2 Kings 10:25

“And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, etc.] The chief of the priests of Baal, whose office it was to do this service: that Jehu said to the guard, and to the captains, go in and slay them, let none come forth; this he said to the eighty men set to guard the temple, and the officers over them; and perhaps they might also have a reinforcement, since such a number seems scarcely sufficient to destroy so many as were here; though indeed it must be considered they were armed men: and they smote them with the edge of the sword; put them all to death: and the guard and the captains cast them out; those that were slain, as the Targum, their dead bodies;…”

“As soon as he had made an end of offering - The actual sacrificers were no doubt the priests of Baal; but Jehu is considered to have made the offering, since he furnished the victims. Compare 1 Kings 8:62-63. The guard - literally, “the runners.” This name seems to have been given to the royal body-guard as early as the time of Saul (1 Samuel 22:17, margin). It was their duty to run by the side of the king’s chariot as he moved from plaze to place. Cast them out, and went - Rather, “the captains hasted and went,” or “went hastily;” which gives a satisfactory sense. That the soldiers should have troubled themselves to cast the bodies of the slain out of the temple enclosure is very unlikely.…”

“City - To some buildings belonging to this house of Baal, which may be here called the city; because they were very numerous and capacious. For as there were divers chambers and rooms built without the temple, belonging to it, for the use of the priests, and Levites. So it may probably be conceived, That this famous temple of Baal had many such buildings; in some of which, the priests of Baal, or of the groves, (whereof there were great numbers belonging to the king's court, Kg1 18:19,) peradventure might dwell; and others of them might be for divers uses belonging to the house, and service of Baal. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 10:27”

“10:25-26 innermost fortress . . . sacred pillar: Canaanite temples contained a recessed place in the wall that held an image of a sacred stone. The temple of Baal in Samaria contained a sacred altar to Baal and an Asherah pole that Jehu’s men destroyed. Josiah’s later purge of Baal worship in Judah similarly involved burning and demolishing the Asherah pole in the Temple in Jerusalem (23:6).”

“Go in: Exo 32:27; Deu 13:6-11; Eze 9:5-7 let: Eze 22:21, Eze 22:22; Rev 16:6, Rev 16:7 edge: Heb. mouth 4 Kings (2 Kings) 10:26”

“כּכלּתו: when he (the sacrificing priest, not Jehu) had finished the burnt-offering (the singular suffix ו may also be taken as indefinite, when one had finished, vid., Ewald, 294, b.), Jehu commanded the runners and aides-de-camp: Come and smite them (the worshippers of Baal), without one coming out (escaping); whereupon they smote them with the edge of the sword, i.e., slew them unsparingly. ויּשׁליכוּ: and the runners and aides-de-camp threw (those who had been slain) away, and went into the citadel of the temple of Baal. בּית־הבּעל עיר cannot be the city of the temple of Baal, i.e., that part of the city in which the temple of Baal stood, for the runners were already in the court of the…”