Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jehu kills the seventy sons of Ahab, and the forty-two brothers of Ahaziah, and by treachery all the worshippers of Baal, for which he merited offspring in the kingdom up to the fourth generation. Nevertheless he worshipped the golden calves of Jeroboam, and therefore his house was eventually destroyed.
Vulgate Text: 4 Kings 10:1-36
1. Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria: so Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the chief men of the city, and to the elders, and to the guardians of Ahab's children, saying: 2. As soon as you receive these letters, you who have your master's sons, and chariots, and horses, and fortified cities, and arms, 3. choose the best and him who pleases you from among your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.
4. They were greatly afraid, and said: Behold, two kings could not stand before him, and how shall we be able to resist? 5. So the governors of the house, and the prefects of the city, and the elders sent, and the guardians to Jehu, saying: We are your servants, whatever you command we will do, and we will not appoint a king for ourselves: whatever pleases you, do it. 6. He wrote them letters a second time, saying: If you are mine and obey me, take the heads of the sons of your lord, and come to me at this same hour tomorrow in Jezreel. Now the sons of the king, seventy men, were being raised by the nobles of the city. 7. And when the letters came to them, they took the sons of the king and killed seventy men, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him in Jezreel. 8. And a messenger came and told him, saying: They have brought the heads of the king's sons. He answered: Place them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning. 9. And when it was light, he went out and standing said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my lord and killed him, who struck all these? 10. See therefore now that none of the words of the Lord has fallen to the ground, which the Lord spoke against the house of Ahab, and the Lord has done what He spoke through His servant Elijah. 11. Therefore Jehu struck all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his nobles, and his acquaintances, and his priests, until no remnant of his remained. 12. And he arose and came to Samaria: and when he had come to the Shearing-house of the shepherds on the way, 13. he found the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said to them: Who are you? They answered: We are brothers of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen. 14. He said: Take them alive. And when they had taken them alive, they slaughtered them at the cistern near the Shearing-house, forty-two men, and he left none of them. 15. And when he had departed from there, he found Jonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him, and blessed him. And he said to him: Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jonadab said: It is. If it is, he said, give me your hand. He gave him his hand, and he lifted him up to himself in the chariot: 16. and said to him: Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. And having placed him in his chariot, 17. he brought him to Samaria. And he struck all who remained of Ahab in Samaria, down to the last one, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through Elijah. 18. Jehu therefore gathered all the people and said to them: Ahab served Baal a little, but I will serve him more. 19. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, and all his servants, and all his priests: let no one be absent, for I have a great sacrifice to Baal: whoever is missing shall not live. Now Jehu did this deceitfully, to destroy the worshippers of Baal. 20. And he said: Sanctify a solemn day for Baal. And he called, 21. and sent throughout all the territory of Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one was left who did not come. And they entered the temple of Baal: and the house of Baal was filled from end to end. 22. And he said to those who were over the vestments: Bring out garments for all the servants of Baal. And they brought them garments. 23. And Jehu entered, and Jonadab the son of Rechab, the temple of Baal, and said to the worshippers of Baal: Search and see that no one of the servants of the Lord is among you, but only servants of Baal. 24. They therefore entered to offer victims and burnt offerings: but Jehu had prepared eighty men for himself outside, and had said to them: Whoever lets escape any of these men whom I have brought into your hands, his life shall be for the life of that one. 25. And it came to pass, when the burnt offering was completed, Jehu commanded his soldiers and captains: Go in and strike them, let none escape. And they struck them with the edge of the sword, and the soldiers and captains cast them out: and they went into the citadel of the temple of Baal, 26. and brought out the statue from the shrine of Baal and burned it. 27. And they broke it in pieces. They also destroyed the temple of Baal and made it into latrines to this day. 28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel.
