Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Jehu took no heed - He never made it his study; indeed, he never intended to walk in this way; it neither suited his disposition nor his politics.

The Biblical Illustrator

2 Kings 10:31

Jehu took no heed to walk in law of the Lord.

Ruin wrought by neglect

I remember once seeing a bit of an old Roman road; the lava blocks were there, but for want of care, here a young sapling had grown up between two of them and had driven them apart; there they were split by the frost; here was a great ugly gap full of mud; and the whole thing ended in a jungle. How shall a man keep the road in repair? “By taking heed thereto.” Things that are left to go anyhow in this world have a strange knack of going one “how.” You do not need anything else than negligence to ensure that thing will come to grief. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Heedlessness perilous

There is no need that the man in a skiff amid Niagara’s rapids should row toward the cataract; resting on his oars is quite enough to send him over the awful verge. It is the neglected wheel that capsizes the vehicle and maims for life the passengers. It is the neglected leak that sinks the ship. It is the neglected field that yields briers instead of bread. It is the neglected spark near the magazine whose tremendous explosion sends its hundreds of mangled wretches into eternity. The neglect of an officer to throw up a rocket on a certain night caused the fall of Antwerp, and postponed the deliverance of Holland for twenty or more years. The neglect of a sentinel to give an alarm hindered the fall of Sebastopol, and resulted in the loss of many thousand lives.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart,.... As to his moral conversation, he was not careful that it was according to the law of God, and what he did agreeable to it, it was not sincerely, and from the right principle:

for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin; which he would, if he had had a cordial respect to all the commandments of the law.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.

Took no heed — Sin, clearly shewed that his heart was not right with God.

James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

JEHU THE HEEDLESS—A CHARACTER STUDY

‘Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.’

2 Kings 10:31

Was Jehu, then, a hypocrite? Was all his zeal for the Lord false and affected? Any one who said so would quite miss the point of Jehu’s character and the moral of his history. It is because there is so great a mixture of good and evil in his deeds, because there is so much in his character that deserves to be imitated while there is also, at the same time, a deadly flaw in it which mars its beauty, that his history is worthy of particular study.

I. Notice, first, that in the double mission which Jehu was called to perform—the destruction of the house of Ahab and of the worship of Baal—there was no self-denial necessary on his part.—The duty to which he was called was not one which violently crossed any propensity, or stood in the way of any selfish feeling. His words to Jehonadab, ‘Come and see my zeal for the Lord,’ are a key to the state of Jehu’s mind when he set himself to reform the religion; his zeal was to be the prominent object to be looked at; the awful spectacle of God’s people revolted from the worship of Jerusalem, the painful duty of slaughtering thousands of the followers of Baal was to be as nothing compared with the spectacle exhibited to Jehonadab by Jehu’s zeal.

II. Jehu’s zeal burnt brightly, and scorched up everything before it, as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was ‘zeal for God when it answers my purpose,’ not ‘zeal for God, cost me what it may.’ He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God.

—Bishop Harvey Goodwin.

Illustration

‘Jehu’s dealings with the house of Omri, which are commended in 2 Kings, were denounced in the eighth century b.c. by Hosea: “yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu”—and the denunciation, it may be, faithfully reflects not only the prophetic, but the popular verdict upon the character and career of this monarch. It is idle to suggest in his defence that the end justified the means. There can be but one judgment upon his treachery, his remorselessness, his bloodthirsty violence, his murderous ferocity. His qualities are, with one exception, in utter contrast to those of the true servants of God. And yet he possesses a single characteristic which connects him with the highest ministry. This savage, barbarous fighter—who was checked by no considerations of mercy or pity, who never allowed himself to be turned aside from his purpose, who was willing to purchase success at any cost—was thorough, up to his lights. His ideals were incomplete; but, as far as they went, they dominated his policy. And it is this one consideration which renders him, in any acceptable sense of the phrase, a biblical hero.’

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Kings 10:31 But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.

Ver. 31. With all his heart.] He had a dispensatory conscience, a rotten heart, and that was his ruin. A man may recover of a fever, and die of a dropsy; so he that leaveth some gross sin, yet huggeth a less, is an undone person.

For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam.] No, though the Lord had made him such large promises, as 2 Kings 10:30, compare 2 Corinthians 7:1. Nevertheless he may as well deserve - as did Galba, and our Richard III - to be reckoned in the rank of bad men, but good princes.

Sermon Bible Commentary

2 Kings 10:31

Was Jehu then a hypocrite? Was all his zeal for the Lord false and affected? Any one who said so would quite miss the point of Jehu's character and the moral of his history. It is because there is so great a mixture of good and evil in his deeds, because there is so much in his character that deserves to be imitated while there is also, at the same time, a deadly flaw in it, which mars its beauty, that his history is worthy of particular study.

