"Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab's children. He said, 'You have your master's sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, choose the best and most worthy of your master's sons and set him on your father's throne. Then fight for your master's house.'" (2 Kings 10:1-3)
The Bible's use of the word "children" here does not have to mean that Ahab's sons are not all adults. Ahab has been dead for twelve years and scholars estimate he was eighty-three years old when he died, so most or all of his children are adults by now, although some may still be in their mid to late teens if he was still fathering children in his senior years. The "elders" are probably advisors to Ahab's grown children and the "guardians" may be something like today's Secret Service who are protecting the members of the royal family, but it could be that some of his children are not yet legal adults and have been placed in the care of "guardians" to make decisions for them until they reach the age of majority. The reason I'm belaboring this point is that it will be important later for us not to think of Ahab's children as infants, toddlers, or elementary-school aged kids. The very youngest any of them could be is twelve.
You'll recall that way back in the book of 1 Kings the Lord instructed Elijah to anoint Jehu as the future king of Israel. We never read an account of Elijah doing so, but we did find Elisha sending an unnamed younger prophet to anoint Jehu. Jehu is the rightful king now by the will of God. He has taken over the royal city of Jezreel and the palace. But since Ahab has so many descendants, Jehu knows there could be many challengers to his right to ascend to the throne. He wants to get these challenges out of the way immediately, so he sends letters to everyone who is in charge of guarding all the potential heirs to the throne. He says something like, "If you have a candidate you'd like to place on the throne, and if you are willing to fight to keep him on the throne, the time to do it is now."
No one wants to take him up on this offer. "But they were terrified and said, 'If two kings could not resist him, how can we?'" (2 Kings 10:4) This is a fight no one thinks they can win. Jehu was formerly the chief commander of Israel's army and he has a great deal of military support behind him. No one in the army opposed him when he led the charge against Jezreel and killed King Joram. No one in the army opposed him when he ordered soldiers to pursue and kill the fleeing King Ahaziah of Judah. The citizens of the city didn't mount a resistance against him either but instead he was able to boldly march into Jezreel. He was even able to order the death of the queen mother, Jezebel, by asking who in the city was on his side; the very men whose job it was to guard her threw her out of an upper window.
Because the top officials of the nation don't think they can successfully oppose Jehu, they reply to his letters by promising him their allegiance. "So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: 'We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.'" (2 Kings 10:5)
Jehu thinks it best to completely wipe out the family of Ahab. "Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, 'If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master's sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.'" (2 Kings 10:6a) The prophet Elijah warned King Ahab that his entire dynasty would be cut off due to how exceedingly sinful he was and due to how much sin he led the people into. The Lord said to Ahab through Elijah: "I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off every last male in Israel---slave or free. I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have aroused My anger and caused Israel to sin." (1 Kings 21:21-22) The Lord had cut off the dynasties of King Jeroboam and King Baasha, which Ahab well knew, and warned him He would do the same to his own dynasty. This is about to come to pass when all the sons of Ahab are killed.
Scholars point out that when the Bible says "sons of Ahab" this could mean literal sons, grandsons, or sons and grandsons combined. But it's very possible that Ahab actually fathered seventy sons because it was typical for kings of that era to have large harems. If he lived to be eighty-three years old and he reigned for twenty-two years after he became king, this means he was already sixty-one when he was crowned king of Israel. He would already have had a wife or wives and a number of children by then. He probably expanded his harem a great deal after he became king. During his long life he easily could have fathered seventy sons and an untold number of daughters. So when Jehu asks the leaders of Israel to bring him the heads of Ahab's sons in a basket, these are probably Ahab's actual sons. But it does seem likely he would have had grandsons too and I cannot discount the idea that some may have been minors at the time of their death. I do think the majority of Ahab's descendants who will be killed in tomorrow's text are grown men but I can't say that all of them are.
In tomorrow's text we will find the officials of Israel carrying out Jehu's orders.
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