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2 KINGS 9

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:1-3
  ¹Now Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Gird up your loins, and take this flask of oil in your hand and go to Ramoth-gilead. ²When you arrive there, search out Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in and bid him arise from among his brothers, and bring him to an inner room. ³Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, 'Thus says the Lord, "I have anointed you king over Israel."' Then open the door and flee and do not wait."

9:1 "the sons of the prophets" See full note at 2 Kings 2:3.

SPECIAL TOPIC: PROPHECY (OT)

▣ "Gird up your loins" This is an idiom for preparations for action (cf. Exod. 12:11; 2 Kgs. 4:29; Prov. 31:17; Dan. 10:5). Literally it turned a robe into pants as one grabbed the back of one's robe through one's knees and tucked it into the belt in front, thus making the robe tight across the thighs (see note at 1 Kgs. 18:36 online.

▣ "this flask of oil" Olive oil was used for cooking and to rub on one's skin, but in a spiritual sense (i.e., special holy oil, cf. Exod. 30:23-25), it was used

1. to anoint leaders (i.e., kings, priests, and prophets)
2. as fuel for the lights in the temple

SPECIAL TOPIC: "ANOINTING" IN THE BIBLE

▣ "Ramoth-gilead" This city is located on the border between Syria and Israel on the eastern side of the Jordan River. It was on the King's Highway, which was a major north-south trade route. It had been the site of a border feud for years (cf. v. 14). The nation that occupied this city held taxation rights.

9:2 "Jehu" The Hebrew spelling of Jehu (BDB 219) is similar to the Hebrew spelling of YHWH (BDB 217). Both come from the verb "to be." The name means "YHWH is the true one" or "YHWH is he." He was not of the royal family but of the military (NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 749-750). A new dynasty begins with both Hazael and Jehu. Elisha is the divine instigator behind both rebellions.

Jehu will bring about YHWH's judgment on the house of Omri.

His father, Jehoshaphat, is not to be confused with the king of Judah by the same name. Possibly this is why both his father and grandfather are specified.

This fulfills the instructions to Elijah in 1 Kgs. 19:15-16. Of the several tasks given to Elijah, Elisha does all but one of them.

▣ "to an inner room" This was a private anointing, like Saul's (cf. 1 Sam. 10:1), and a limited one, like David's family only in 1 Samuel 16.

9:3 "anointed" This was the only northern king who was anointed in Scripture. Jeroboam, Baasha, and Omri were acknowledge by prophet's announcement

▣ "open the door and flee and do not wait" The reason for this is not stated.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:4-10
  ⁴So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. ⁵When he came, behold, the captains of the army were sitting, and he said, "I have a word for you, O captain." And Jehu said, "For which one of us?" And he said, "For you, O captain." ⁶He arose and went into the house, and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. ⁷You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. ⁸For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person both bond and free in Israel. ⁹I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. ¹⁰The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.'" Then he opened the door and fled.

9:5 Apparently Joram's military leaders were having a meeting before the walls of Ramoth-gilead. This prophetic emissary broke into that meeting and asked to see Jehu in private.

Josephus, Antiq. 9.6.1, assumes Jehu was the main captain of Israel's forces that had captured Ramoth-gilead.

9:6 " the Lord, the God of Israel" This was a full title for Israel's covenant Deity. It includes

1. the covenant name, YHWH
2. the general name for Deity, Eloah
3. the name of Abraham's descendant, Jacob (YHWH's promises to Abraham still applied to the northern kingdom.)

SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY, C. and D.

SPECIAL TOPIC: ISRAEL (THE NAME)

SPECIAL TOPIC: COVENANT PROMISES TO THE PATRIARCHS

9:7 "that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets" This refers to the task of the Go'el (cf. Num. 35:19,21; Deut. 32:43). The background for this statement is found in 1 Kgs. 19:14,18.

SPECIAL TOPIC: RANSOM/REDEEM, I. A. 1.

SPECIAL TOPIC: MY SERVANT

9:8 "For the whole house of Ahab shall perish" This refers to all of his descendants (cf. 1 Kgs. 21:21).

▣ "both bond and free" See note at 1 Kgs. 14:10 online (www.freebiblecommentary.org) .

9:9 For Jeroboam I see 1 Kgs. 14:10,11; 15:29. For Baasha see 1 Kgs. 16:3-5,11,12. This was a total judgment on these men and their descendants!

9:10 This comes to pass in vv. 35,36 (cf. 1 Kgs. 21:23). As Jezebel had faithful Naboth killed, so now she is killed with no royal funeral or burial.

SPECIAL TOPIC: BURIAL RITES

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:11-13
  ¹¹Now Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" And he said to them, "You know very well the man and his talk." ¹²They said, "It is a lie, tell us now." And he said, "Thus and thus he said to me, 'Thus says the Lord, "I have anointed you king over Israel."'" ¹³Then they hurried and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps, and blew the trumpet, saying, "Jehu is king!"

