1 And Elisha the prophet sent for one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Make yourself ready for a journey, and take this bottle of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on his head and gave him a kiss and said, Is not the Lord with the holy oil making you ruler over Israel, his people? and you will have authority over the people of the Lord, and you will make them safe from the hands of their attackers round about them, and this will be the sign for you:
Then he said to Gehazi, Make yourself ready, and take my stick in your hand, and go: if you come across anyone on the way, give him no blessing, and if anyone gives you a blessing, give him no answer. And put my stick on the child's face.
He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war on Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the Aramaeans. So King Joram went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which the bowmen had given him at Ramah, when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was ill.
And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made himself strong, and went running before Ahab till they came to Jezreel.
And Zadok the priest took the vessel of oil out of the Tent, and put the holy oil on Solomon. And when the horn was sounded, all the people said, Long life to King Solomon!
And the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you go on sorrowing for Saul, seeing that I have put him from his place as king over Israel? Take oil in your vessel and go; I will send you to Jesse, the Beth-lehemite: for I have got a king for myself among his sons.
So make yourself ready, and go and say to them everything I give you orders to say: do not be overcome by fear of them, or I will send fear on you before them.
So make your minds ready, and keep on the watch, hoping with all your power for the grace which is to come to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Be ready, dressed as for a journey, with your lights burning. And be like men who are looking for their lord, when he comes back from the bride-feast; so that when he comes to the door, it will be open to him quickly. Happy are those servants who are watching when the lord comes; truly I say to you, he will make himself their servant and, placing them at the table, he will come out and give them food.
And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, There is not room enough for us in the place where we are living under your care; So let us go to Jordan, and let everyone get to work cutting boards, and we will make a living-place for ourselves there. And he said to them, Go, then. And one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants. And he said, I will go.
Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two children as servants in payment of his debt.
And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going to take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more.
And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another.
And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man would not.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 9
Commentary on 2 Kings 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
Hazael and Jehu were the men that were designed to be the instruments of God's justice in punishing and destroying the house of Ahab. Elijah was told to appoint them to this service; but, upon Ahab's humiliation, a reprieve was granted, and so it was left to Elisha to appoint them. Hazael's elevation to the throne of Syria we read of in the foregoing chapter; and we must now attend Jehu to the throne of Israel; for him that escapeth the sword of Hazael, as Joram and Ahaziah did, Jehu must slay, of which this chapter gives us an account.
2Ki 9:1-10
We have here the anointing of Jehu to be king, who was, at this time, a commander (probably commander-in-chief) of the forces employed at Ramoth-Gilead, v. 14. There he was fighting for the king his master, but received orders from a higher king to fight against him. It does not appear that Jehu aimed at the government, or that he ever thought of it, but the commission given him was a perfect surprise to him. Some think that he had been anointed before by Elijah, whom God ordered to do it, but privately, and with an intimation that he must not act till further orders, as Samuel anointed David long before he was to come to the throne: but that it not at all probable, for then we must suppose Elijah had anointed Hazael too. No, when God bade him do these things he bade him anoint Elisha to be prophet in his room, to do them when he was gone, as God should direct him. Here is,
The prophet, having done this errand, made the best of his way home again, and left Jehu alone to consider what he had to do and beg direction from God.
2Ki 9:11-15
Jehu, after some pause, returned to his place at the board, taking no notice of what had passed, but, as it should seem, designing, for the present, to keep it to himself, if they had not urged him to disclose it. Let us therefore see what passed between him and the captains.
2Ki 9:16-29
From Ramoth-Gilead to Jezreel was more than one day's march; about the mid-way between them the river Jordan must be crossed. We may suppose Jehu to have marched with all possible expedition, and to have taken the utmost precaution to prevent the tidings from getting to Jezreel before him; and, at length, we have him within sight first, and then within reach, of the devoted king.
2Ki 9:30-37
The greatest delinquent in the house of Ahab was Jezebel: it was she that introduced Baal, slew the Lord's prophets, contrived the murder of Naboth, stirred up her husband first, and then her sons, to do wickedly; a cursed woman she is here called (v. 34), a curse to the country, and whom all that wished well to their country had a curse for. Three reigns her reign had lasted, but now, at length, her day had come to fall. We read of a false prophetess in the church of Thyatira that is compared to Jezebel, and called by her name (Rev. 2:20), her wickedness the same, seducing God's servants to idolatry, a long space given her to repent (v. 21) as to Jezebel, and a fearful ruin brought upon her at last (v. 22, 23), as here upon Jezebel. So that Jezebel's destruction may be looked upon as typical of the destruction of idolaters and persecutors, especially that great whore, that mother of harlots, that hath made herself drunk with the blood of saints and the nations drunk with the wine of her fornications, when God shall put it into the heart of the kings of the earth to hate her, Rev. 17:5, 6, 16. Now here we have,