What does Jehu leave unchanged after destroying Baal out of Israel?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He does not forsake the golden calves in Bethel and Dan or depart from the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nabat. The chapter says he takes no heed to walk in the Lord’s law with all his heart, even after the promise that his children will sit on Israel’s throne to the fourth generation.

Chapter breakdown

Achab has seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu writes letters to the city’s chief men, the ancients and those who brought up Achab’s children. He tells those who have their master’s sons, chariots, horses, fenced cities and armour to choose the best son, the one who pleases them most, as soon as they receive the letters. They are to put him on his father’s throne and fight for their master’s house.

They are exceedingly afraid. They say that two kings could not stand before Jehu and ask how they could resist. Those over the king’s house, the city rulers, the ancients and those who brought up the children send Jehu their reply. They call themselves his servants, promise to do whatever he commands and say they will not make any king. They tell him to do all that pleases him.

Jehu writes a second time. If they are his and will obey him, they are to take the heads of their master’s sons and come to him at Jezrahel by the same time tomorrow. The seventy sons have been brought up with the city’s chief men. When the letters arrive, they take the king’s sons, kill seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and send them to Jehu at Jezrahel.

A messenger tells Jehu that the heads of the king’s sons have arrived. Jehu orders them laid in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning. When it is light, he goes out and stands before all the people. He calls them just and asks, if he conspired against his master and killed him, who has killed all these. He tells them to see that none of the Lord’s words concerning Achab’s house has fallen to the ground: the Lord has done what he spoke through his servant Elias.

Jehu kills all who remain of Achab’s house in Jezrahel, all his chief men, his friends and his priests, until no remains of him are left there.

Jehu rises and goes toward Samaria. At the shepherds’ cabin on the way, he meets the brethren of Ochozias, king of Juda, and asks who they are. They identify themselves as Ochozias’s brethren and say they have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen. Jehu orders them taken alive. They are taken alive and killed at the pit by the cabin, forty-two men; he leaves none of them.

After leaving there, Jehu finds Jonadab, son of Rechab, coming to meet him and blesses him. He asks whether Jonadab’s heart is right as his own heart is with Jonadab’s. Jonadab answers that it is. Jehu says that if it is, he should give him his hand. Jonadab does so, and Jehu lifts him into the chariot. Jehu invites him to come and see his zeal for the Lord, and makes him ride with him.

Jehu brings Jonadab into Samaria and kills all who remain of Achab there, to a man, according to the Lord’s word spoken by Elias.

Jehu gathers all the people and tells them that Achab worshipped Baal a little, but he will worship him more.

The Challoner note says Jehu sinned in pretending to worship Baal and causing sacrifice to be offered to him. It gives the reason that evil is not to be done so that good may come from it, and cites Romans 3:8. This is the edition’s commentary on Jehu’s claim, separate from the Scripture account.

Jehu orders all Baal’s prophets, servants and priests called to him, with none missing. He says he has a great sacrifice to offer to Baal and that anyone absent will not live. The narrator says he does this craftily to destroy Baal’s worshippers. Jehu orders a festival proclaimed for Baal and calls for it.

Jehu sends into all Israel’s borders. All Baal’s servants come, with none left who does not come. They enter Baal’s temple, filling the house from end to end. Jehu tells those over the wardrobe to bring garments for all Baal’s servants, and they bring them.

Jehu and Jonadab, son of Rechab, enter Baal’s temple. They tell the worshippers to search and see that no servants of the Lord are among them, only Baal’s servants. They go in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Jehu has prepared eighty men outside and tells them that if any of the men he has put in their hands escapes, whoever lets him go will answer life for life.

When the burnt offering ends, Jehu orders his soldiers and captains to go in and kill them, letting none escape. The soldiers and captains kill them with the edge of the sword, cast them out and go into the city of Baal’s temple. They bring the statue out of the temple, burn it and break it in pieces. They also destroy Baal’s temple and make a latrine in its place, which remains there to the account’s day. In this way Jehu destroys Baal out of Israel.

Yet Jehu does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nabat, who made Israel sin. He does not forsake the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. The Lord tells Jehu that because he has diligently done what is right and pleasing in his eyes and has done to Achab’s house all that was in his heart, Jehu’s children will sit on Israel’s throne to the fourth generation. But Jehu takes no heed to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart, for he does not depart from Jeroboam’s sins.

