Text -- 2 Kings 10:18-28 (NET)

Jehu Executes the Prophets and Priests of Baal

10:18 Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab worshiped Baal a little; Jehu will worship him with great devotion. 10:19 So now, bring to me all the prophets of Baal, as well as all his servants and priests. None of them must be absent, for I am offering a great sacrifice to Baal. Any of them who fail to appear will lose their lives.” But Jehu was tricking them so he could destroy the servants of Baal. 10:20 Then Jehu ordered, “Make arrangements for a celebration for Baal.” So they announced it. 10:21 Jehu sent invitations throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one was absent. They arrived at the temple of Baal and filled it up from end to end. 10:22 Jehu ordered the one who was in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out robes for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them. 10:23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went to the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Make sure there are no servants of the Lord here with you; there must be only servants of Baal.” 10:24 They went inside to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside. He had told them, “If any of the men inside get away, you will pay with your lives!” 10:25 When he finished offering the burnt sacrifice, Jehu ordered the royal guard and officers, “Come in and strike them down! Don’t let any escape!” So the royal guard and officers struck them down with the sword and left their bodies lying there. Then they entered the inner sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 10:26 They hauled out the sacred pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it. 10:27 They demolished the sacred pillar of Baal and the temple of Baal; it is used as a latrine to this very day. 10:28 So Jehu eradicated Baal worship from Israel.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:18

¹ tn Or “served.

² tn Or “serve.”

³ tn Heb “much” or “greatly.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:19

¹ tn Heb “and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests summon to me.”

² tn Heb “acted with deception [or, ‘trickery’].”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:20

¹ tn Heb “set apart”; or “observe as holy.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:21

¹ tn Heb “and the house of Baal was filled mouth to mouth.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:22

¹ tn Heb “and he said to the one who was over the wardrobe.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:23

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehu) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Search carefully and observe so that there are not here with you any servants of the Lord, only the servants of Baal.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:24

¹ tn Heb “The man who escapes from the men whom I am bringing into your hands, [it will be] his life in place of his life.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:25

¹ tn Heb “runners.”

² tn Heb “and they threw.” No object appears. According to M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 116), this is an idiom for leaving a corpse unburied.

³ tn Heb “and they came to the city of the house of Baal.” It seems unlikely that a literal city is meant. Some emend עִיר (’ir), “city,” to דְּבִיר (dÿvir) “holy place,” or suggest that עִיר is due to dittography of the immediately preceding עַד (’ad) “to.” Perhaps עִיר is here a technical term meaning “fortress” or, more likely, “inner room.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:27

¹ tn Or “pulled down.”

² tn The verb “they demolished” is repeated in the Hebrew text.

³ tn Heb “and they made it into.”

⁴ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has the hapax legomenon מַחֲרָאוֹת (makhara’ot), “places to defecate” or “dung houses” (note the related noun חרא (khr’)/חרי (khri), “dung,” HALOT 348-49 s.v. *חֲרָאִים). The marginal reading (Qere) glosses this, perhaps euphemistically, מוֹצָאוֹת (motsa’ot), “outhouses.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 10:28

¹ tn Heb “destroyed Baal.”