29. Nevertheless, he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, nor did he abandon the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. 30. And the Lord said to Jehu: Because you have diligently done what was right and pleasing in My eyes, and have done all that was in My heart against the house of Ahab: your sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel. 31. But Jehu did not take care to walk in the law of the Lord the God of Israel with his whole heart: for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. 32. In those days the Lord began to be weary of Israel: and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel, 33. from the Jordan toward the eastern region, all the land of Gilead, and Gad, and Reuben, and Manasseh, from Aroer, which is upon the torrent Arnon, and Gilead, and Bashan. 34. Now the rest of the deeds of Jehu, and all that he did, and his valor, are they not written in the Book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 35. And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria: and Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place. 36. Now the days that Jehu reigned over Israel were twenty-eight years, in Samaria.
Verse 1: Ahab Had Seventy Sons in Samaria
Now Ahab had seventy sons — not from Jezebel alone, but from many other wives begotten by him.
To the guardians of Ahab — that is, as the Septuagint has it, to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, namely to the chief men who had raised the seventy sons of Ahab.
Verse 4: Two Kings Could Not Stand Before Him
4. Behold, two kings (Joram king of Israel, and Ahaziah king of Judah, for Jehu killed both) could not stand before him — that is, resist him, whence follows: And how shall we (private citizens and commoners) be able to resist?
Verse 5: The Overseers of the House Sent to Jehu
5. Therefore the overseers of the house sent — that is, those who presided over the royal palace which Omri had built in Samaria, in which Ahab had dwelt, and his son Joram, who was killed by Jehu.
Verse 7: They Killed Seventy Men
7. They killed seventy men. — Jehu did not sin by ordering the seventy sons of Ahab to be killed, because he did this by the command of God, who is the supreme Lord of the life of both the guilty and the innocent, because they were sons of the guilty Ahab, whose entire seed and stock, as most wicked, the Lord wished to completely destroy: for it is likely that among these seventy some were minors and innocent, not capable of or participants in the idolatry of Ahab. Nevertheless, the Samaritans sinned in that they carried out this command of Jehu to kill them, not as ministers of a judge, but from fear of Jehu, whom they did not know to be a king elected by God and anointed by Elisha, and therefore they did not know him to be the Judge of Israel, having from God the power to kill these sons of Ahab. Perhaps Jehu also sinned by ordering them to commit this deed, if he had not first sufficiently proved to them his authority and the right of kingship given to him by God, unless they could easily have known it from elsewhere. So Abulensis.
And they put their heads in baskets. — Aptly corresponding to the guilt of Ahab, who had gathered in baskets the grapes from the vineyard of Naboth whom he had killed: therefore in punishment of his sin, the heads of his sons are carried in baskets to Jehu. Thus both he and his sons are punished in the very thing in which they had sinned.
Verse 8: Place Them in Two Heaps
8. Place them at (in Chaldean: in) two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning — so that all the people entering and leaving through the gate may see this just judgment of God against the house of Ahab, and thus depart from his idolatry and the worship of Baal.
Verse 9: You Are Just
9. You are just — that is, you have fulfilled the just vengeance of God, though unknowing and not thinking of it. For they were thinking of fulfilling the command of Jehu about killing them, not the command of God.
If I conspired against my lord (Joram king of Israel) and killed him, who struck all these? That is, not I, but you, though at my command and from fear of me. That is: From this retribution the vengeance of God against the impious house of Ahab is manifestly evident; namely that God used both me and you to carry it out. For although I killed Joram, I could not have killed his seventy brothers unless God had instilled in you the fear of me, so that at my command you killed them. Otherwise you could have resisted my order, either by force, or by an honorable excuse, or by hiding these sons of Ahab whom you killed, or sending them elsewhere. God therefore took away your resolve not to do it, but rather to kill them.
Verse 11: Jehu Struck All Who Remained of the House of Ahab
11. Therefore Jehu struck all who remained of the house of Ahab. — "All," that is, nearly all, because a few who were mostly poor, abject, and unwarlike were left. There also remained the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, descended from Athaliah daughter of Ahab, whom he killed shortly after in verse 14. There also remained Joash, who succeeded his father Ahaziah in the kingdom of Judah. In a similar manner, Scripture said that none was to be left from the house of Jeroboam, Baasha, Elah, etc., because all the more notable were removed, and a few of low condition were left.
Verse 13: The Brothers of Ahaziah
13. The brothers of Ahaziah — that is, the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah, as is explained in II Paralipomenon ch. xxii, verse 9; for the brothers of Ahaziah had been killed by the Arabs, II Paralipomenon ch. xxi, verse 17.
