2 Kings 9:11

Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) The servants of his lord.—Jehoram’s captains.

And one said.—Many MSS. and all the versions, except the Targum, have “and they said.”

Is all well?—They dreaded some sinister news.

This mad fellow.—They were struck by his wild demeanour and furious haste. Or, perhaps, “this inspired one,” in a tone of ridicule. (Comp. Hosea 9:7.)

Ye know the man.—There is emphasis on the ye. Jehu apparently implies that the man was sent to him by his fellow-generals—that they had planned the whole thing. His purpose is to find out their disposition. Or, more probably, his reply may simply mean: “Why ask me, when you yourselves must have divined the right answer to your question?”

His communication.—Or, his meditation (comp. 1Kings 18:27)—i.e., the thing he had in his mind, his purpose in coming. Corn, à Lapide: “Ye know that he is mad, and accordingly what he says is mad, and therefore neither to be credited nor repeated.” LXX., “Ye know the man and his babble;” the Targum, “and his story;” the Syriac, “and his folly;” the Vulg., “and what he said;” the Arabic, “and his news.”

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 9:11-12. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? — What business has he with thee? And why wouldst thou gratify him so far as to retire to converse with him? They perceived him to be a prophet by his air, habit, and manner of speech, as well as by his accosting Jehu so boldly, and so suddenly vanishing when he had done his business. And these profane soldiers accounted the Lord’s prophets madmen, judging their neglect of themselves, and their contempt of temporal wealth and honours, which the wise men of this world so eagerly seek, with their rigid and obscure course of life, to be a kind of infatuation: and considering the holy exercises to which they devoted themselves as the effects of a religious phrensy. Indeed; those that have no religion commonly speak of those that are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack-brained. They said of our Lord, He is beside himself, and of St. Paul, that much learning had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and they that best understand themselves, as persons beside themselves. He said, You know the man, and his communication — You know him to be a prophet: why then do you call him a mad fellow? And, being a prophet, you may guess what his business is with me; that it is to teach me my duty. Thus he thought to have put them off; but they said, It is false — We do not know, and cannot conjecture, what was his errand: but that there is something extraordinary and of great importance in it we plainly perceive, by his calling thee into an inner chamber, by his great expedition, and by his gesture and carriage. Tell us now — His concealing the matter made them the more eager to know it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:11-15 Those who faithfully deliver the Lord's message to sinners, have in all ages been treated as madmen. Their judgment, speech, and conduct are contrary to those of other men; they endure much in pursuit of objects, and are influenced by motives, into which the others cannot enter. But above all, the charge is brought by the worldly and ungodly of all sorts, who are mad indeed; while the principles and practice of the devoted servants of God, prove to be wise and reasonable. Some faith in the word of God, seems to have animated Jehu to this undertaking.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This mad fellow - The captains, seeing his excited look, his strange action, and his extreme haste, call him (as soldiers would) "this wild fellow."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. Is all well? &c.—Jehu's attendants knew that the stranger belonged to the order of the prophets by his garb, gestures, and form of address; and soldiers such as they very readily concluded such persons to be crackbrained, not only from the sordid negligence of their personal appearance and their open contempt of the world, but from the religious pursuits in which their whole lives were spent, and the grotesque actions which they frequently performed (compare Jer 29:26).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To the servants of his lord; to the rest of the commanders and officers there present.

Is all well? is not this unlucky messenger come with some ill tidings?

Wherefore came this mad fellow? they perceived him to be a prophet by his habit, and gestures, and manner of speech. And these profane soldiers esteemed the Lord’s prophets madmen; partly, because of their neglect of themselves, and contempt of all worldly wealth and honour, which the wise men of this world so greedily seek, and of their strange and uncouth manner of living; partly, because of their holy exercises to which they devoted themselves, which they esteemed nothing but a religious frenzy; and partly, because of those unusual and seemingly ridiculous gestures and actions which the prophets sometimes used in raptures of spirit, or in the fervours of devotion. Compare Jeremiah 29:26 John 10:20 Acts 26:24.

