2 Kings 10:1

Seventy sons. Large though this number is, it would not be impossible in a country where polygamy was practiced. But the word “sons” is here employed in the usual Hebrew sense of the term, “descendants.” Ahab had been dead 12 years and had left a large posterity.

Jehu wrote letters. Jehu was not only courageous but crafty. In the situation in which he found himself he must use not only force but guile. At the moment he had with him at Jezreel only a small force of men, the main part of the army having been left on guard at Ramoth-gilead. There was no telling what the outcome would be if Jehu himself went down to Samaria, the capital, where the bulk of Ahab’s descendants lived. These men, alone, with their supporters, might well have been sufficient to overwhelm the new king with his present guard. So Jehu would first sound out the inclinations of the leading men at the capital by writing letters before making a personal visit. For “Jezreel” the LXX reads “Samaria.” The sense of the passage seems to require this reading. Jehu was already in Jezreel, and there seems to be no purpose in sending letters to the rulers of that city. There exists, of course, the probability that the princes of Jezreel were in Samaria on some mission and hence were included in the address. Since Jezreel was also a royal city, its princes would appropriately be numbered among those called upon to set up the new king.

For a comment on the ethical problems involved in many of the militant acts of those called by God to stamp out apostasy, see p. 199.

Them that brought up. Hebrew ha’omenim, foster fathers. The word occurs in Numbers 11:12 and Isaiah 49:23, where it is translated as “nursing father.” They were of the nobles of Israel who acted as guardians over the members of the royal family and saw to it that they received a proper training, and who would be held accountable for the behavior of their wards.