I. Notice, first, that in the double mission which Jehu was called to perform—the destruction of the house of Ahab and of the worship of Baal—there was no self-denial necessary on his part. The duty to which he was called was not one which violently crossed any propensity, or stood in the way of any selfish feeling. His words to Jehonadab, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord," are a key to the state of Jehu's mind when he set himself to reform the religion; his zeal was to be the prominent object to be looked at; the awful spectacle of God's people revolted from the worship of Jerusalem, the painful duty of slaughtering thousands of the followers of Baal, was to be as nothing compared with the spectacle exhibited to Jehonadab by Jehu's zeal.

II. Jehu's zeal burnt brightly, and scorched up everything before it, as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was "zeal for God when it answers my purpose," not "zeal for God, cost me what it may." He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 48.

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References: 2 Kings 10:31.—E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 174; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 685. 2Ki 10—Parker, Fountain, April 26th, 1877. 2 Kings 11:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 972. 2Ki 11—Parker, vol. viii., p. 217. 2 Kings 12:2.—D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3101. 2 Kings 13:14.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. vi., p. 113. 2 Kings 13:14-19.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 309. 2 Kings 13:14-21.—J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 163, and Good Words, 1861, p. 527. 2 Kings 13:14-22.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 164.

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

2 Kings 10:31. But Jehu took no heed, &c.— Jehu indeed made great ostentation of his zeal for the Lord; and it must be acknowledged, that for his performance of the divine commands in this respect, he received commendations from God: yet he was still a bad man, though he did well in executing that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as to the abolition of the worship of Baal; for, his obstinate persistance in the sin of Jeroboam may be justly alleged against him as an argument of his false-heartedness in all his other actions. The reasons why he continued in this kind of idolatry were much the same with him, as they were with the first institutor of it; namely, lest, by permitting his subjects to go to the place appointed for divine worship, he might open a door for their return to the obedience of the house of David; and not only so, but disoblige likewise a great part of the nobility of the nation, who by this time had been long accustomed, and were warmly affected, to the worship of the golden calves. Herein, however, he made a clear discovery of his folly and his sin, in not daring to trust God with the preservation of that kingdom which he had so freely bestowed upon him. The truth is, Jehu was a bold, wicked, furious, and implacable man; but a man of this complexion, considering the work he was to be set about, was a proper instrument to be employed; and so far is it from tending to the reproach, that it is infinitely to the glory of God, that he can make use of such boisterous and unruly passions of mankind for the accomplishment of his just designs; Psalms 76:10. This he plainly did in the case of Jehu: for, after the Lord had settled him in the possession of a kingdom, and found that he still persisted in his political idolatry, he brought down the king of Assyria upon him, who smote the coasts of Israel, and quite wasted all that part of his kingdom which lay beyond the river Jordan. See the next verses, and Poole.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

With all his heart: His obedience wanted three necessary properties, care or heedfulness, universality, and sincerity.

He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam; his resolved continuance in one single course is justly alleged as an argument of his false-heartedness in all his other actions.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

2 Kings 10:31. But Jehu took no care to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel — He abolished the worship of Baal, but did not keep up the worship of God, nor walk in his law. He showed great zeal and care for the rooting out of a false religion; but in the true religion he showed no care, took no heed: was not solicitous to please God and do his duty. With all his heart — His heart, his whole heart, was not engaged in, nor influenced by religion; nor was he truly zealous for the glory of God, and the advancement of true and genuine piety in himself and others. It is evident his own religion was very superficial, and yet God made use of him as an instrument of effecting some reformation in Israel. It is a pity that those who do good to others, are not always good themselves.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.

the sins. Hebrew. chata". App-44. Some codices read "all the sins".

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) But Jehu took no heed.—Or, Now Jehu had not been careful. This verse, rather than the next, begins a new paragraph.

To walk in the law—i.e., the Mosaic law, which forbids the use of images, such as the “calves.”

With all his heart.—This is explained by the next sentence. He had done honour to Jehovah by extirpating the foreign Baal-worship, but he supported the irregular mode of worshipping Jehovah established by Jeroboam as the state religion of the Northern kingdom.

For.—Not in the Hebrew.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.

took no heed

Heb. observed not.

Deuteronomy 4:15,23; 1 Kings 2:4; Psalms 39:1; 119:9; Proverbs 4:23; Hebrews 2:1; 12:15

walk

Deuteronomy 5:33; 10:12,13; 2 Chronicles 6:16; Nehemiah 10:29; Psalms 78:10; Ezekiel 36:27; Daniel 9:10

he departed

29; 3:3; 1 Kings 14:16

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 4:29 - with all;  Deuteronomy 21:9 - when thou shalt;  1 Samuel 2:24 - ye make;  2 Samuel 21:2 - in his zeal;  1 Kings 12:30 - became a sin;  1 Kings 13:34 - became sin;  1 Kings 15:29 - he left not;  1 Kings 16:7 - because he killed him;  2 Kings 10:16 - Come with me;  2 Kings 15:9 - as his;  2 Kings 17:2 - but not as the kings;  2 Kings 17:22 - walked in all the sins;  2 Kings 23:15 - the altar;  Jeremiah 34:15 - ye;  Matthew 6:1 - to be;  Matthew 20:14 - thine;  Luke 9:54 - wilt;  James 3:14 - and lie