Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 10:6
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye [be] mine, and [if] ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king’s sons, [being] seventy persons, [were] with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
6. a letter the second time ] Before he presents himself to them, he will let their alarm involve them more deeply than he is involved in the destruction of the royal family.
take ye the heads ] So Nicanor’s head ( 1Ma 7:47 ; 2Ma 15:30 ) was struck off and brought to Jerusalem, and David smote off the head of Goliath (1Sa 17:54) and brought it with him from the battle-field.
come to me to Jezreel ] From what follows we should not discover that they obeyed this part of the order. But no doubt they did, and were ready at the gate, when Jehu came forth on the morrow, to hear what he would say of their prompt obedience. The distance between Jezreel and Samaria was only a journey of a few hours. The heads seem to have been delivered to their new master on the evening of the day on which they were asked for.
Now the king’s sons, &c.] This parenthetic sentence is inserted to show how easy it was, when they were all of one mind, for the tutors to slay the whole family at a blow.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The heads of rivals, pretenders, and other obnoxious persons are commonly struck off in the East, and conveyed to the chief ruler, in order that he may be positively certified that his enemies have ceased to live. In the Assyrian sculptures we constantly see soldiers conveying heads from place to place, not, however, in baskets, but in their hands, holding the head by the hair.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Come to me to Jezreel] Therefore the letters were not written to Jezreel, but from Jezreel to Samaria.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then he wrote a letter: thus Jezebel is requited for her letter directed in like manner to the elders of Naboths city, whereby his life was wickedly taken away, 1Ki 21:8. And it is probable that some of these elders were concerned in that very business, which makes the judgment of God more remarkable.
Take ye the heads of the men; which word seems to imply that some of them were grown up, who doubtless trod in their parents steps; and those that were younger were justly cut off for their parents sin; of which See Poole “Exo 20:5“; See Poole “Deu 5:9“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. take ye the heads of the men,your master’s sonsThe barbarous practice of a successfulusurper slaughtering all who may have claims to the throne, has beenfrequently exemplified in the ancient and modern histories of theEast.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them,…. Having gained his point by the former:
saying, if ye be mine, acknowledge yourselves my subjects and servants;
and if ye will hearken to my voice; obey my commands:
take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons; that is, take off their heads:
and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time meaning with the heads along with them:
(now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up;) they were in their houses, and under their tuition, and so had an authority over them, and could dispose of them at pleasure; they were not ordinary persons to whose care they were committed, but the principal men of the city.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jehu then wrote them a second letter, to say that if they would hearken to his voice, they were to send to him on the morrow at this time, to Jezreel, the heads of the sons of their lord; which they willingly did, slaying the seventy men, and sending him their heads in baskets. , “the heads of the men of sons of your lord,” i.e., of the male descendants of Ahab, in which may be explained from the fact that has the meaning “royal princes” (see the similar case in Jdg 19:22). In order to bring out still more clearly the magnitude of Jehu’s demand, the number of the victims required is repeated in the circumstantial clause, “and there were seventy men of the king’s sons with ( ) the great men of the city, who had brought them up.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(6) The second time.Some MSS., the LXX., and the Arabic read a second letter.
Take ye the heads.Jehu knew his men. The cool cynicism of his savage order is worthy of a Sulla or a Marius.
The heads of the men your masters sons.Literally, the heads of the men of the sons of your master Some MSS., the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulg., as well as the MSS. mentioned by Origen, omit the word men. Thenius thinks that this word is used to indicate that only male descendants of Ahab were to be put to death (?). The Alexandrian LXX. omits sons; and four Hebrew MSS. read instead house. The Authorised Version, however, is a permissible interpretation of the Hebrew.
Come.LXX., bring (them) which is a natural conjecture.
To Jezreel.A journey of more than twenty miles.
By to morrow this time.Jehu is urgent for despatch, because time is all-important. He wishes to convince the people of Jezreel as soon as possible that none of the royal princes were left to claim the crown, and that the nobles of Samaria have joined his cause.
