The Fallible Study Bible

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2 Kings10:34–36

Jehoahaz Succeeds Jehu in Israel

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2 Kings 10:34–36 — Jehoahaz Succeeds Jehu in Israel. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

34

As for the rest of the acts of Jehu, along with all his accomplishments and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê yê·hū wə·ḵāl ’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh wə·ḵāl gə·ḇū·rā·ṯōw hă·lō·w- hêm kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yiś·rā·’êl

Word by word17 · parsed
וְיֶ֨תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499
√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
yether: an overhanging, a remainder The formula word of the book of Kings. Strong's root sense is spatial before it is numerical: what hangs over. Applied to a reign of twenty-eight years it is a hard piece of editorial theology, since everything the narrator judged unnecessary to the covenant verdict is left hanging outside the canonical account. The Verifier finds this lexeme, with two others from this verse, in the closing formula at 2 Kings 13:8, where the same book shuts the file on this Jehu's son.
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word Construct plural, “words of Jehu.” The Hebrew refuses the split between speech and deed, which is why the same noun serves the king's acts here and the royal annals in word 13. Jehu, whose whole rise turned on a word spoken by a prophet at Ramoth-gilead, is summed up as a set of words on someone else's scroll.
יֵה֛וּאyê·hūof JehuH3058
√ Yêhûwʼ — Jehu, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וְכָל־wə·ḵālalong with allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerhis accomplishmentsH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
עָשָׂ֖ה‘ā·śāh. . .H6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
Qal perfect, “he did”: the relative clause ʼăšer ʻāśāh has no object at all in Hebrew, which is why the interlinear gloss for this word is blank.
וְכָל־wə·ḵāland allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
גְּבוּרָת֑וֹgə·ḇū·rā·ṯōwhis mightH1369
√ gᵉbûwrâh — force (literally or figuratively)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
gᵉbûwrâh: force, might Feminine noun with third masculine singular suffix. The Pulpit Commentary records that “might” is ascribed by the writer of Kings only to Baasha and Omri among previous Israelite kings, and “all his might” only to Asa. Barnes calls the usage remarkable given that Jehu lost territory to Hazael and paid tribute to Assyria, and suggests the sense is personal courage. Cambridge, reading the cuneiform record, notes Jehu still “appears to have made his mark as a warrior.” The word is honest about the man's force and silent about his faithfulness.
הֲלֽוֹא־hă·lō·w-. . .H3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
The interrogative hă fused to the negative lōʼ: a rhetorical question that functions as a full stop.
הֵ֣םhêm. . .H1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
hêm (H1992) is used, Strong's notes, only when emphatic: “are they not, they, written.”
כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmare they not writtenH3789
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural
kâthab: to grave, to write, to inscribe Qal passive participle, masculine plural: not “were written” but “written ones,” a standing condition. The root's first sense is to grave, to cut in. The narrator's closing gesture for nearly every king is to point away from his own scroll to another one, and that other scroll no longer exists. What survives is the inspired judgment, not the archive.
עַל־‘al-inH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612
√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct
çêpher: writing, a document Construct singular. Not a codex but a written thing; the same noun stands for a letter in 2 Kings 10:1, where Jehu himself wrote letters to Samaria concerning the sons of Ahab. The man who opened this chapter by writing closes it as an entry in someone else's document, and that document has perished while this one has not.
דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct
הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîmH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day Article plus masculine plural, “the days.” diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm, “words of the days,” is the Hebrew title the Greek tradition turned into Chronicles. The same noun opens verse 36, where “the days” become the measure of a reign: the annal and the lifespan are counted in the same word.
לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428
√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃yiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
35

And Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yê·hū way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·bə·rū ’ō·ṯōw bə·šō·mə·rō·wn bə·nōw yə·hō·w·’ā·ḥāz way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word11 · parsed
יֵהוּא֙yê·hūAnd JehuH3058
√ Yêhûwʼ — Jehu, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901
√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâkab: to lie down Qal consecutive imperfect. The standing royal death formula of Kings. That Jehu, who came to the throne by the sword and by the prophetic word, receives the peaceful verb rather than a violent end is itself the narrator's quiet report that the promise of 2 Kings 10:30 is holding: he dies in his bed and his son follows him.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father Masculine plural construct with suffix. Strong's allows both “literal and immediate” and “figurative and remote” application, and the looseness is the point here: the formula speaks of ancestors in a royal line, but Jehu founded his line himself. Cambridge notes that Assyrian records still call him “Jehu the son of Omri,” the dynastic name outliving the dynasty he destroyed.
וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּway·yiq·bə·rūand was buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
qâbar: to inter Qal consecutive imperfect, third person masculine plural, subject unnamed. Burial in Kings is a verdict: Jeroboam's house was to be eaten by dogs, Jezebel was left as dung on the field, and Ahab's seventy sons were heaped in baskets at the gate. Jehu gets a grave.
אֹת֖וֹ’ō·ṯōwH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerthird person masculine singular
בְּשֹׁמְר֑וֹןbə·šō·mə·rō·wnin SamariaH8111
√ Shômᵉrôwn — Shomeron, a place in PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Shômᵉrôwn: Samaria Barnes observes that Ahab's family had made Jezreel a sort of second capital, while Jehu and his descendants seem to have fixed their residence wholly in Samaria. Gill notes that Omri and Ahab were buried in this same city. The purge did not move the throne; it only changed who sat on it.
בְּנ֖וֹbə·nōwand his sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
bên: a son, builder of the family name The dynastic word. Strong's gloss, a son as builder of the family name, states exactly what is at stake in the four-generation promise made to Jehu.
יְהוֹאָחָ֥זyə·hō·w·’ā·ḥāzJehoahazH3059
√ Yᵉhôwʼâchâz — Jehoachaz, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôwʼâchâz: Jehoahaz The name means the LORD has grasped or held. Gill records that he reigned seventeen years (2 Kings 13:1); Cambridge works the chronology against Joash of Judah and finds no necessary contradiction between 2 Kings 12:1 and 2 Kings 13:1. He is generation two of the four granted to Jehu's house.
וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
תַּחְתָּֽיו׃taḥ·tāwin his placeH8478
√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular
taḥtāyw, “under him,” the ordinary idiom for succession in Kings.
36

So the duration of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·hay·yā·mîm ’ă·šer yê·hū mā·laḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl bə·šō·mə·rō·wn ‘eś·rîm ū·šə·mō·neh- šā·nāh

Word by word10 · parsed
וְהַיָּמִ֗יםwə·hay·yā·mîmSo the durationH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day Article plus masculine plural. Placing “the days” first makes time, not the king, the subject of the sentence. Kings measures men by how long they were given and what they did with it; this is the last sentence about Jehu, and it is a number.
אֲשֶׁ֨ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
יֵהוּא֙yê·hūof Jehu’sH3058
√ Yêhûwʼ — Jehu, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
מָלַ֤ךְmā·laḵreignH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign Qal perfect, third masculine singular. K&D notes that the length of Jehu's reign is uniquely held back to the very end here, contrary to the usual custom of these books, because his accession was never formally announced: he was anointed in a back room at Ramoth-gilead, and so the book gives his regnal arithmetic only as it closes the file.
עַל־‘al-overH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
בְּשֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃פbə·šō·mə·rō·wnin SamariaH8111
√ Shômᵉrôwn — Shomeron, a place in PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Shômᵉrôwn: Samaria The city Omri bought and built. Jehu destroyed Omri's house, kept Omri's capital, and (as Cambridge notes from the Assyrian records) was still called Omri's son by the neighbouring powers.
עֶשְׂרִ֥ים‘eś·rîm[was] twenty-eightH6242
√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural
ʻesrîym: twenty With šᵉmôneh (eight, which Strong's describes as a surplus above the perfect seven) this is the longest reign yet recorded for a king of Israel. Gill says it was longer than any king of Israel had reigned; the Pulpit Commentary corrects the claim, noting Jeroboam II's forty-one years in 2 Kings 14:23, which came later in the same dynasty.
וּשְׁמֹנֶֽה־ū·šə·mō·neh-. . .H8083
√ shᵉmôneh — a cardinal number, eight (as if a surplus above the 'perfect' seven)Conjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular
שָׁנָ֖הšā·nāhyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
shâneh: a year, a revolution of time Singular after the numeral, as Hebrew counts. The closing word of the unit is a unit of measurement.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The remainder that hangs outside the book — 10:34

