John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 6. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them , etc.] Having gained his point by the former: saying, if ye be mine , acknowledge yourselves my subjects and servants; and if ye will hearken to my voice ; obey my commands: take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons ; that is, take off their heads: and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time meaning with the heads along with them: (now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up;) they were in their houses, and under their tuition, and so had an authority over them, and could dispose of them at pleasure; they were not ordinary persons to whose care they were committed, but the principal men of the city.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 no can command any thing unjust or unreasonable. Jehu destroyed all tha 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 thin upon the vast number of the wicked waiting their awful sentence of everlasting fire; when the whole sum of death and misery has bee considered, the solemn question occurs, Who slew all these? The answe is, SIN. Shall we then harbour sin in our bosoms, and seek for happiness from that which is the cause of all misery?
Original Hebrew ויכתב3789 אליהם413 ספר5612 שׁנית8145 לאמר559 אם518 לי אתם859 ולקלי6963 אתם859 שׁמעים8085 קחו3947 את853 ראשׁי7218 אנשׁי376 בני1121 אדניכם113 ובאו935 אלי413 כעת6256 מחר4279 יזרעאלה3157 ובני1121 המלך4428 שׁבעים7657 אישׁ376 את854 גדלי1419 העיר5892 מגדלים1431 אותם׃853
