The kings of Israel and Judah

King Jehu

The kingdom of Israel (the north) · Reigned twenty-eight years (2 Kings 10:36) · A mixed reign · 2 Kings 9 to 10

Jehu was the army commander anointed by God to destroy the house of Ahab and root out Baal worship from Israel, which he did with ferocious energy, killing Joram, Jezebel, and all Ahab's line, and wiping out the priests and temple of Baal. For this obedience God promised him four generations on the throne. Yet Jehu did not turn from the golden calves of Jeroboam, and his zeal was not matched by a whole heart for God. His reign is a study in obedience without full devotion.

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.2 Kings 10:31 (KJV)

Anointed to execute judgment

Elisha sent a young prophet to anoint Jehu king over Israel and commission him to strike down the whole house of Ahab, to avenge the blood of the LORD's prophets that Jezebel had shed. Jehu moved at once and without mercy. He killed Joram king of Israel and threw his body into Naboth's field, killed Ahaziah king of Judah, and when Jezebel painted her face and taunted him from a window, he had her thrown down, and the dogs ate her by the wall of Jezreel, as Elijah had foretold.

He then had the seventy sons of Ahab in Samaria put to death, and destroyed all that remained of Ahab's house and his great men and priests, until he left none remaining. The long-pronounced judgment on Ahab was carried out to the letter.

The slaughter of Baal

Jehu then turned on the worship of Baal itself. By a ruse he proclaimed a great feast for Baal, gathered all its worshippers and priests into the temple of Baal, and had them killed to the last man. He tore down the temple of Baal, broke its images, and made it a refuse place. So Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel, uprooting the foreign cult that Ahab and Jezebel had planted.

For this God gave him a remarkable commendation and promise: Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. And indeed his dynasty was the longest in the northern kingdom.

Obedience without a whole heart

But there the good ends. For all his zeal against Baal, 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, the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. His zeal, fierce as it was, served God's judgment on Ahab and also, no doubt, his own ambition, and it never reached his own heart's idolatry.

In his days God began to cut Israel short, and the Syrians took territory east of the Jordan. His reforming violence purged Baal but not the deeper apostasy of the north, and the kingdom's decline continued.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Jehu is one of the most mixed figures among the kings, genuinely obedient in the task God gave him, rewarded with a lasting dynasty, and yet condemned for a divided heart that clung to Jeroboam's calves and did not follow God with all his heart. His story is the sobering possibility of doing God's work without truly loving God, of great zeal against others' sins alongside blindness to one's own.

The prophet Hosea would later look back and hold Jehu's bloodshed at Jezreel against his house, showing that even obedience carried out in the wrong spirit is weighed by God. Jehu points, by contrast, to the King whose zeal for God's house was pure, whose obedience and whose heart were perfectly one, who cleansed not with the sword but with his own blood, and served his Father with all his heart, and soul, and strength.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Joram of Israel · Jehoahaz of Israel · Ahaziah of Judah · All the kings of Israel and Judah