Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The images - Or “pillars” of wood. The Phoenician pillar idols were mere columns, obelisks, or posts, destitute of any shaping into the semblance of humanity (compare 1 Kings 14:23 note).

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burnt them. Lesser images, the images of other deities, or what were placed as decorations of the temple.

Keil & Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

They then fetched the columns ( מצּבת ) out of the temple and burned them (the suffix in ישׂרפוּה refers to the plural מצּבת taken as an abstract noun, as in 2 Kings 3:3; cf. Ewald, §317, a .). They then broke in pieces the הבּעל מצּבת, column of Baal, i.e., the real image of Baal, probably a conical stone dedicated to Baal, whereas the מצּבת, which were burned, were wooden columns as πάρεδροι or σύμβοομοι of Baal (see Movers, Phöniz . i. p. 674).

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Kings 10:26 And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.

Ver. 26. And they brought forth the images, and burned them.] So they did here in King Edward VI’s reign; and the same day Musselburgh field in Scotland was won by the English.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Heb. it, i.e. the collection of the images, or each of them.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

26.Brought’ the images — These are supposed to have been wooden statues or pillars consecrated to Baal or some of his associate deities.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

images, or statues.

them = each of them.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) The images.—Rather, the pillars; which were of wood, and had a sacred significance. (Comp. Hosea 3:4.) “In primitive times a pillar was the distinguishing mark of a holy place. Idolatrous pillars were commanded to be destroyed (Exodus 23:24), but most critics think that pillars to Jehovah were quite allowable till the time of Hezekiah or Josiah, to which they assign the Book of Deuteronomy. (Comp. Deuteronomy 16:21-22.) At any rate, the prophet (Isaiah) gives an implicit sanction to the erection of a sacred pillar in Egypt” (Cheyne’s Note on Isaiah 19:19). The LXX. has the singular here ( τὴν στήλην) and the plural in the next verse. The Syriac has the singular “statue” in both.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

images

Heb. statues.

1 Kings 14:23; *marg:

and burned them

19:18; 2 Samuel 5:21