Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Put their heads in baskets - What cold-blooded wretches were the whole of these people!

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them,.... They did not in the least hesitate, but immediately complied with the contents of it:

that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons; which was the whole number of them:

and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jezreel; as a present to Jehu, just as they carried the firstfruits, as Abarbinel observes.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.

Sent them — Jehu justly required this, because the sovereign lord of all mens lives commanded it, but the Samaritans wickedly obeyed it, without any knowledge of, or regard to God's command.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Kings 10:7 And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him [them] to Jezreel.

Ver. 7. And put their heads in baskets.] Apposite ad culpam Achab, saith A Lapide: this was suitable to Ahab’s sin. He had sent for baskets of grapes out of Naboth’s vineyard at Jezreel; and now the heads of his sons are brought thither in baskets. Oh, doleful burden!

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Slew seventy persons: Jehu justly required this, because the sovereign and most righteous Lord of all men’s lives commanded it; but the Samaritans wickedly obeyed it, because they destroyed persons in a great measure innocent, merely out of slavish fear, and without any knowledge of or regard to God’s command.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

2 Kings 10:7. They took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons — Having been wickedly obsequious to Jezebel’s order for the murder of Naboth, now, by the same base spirit, they are as pliable to Jehu, and as ready to obey his orders for the murder of Ahab’s sons. From this example, princes may learn two important lessons: 1st, Not to place any dependance on the attachment or fidelity of those who are not influenced by the fear of God, and the dictates of conscience: for who can reasonably expect him to be true to his prince who is false to his God? 2d, Not to aim at arbitrary power, lest they be found rolling a stone, which, some time or other, will return upon themselves. Princes that make their people slaves, take the readiest way to make them rebels; and by forcing men’s consciences, as Jezebel did, they lose their hold of them.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

baskets = the baskets. Hebrew. dud, for carrying fruit. Still used for this purpose. Not sal (bread-basket), which Gideon (Judges 6:19), and Pharaoh"s baker (Genesis 40:17) used.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) And slew.—Rather, butchered, or slaughtered. The way in which the writer speaks of this massacre—“they took the king’s sons, and butchered seventy persons”—shows that he did not sympathise with Jehu’s deeds of blood. His interest rather centres in the fact that the predictions of Elijah were fulfilled by the wickedness of Jehu. (See 2 Kings 10:10.)

In baskets.—Rather, in the baskets. The word (dûd) means a “pot” elsewhere (1 Samuel 2:14). In Psalms 81:6, the LXX. renders κόφινος; here it gives καρτάλλοις (“pointed baskets”).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.

slew seventy

9; 11:1; Judges 9:5-57; 1 Kings 21:21; 2 Chronicles 21:4; Matthew 14:8-11

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 4:7 - took his head;  2 Samuel 14:30 - And Absalom's;  2 Samuel 20:21 - his head;  1 Kings 21:11 - did as Jezebel;  Psalm 81:6 - from the pots;  Proverbs 29:12 - General;  Hosea 1:4 - and I;  Hosea 7:7 - devoured;  Habakkuk 2:10 - consulted