In those days the Lord begins to be weary of Israel, and Hazael ravages them in all Israel’s coasts. The account names the land eastward from the Jordan: all Galaad, Gad, Ruben and Manasses, from Aroer on the torrent Arnon, and Galaad and Basan.

The account asks whether the rest of Jehu’s acts, all he did and his strength are written in the book of the words of the days of Israel’s kings. Jehu dies and is buried in Samaria. His son Joachaz reigns in his place. Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria lasts twenty-eight years.

The story inside

The letters to Samaria change from a command to choose a son of Achab and fight for the house to a conditional demand for the sons’ heads. Between them, the leaders explain their fear by the failure of two kings to resist Jehu and promise obedience. Their killing of seventy sons leads to the messenger’s report, the two heaps at the gate and Jehu’s morning question and appeal to Elias’s word. Jehu then kills the remaining groups in Jezrahel. On his way to Samaria he encounters Ochozias’s brethren, hears why they have come, orders their live capture and leaves none of the forty-two alive. His exchange with Jonadab leads to their shared chariot ride and arrival in Samaria, where the remaining people of Achab are killed. The next sequence depends on Jehu’s claim to worship Baal more, a summons under threat of death and a festival. The narrator supplies his purpose of destroying the worshippers. All the servants attend; garments are brought, a search is commanded, and eighty men outside receive a life-for-life warning against allowing escape. After the burnt offering, soldiers and captains carry out Jehu’s killing order and destroy the statue and temple. The conclusion keeps together Jehu’s destruction of Baal, his retention of the golden calves and the Lord’s particular promise concerning his children. It then reports Hazael’s ravages, Jehu’s other-record reference, death, succession and twenty-eight-year reign. Challoner’s judgment on feigned worship is separate commentary, not an added statement of the narrator.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The Samaria leaders give a reason for their reply: two kings could not stand before Jehu, so they are afraid to resist. Their offer to obey is followed by his second letter, its deadline and the killing of all seventy sons. Keeping both letters and the reply explains the sequence without inventing a private motive behind Jehu’s display of the heads.
2
The Baal episode includes both a stated plan and carefully described commands. The narrator says Jehu acts craftily to destroy the worshippers; the summons, festival, garments, search instruction, eighty men and life-for-life warning show the steps actually recorded. The order to soldiers and captains comes after the burnt offering. Challoner separately judges the pretended worship and sacrifice as sinful and cites Romans 3:8; that judgment must remain attributed to the note.
3
The chapter does not turn the destruction of Baal into a claim that Jehu follows the Lord’s law with all his heart. It names the calves he retains at Bethel and Dan, while giving the Lord’s specific reason for promising the throne to his children through the fourth generation. The following report names Hazael’s ravages and their places. Keeping these statements in their own terms avoids adding a political motive or an immediate cause-and-effect claim the chapter does not state.

