2 Kings 10:12

And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) And he arose . . . and came.—So the Syriac, rightly. The common Hebrew text has, “And he arose and came and departed.”

And as he was at the shearing house in the way.—Rather, He was at Beth-eqed-haroim on the way. The Targum renders: “He was at the shepherds’ meeting-house on the way.” The place was probably a solitary building, which served as a rendezvous for the shepherds of the neighbourhood. (The root ‘aqad means “to bind,” or “knot together;” hence the common explanation of the name is “the shepherds’ binding house,” i.e., the place where they bound their sheep for the shearing. But the idea of binding is easily connected with that of meeting, gathering together: comp. our words band, knot.) The LXX. has: “He was at Baithakad (or Baithakath) of the shepherds.” Eusebius mentions a place called Beithakad, fifteen Roman miles from Legio (Lejjûn), identical with the present Beitkâd, six miles east of Jenîn, in the plain of Esdraelon; but this seems too far off the route from Jezreel to Samaria, which passes Jenîn.

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 10:12-14. And he arose, and came to Samaria — Having finished his work in Jezreel, he went to prosecute it in the chief city of his kingdom, which most needed reformation. Jehu met the brethren of Ahaziah — Not strictly such; for his brethren, properly speaking, had been carried captive, and, it seems, killed also, before this time, as we read 2 Chronicles 21:17. Therefore, by brethren here, we must understand his brother’s sons, as is explained 2 Chronicles 22:8, or others of his near kinsmen, such being often called brethren in Scripture. We go down to salute the children of the king, &c. — They undoubtedly had set out from Jerusalem for this purpose, before they knew any thing of Joram’s being killed, and Jehu’s having seized the kingdom: and it appears by their answer, that they did not yet know any thing of it. And he said, Take them alive, &c. — They were allied to the family of Ahab by the mother’s side, (2 Kings 8:18,) and therefore being afraid lest, if they were suffered to live, they might find means to be avenged of him for the death of Joram, Ahaziah, Jezebel, and their children, whom they were going to visit, he ordered them to be slain; perhaps under pretence of fulfilling Elijah’s prophecy, 1 Kings 21:21. It seems, however, evident, that prediction did not extend so far, but would have been amply fulfilled by cutting off all of his family and blood within the kingdom of the ten tribes.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-14 In the most awful events, though attended by the basest crimes of man, the truth and justice of God are to be noticed; and he never did nor can command any thing unjust or unreasonable. Jehu destroyed all that remained of the house of Ahab; all who had been partners in his wickedness. When we think upon the sufferings and miseries of mankind, when we look forward to the resurrection and last judgment, and think upon the vast number of the wicked waiting their awful sentence of everlasting fire; when the whole sum of death and misery has been considered, the solemn question occurs, Who slew all these? The answer is, SIN. Shall we then harbour sin in our bosoms, and seek for happiness from that which is the cause of all misery?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The shearing-house - literally, as in margin. Perhaps already a proper name, Beth-eked, identical with the Beth-akad of Jerome, which is described as between Jezreel and Samaria; but not yet identified.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-11. said to all the people, Ye be righteous, &c.—A great concourse was assembled to gaze on this novel and ghastly spectacle. The speech which Jehu addressed to the spectators was artfully framed to impress their minds with the idea that so wholesale a massacre was the result of the divine judgments denounced on the house of Ahab; and the effect of it was to prepare the public mind for hearing, without horror, of a similar revolting tragedy which was soon after perpetrated, namely, the extinction of all the influential friends and supporters of the dynasty of Ahab, including those of the royal house of Judah.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Where they used to shear sheep, and then to feast, after their manner, 1 Samuel 25:36 2 Samuel 13:23. Or this may be the name of a place, Beth-hekel of the shepherds; or, Beth-heked-rohim.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

To make a clear riddance there of all that belonged to Ahab, as at Jezreel, and abolish idolatry there:

and as he was at the shearing house in the way; or, "the house of the binding of the shepherds", who, in shearing their sheep, bind their legs together; the Targum is,"the house of the gathering of the shepherds;''where they used to meet and converse together; with some it is the proper name of a place, Betheked, a country village between Jezreel and Samaria. Jerom speaks (q) of a village of this name, situated in a large plain, about fifteen miles from a place called Legion, which village he takes to be this here.

(q) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K.