We have come down to greet the sons of the king — namely of Ahaziah king of Israel, and of his wife and queen.
Verse 14: They Slaughtered Them
14. They slaughtered them — as descendants of the impious Ahab, from his impious mother Athaliah. Jehu did this by the instinct of God, whence he said to Jonadab: "See my zeal for the Lord." So Abulensis.
Near the Shearing-house — "of the shepherds," as was said in verse 12. In Chaldean: at the house of assembly of the shepherds. In Hebrew: at the house of binding, in which sheep were bound for shearing, that is, at the sheep-shearing station. So Pagninus. Perhaps sheep were then being sheared there, and therefore according to custom joyful feasts were being prepared, to which these sons of the brothers of Ahaziah had been invited, and there amid the feast they were killed, just as in similar circumstances Amnon was killed by his brother Absalom, II Kings xiii.
Verse 15: He Found Jonadab the Son of Rechab
15. He found Jonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. And he blessed him — that is, he wished him well, he greeted him by saying in the Hebrew manner: "peace to you." This "Jonadab" is the one who is praised in Jeremiah ch. xxxv, verse 6, where Jeremiah offering wine to the Rechabites, descendants and disciples of Jonadab, hears from them: "We will not drink wine, because Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us saying: You and your sons shall not drink wine forever, and you shall not build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, nor have them, but you shall dwell in tents all the days of your life, that you may live many days upon the face of the earth in which you are pilgrims."
John of Jerusalem, book On the Institutes of Monks, ch. xxv, asserts that this "Jonadab" was a disciple of Elisha, and with his sons and grandsons followed the traces of his religious life, except for continence. These Rechabites were Kenites, descendants of Jethro the Midianite, father-in-law of Moses. See the commentary on Jeremiah ch. xxxv, verse 6.
Is your heart right as my heart is with your heart, that is, do you love me sincerely and from the soul, as I love you? From this it seems that Jehu before the kingdom was an upright man, being a friend and companion of Jonadab, a good and religious man. For friendship does not form between the good and the wicked, for it demands those similar to itself.
And having placed him in his chariot he brought him to Samaria — to gain for himself authority among the Samaritans and a reputation for probity through Jonadab as his companion, whom all regarded as a man of integrity and holiness, so that by this means he might more easily carry out the slaughter of the Baal-worshippers which he was planning, and no one would dare resist.
Verse 18: Ahab Served Baal a Little, But I Will Serve Him More
18. Ahab served Baal a little, but I will serve him more. — Jehu lies, but in an officious manner and for a good end, to gather all the worshippers of Baal together and slaughter them, which God had commanded him and which could hardly be accomplished in any other way. Hence he thought this lie was permissible for him, indeed necessary, honorable, and pious. So Theodoret and Procopius.
For although this lie of his was by its nature pernicious, because it was a simulation, indeed a profession of idolatry, and therefore a public scandal, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II Question CXI, art. 1, reply 2, Francis Suarez, treatise I On Faith, disputation xiv, sect. 4, num. 9, Gregory of Valencia, treatise On Faith, disputation 1, Question III, point 2, indeed St. Augustine, book Against Lying, ch. II, calls this lie of Jehu impious, and therefore asserts that he was praised and rewarded by God not for that simulation, but for his obedience, because he killed the descendants of Ahab by God's command, and he adds: "It seemed to certain Catholics that they should feign to be Priscillianists in order to penetrate their hiding places; which I forbidding, says Augustine, wrote the book against lying."
Nevertheless, there are many things that excuse Jehu and show that this lie of his was rather officious than pernicious. The first is the intention of the speaker, namely that he said it not seriously, for he did not intend to worship Baal, but fictitiously and in simulation, so that he might gather all the worshippers of Baal together and slaughter them all as victims of divine justice, as God had commanded him; which he could not otherwise have accomplished. Hence St. Jerome in his commentary on chapter II of the epistle to the Galatians completely excuses Jehu, and teaches that simulation is useful and sometimes to be employed, provided that lying is avoided: "That a useful simulation is to be adopted in due time, the example of King Jehu teaches us," says Jerome.
