Ver. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons.] By several wives. God had threatened to root out his house, yet he promised himself the establishment of his house; and thereupon so followed the work of generation that he left seventy sons behind him. In Samaria.] The chief city, where they were for safety and for noble education.
Ver. 2. Now as soon as this letter cometh to you.] A concise and stately kind of writing, much like that of the king of Syria to the king of Israel. (2 Kings 5:6) So the Hebrews note of Esau, in his meeting with Jacob, (Genesis 33:4-15) that he uttereth his mind in few words, whenas Jacob is more full and fuse in his expressions. But ornamentum epistolae est ornamentis carere, saith a master of rhetoric, Plainness is the greatest grace of an epistle. Politian.
Ver. 3. Look even out the best, &c.] All this Jehu speaketh ironice, or, at least, tentative: that he might feel their pulses and find how they stood affected.
Ver. 4. But they were exceedingly afraid.] Such was their pusillanimity and perfidy, that they yield upon a little entreaty, and betray their trust. But God had an overruling hand in it, for the rooting out of Ahab’s progeny. Behold, two kings, &c.: how then shall we stand?] Say we the same of God’s irresistible power. Ten thousand kings cannot stand before him; and how should we?
Ver. 5. We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us, &c.] Surely it is meet to be said thus unto God, and to him alone. “Be not ye the servants of men” in St Paul’s sense. (1 Corinthians 7:23)
Ver. 6. Then he wrote a letter the second time.] Not with black, but with blood; like that letter of Mithridates, king of Pontus, written to the ruin of fourscore thousand Romans trading in his dominions. But it was just in God, that as Ahab and Jezebel, by a letter sent to the elders of Jezreel, shed the blood of Naboth and his sons; so they should have the blood of all their sons shed by a letter sent from Jezreel to the elders of Samaria. God loveth to retaliate. Take ye the heads of the men.] This was but policy to root out all Ahab’s seed, that there might be no avenger. The poet could say, “ Νηπιος ος κατερα κτεινας, παιδας υπολειπει. ’’— Arist., Rhet., lib. i. cap. 15. i.e., He is a fool who killeth the father, and yet suffereth his children to survive.
Ver. 7. And put their heads in baskets.] Apposite ad culpam Achab, saith A Lapide: this was suitable to Ahab’s sin. He had sent for baskets of grapes out of Naboth’s vineyard at Jezreel; and now the heads of his sons are brought thither in baskets. Oh, doleful burden!
Ver. 8. Lay ye them in two heaps.] Here some hard hearted Hannibal would have cried out, O formosum spectaculum! Oh, brave sight! Or, O rem regiam! as another, when he had slain three hundred. I am ready to say as one did on a like occasion— “ Tu quibus ista legas incertum est, Lector, ocellis: Ipse quidem siccis scribere vix potui.” The world is like this heap of heads, that had never a heart amongst them.
Ver. 9. And said to all the people.] Who were got together to see this rueful spectacle; he therefore taketh that opportunity to make his apology; alleging for his defenee the prophecy of Elijah, which he had now fulfilled, and God’s decree, which he had executed. He justifieth also hereby those that had slain the seventy young princes at his command, upon the same account; and freeth the rest of the people from their fears, when he saith, Ye be righteous; that is, I pronounce you innocent; think not that I intend any harm to you, &c., for t hey, seeing his severity against Ahab’s family and familiars, might fear, as the Romans did concerning Sulla, that there would be των φονων ουτ αριθμος, ουθ ορος; no end or measure of his bloodshed. Plutarch.
Ver. 10. Know now.] Non meo instinctu, sod Dei impulsu factum, that it is not my doings, but the Lord’s; neither is it to be accounted cruelty in me, but zeal and justice, since by my default (see that it do not by yours.) There shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord…concerning the house of Ahab.] Think the same of any other of God’s threatenings, which shall surely have their accomplishment, (Zephaniah 3:5) neither is his forbearance any quittance.
Ver. 11. So Jehu slew all.] Neither was this cruelty, but zeal and justice; because according to God’s will, which is the rule of righteousness. There cannot be a better or more noble act, than to do justice upon obstinate malefactors. It was therefore without good reason that the Roman laws forbade the common executioner, as accursed, to dwell within the city, or to draw breath therein. Doth not God truss up notoriously wicked men sometimes with his own bare hand? and are not his angels executioners of his judgments, as on the Sodomites, Sennacherib, &c.? And his priests.] His household chaplains: and had not Baal’s priests now some cause to be afraid of Jehu? Until he left none remaining.] This had been well done, but that he had ill aims; and so there was malum opus in bona materia. Works materially good, may never prove so formally and eventually. Cic., pro Rabir.