Bible Chapter Summary
2 Kings 10 Summary
Jehu Destroys the House of Ahab and Baal Worship
Jehu writes to Samaria challenging the rulers to set one of Ahab's seventy sons as king and fight for his house, but they submit to Jehu in fear, unable to stand before him as two kings could not. Jehu then commands them to bring the heads of all the king's sons by the next day; they kill seventy men and send their heads in baskets to Jezreel. Jehu displays them at the gate and claims he conspired against his master; he slew him but these heads prove the word of the LORD against Ahab's house is being fulfilled. Jehu then kills all who remained of Ahab's house in Jezreel, his great men, kinsfolk, and priests. Meeting Jehonadab the son of Rechab, Jehu shares his zeal for the LORD, then comes to Samaria and destroys all remaining servants of Ahab. Jehu then uses subtlety to gather all Baal's worshippers into Baal's house under pretense of worship; he locks them in, fills the house with soldiers, and they are slain by the sword and the house destroyed. However, Jehu does not depart from the golden calves of Jeroboam at Beth-el and Dan. The LORD commends Jehu for destroying Ahab's house but notes he did not walk wholly in the law of the LORD; still, the LORD grants his children throne seats to the fourth generation. In Jehu's days, the LORD begins to cut Israel short and Hazael smites them throughout their coasts.
Key themes
Key verses
2 Kings 10:7
“And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.”
2 Kings 10:10
“Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah.”
2 Kings 10:25
“And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.”
2 Kings 10:30
“And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.”
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