and fenced cities, and armour, 3. Choose the best, and him that shall please you most of your master’s sons, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for the house of your master. 4. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said: Behold two kings could not stand before him, and how shall we be able to resist? 5. Therefore they that were over the king’s house, and the rulers of the city, and the ancients, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying: We are thy servants, whatsoever thou shalt command us we will do, we will not make us a king: do thou all that pleaseth thee. 6. And he wrote letters the second time to them, saying: If you be mine, and obey me, take the heads of the sons of your master, and come to me to Jezrahel by to-morrow at this same time. Now the king’s sons, seventy men, were brought up with the chief men of the city. 7. And when the letters came to them, they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezrahel. 8. And a messenger came and told him, saying: They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said: Lay ye them in two heaps by the entering in of the gate until the morning. 9. And when it was light, he went out, and standing, said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my master, and slew him, who hath slain all these? 10. See therefore now that there hath not fallen to the ground any of the words of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Achab, and the Lord hath done that which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias. 11. So Jehu slew all that were left of the house of Achab in Jezrahel, and all his chief men, and his friends, and his priests, till there were none left of his race. 12. And he arose, and went to Samaria: and when he was come to the shepherds’ house in the way, 13. He met with the brethren of Ochozias king of Juda, and said to them: Who are you? And they answered: We are the brethren of Ochozias, and are come down to salute the sons of the king, and the sons of the queen. 14. And he said: Take them alive. And they took them alive, and killed them at the pit by the shepherds’ house, two and forty men, and he left none of them. 15. And when he was departed thence, he found Jonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and he blessed him. And he said to him: Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jonadab said: It is. If it be, said he, give me thy hand. He gave him his hand. And he lifted him up to him into the chariot, 16. And said to him: Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So he made him ride in his chariot, 17. And brought him into Samaria. And he slew all that were left of Achab in Samaria, to a man, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elias. 18. And Jehu gathered together all the people, and said to them: Achab worshipped Baal a little, but I will worship him more. 19. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, and all his servants, and all his priests: let none be wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal: whosoever shall be wanting, shall not live. Now Jehu did this craftily, that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. 20. And he said: Sanctify a festival day for Baal. And he called, 21. And sent into all the borders of Israel, and all the servants of Baal came: there was not one left that did not come. And they went into the temple of Baal: and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other. 22. And he said to them that were over the wardrobe: Bring forth garments for all the servants of Baal. And they brought them forth garments. 23. And Jehu and Jonadab the son of Rechab went into the temple of Baal, and said to the worshippers of Baal: Search, and see that there be not any with you of the servants of the Lord, but that there be the servants of Baal only. 24. And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings: but Jehu had prepared him fourscore men without, and had said to them: If any of the men escape, whom I have brought into your hands, he that letteth him go shall answer life for life. 25. And it came to pass, when the holocaust was ended, Jehu commanded his soldiers and captains: Go in, and kill them, let none escape. And the soldiers and captains slew them with the edge of the sword, and cast them out: and went into the city of the temple of Baal, 26. And brought the statue out of the temple of Baal, and burnt it. 27. And broke it in pieces. They destroyed also the temple of Baal, and made a jakes in its place unto this day. 28. So Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. 29. But yet he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, nor forsook the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. 30. And the Lord said to Jehu: Because thou hast diligently executed that which was right and pleasing in my eyes, and hast done to the house of Achab according to all that was in my heart: thy children shall sit upon the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord the God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. 32. In those days the Lord began to be weary of Israel: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel, 33. From the Jordan toward the east, all the land of Galaad, and Gad, and Ruben, and Manasses, from Aroer, which is upon the torrent Arnon, and Galaad, and Basan. 34. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and his valour, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 35. And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria: and Joachaz his son reigned in his stead. 36. And the days that Jehu reigned over Israel, were eight and twenty years, in Samaria.
1. NOW ACHAB HAD SEVENTY SONS,—not by Jezabel alone, but by many other wives, begotten by him.
AND TO THEM THAT BROUGHT UP ACHAB’S CHILDREN,—that is, as the Septuagint have it, to the nurses of the sons of Achab, namely to the chief men, who had brought up the seventy sons of Achab.
4. BEHOLD TWO KINGS (Joram king of Israel, and Ochozias king of Juda, for Jehu slew both) COULD NOT STAND BEFORE HIM,—that is, resist him, whence follows:
AND HOW SHALL WE (private persons and commoners) BE ABLE TO RESIST?
5. THEREFORE THEY THAT WERE OVER THE KING’S HOUSE SENT,—who, namely, presided over the royal palace, which Amri had built in Samaria, in which Achab had dwelt, and his son Joram, slain by Jehu.
7. THEY SLEW SEVENTY PERSONS,—Jehu did not sin in ordering the seventy sons of Achab to be killed, because he did it by command of God, who is the supreme Lord of life, of the guilty as of the innocent, because they were sons of the guilty Achab, whose seed and whole stock, as of a most wicked man, the Lord wished utterly to destroy: for it is probable that among these seventy some were younger and innocent, and neither capable of nor sharers in the idolatry of Achab. The Samaritans, however, sinned in executing this command of Jehu to kill them, not as ministers of the judge, but from fear of Jehu, whom they did not know to be a king chosen by God and anointed by Eliseus, and therefore did not know him to be the Judge of Israel, and to have from God the power to kill these sons of Achab. Perhaps Jehu also sinned in commanding them this deed, if he had not first sufficiently proved to them his authority and the right of the kingdom given him by God, unless they could easily have known it from elsewhere. So Abulensis.
AND THEY PUT THEIR HEADS IN BASKETS.—Fittingly, with regard to the guilt of Achab, who had gathered in baskets the grapes from the vineyard of Naboth, whom he had slain; therefore, as a punishment for the sin, the heads of his sons are carried to Jehu in baskets. Thus both he and his sons are punished in the very thing in which they had sinned.
8. LAY THEM IN (the Chaldee has, in) TWO HEAPS AT THE ENTERING IN OF THE GATE UNTIL THE MORNING,—so that all the people entering and going out by the gate may see this just judgment of God against the house of Achab, and so may withdraw from his idolatry and the worship of Baal.
9. YOU ARE JUST,—that is, you have fulfilled the just vengeance of God, although unknowingly and without thinking of it. For they meant to carry out the order of Jehu about killing them, not the order of God.