Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 9:16
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Slaying of the Two Kings, Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. - Kg2 9:16. Jehu drove without delay to Jezreel, where Joram was lying sick, and Ahaziah had come upon a visit to him. Kg2 9:17-21 As the horsemen, who were sent to meet him on the announcement of the watchman upon the tower at Jezreel that a troop was approaching, joined the followers of Jehu, and eventually the watchman, looking down from the tower, thought that he could discover the driving of Jehu in the approaching troop, Joram and Ahaziah mounted their chariots to drive and meet him, and came upon him by the portion of the ground of Naboth the Jezreelite. The second שׁפעת in Kg2 9:17 is a rarer form of the absolute state (see Ges. 80, 2, Anm. 2, and Ewald, 173, d.). - וּלשׁלום מה־לּך: "what hast thou to do with peace?" i.e., to trouble thyself about it. אל־אחרי סב: "turn behind me," sc. to follow me. כם המּנהג: "the driving is like the driving of Jehu; for he drives like a madman." בּשׁגּעון, in insania, i.e., in actual fact in praecipitatione (Vatabl.). "The portion of Naboth" is the vineyard of Naboth mentioned in 1 Kings 21, which formed only one portion of the gardens of the king's palace. Kg2 9:22 To Joram's inquiry, "Is it peace, Jehu?" the latter replied, "What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her many witchcrafts continue?" The notion of continuance is implied in עד (see Ewald, 217, e.); זנוּנים is spiritual whoredom, i.e., idolatry. כּשׁפים, incantationes magicae, then witchcrafts generally, which were usually associated with idolatry (cf. Deu 18:10.). Kg2 9:23 Joram detecting the conspiracy from this reply, turned round (ידיו יהפך as in Kg1 22:34) and fled, calling out to Ahaziah מרמה, "deceit," i.e., we are deceived, in actual fact betrayed. Kg2 9:24 But Jehu seized the bow (בּקּשׁת ידו מלּא, lit., filled his hand with the bow), and shot Joram "between his arms," i.e., in his back between the shoulders in an oblique direction, so that the arrow came out at his heart, and Joram sank down in his chariot. Kg2 9:25-26 Jehu then commanded his aide-de-camp (שׁלישׁ, see at Sa2 23:8) Bidkar to cast the slain man into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, and said, "For remember how we, I and thou, both rode (or drove) behind his father Ahab, and Jehovah pronounced this threat upon him." ואתּה אני are accusatives, written with a looser connection for ואותך אתי, as the apposition רכבים shows: literally, think of me and thee, the riders. The olden translators were misled by אני, and therefore transposed זכר into the first person, and Thenius naturally follows them. צמדים רכבים, riding in pairs. This is the rendering adopted by most of the commentators, although it might be taken, as it is by Kimchi and Bochart, as signifying the two persons who are carried in the same chariot. משּׂא, a burden, then a prophetic utterance of a threatening nature (see the Comm. on Nah 1:1). For the connection of the clauses וגו ויהוה, see Ewald, 338, a. In Kg2 9:26 Jehu quotes the word of God concerning Ahab in Kg1 21:19 so far as the substance is concerned, to show that he is merely the agent employed in executing it. "Truly (אם־לא, a particle used in an oath) the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons have I seen yesterday, saith the Lord, and upon this field will I requite him." The slaying of the sons of Naboth is not expressly mentioned in Kg1 21:13, "because it was so usual a thing, that the historian might leave it out as a matter of course" (J. D. Mic…
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