The same opinion is held by Abulensis, Cajetan and others; indeed Adrian in book IV, Question I On Baptism, in his reply to objection 5, says it is lawful to conceal one's faith through the profession of a false religion, if there is a just cause: which however others commonly disapprove and refute, and rightly so.
Second, that this simulation and pretense of Jehu lasted a very short time; hence the scandal was slight: for all would soon see the speaker's intention was plainly the opposite: therefore Jehu considered the delay of a brief time as nothing.
Third, that he did not command or exhort the Baal-worshippers to sacrifice to Baal, but only said: "I will serve him more," by which words he only intended to give the Baal-worshippers occasion to reveal their hearts and expose the malice of idolatry hidden in their minds, so that he might then cut it down. So physicians give medicines that stir up corrupt humors, so that they may then expel them when they emerge, and thus restore the person to health. So princes send spies to the enemy who pretend to be their friends, in order to discover their plans and report them to the princes; as Hushai did, going over to Absalom and there undermining the counsels of Ahithophel, II Kings ch. xv, verse 14. So masters test the fidelity of servants and maids by placing coins here and there, to see whether they take them and steal, or faithfully bring them back to the master. These therefore do give occasion for theft, but they do not incite or invite to it.
You will say, Jehu implicitly by his example invited the Baal-worshippers to sacrifice to Baal. I respond, Jehu did not invite, but only gave them the occasion of sacrificing (as I already said about masters), which he knew they would seize, and he permitted it, so that what they did daily in private, they might now do publicly, and thus expose themselves, so that they could be punished and chastised by him. For it was better to permit one public act of sacrifice in order to redeem so many of their private sacrileges. It was better to let them publicly worship idols once, than privately a thousand and a thousand times, so that by this permission he might utterly uproot the idolatry of Baal.
Fourth, because there was then a great disturbance of affairs and religion: for some worshipped Baal, others the golden calves, others Molech, others Chemosh, others the true God: therefore this scandal of Jehu was slight, for each person freely worshipped whatever he wished. Some add that Jehu spoke ambiguously, and by Baal meant the true God: for He is the true "Baal," that is, the Lord of all; or rather by Baal he meant the demon, saying: Ahab worshipped Baal, that is the demon, with animal sacrifices: I will worship him more, but only materially, with human victims, because I will slaughter the Baal-worshippers and offer them to him not as to God, but as to God's chief executioner, who purely delights in the blood and death of impious men, in order to snatch their souls to hell: for the demon held a great feast at the slaughter of the idolaters which Jehu carried out, and most joyfully accepted them as his victims.
Fifth, because Jehu was a military man; therefore with military sense and cunning he devised this military stratagem, to destroy at once and at one stroke all the Baal-worshippers, enemies of God as well as his own: therefore he had not studied cases of conscience, but what his zeal for the honor of God and military resourcefulness for detecting enemies, in order to overwhelm them by surprise, suggested to him, this he carried out in good faith, and in the presence, with the help, and as it seems with the approval of Jonadab, a good, prudent, and religious man.
Finally, Jehu was praised and rewarded by the Lord in verse 30.
In a similar way, the Emperor Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, in order to learn which members of his household were true and sincere Christians, and which were false or timid and inconstant, decreed that those who wished to worship the gods should remain at court and enjoy their former honors; but those who refused to do so should leave the court. Then he immediately expelled from the court all those who said they wished to worship the gods; the rest he retained, and gave his reason: "How," he said, "will they be faithful to me, who were unfaithful to God?" So Eusebius reports, book I of the Life of Constantine, ch. ix and x, and Sozomen, book I, ch. vi.
Verse 19: I Have a Great Sacrifice for Baal
19. For I have a great sacrifice for Baal — that is, I wish to offer a great and solemn sacrifice to Baal, and therefore I want all the Baal-worshippers to be present. This Jehu was feigning, but he truly intended to slaughter the Baal-worshippers themselves as victims to God, and to offer them to the demon as God's executioner, who as their lord and possessor — since they were his worshippers — was about to drag them with himself into hell.