⚙ The verse is a formula, and the formula is a theology. וְיֶתֶר (yether, H3499) is glossed by Strong's as “properly, an overhanging”: what is left over the edge. The narrator takes a twenty-eight year reign, keeps the covenant verdict, and lets the rest hang outside his scroll, pointing to an annal that no longer exists. What is kept is the one word that surprises the commentators. Barnes calls it remarkable that “all his might” is applied to Jehu and to no other king of Israel, given his ill success against Hazael and his tribute to Assyria, and proposes that it means “personal courage” rather than “power.” The Pulpit Commentary supplies the statistics: “might” is ascribed by the writer of Kings only to Baasha and Omri among previous Israelite monarchs, and “all his might” only to Asa. Cambridge, reading the cuneiform evidence, grants that though Jehu's reign marks the beginning of Israel's decay, he still appears to have made his mark as a warrior. Ellicott adds the textual footnote: some manuscripts, the Targum and the Vulgate omit “all,” and the Septuagint adds a clause about conspiracies which the Hebrew does not have. ⚙ Put together, the verse gives Jehu the vocabulary of strength and withholds the vocabulary of faithfulness, and the omission is the sentence.

ii. He lay down with fathers who were not his — 10:35

⚙ וַיִּשְׁכַּב (shâkab, H7901) is the ordinary verb “to lie down,” and Gill renders the formula without ceremony: “Died as they did.” The weight is in what surrounds it. The man who left Jezebel to the dogs and stacked seventy heads at the gate of Jezreel is himself taken up by unnamed hands, וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ, third person plural and active, and laid in Samaria, where (as Gill notes) Omri and Ahab were buried before him. Barnes observes that Ahab's family had made Jezreel a sort of second capital, while Jehu and his descendants fixed their residence wholly in Samaria. He is buried “with his fathers,” though his fathers were not kings; Cambridge records that the Assyrian inscriptions still name him Jehu the son of Omri, since the family name of the throne outlived the family. ⚙ A usurper receives the settled formula of a legitimate line, and his son יְהוֹאָחָז (Jehoahaz, “the LORD has grasped”) reigns תַּחְתָּיו, under him. The four generations promised at 2 Kings 10:30 have begun to be paid out.

iii. Twenty and eight year — 10:36

⚙ The last sentence about Jehu is an arithmetic. וְהַיָּמִים, “and the days,” stands first and makes time the subject; שָׁנָה stands last, singular after the numeral, a word Strong's defines as a revolution of time. K&D notice the structural oddity: the length of his reign is not given until the end in this instance, contrary to the usual custom of these books, because his accession was never formally announced. Ellicott reads the final position of “in Samaria” as emphasis, indicating that Jehu made Samaria and not Jezreel the seat of his court. Gill says the reign was longer than any king of Israel had reigned; the Pulpit Commentary is more exact, calling twenty-eight years a long reign for an Israelite king, exceeded only by Jeroboam II with forty-one. ⚙ The number is a mercy and a verdict at once: it is the reward promised for executing judgment on Ahab's house, and it is all that is finally said. Henry, closing the block, puts the reason without flinching: Jehu showed great care and zeal for rooting out a false religion, but in the true religion he took no heed to please God and do his duty, and those who are heedless, it is to be feared, are graceless.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. Three verses of bookkeeping close the loudest reign in Kings, and the bookkeeping is the judgment. God pays Jehu in full: he was promised sons to the fourth generation for executing what was written against Ahab's house (2 Kings 10:30), and he is paid twenty-eight years, a peaceful death, a grave in the capital, and a son on the throne. Nothing is withheld that was promised. But notice what the ledger records and what it cannot record. It records gᵉbûwrâh, force, the word Barnes found remarkable here; it records days, a burial, a successor. It does not record one act of worship, one word of prayer, one turning of the heart. A man can receive everything God promised for obedience and still have nothing in him that God wanted. That is the hardest sentence in the chapter, and the text says it by silence rather than by accusation. The formula “are they not written in the book of the chronicles” points away from this scroll to an archive that has perished; the only thing that survived is the covenant assessment, which the annal never contained. Which raises the question this unit forces on the reader: when the surplus of your life has been let go over the edge and only the verdict remains, what will the verdict have been about? The line that follows is the tool's own sentence, not Scripture.

