Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 9:22

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, [Is it] peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts [are so] many?

22. What peace ] i.e. How can there be any peace, while the evil doings of Jezebel continue as great as before. By ‘whoredoms’ the Scripture writers continually signify ‘the practice of idolatry’ and that is probably the sense here. Cf. Exo 34:15-16; Deu 31:6: Jdg 8:27; Jer 3:6 &c. ‘The witchcrafts’ probably allude to the incantations and charms employed to obtain responses from the heathen gods. In Isa 47:9; Isa 47:12, where the word is rendered ‘ sorceries ’, this is clearly the sense, and cf. also Mic 5:12 ‘I will cut off witchcraft ’, and in Nah 3:4 Nineveh is called ‘the mistress of witchcrafts that selleth families through her witchcrafts ’.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Joram had asked the usual question, Is it peace? – meaning simply, Is all well? In Jehus reply, by whoredoms we are probably to understand idolatries, acts of spiritual unfaithfulness; by witchcrafts, dealings with the Baal prophets and oracles. Compare 2Ki 1:2 note.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Ki 9:22

Is it peace?

No peace out of Christ

The sovereignty of God is apparent in all His dealings with the children of men. He putteth down one and setteth up another. He killeth and maketh alive. He doeth what He pleases in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. He giveth no account of any of His ways, nor may any one inquire, What doest thou? Still, justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne, and we are sure that in all His dispensations, however mysterious to us, the Judge of all the earth will do right. It is by Him kings reign and princes decree justice. All this is evidenced in the case of Jehu, whose exaltation to the throne of Israel is described in the former part of this interesting chapter (2Ki 9:1-10).

I. That there is no peace to be found in the ways of sin. In prosecution of the inquiry in our text, ask–

1. The open sinner. Sinner, hast thou peace? Ask Adam and Eve, when they had eaten of the forbidden fruit. Look at Achan who saw among the spoils of the enemy a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, and coveted them, and took them, and hid them in the earth in the midst of his tent and the silver under it. Is it peace, Achan? When Zimri slew Elah the son of Baasha, King of Israel, and usurped his throne, had Zimri peace who slew this master? (1Ki 15:10). Look at Belshazzar at his impious feast (Dan 5:9); here was the very height of human enjoyment; but a guilty conscience spoiled all. Look at aul, King of Israel; hear his bitter cry, I am sore distresed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more (1Sa 28:15). Had he peace? Peace had fled from him.

2. Ask the formalist–resting in a round of duties, having the form of godliness, but destitute of its power. There may be a pharisaical spirit–a self-satisfaction God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men (Luk 18:11), but is it peace?

3. Ask the unconverted, under his most favourable circumstances; and though we do not deny that there may be a momentary gratification,–what are termed by the apostle, The pleasures of sin for a season, Is there peace? Some, indeed, have a false peace, are at ease in their sins–but this is carelessness and indifference rather than peace.

4. But this question may be asked of many, who have even sought peace for their souls, but sought it in the wrong way, by unhallowed means. Many are the ingenious devices of Satan, for blinding the minds of his captives, and keeping his goods in peace. Hence his ministers are said to daub with untempered mortar, and to cry, Peace, peace; when there is no peace (Jer 6:14; Eze 13:10). Is peace then banished from the earth? far from it; the Holy Scriptures make known unto us the way of peace, which unconverted men have never known (Rom 8:17). Christ is our peace (Mic 5:5; Eph 2:1-22; Isa 9:6). And though peace is only to be found in Him, here is solid, abiding, soul-satisfying peace. And this leads me to

II. Show that true, permanent peace is to be obtained only through an experimental knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, through the Spirit, Preaching peace by Jesus Christ, who is described in the Word of inspiration as the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). And here we may remark, that the believer has–

1. Peace with God.

2. The believer has peace of conscience–peace of mind,–rest for his soul.

3. He enjoys peace with others, for when a mans ways please the Lord, He maketh even His enemies to be at peace with Him. And what are the properties of this peace? Let the Scriptures declare (Rom 14:17-18). A peace of God, which passeth all understanding, which the world can neither give, nor take away; which is perfectly independent of all the vicissitudes of this changing world. And this peace is enjoyed through faith in the Redeemer. It is peace and joy in believing. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee (Isa 26:3). Peace under all circumstances;–Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him (Isa 3:16), in sickness and health; in prosperity and adversity; in poverty and riches; in life, in death, and through all eternity. (R. Simpson, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 22. What peace, so long as the whoredoms] Though the words whoredom, adultery, and fornication, are frequently used to express idolatry, and false religion, in general; yet here they may be safely taken in their common and most obvious sense, as there is much reason to believe that Jezebel was the patroness and supporter of a very impure system of religion; and to this Jehu might refer, rather than to the calf-worship, to which himself was most favourably disposed.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Is it peace? dost thou come to me with a peaceable mind, or in a way of hostility? For now, when it was too late, he began to suspect some treachery; which God hid from him before, to prepare him for destruction.