Verse 20: Sanctify a Solemn Day for Baal
20. Sanctify a solemn day for Baal — that is, proclaim a festival day, holy and solemn, on which we may solemnly worship Baal: but you, O Baal-worshippers, will worship him formally with sacrifices of oxen, while I will worship him only materially, by slaughtering and handing you yourselves over as victims to the demon, to whom you have dedicated yourselves and bound yourselves as slaves. And truly the demon held a solemn feast when he snatched the souls and bodies of so many idolaters, as it were his own servants, slain by Jehu. Therefore those called came to a solemn feast not of banqueting, but of their own slaughter. So the devil at the death of Luther proclaimed a solemn festival for the demons under him, and thus summoned all from everywhere to lead his soul with triumph to hell. This the demons confessed who possessed the demoniacs at Gheel, a city in Brabant between Antwerp and Louvain, where Saint Dymphna, virgin and martyr, killed by her own father the king of Ireland for her virginity, rests, and shines with many miracles, especially in freeing demoniacs from the devil, as I once saw with my own eyes when I visited the sacred relics of this holy virgin. At Gheel, I say, on the day Luther died, all the demoniacs were freed from demons: but the following day they were again possessed and tormented by the same. When the demons were asked the reason, they said they had been summoned the day before to the funeral of their great friend Martin Luther, had attended it and celebrated the feast: for their prince and arch-demon had commanded that all evil spirits should flock together for the obsequies of his prophet and faithful collaborator Luther: for it was fitting that he who had led very many to hell should be solemnly escorted thither by very many. As among others Tilman Bredenbach relates, book VII of the Sacred Colloquies, ch. xxxix, who also adds that an innumerable company of crows cawing in a horrible manner (they were demons) flew over Luther's corpse, and accompanied it from Eisleben to Wittenberg all the way to the tomb. The demons celebrated a similar feast at the death of Udo, bishop of Magdeburg, as the same Bredenbach, book VIII, ch. xiv, relates at length from Nauclerus, Fulgosus, and Fr. Canisius.
Verse 21: All the Servants of Baal Came
21. And all the servants of Baal came. — He calls "servants" the devotees of Baal, especially the priests, as is clear from verse 19, whence also in the following verse he ordered garments to be given to them, namely priestly and sacred ones: for it does not seem that absolutely all who worshipped Baal came, or could have been contained in one temple. So in Acts ch. xvii, verse 4, the "worshippers" are called pious and religious men who devoutly worship God. Abulensis however considers that absolutely all who professed the worship of Baal were called and came to the solemn day of Baal: for although in the time of Ahab they were in great number, nevertheless shortly after, through the agency of the pious King Jehoshaphat, many of them returned to the worship of the one true God.
And the house of Baal was filled from end to end — that is, from one extreme to the other. The Septuagint: and the house was filled mouth to mouth. The Chaldean: from corner to corner.
Verse 22: Bring Out Garments for All the Servants of Baal
22. Bring out garments for all the servants of Baal — namely priestly or sacred garments, such as the Levites and Nethinim, that is, the ministers of the priests, used: he therefore did not give them lay garments as a reward. For this would have been a great enticement to idolatry and sin for many, to falsely claim to be worshippers of Baal for the sake of garments. Abulensis adds that Jehu supplied them with victims for the sacrifice and invited them to sacrifice, and this without guilt. But this cannot be said: for to invite to sacrifice to an idol is a fault and a crime, whatever end it is done for. It therefore sufficed for Jehu that he permitted those who were ready to sacrifice to do so.
Verse 23: Let There Be Only Servants of Baal
23. But let there be only servants of Baal — "Saying that he did not wish, says Josephus, that any stranger or outsider should intrude upon their sacred rites." Prudently Jehu provided for this, so that no innocent person and worshipper of God, but only the guilty Baal-worshippers, would be slaughtered.
Verse 24: His Life Shall Be for the Life of That One
24. His life shall be for the life of that one. — "He threatened, says Josephus, that whoever allowed any one of them to escape would die as a substitute for that one."