Jehu was paid every coin he was promised, and the receipt is his whole epitaph.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same epitaph, one generation later structural / thematic: confirmed

The closing formula of this unit returns almost word for word at the death of Jehu's own son. The Verifier confirms that 2 Kings 13:8 shares three of the distinctive nouns of verse 34 (יֶתֶר yether, גְּבוּרָה gᵉbûwrâh, סֵפֶר çêpher) and that 13:9 shares the death verbs of verse 35 (shâkab, qâbar, mâlak). ⚙ This is a shared formula rather than a quotation of one text by another: the book of Kings is stamping a template on reign after reign, and the effect is cumulative. Gill and Cambridge both read forward to 2 Kings 13:1 for Jehoahaz's seventeen years, which is the second of the four generations granted at 2 Kings 10:30.

2 Kings 13:8 · 2 Kings 13:9 · 2 Kings 13:1

basis: Verifier: 2 Kings 13:8 shares H3499 yether (in 95 vv), H1369 gᵉbûwrâh (in 61 vv), H5612 çêpher (in 174 vv); 2 Kings 13:9 shares H7901 shâkab (in 190 vv), H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv), H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv). None of these lexemes is rare, and the repetition is an editorial formula rather than one text citing another, so this is tiered structural and not verbal.

The letters he wrote, the scroll he ends up in structural / thematic: confirmed

This same chapter opened with Jehu writing: סֵפֶר (çêpher, H5612) and כָּתַב (kâthab, H3789) appear at 2 Kings 10:1, where he sent written orders to Samaria concerning Ahab's seventy sons, and the same two lexemes close his reign here, where he is the one written about. ⚙ The Verifier records the shared vocabulary; the reversal of subject and object is our reading, offered as observation rather than as a claim about the author's intention.

2 Kings 10:1

basis: Verifier: shared H3058 Yêhûwʼ (in 54 vv), H5612 çêpher (in 174 vv), H3789 kâthab (in 212 vv). Common lexemes within one chapter, so a real verbal recurrence but not a quotation; tiered structural.

Jehu buries the man Jehu killed structural / thematic: confirmed

The verb of verse 35, קָבַר (qâbar, H6912), is the same verb used at 2 Chronicles 22:9, where Ahaziah of Judah, hunted down and put to death by Jehu, is nevertheless given burial for Jehoshaphat's sake. ⚙ Burial in these books functions as a verdict, and the two verses put Jehu on both sides of it: he is the agent of a death that still receives a grave, and at the end he receives one himself. Jezebel, by contrast, was left unburied. The link is a shared motif carried by a shared but common verb.

2 Chronicles 22:9

basis: Verifier: shared H3058 Yêhûwʼ (in 54 vv) and H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv). qâbar is common, so the link is thematic (burial as verdict) rather than a verbal citation.

A second Jehoahaz, and a warning about names structural / thematic: confirmed

The name יְהוֹאָחָז (Yᵉhôwʼâchâz, H3059) is comparatively uncommon, standing in only nineteen verses, and the Verifier surfaces it at 2 Kings 23:30-31 and 34, where a different Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, is made king of Judah and carried off to Egypt after three months. ⚙ The lexical link is real and the shared succession vocabulary is real, but the persons are different men in different kingdoms a century and a half apart. We record this as a caution as much as a connection: a shared name is not a shared referent, and the Verifier's arithmetic cannot tell the two apart.

2 Kings 23:30 · 2 Kings 23:31 · 2 Kings 23:34

basis: Verifier: shared H3059 Yᵉhôwʼâchâz (in 19 vv, relatively uncommon), H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv), H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv). The uncommon lexeme is a proper name borne by two distinct persons, so the link is onomastic and formulaic, deliberately not tiered verbal.

He fell asleep and saw corruption typological

The Hebrew idiom of verse 35, “he lay down with his fathers” (וַיִּשְׁכַּב עִם־אֲבֹתָיו), is the standing royal death formula, and Paul at Pisidian Antioch uses its Greek equivalent of David: he served his own generation, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption, which is precisely the argument that the promise of Psalm 16:10 must belong to another. ⚙ Because this is a Greek text and ours is Hebrew, no shared Strong's number can be claimed; the link is a shared idiom put to a figural use, which is why it is tiered typological and never verbal. The formula that closes every king of Israel is the formula the apostolic preaching says one descendant did not fit.

