(12)
And he arose . . . and came.--So the Syriac, rightly. The common Hebrew text has, "And he arose and came and departed."
And as he was at the shearing house in the way.--Rather, He was at Beth-eqed-haroim on the way. The Targum renders: "He was at the shepherds' meeting-house on the way." The place was probably a solitary building, which served as a rendezvous for the shepherds of the neighbourhood. (The root 'aqad means "to bind," or "knot together;" hence the common explanation of the name is "the shepherds' binding house," i.e., the place where they bound their sheep for the shearing. But the idea of binding is easily connected with that of meeting, gathering together: comp. our words band, knot.) The LXX. has: "He was at Baithakad (or Baithakath) of the shepherds." Eusebius mentions a place called Beithakad, fifteen Roman miles from Legio (Lejj-n), identical with the present Beitkad, six miles east of Jenin, in the plain of Esdraelon; but this seems too far off the route from Jezreel to Samaria, which passes Jenin.
Verses 12-14. -
The massacre of the brethren of Ahaziah.
Verse 12. -
And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria; rather,
went on his way to Samaria (
ἐπορεύθη εἰς Σαμάρειαν, LXX.). Having arranged matters at Jezreel as his interests required, and secured the adhesion of the Samaritan "great men," Jehu now sot out for the capital. The narrative from this point to ver. 17 is of events that happened to him while he was upon his road.
And as he was at the shearing-house in the way. Between Jezreel and Samaria was a station where the shepherds of the district were accustomed to shear their flocks. The custom gave name to the place, which became known as Beth-Eked (
Βαιθακάθ, LXX.;
Beth-Akad, Jerome), "the house of binding," from the practice of tying the sheep's four feet together before shearing them, The situation has not been identified.
10:1-14 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 nor can command any thing unjust or unreasonable. Jehu destroyed all that 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 think upon the vast number of the wicked waiting their awful sentence of everlasting fire; when the whole sum of death and misery has been considered, the solemn question occurs, Who slew all these? The answer is, SIN. Shall we then harbour sin in our bosoms, and seek for happiness from that which is the cause of all misery?
To make a clear riddance there of all that belonged to Ahab, as at Jezreel, and abolish idolatry there:
and as he was at the shearing house in the way; or, "the house of the binding of the shepherds", who, in shearing their sheep, bind their legs together; the Targum is,"the house of the gathering of the shepherds;''where they used to meet and converse together; with some it is the proper name of a place, Betheked, a country village between Jezreel and Samaria. Jerom speaks (q) of a village of this name, situated in a large plain, about fifteen miles from a place called Legion, which village he takes to be this here.
(q) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. K.
