Atlas Biblica

    2 Kings · 36 verses

    2 Kings 10

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Jehu is praised for doing what was right, promised four generations on Israel’s throne, and immediately described as a man who did not follow the LORD with all his heart. The golden calves remain standing, while Baal’s temple becomes a latrine—a rather brisk rearrangement of the sacred furniture.

    Seventy heads at the gatevv. 1–17

    Jehu begins with letters and a challenge: let Ahab’s guardians choose a son, set him on the throne, and fight. They decline with admirable speed, so the second letter requests seventy heads by the following day. The leading men of the city slaughter the sons, send their heads in baskets to Jezreel, and receive the oddly orderly instruction to pile them in two heaps at the gate until morning. Jehu then tells the people that the LORD’s word through Elijah has not failed, and removes everyone remaining from Ahab’s house. On the road to Samaria, forty-two relatives of Ahaziah are taken alive and slaughtered at the well of Beth-eked. Jonadab son of Rechab then joins Jehu in his chariot to see his zeal, which has by now acquired quite a travelling apparatus.

    A great sacrifice for Baalvv. 18–31

    At Samaria, Jehu announces that Ahab served Baal only a little, whereas Jehu will serve him a great deal. It is a deception, and an effective one: every servant of Baal arrives, the temple fills from end to end, and garments are supplied for the assembled company. Jehu and Jonadab inspect the room to ensure that no servant of the LORD has slipped in among them. Then the guards kill the worshippers, burn the sacred pillar, demolish it, and turn the temple into a latrine, which the text says remains so to this day. Baal is eradicated from Israel; Jeroboam’s golden calves, however, remain at Bethel and Dan. The LORD rewards Jehu’s destruction of Ahab’s house with four generations on the throne, while the narrative promptly notes that Jehu still does not follow the LORD wholeheartedly.

    The kingdom grows smallervv. 32–36

    The LORD begins to reduce Israel’s size, and Hazael defeats the Israelites across the eastern territory: from the Jordan through Gilead, including the regions of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, and onward from Aroer through Gilead to Bashan. Jehu dies and is buried in Samaria; Jehoahaz takes the throne. Twenty-eight years of reign conclude with Israel smaller, but the account has one final neat measure: Jehu’s time over Israel in Samaria.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 2 Kgs 10:1Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying:

    2. 2 Kgs 10:2“When this letter arrives, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weaponry,

    3. 2 Kgs 10:3select the best and most worthy son of your master, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”

    4. 2 Kgs 10:4But they were terrified and reasoned, “If two kings could not stand against him, how can we?”

    5. 2 Kgs 10:5So the palace administrator, the overseer of the city, the elders, and the guardians sent a message to Jehu: “We are your servants, and we will do whatever you say. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your sight.”

    6. 2 Kgs 10:6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.

    7. 2 Kgs 10:7And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

    8. 2 Kgs 10:8When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the sons of the king.” And Jehu ordered, “Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.”

    9. 2 Kgs 10:9The next morning, Jehu went out and stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these?

    10. 2 Kgs 10:10Know, then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail, for the LORD has done what He promised through His servant Elijah.”

    11. 2 Kgs 10:11So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his great men and close friends and priests, leaving him without a single survivor.

    12. 2 Kgs 10:12Then Jehu set out toward Samaria. At Beth-eked of the Shepherds,

    13. 2 Kgs 10:13Jehu met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?” “We are relatives of Ahaziah,” they answered, “and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and of the queen mother.”

    14. 2 Kgs 10:14Then Jehu ordered, “Take them alive.” So his men took them alive, then slaughtered them at the well of Beth-eked—forty-two men. He spared none of them.

    15. 2 Kgs 10:15When he left there, he found Jehonadab son of Rechab, who was coming to meet him. Jehu greeted him and asked, “Is your heart as true to mine as my heart is to yours?” “It is!” Jehonadab replied. “If it is,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand, and Jehu helped him into his chariot,

    16. 2 Kgs 10:16saying, “Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD!” So he had him ride in his chariot.

    17. 2 Kgs 10:17When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down everyone belonging to Ahab who remained there, until he had destroyed them, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to Elijah.

    18. 2 Kgs 10:18Then Jehu brought all the people together and said, “Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him a lot.

    19. 2 Kgs 10:19Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. See that no one is missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing will not live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.

    20. 2 Kgs 10:20And Jehu commanded, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they announced it.

    21. 2 Kgs 10:21Then Jehu sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; there was not a man who failed to show. They entered the temple of Baal, and it was filled from end to end.

    22. 2 Kgs 10:22And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring out garments for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out garments for them.

    23. 2 Kgs 10:23Next, Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rechab entered the temple of Baal, and Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Look around to see that there are no servants of the LORD here among you—only servants of Baal.”

    24. 2 Kgs 10:24And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and warned them, “If anyone allows one of the men I am delivering into your hands to escape, he will forfeit his life for theirs.”

    25. 2 Kgs 10:25When he had finished making the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and officers, “Go in and kill them. Do not let anyone out.” So the guards and officers put them to the sword, threw the bodies out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal.

    26. 2 Kgs 10:26They brought out the sacred pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it.

    27. 2 Kgs 10:27They also demolished the sacred pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine, which it is to this day.

    28. 2 Kgs 10:28Thus Jehu eradicated Baal from Israel,

    29. 2 Kgs 10:29but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

    30. 2 Kgs 10:30Nevertheless, the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

    31. 2 Kgs 10:31Yet Jehu was not careful to follow the instruction of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.

    32. 2 Kgs 10:32In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory

    33. 2 Kgs 10:33from the Jordan eastward through all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh), and from Aroer by the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan.

    34. 2 Kgs 10:34As for the rest of the acts of Jehu, along with all his accomplishments and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

    35. 2 Kgs 10:35And Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.

    36. 2 Kgs 10:36So the duration of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 259 passages were voted onto 33 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 101 Kings 21:29“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”
    • 101 Kings 21:19Tell him that this is what the LORD says: ‘Have you not murdered a man and seized his land?’ Then tell him that this is also what the LORD says: ‘In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, there also the dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!’”
    • 291 Kings 12:28–30After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
    • 312 Kings 10:29but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
    • 31Proverbs 4:23Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
    • 102 Kings 9:7–10And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the LORD shed by the hand of Jezebel.
    • 132 Kings 8:29So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab, because Joram had been wounded.
    • 15Jeremiah 35:14–19The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not obeyed Me!
    • 161 Kings 19:10“I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”
    • 172 Kings 9:8The whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, both slave and free, in Israel.
    • 181 Kings 16:31–32And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.
    • 191 Kings 22:6So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
    • 20Joel 1:14Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
    • 261 Kings 14:23They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
    • 302 Kings 10:35And Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.
    • 321 Kings 19:17Then Jehu will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Jehu.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapter2 Kings 1121 verses.Named hereJehuEverything the graph connects to this name.Book2 KingsAll 25 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.