9:11 "Is all well" The term shalom (BDB 1022) is translated two different ways in this chapter (cf. v. 7).

SPECIAL TOPIC: PEACE (OT)

▣ "this mad fellow" This is not used in a normal English sense of someone who has lost control of their mental abilities, but is used in the Hebrew OT in the sense of the prophetic spirit that sometimes causes one to appear abnormal to others (cf. 1 Sam. 21:14-15; Jer. 29:26; Hos. 9:7; NIDOTTE, vol. 4, p. 46).

▣ "You know very well the man and his talk" This particular son of the prophets must have been well known. It is possibly a collective slur on all the prophets.

It is also possible that by depreciating the prophet's message Jehu was testing his officers to see their reaction to it.

9:13 Jehu's fellow military officers immediately acknowledged the prophetic emissary's message.

1. Place their clothes before him (cf. Matt. 21:7,8; Mark 11:7,8).
2. Blow the trumpet (cf. 2 Sam. 15:10; 1 Kgs. 1:34,39).
3. Shout royal affirmation (i.e., "Jehu is King!"; cf. 1 Kgs. 1:34,39; 2 Kgs. 11:12,14).

SPECIAL TOPIC: HORNS USED BY ISRAEL, #2

The MT has the NOUN (BDB 175, KB 203) "bone." The suggestions are

1. top
2. bare
3. unknown architectural term

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:14-16
  ¹⁴So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram with all Israel was defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram, ¹⁵but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. So Jehu said, "If this is your mind, then let no one escape or leave the city to go tell it in Jezreel." ¹⁶Then Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.

9:14 The IVP Bible Background Commentary (OT), p. 396, has a good summary of the proposed coordination of ANE history with this chapter.

"9:14 battle at Ramoth Gilead. The sequence of events is very complex here, because this is 841, the same year that Shalmaneser III of Assyria invaded Aram and engaged in a series of military encounters with Hazael. According to Shalmaneser's records, Hazael met him in pitched battle at Mount Hermon and was defeated. Hazael then safely retreated to Damascus, which was unsuccessfully besieged. Upon failing to overthrow Damascus, Shalmaneser vented this fury on the area of Hauran, just east of Ramoth Gilead, from where he marched to Mount Carmel and received tribute from Jehu. The march from Hauran to Carmel must have gone through the Jezreel Valley. If these events are all to fit together one would have to suppose that Aram had moved against Ramoth Gilead in the early spring and was met by the combined forces of Judah and Israel. Shalmaneser typically left for his campaigns about May first, and it is about 550 miles from Assyria to Damascus, so he would not be arriving until maybe mid-June. As soon as Hazael received word that Shalmaneser was coming, he rushed north and met the Assyrian army at Mount Hermon. Jehu, still at Ramoth Gilead, likewise got the news of the Assyrian advance and was faced with the question of what Israel's position would be. Gathering the support of the pro-Assyrian party and strengthened by the prophetic anointing, he proceeded with the coup. During the period that Shalmaneser was failing in his siege of Damascus and laying waste the area of Hauran, Jehu was exterminating the house of Ahab and the followers of Baal. Once he established his control, he willingly gave Shalmaneser access across Jezreel and paid tribute at Carmel."

9:15 Jehu knew that Joram (Jehoram) was wounded and had returned to Jezreel, his winter palace, to heal. His first act of rebellion was to ask his leaders (i.e., "if this is your mind, [v. 13], then act"). Leave Ramoth-gilead immediately and secure the city of Jezreel.

9:16 Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had come to Jezreel to visit his ally Joram.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:17-20
  ¹⁷Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel and he saw the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." And Joram said, "Take a horseman and send him to meet them and let him say, 'Is it peace?'" ¹⁸So a horseman went to meet him and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Turn behind me." And the watchman reported, "The messenger came to them, but he did not return." ¹⁹Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them and said, "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu answered, "What have you to do with peace? Turn behind me." ²⁰The watchman reported, "He came even to them, and he did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."

9:17-20 This describes Jehu's mad dash to Jezreel. The repeated refrain was "Is it peace?" However, each messenger becomes a part of Jehu's force.

This NOUN (BDB 993) is from the same root as "madman" of v. 11. There was a divine purpose in Jehu's urgency!

Exactly what the NOUN implies is uncertain. Some assume

1. a back and forth zigzag pattern, LXX
2. he drives calmly or quietly, Targums
3. slowly or steadily, Josephus, Antiq. 9.6.3-8

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:21-26
  ²¹Then Joram said, "Get ready." And they made his chariot ready. 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 in the property of Naboth the Jezreelite. ²²When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he answered, "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?" ²³So Joram reined about and fled and said to Ahaziah, "There is treachery, O Ahaziah!" ²⁴And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and shot Joram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart and he sank in his chariot. ²⁵Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Take him up and cast him into the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for I remember when you and I were riding together after Ahab his father, that the Lord laid this oracle against him: ²⁶'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says the Lord, 'and I will repay you in this property,' says the Lord. Now then, take and cast him into the property, according to the word of theLord."