Test your recall

How do the Samaria leaders’ fear and promise of obedience lead to Jehu’s second letter and the seventy heads, and how do his summons and festival lead to the destruction of Baal while the golden calves remain?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 39148–39164
4 Kings Chapter 10 Jehu destroyeth the house of Achab: abolisheth the worship of Baal, and killeth the worshippers: but sticketh to the calves of Jeroboam. Israel is afflicted by the Syrians. 10:1. And Achab had seventy sons in Samaria: so Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the chief men of the city, and to the ancients, and to them that brought up Achab’s children, saying: 10:2. As soon as you receive these letters, ye that have your master’s sons, and chariots, and horses, and fenced cities, and armour, 10:3. Choose the best, and him that shall please you most of your master’s sons, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for the house of your master.
Lines 39165–39173
10:4. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said: Behold two kings could not stand before him, and how shall we be able to resist? 10:5. Therefore they that were over the king’s house, and the rulers of the city, and the ancients, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying: We are thy servants: whatsoever thou shalt command us we will do; we will not make us any king: do thou all that pleaseth thee.
Lines 39174–39182
10:6. And he wrote letters the second time to them, saying: If you be mine, and will obey me, take the heads of the sons of your master, and come to me to Jezrahel by tomorrow at this time. Now the king’s sons, being seventy men, were brought up with the chief men of the city. 10:7. And when the letters came to them, they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezrahel.
Lines 39183–39195
10:8. And a messenger came, and told him, saying: They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said: Lay ye them in two heaps by the entering in of the gate until the morning. 10:9. And when it was light, he went out, and standing, said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my master, and slew him; who hath slain all these? 10:10. See therefore now that there hath not fallen to the ground any of the words of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Achab, and the Lord hath done that which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias.
Lines 39196–39199
10:11. So Jehu slew all that were left of the house of Achab in Jezrahel, and all his chief men, and his friends, and his priests, till there were no remains left of him.
Lines 39200–39211
10:12. And he arose, and went to Samaria: and when he was come to the shepherds’ cabin in the way, 10:13. He met with the brethren of Ochozias, king of Juda, and he said to them: Who are you? And they answered: We are the brethren of Ochozias, and are come down to salute the sons of the king, and the sons of the queen. 10:14. And he said: Take them alive. And they took them alive, and killed them at the pit by the cabin, two and forty men, and he left not any of them.
Lines 39212–39220
10:15. And when he was departed thence, he found Jonadab, the son of Rechab, coming to meet him, and he blessed him. And he said to him: Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart? And Jonadab said: It is. If it be, said he, give me thy hand. He gave him his hand. And he lifted him up to him into the chariot, 10:16. And said to him: Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So he made him ride in his chariot,
Lines 39221–39224
10:17. And brought him into Samaria. And he slew all that were left of Achab, in Samaria, to a man, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elias.
Lines 39225–39227
10:18. And Jehu gathered together all the people, and said to them: Achab worshipped Baal a little, but I will worship him more.
Lines 39228–39231
I will worship him more.... Jehu sinned in thus pretending to worship Baal, and causing sacrifice to be offered to him: because evil is not to be done, that good may come of it. Rom. 3.8.
Lines 39232–39239
10:19. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, and all his servants, and all his priests: let none be wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal: whosoever shall be wanting, shall not live. Now Jehu did this craftily, that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. 10:20. And he said: Proclaim a festival for Baal. And he called,
Lines 39240–39248
10:21. And he sent into all the borders of Israel; and all the servants of Baal came: there was not one left that did not come. And they went into the temple of Baal: and the house of Baal was filled, from one end to the other. 10:22. And he said to them that were over the wardrobe: Bring forth garments for all the servants of Baal. And they brought them forth garments.
Lines 39249–39258
10:23. And Jehu, and Jonadab, the son of Rechab, went to the temple of Baal, and said to the worshippers of Baal: Search, and see that there be not any with you of the servants of the Lord, but that there be the servants of Baal only. 10:24. And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings: but Jehu had prepared him fourscore men without, and said to them: If any of the men escape, whom I have brought into your hands, he that letteth him go, shall answer life for life.
Lines 39259–39271
10:25. And it came to pass, when the burnt offering was ended, that Jehu commanded his soldiers and captains, saying: Go in, and kill them: let none escape. And the soldiers and captains slew them with the edge of the sword, and cast them out: and they went into the city of the temple of Baal, 10:26. And brought the statue out of Baal’s temple, and burnt it, 10:27. And broke it in pieces. They destroyed also the temple of Baal, and made a jakes in its place unto this day. 10:28. So Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel:
Lines 39272–39284
10:29. But yet he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, nor did he forsake the golden calves that were in Bethel, and Dan. 10:30. And the Lord said to Jehu: because thou hast diligently executed that which was right and pleasing in my eyes, and hast done to the house of Achab according to all that was in my heart: thy children shall sit upon the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. 10:31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel to sin.
Lines 39285–39291
10:32. In those days the Lord began to be weary of Israel: and Hazael ravaged them in all the coasts of Israel, 10:33. From the Jordan eastward, all the land of Galaad, and Gad, and Ruben, and Manasses, from Aroer, which is upon the torrent Arnon, and Galaad, and Basan.
Lines 39292–39302
10:34. But the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and his strength, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel? 10:35. And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria: and Joachaz, his son, reigned in his stead. 10:36. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel, in Samaria, was eight and twenty years.