Verse 25: When the Burnt Offering Was Completed
25. And it came to pass when the burnt offering was completed. — The Hebrew, Chaldean, and the Roman Septuagint have it in the singular: When he had finished, namely the chief priest of Baal. The Royal and Complutensian Septuagint have it in the plural: And it came to pass when those making the burnt offering had finished: both are true; for many were offering many burnt offerings on many altars.
And the soldiers and captains cast out (their corpses) — of Jehu.
Verse 26: They Went Into the Citadel of the Temple
26. And they went into the citadel of the temple of Baal, and brought out the statue from the shrine of Baal and burned it — It seems that a certain citadel was properly dedicated to Baal, from whose temple they brought out the statue of Baal and burned it. Vatablus and Salianus understand by "citadel" cities, so that it is a change of number, as if to say: By Jehu's command and mission they went into all the cities of Israel, and brought out the idols of Baal from them and burned them; and it is very probable that they did this; for as follows: "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel," which he would not have done if he had destroyed him in only one city. Finally, it could be a hypallage: "They went into the citadel of the temple," that is, they went into the temple of the city: for this temple built by Ahab in Samaria was vast and spacious, having various attached buildings like a small city, as if to say: After all and only the worshippers of Baal were slain in the temple, Jehu with his men entered the temple itself, and brought out and burned the statue of Baal. Hence the Royal and Complutensian Septuagint do not have the word citadel, but only: they went up to the temple of Baal, and this is very fitting and appropriate for this passage.
Verse 29: He Did Not Depart From the Sins of Jeroboam
29. Nevertheless he did not depart from the sins (of worshipping the golden calves) of Jeroboam, etc. — Remarkable was this blindness or folly of Jehu and the other kings of Israel, that although they saw themselves, by God's command, destroying the houses of Ahab and other kings on account of the worship of idols, they themselves nevertheless worshipped the same if not in number, certainly in kind; and therefore they felt the same avenging hand of God, and were destroyed along with their descendants. The reason was political: they feared that if the people returned to worshipping God in Jerusalem, they would likewise return to the line of David and the kings reigning in Judah. But this fear of theirs was vain: for they had God as their guarantor: for He had promised that if they worshipped Him alone, their kingdom would be stable and would be extended to their descendants for many ages.
Verse 30: Your Sons Shall Sit Upon the Throne of Israel
30. Because you have diligently done, etc., your sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel — the outcome corresponded to God's promise: for Jehu reigned 28 years, his son Jehoahaz succeeded him for 17 years, then his son Joash for sixteen, then his son Jeroboam for 41, then his son Zechariah for six months.
Moreover, the Hebrews consider the prophet who made this promise to Jehu to have been Jonah, the fourth of the minor prophets. But Jonah did not flourish under Jehu, but under Jeroboam the great-grandson of Jehu. Therefore Nicephorus in his Chronicle and Salianus better judge this prophet to have been Elisha, who had first anointed Jehu as king, as was said in ch. ix, verses 1 and 2.
It seems that Jehu received this promise from God as a reward immediately after slaying the Baal-worshippers and overthrowing Baal, although Abulensis thinks it happened after Jehu began to worship the calves, and therefore this promise was limited by God to the fourth generation. But the worship of the calves God soon punished through Hazael king of Syria invading the land of Israel, as is immediately added: it was therefore a time not of reward, but of punishment.
Finally, against the idols and calves of Jehu, God sent prophets who would dictate and write their oracles and threats against him and Israel applauding him in his crime; the first of whom was Hosea, who began to prophesy under Jehu, or shortly after Jehu. Hence in ch. i, verse 4, he says: "Yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu," and ch. vii, verse 1: "When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed," namely of Jehu and the ten tribes, whose head was Ephraim. He adds as the cause the people's inclination toward idols strengthened by custom, which fostered and promoted the idolatry of Jehu. Hence in the last chapter, verse 3: "In their malice they made the king glad, etc., the city rested a little from the mixing of the leaven, until the whole was leavened, etc. For they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them." See the commentary there.
Verse 32: Hazael Struck Them in All the Borders of Israel
32. And Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel — burning cities, killing the young men, dashing infants to pieces, cutting open pregnant women, as Elisha had foretold to them, ch. viii, verse 12.