9:21 Jehu had gone, not to the city of Jezreel, but to the place of Naboth's vineyard, which Ahab and Jezebel had wrongly taken as their own.

9:22 "the harlotries of your mother Jezebel" This refers to Jezebel's attempt to destroy the YHWHistic faith by establishing the worship of Ba'al-Melqart, the Tyrian fertility god. The harlotries could be both literal (i.e., fertility worship practices) or spiritual (i.e., going after other gods (cf. Exod. 34:16; Lev. 17:7; Deut. 31:16).

SPECIAL TOPIC: FERTILITY WORSHIP OF THE ANE

SPECIAL TOPIC: MONOTHEISM

▣ "witchcrafts" The etymology of this Hebrew term (BDB 506; NIDOTTE, vol. 2, pp. 735-738) is uncertain but it seems to be related to the use of drugs to attempt to foretell and control events. See detailed notes at Deut. 18:9-12 online.

9:25 "take him up and cast him into the property of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite" To see the full prophetic impact of this statement, read 1 Kings 21. The son apparently had to pay the price for the father's curse. Ahab himself repented and humbled himself in 1 Kgs. 21:27-29.

9:26 Jehu must have been at the called festival where Naboth was condemned and stoned (cf. 1 Kgs. 21:19,24-29).

▣ "according to the word of the Lord" This is a recurrent and significant phrase. Obedience to

1. the Mosaic covenant (i.e., Deut. 6:4-9)
2. the word of prophets (i.e., Elijah and Elisha)

was crucial in a faithful relationship with YHWH.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:27-28
  ²⁷When Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu pursued him and said, "Shoot him too, in the chariot." So they shot him at the ascent of Gur, which is at Ibleam. But he fled to Megiddo and died there. ²⁸Then his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave with his fathers in the city of David.

The MT has "Beth-haggan" (BDB 111, KB 126) but it may refer to

1. a garden house (at Jezreel)
2. a city (En-Gannim, cf. Josh. 19:21; 21:29)
3. another unknown locale

It probably referred to the south, as Ahaziah was trying to return to Judah (i.e., v. 28). There is an alternate account in 2 Chr. 22:8-9.

▣ "in the chariot" Jehu orders Bidkar (v. 25) or another soldier to shoot Ahaziah (this was not a specific part of Jehu's prophetic mandate, cf. Hosea 1:4, unless Ahaziah being Jezebel's grandson), but apparently a second use of this VERB has dropped out of the text (see NET Bible, p. 607, #4).

There is some confusion as to

1. were Joram and Ahaziah in the same chariot
2. was Bidkar in Jehu's or Ahaziah's chariot

SPECIAL TOPIC: TEXTUAL CRITICISM

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:29
  ²⁹Now in the eleventh year of Joram, the son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.

9:29 This is different from 2 Kgs. 8:25. The dates for the reign of kings in Judah and Israel are complicated by

1. co-reigns with their fathers
2. two different systems of counting the coronation year of the king
3. different sources (written or oral)

See Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings and John Walton, D. Brent Sandy, The Lost World of Scripture.

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:30-32
  ³⁰When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window. ³¹As Jehu entered the gate, she said, "Is it well, Zimri, your master's murderer?" ³²Then he lifted up his face to the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three officials looked down at him.

9:30 Why did Jezebel dress up?

1. trying to seduce Jehu (but she was old by this time and v. 31 does not fit)
2. preparing herself for
   1. a court visit
   2. burial
3. typical makeup of a prostitute
4. an alliance to consolidate his power

9:31 "Zimri" Zimri also killed the reigning king in 1 Kgs. 16:8-10, but he only reigned a short time. This was Jezebel's way of asserting that Jehu was an illegitimate usurper who would not last.

9:32-33 Some of Jezebel's close servants cast her out the window.

Verses 33 and 35 are eyewitness details.

9:32 "officials" This is literally "eunuchs" (BDB 710, NIDOTTE, vol. 3, pp. 288-294). If these two were harem servants, they probably were castrated (i.e., Dan. 1:3,7-11,18). However, often the term simply means "official" or "servant" (i.e., Potiphar in Genesis 37).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 9:33-37
  ³³He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot. ³⁴When he came in, he ate and drank; and 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 nothing more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶Therefore they returned and told him. And he said, "This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; ³⁷and the corpse of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, "This is Jezebel."'"

9:34 "she is a king's daughter" Jezebel was the daughter of a king of Tyre and Jehu did not want a conflict with Phoenicia (NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 776-777).

9:36 This fulfills the prophecy of 1 Kgs. 21:23.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. The deeds of Jehu are commended by God in 2 Kgs. 10:30 but are denounced in Hosea 1:4.
   How can both of these be true?
2. Explain the process and the purpose of anointing.
3. Why did Ahab's son, Joram/Jehoram, have to pay the penalty for Ahab's sins?
4. Why was Ahaziah, king of Judah, involved in this blood purge?

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