II Kings 10:12

Extermination of the Brothers of Ahaziah of Judah and of the Other Members of Ahab's Dynasty. - Kg2 10:12. Jehu then set out to Samaria; and on the way, at the binding-house of the shepherds, he met with the brethren of Ahaziah, who were about to visit their royal relations, and when he learned who they were, had them all seized, viz., forty-two men, and put to death at the cistern of the binding-house. ויּלך ויּבא, "he came and went," appears pleonastic; the words are not to be transposed, however, as Bttcher and Thenius propose after the Syriac, but ויּלך is added, because Jehu did not go at once to Samaria, but did what follows on the way. By transposing the words, the slaying of the relations of Ahaziah would be transferred to Samaria, in contradiction to Kg2 10:15. - The words from וגו בּית הוּא onwards, and from ויהוּא to יהוּדה מלך, are two circumstantial clauses, in which the subject יהוּא is added in the second clause for the sake of greater clearness: "when he was at the binding-house of the shepherds on the road, and Jehu (there) met with the brethren of Ahaziah, he said..." הרעים בּית־עקד (Βαιθακάθ, lxx) is explained by Rashi, after the Chaldee רעיּא כנישׁת בית, as signifying locus conventus pastorum, the meeting-place of the shepherds; and Gesenius adopts the same view. But the rest of the earlier translators for the most part adopt the rendering, locus ligationis pastorum, from עקד, to bind, and think of a house ubi pastores ligabant oves quando eas tondebant. In any case it was a house, or perhaps more correctly a place, where the shepherds were in the habit of meeting, and that on the road from Jezreel to Samaria; according to Eusebius on the Onom. s.v. Βαιθακάθ, a place fifteen Roman miles from Legio (Lejun, Megiddo), in the great plain of Jezreel: a…

We have in this chapter, I. A further account of Jehu's execution of his commission. He cut off, I. All Ahab's sons (Kg2 10:1-10). 2. All Ahab's kindred (Kg2 10:11-14, Kg2 10:17). 3. Ahab's idolatry: his zeal against this he took Jonadab to be witness to (Kg2 10:15, Kg2 10:16), summoned all the worshippers of Baal to attend (Kg2 10:18-23) and slew them all (Kg2 10:24, Kg2 10:25), and then abolished that idolatry (Kg2 10:26-28). II. A short account of the administration of his government. 1. The old idolatry of Israel, the worship of the calves, was retained (Kg2 10:29-31). 2. This brought God's judgments upon them by Hazael, with which his reign concludes (Kg2 10:32-36).

10:12-14 The precise location of Beth-eked is uncertain, but it was in the area of Jenin. • The reply of Ahaziah’s relatives to Jehu sealed their fate. Jehu apparently reasoned that their relation to Ahaziah, hence loosely to the house of Ahab through his daughter Athaliah, could give them some claim on the throne of Israel. In this second round of executions, Jehu again exceeded his commission to terminate Ahab’s dynasty.