Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 10

Jehu’s order about the sons of Ahab

2 Kings 10:5-6

Samaria’s leaders and the palace officials were desperate to make peace with Jehu. They did not want him to attack their city – rather, they wanted him to rule their nation. Even the teachers of Ahab’s sons agreed with them. So, together, they wrote back to Jehu. They were very afraid of him.

Their problem was that they were responsible for the 70 sons of Ahab’s family. Those boys and young men were living in safety in their city – but they were Jehu’s enemies. Any one of them could claim to have a better right than Jehu to be king.

So, the leaders, officials and teachers asked Jehu what they should do. They insisted that they were completely loyal to him. They would not appoint any of Ahab’s sons as king, to fight against Jehu. They agreed to do whatever Jehu wanted them to do about Ahab’s family.

Jehu wrote back a strong reply. If they were truly loyal to him, they must meet him in Jezreel tomorrow. (Jezreel was about 20 miles (30 kilometres) north of Samaria). In addition, they must bring with them the heads of Ahab’s sons. If they did that, then Jehu would not attack Samaria.

Jehu clearly wanted those boys and young men to die. However, he did not want to be responsible for their deaths. Even the words in his reply seem to have another possible meaning. The ‘heads’ of a family mean the most important members of that family (for example, Exodus 18:25). Jehu’s words might mean that he wanted the officials to arrest and to hand over the most important of Ahab’s sons. However, the more likely meaning is that the officials must kill all of the sons. So, Jehu gave back to them the responsibility to decide what they must do. Also he gave them no time to ask him for further instructions. They had to act at once.

Next part: The awful deaths of Ahab's 70 sons (2 Kings 10:7)

Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.