Now the kings sons . . . brought them up.This is a correct translation. According to the Masoretic punctuation, and supposing that the particle eth (rendered with) might here be used merely to introduce the subject, we might render: Now the kings sons were seventy persons; the great men of the city were bringing them up. But such a usage of eth is very doubtful. (Comp. 2Ki. 6:5.) The sentence, in any case, is only a parenthetic reminder of what was stated in 2Ki. 10:1. The total seventy is, perhaps, not to be taken as exact, seventy being a favourite round number. (See Note on 1Ch. 1:42.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 10:6. Take ye the heads, &c. Besides the accomplishment of the divine decree, Jehu had a further design in requesting this cruel service of the rulers, and elders, and great men of the nation; namely, hereby to involve them in the same crime and conspiracy with himself. For by prevailing with them to murder Ahab’s kinsmen in this manner, he bound them so closely to his interest, that if any of the inferior people had been inclined to oppose his designs, they were by this means deprived of any man of distinction to head them; and not only so, but by this expedient Jehu thought that he might, in a great measure, lessen, if not entirely remove, the odium of his own cruel and perfidious conduct; for this is the meaning of his appeal to the people, 2Ki 10:9. Ye be righteous, &c. as if he had said, “I own, indeed, that I was a great instrument in taking off the late king; but am I more culpable than are the friends, the counsellors, the officers of Ahab? I pretend not to conceal my fault; but the approbation which the principal men of the nation have given it, in taking up arms against the house of Ahab, and the wonderful success which has attended this enterprize of mine, do they not afford a certain proof that God has raised me up to execute his decree in this respect, and ought you not to acknowledge, in this case, the interposition of his hand?” See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It is well worthy the Reader’s observation, that those very elders of Samaria had been the same time-serving creatures at the command of Jezebel respecting the murder of Naboth, when she sent letters in Ahab’s name to procure Naboth’s death, And as the punishment of the house of Ahab, the murder of Naboth is again and again mentioned as among the causes; who but would wish to connect in the review of the whole the awful finger of God. See 1Ki 21:1-15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 10:6 Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye [be] mine, and [if] ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, [being] seventy persons, [were] with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
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.
“ N , . ” – Arist., Rhet., lib. i. cap. 15.
i.e., He is a fool who killeth the father, and yet suffereth his children to survive.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mine = for me.
the men. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
persons. Hebrew. ‘ish.
men. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ki 21:8-11
If ye be mine: Heb. If ye be for me, 2Ki 9:32, Mat 12:30, Luk 9:50
take ye: Num 25:4
your master’s sons: Deu 5:9, Jos 7:24, Jos 7:25, Job 21:19, Isa 14:21, Isa 14:22, Rev 2:20-23
which brought them up: “The rich,” says Mr. Morier, “hire a dedeh, or wet nurse for their children. If a boy, the father appoints a steady man from the age of two years to be his laleh, who, I conjecture, must stand in the same capacity as the bringers up of children mentioned in the catastrophe of Ahab’s sons. But if it be a daughter, she has a gees sefeed, or white head, attached to her for the same purpose as the laleh.”
Reciprocal: 2Sa 4:7 – took his head 2Sa 11:16 – he assigned 2Sa 14:30 – And Absalom’s 1Ki 19:17 – the sword of Jehu 1Ki 21:11 – did as Jezebel 2Ki 10:14 – Take them alive Job 27:14 – children Pro 29:12 – General Dan 11:26 – that feed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 10:6. He wrote a letter the second time Thus Jezebel is requited for her letter, directed in like manner to the elders of Naboths city, whereby his life was wickedly taken away: and it is probable that some of these elders were concerned in that very business, which makes the judgment of God more remarkable. Take ye the heads of the men This word, men, seems to imply that some of them, at least, were grown up, who doubtless trod in their parents steps: and those that were younger were justly cut off for their parents sins; of which see on Exo 20:5. Besides the accomplishment of the divine decree, says Dr. Dodd, Jehu had a further design in requesting this cruel service of the rulers, and elders, and great men of the nation, namely, hereby to involve them in the same crime and conspiracy with himself; for, by prevailing with them to murder Ahabs kinsmen in this manner, he bound them so closely to his interest, that if any of the inferior people had been inclined to oppose his designs, they were, by this means, deprived of any man of distinction to head them; and not only so, but, by this expedient, Jehu thought that he might in a great measure lessen, if not entirely remove the odium of his own cruel and perfidious conduct.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10:6 Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye [be] mine, and [if] ye will hearken unto my voice, {c} take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, [being] seventy persons, [were] with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
(c) God as a just judge punishes the wicked children of wicked parents to the third and fourth generations.