Acts 13:36 · Psalm 16:10

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition and no verbal tier is available. The recorded basis is the shared royal death formula, lying down and being laid with one's fathers, which Acts 13:36 applies to David in the course of an argument from Psalm 16:10. The figural step, that the formula closing every king of Israel is the one the risen Christ does not fit, is the ancient and widely held apostolic reading, not a novel one.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The King who did not lie down with his fathers ancient/widely-held

⚙ Every reign in this book ends in the same clause: he lay down with his fathers, they buried him, his son reigned under him. Jehu gets it in verse 35 exactly as Omri and Ahab got it before him. The apostolic preaching takes that formula as the hinge of its argument. Peter at Pentecost grants that David died and was buried and that his tomb is still standing, and concludes that his words about one not abandoned to Sheol nor seeing corruption were spoken of the resurrection of the Christ; Paul at Antioch makes the same move, saying David fell asleep, was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but the one God raised did not. This is the ancient and widely held apostolic reading of the Old Testament royal formula, and it is what makes 2 Kings 10:35 a sentence with an exception coming.

Acts 2:29-31 · Acts 13:36-37 · Psalm 16:10

Zeal without a heart, and the zeal that consumed him novel

⚙ Earlier in this chapter Jehu invited Jehonadab son of Rechab to ride with him and see his zeal for the LORD (2 Kings 10:16), and the unit before us is the accounting of that zeal: twenty-eight years, great force, a grave, and, as Henry puts it, a man who showed great care and zeal for rooting out a false religion but in the true religion took no heed to please God and do his duty. Henry draws the general principle from it, that true conversion is not only from false gods but from false worships. ⚙ The contrast we draw is ours: the zeal of Psalm 69:9, which John 2:17 sees consuming Jesus in the temple, is zeal turned first against the worship of God's own house and costing the zealot himself, whereas Jehu's zeal cost other people and left his own altars standing. The typology here is one of contrast, and it is our reading rather than a received patristic one.

Psalm 69:9 · John 2:17

The book that was lost and the books that are opened novel

⚙ Verse 34 closes by pointing to a written record (סֵפֶר, çêpher) that no longer exists; the annals of the kings of Israel are gone, and every deed catalogued in them with them. Scripture ends with books that are not lost: the dead judged from what was written in them according to their deeds, and another book, the book of life. ⚙ We offer this as a figural reading and not as a claim that the writer of Kings intended it. Stated plainly: the archive that recorded Jehu's might perished, the verdict on his heart did not, and the one record that finally holds is the one where a name is entered rather than a deed.

Revelation 20:12 · Daniel 7:10

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: Masoretic Hebrew with the Berean interlinear parsing and Strong's numbers; English is the BSB. Ellicott records that some manuscripts, the Targum and the Vulgate omit “all” before “his might,” and that the Septuagint adds a clause about conspiracies; Cambridge reports the same Septuagint expansion in different words, as “all his dynasty and the conspiracies which he formed.” The Hebrew before us has neither addition, and we have followed it.

Sources: of the ten commentators in the brief, Poole has no text on any of these three verses; the Geneva entries reproduce the verse text with a section heading and contain no gloss; the JFB entry printed on all three verses is in fact its note on verse 29, about Jehu's retention of the calves, and so has not been quoted here as comment on 34-36. Henry's note covers the whole block 10:29-36 and K&D's single paragraph is printed on each of the three verses alike.

Uncertain: the historical material Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary draw from the Assyrian inscriptions (Jehu as tributary ally of Shalmaneser, named son of Omri) is extrabiblical and is reported as their claim, not established from the text. Ellicott's inference from the position of “in Samaria” is an inference. Gill's statement that Jehu's was the longest reign of any king of Israel is corrected by the Pulpit Commentary from 2 Kings 14:23. The book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel cited in verse 34 is a lost source, not the canonical Chronicles; nothing of its contents can be recovered. Every ⚙ paragraph above is machine synthesis and fallible.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)