Geneva Study Bible

And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12–17. On his way to Samaria Jehu slays the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah. He takes Jehonadab to be the witness of his zeal for Jehovah (Not in Chronicles)

12. And he arose and departed, and came [R.V. went] to Samaria] Beside being the more strictly correct rendering of the verb, the change in R.V. represents the order of events. Jehu is now starting for Samaria. On the way and before he came thither he met Jehonadab, and invited him to be his companion. The LXX. does not represent ‘and departed’.

the shearing house] R.V. the shearing house of the shepherds. The original is a more full expression here than in verse 14 below. So the additional words are needed. The phrase is explained as ‘the house of binding of the shepherds’ i.e. the place where the sheep were bound preparatory to being shorn. The R.V. margin has ‘house of gathering’, as the sheep were gathered together before the shearing began. There was probably close by some place suited for travellers to halt in, as it clearly lay along a high road. Thus we can understand how Jehu found the cavalcade of Ahab’s kindred stopping there.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 12-14. - The massacre of the brethren of Ahaziah. Verse 12. - And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria; rather, went on his way to Samaria (ἐπορεύθη εἰς Σαμάρειαν, LXX.). Having arranged matters at Jezreel as his interests required, and secured the adhesion of the Samaritan "great men," Jehu now sot out for the capital. The narrative from this point to ver. 17 is of events that happened to him while he was upon his road. And as he was at the shearing-house in the way. Between Jezreel and Samaria was a station where the shepherds of the district were accustomed to shear their flocks. The custom gave name to the place, which became known as Beth-Eked (Βαιθακάθ, LXX.; Beth-Akad, Jerome), "the house of binding," from the practice of tying the sheep's four feet together before shearing them, The situation has not been identified. 2 Kings 10:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Extermination of the Brothers of Ahaziah of Judah and of the Other Members of Ahab's Dynasty. - 2 Kings 10:12. Jehu then set out to Samaria; and on the way, at the binding-house of the shepherds, he met with the brethren of Ahaziah, who were about to visit their royal relations, and when he learned who they were, had them all seized, viz., forty-two men, and put to death at the cistern of the binding-house. ויּלך ויּבא, "he came and went," appears pleonastic; the words are not to be transposed, however, as Bttcher and Thenius propose after the Syriac, but ויּלך is added, because Jehu did not go at once to Samaria, but did what follows on the way. By transposing the words, the slaying of the relations of Ahaziah would be transferred to Samaria, in contradiction to 2 Kings 10:15. - The words from וגו בּית הוּא onwards, and from ויהוּא to יהוּדה מלך, are two circumstantial clauses, in which the subject יהוּא is added in the second clause for the sake of greater clearness: "when he was at the binding-house of the shepherds on the road, and Jehu (there) met with the brethren of Ahaziah, he said..." הרעים בּית־עקד (Βαιθακάθ, lxx) is explained by Rashi, after the Chaldee רעיּא כנישׁת בית, as signifying locus conventus pastorum, the meeting-place of the shepherds; and Gesenius adopts the same view. But the rest of the earlier translators for the most part adopt the rendering, locus ligationis pastorum, from עקד, to bind, and think of a house ubi pastores ligabant oves quando eas tondebant. In any case it was a house, or perhaps more correctly a place, where the shepherds were in the habit of meeting, and that on the road from Jezreel to Samaria; according to Eusebius on the Onom. s.v. Βαιθακάθ, a place fifteen Roman miles from Legio (Lejun, Megiddo), in the great plain of Jezreel: a statement which may be correct with the exception of the small number of miles, but which does not apply to the present village of Beit Kad to the east of Jenin (Rob. Pal. iii. p. 157), with which, according to Thenius, it exactly coincides. עחזיהוּ אחי, for which we have אח אחי בּני, Ahaziah's brothers' sons, in 2 Chronicles 22:8, were not the actual brothers of Ahaziah, since they had been carried off by the Arabians and put to death before he ascended the throne (2 Chronicles 21:17), but partly step-brothers, i.e., sons of Joram by his concubines, and partly Ahaziah's nephews and cousins. לשׁלום, ad salutandum, i.e., to inquire how they were, or to visit the sons of the king (Joram) and of the queen-mother, i.e., Jezebel, therefore Joram's brothers. In 2 Chronicles 22:1 they are both included among the "sons" of Ahab.