John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 8. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, they have brought the heads of the king’s sons , etc.] Perhaps this messenger to Jehu came from the great men of Samaria themselves, to let him know that they had obeyed his orders: and he said, lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning ; very probably it was towards or at the evening they were brought; and he ordered them to be taken out of the baskets, and laid in two heaps at the entering of the gate of the city, that they might be taken notice of, and publicly viewed by the people that passed and repassed the gate; and where they met in great numbers, either on account of the market there, or court of judicature there held, especially in mornings; and here they were to remain till the morning, though not without a guard, that they might still be more exposed to view; Noldius renders it, “without the door of the gate”, for they were brought at night, when the gate was shut.
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 ויבא935 המלאך4397 ויגד5046 לו לאמר559 הביאו935 ראשׁי7218 בני1121 המלך4428 ויאמר559 שׂימו7760 אתם853 שׁני8147 צברים6652 פתח6607 השׁער8179 עד5704 הבקר׃1242
