We learn quickly that Jehu is not a good guy. He uses the Word of Jehovah as a cover for his bloodthirsty ways. He is very sly and political, but not very religious at all.
Ahab had as yet seventy surviving descendants in and around Samaria and Jezreel. Jehu sent a letter to the ruling nobles in the kingdom, specifically to those tasked with maintaining the royal family. It was common in those days for royalty to apprentice their excess sons to other officials, in part to keep them from developing an appetite for competing with the chosen heirs.
Jehu’s letter warned them that, since they had Ahab’s surviving heirs, and that they all possessed the means for warfare, they should decide who would succeed Jehoram. Then they should prepare to defend that choice with whatever forces they had against those that Jehu could muster against them. But with two kings dead, their only counsel was to surrender before they were all killed. So they sent letters back capitulating completely.
So Jehu sent a second letter instructing them to execute all of Ahab’s descendants and to bring the heads to him at Jezreel. When Jehu got word the deed was done, he instructed that the heads should be piled on either side of the city gate. The next morning he called an assembly of representative elders of the kingdom. The essence of this meeting was for them to swear fealty to him as King.
He opened with the comment that they were capable of judging — “You are righteous (enough to know what’s good).” He noted that he had led a revolt against his master. Indicating the heads of Ahab’s family, he asked a rhetorical question: Who killed these? The whole point is that he’s trying to avoid portraying himself as the bloodthirsty tyrant he was. Rather, he was faithful to the word of Jehovah through Elijah the prophet.
This gave him the political cover to continue the slaughter, taking out everyone who still supported Ahab’s dynasty. That was a lot of dead bodies.
Then he headed off to Samaria to finish all the administrative work of asserting his rule over the capital city itself. On the way, he ran across the royal family of Jehoram’s sister, Athaliah, coming from Judah to visit their relatives in Jezreel. They had no idea at this point what had happened. The text uses the abbreviated term “Ahaziah’s brothers,” referring to the recently dispatched King of Judah. We don’t currently know where this shearing house was, except that it was somewhere between Ibleam and Samaria. So Jehu ordered his troops to seize them alive, then he had them executed in ritual fashion, buried in a pit and covered with rocks. This was a common way of marking the grave of criminals. Thus, all of Ahab’s descendants from Judah were gone, too, obeying God’s command.
Between there and Samaria, he met someone important on the way. It was Jehonadab, the chief elder of the Rechabites. These were folks who remained faithful to the old nomad ways, living in tents, herding sheep and goats, and avoiding anything tied with sedentary living, which included not drinking wine. This was a commitment to purity, and it made them a very famous community in Israel, known for their zeal for Jehovah.
Jehu asked Jehonadab to publicly support him, and the elder agreed. He rode in Jehu’s chariot to symbolize it. Notice how Jehu invests a lot of effort in appearances, but not much in actual moral good. He’s got Jehonadab fooled. With this support, he entered Samaria and wiped out all of the remaining supporters of Ahab’s dynasty in the city.
Now it’s time for one last trick. He stood in the company of those who continued to support Jezebel’s program of converting Israel to worshiping Baal (and by implication, Ashtarte). Jehu put on like he was going to really outdo Ahab and Jezebel, and ordered up a celebration. He demanded that everyone devoted to Baal show up. The Temple to Baal was packed. Then he issued a command that all the faithful worshipers of Baal be given sacred robes for this big ceremony. This, of course, would mark them visibly.
Standing near the entrance with Jehonadab as his witness, he ordered that any worshiper of Jehovah who slipped in would be tossed out. Meanwhile, Jehu came out and secretly told his eighty-man armed escort to not let anyone in a robe leave alive. Then the devotees went inside the sanctuary and began their ceremony. As soon as the high priest finished with the offerings, Jehu ordered his men to attack those in the temple.
After the bodies were dragged out, so were all the idols and furnishings. All of it was burned. The whole place was knocked down, leaving only one or two rows of wall stones. It was designated as a sewer; that is, it became the place where chamber pots were dumped in the city. They had a well, but no running water and no sewer system as we would think of it. With folks dumping their sewage there, it could never be used as a shrine again. Everything Jezebel built was gone.
However, Jehu was political, not truly faithful to Jehovah. He kept the shrines of Jeroboam active for the same reason they were built: Jehu wanted to ensure his people didn’t allow worshiping in Jerusalem to become a wedge for pulling them back under the Kings of Judah. He kept up the pretense of worshiping Jehovah as the deity who rode the golden calves.
But since Jehu did faithfully execute the will of Jehovah against the family of Ahab, the Lord promised that Jehu’s dynasty would last at least to the fourth generation. Meanwhile, the Syrian usurper Hazael began raiding all the regions of Israel that he could reach. After twenty-eight years on the throne, Jehu was succeeded by his son, Jehoahaz.