What peace? what cause hast thou to expect peace, when thou hast so long abetted, and dost still abet, and allow thy mother in her abominable practices?

The whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, and her witchcrafts; which are to be understood, either, literally; spiritual whoredom, which is idolatry, being oft punished with corporal; see 2Ki 9:30; and

witchcraft there was oft practised by idolaters. Or rather, mystically and spiritually of her idolatry, which is oft called whoredom, because it is a departing from God to whom we are all tied by many obligations; and witchcraft, either because it doth so powerfully bewitch and deceive mens minds, or because it is a manifest entering into covenant with the devil. For idolatry being her chief sin, and the cause of all the rest, it seems improbable that Jehu would omit that in the indictment which he drew against her. He mentions not Jorams, but his mothers sins; partly, because they were more notorious and infamous; partly, because they were the principal cause why God inflicted, and he was come to execute, these judgments; partly, because by his connivance he had made them his own; and partly, because he could find no gross and odious matter wherewith to charge him, except about the worship of the calves; which he forbore to mention, both lest it should lose his interest amongst his officers and soldiers, who were devoted to that worship; and because he himself intended to keep it up.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And it came to pass, when Joram saw, Jehu, that he said, is it peace, Jehu?…. Have things gone well at Ramothgilead? art thou come in triumph from thence? or obliged to fly from the Syrians? or art thou come in a peaceable, or in an hostile manner to me?

and he answered, what peace; canst thou expect at home or abroad, from me or others:

so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? which may be understood both literally of corporeal whoredom, and diabolical arts she was addicted to, and figuratively of idolatry, often called whoredom in Scripture, and of the wicked arts and methods she made use of to inveigle and entice persons into it; and both these very often went together; see Na 3:4 and of which Joram was guilty, at least in part; he connived at all in her, and did not attempt to restrain her, and therefore had no claim to peace, protection, and safety.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(22) Is it peace, Jehu?Joram meant, Is all well at the seat of war? Jehus reply left no doubt of his intentions. He assumes the part of champion of the legitimate worship against Jezebel and her foreign innovations, and the lawless tyrannies by which she sought to enforce them. (Comp. 2Ki. 9:25-26.)

What peace . . . are so many?Rather, What is the peace during the whoredoms of thy mother, and her many witchcraftsi.e., so long as they continue?

Whoredoms.In the spiritual sense, i.e., idolatries. (See Note on 1Ch. 5:25.)

Witchcrafts.Sorceries; the use of spells and charms, common among Semitic idolaters. (Comp. the prohibitions in the Law (Exo. 22:18; Deu. 18:10-11.) A great number of the Assyrian tablets contain magical formulas, incantations, and exorcisms. Babylonia was the home of the pseudo-science of magic; and the oldest collection of such formulas is that of Sargina king of Agad (Accad), compiled in seventy tablets, about 2200 B.C.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

22. The whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel Her idolatry, both spiritual and carnal. She was in fact the impersonation of many forms of wickedness. Idolatry and witchcraft naturally go together, and in the worship of the female deity Asherah, to which Jezebel was particularly attached, (1Ki 18:19,) there were the most impure practices and licentious rites, which might well be called whoredoms.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Ki 9:22. So long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many i.e. Whilst her idolatries, wherewith she bewitches the people, are still continued and multiplied. He upbraids Jehoram with his mother’s sins, not with his own, because her’s were more notorious and infamous, and what by his connivance he had made his own; because they were the principal reason why God inflicted, and he was come to execute these judgments; and because he could find no odious accusation against him except about the golden calves, which he purposely declined mentioning, because he himself intended to keep them up. See Poole and Calmet.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Ki 9:22 And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, [Is it] peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts [are so] many?

Ver. 22. So long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel. ] That notorious idolatress and adulteress, who might truly say with that notable strumpet, Quartilla in Petronius, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)