Ye know the man, and his communication; you rightly guess that he was a madman, and so it appears by his discourse with me, which was, after the manner of that sort of man, vain and impertinent, to tell me of my sins, or of my duty, or such things as are not worth my speaking, or your hearing.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord,.... The rest of the captains of the army, who served under Joram as he did:

and one said unto him, is all well? one of the captains, the greatest of them, as Kimchi; he inquired whether he brought any ill news, since he came and went in such haste:

wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? so profane men, especially the worshippers of Baal, as those captains might be, were wont to call the prophets of the Lord, because of their habit, their manner of living, and the gestures they sometimes used in prophesying, and especially because of the things they prophesied of; and even prophets were sometimes called so, because, in the time of their prophesying, they appeared as madmen (m), and in a frenzy:

and he said unto them, ye know the man, and his communication; you saw by his habit of what profession he is, and you may easily guess what he talked of, as such men usually do, about religion, and one whimsical thing or another, reproving men for their sins, and telling them what they ought to do; and such like things you may well imagine he has been talking of to me; you rightly call him a mad fellow, and you may well suppose his discourse was agreeably to his character, and not worth relating and hearing; this he said, to put them off inquiring any further.

(m) David de Pomis, Lexic. p. 204. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

Then Jehu came forth to the {c} servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this {d} mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication.

(c) That is, the rest of the army, whom he called his brethren before, 2Ki 9:2.

(d) The world always holds the ministers of God is this estimation and has always slandered the children of God

(they called the Son of God a deceiver, and said he had the devil) therefore they should not be discouraged.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11–26. Jehu is proclaimed, and goes to Jezreel. Joram is slain, and his body cast into the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite (Not in Chronicles)

11. to the servants of his lord] i.e. To the other captains with whom he had before been in conference. They were all Joram’s officers.

wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] The visit had been made abruptly and in much haste, and amid the camp there would be but little respect for the garb of the prophet. We can see too from the words of the next verse that there was much of bluntness and rudeness in the speech of these soldiers to one another. We need not then suppose that they deemed the prophet a madman, but this is the term they are pleased to apply to him owing to his sudden movements.

Ye know the man] No doubt this applies to the appearance and dress of the prophets which distinguished them from others. It means, ‘Ye know to what class the man belongs, and so you can guess at the nature of his communication.’ Such a man in such haste comes only with a message. ‘Thus saith the Lord’. Others have referred the words to what the officers had before said, calling the messenger ‘mad’. This would make Jehu’s reply mean, ‘You call him mad, and of course then his communication must be only a madman’s raving.’ So R.V., and what his talk was.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 11-22. - Conspiracy of Jehu against Jehoram. Verse 11. - Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord. After the young man the prophet had made his precipitate retreat, Jehu, too, quitted the inner chamber, and "came forth" - returned to the place where he had been sitting with "the servants of his lord" - the other captains of the host (ver. 5) - and rejoined their company. And one said unto him, Is all well? One of the other captains of the host took the word and asked, in the ordinary phraseology of the time, "Is it peace?" (comp. vers. 17,18, 19, 22) - or, in other words, u Is all right?" "Is all well?" The sudden appearance and disappearance of the messenger had evidently created an impression that all was not well. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? He did not suppose the man to be actually mad. He calls him "this wild fellow" - "this scatterbrain," on account of the haste and strangeness of his conduct; but he quite expects to hear that there was "method in the madness," and that the communication had some serious import. And he - i.e. Jehu - said unto them, Ye know the man, and his communication. Jehu suspected that the whole scene had been arranged beforehand; that Elisha and the young prophet and the captains of the host were in league, and had concerted a way of offering him the throne. He may have had reason to regard the captains as disaffected towards Jehoram, though this does not appear at all distinctly in the very brief narrative. 2 Kings 9:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jehu's Conspiracy against Joram. - 2 Kings 9:11. When Jehu came out again to his comrades in arms, after the departure of the pupil of the prophets, they inquired השׁלום, i.e., "is it all well? why did this madman come to thee?" not because they were afraid that he might have done him some injury (Ewald), or that he might have brought some evil tidings (Thenius), but simply because they conjectured that he had brought some important news. They called the prophet משׁגּע, a madman, in derision, with reference to the ecstatic utterances of the prophets when in a state of holy inspiration. Jehu answered evasively, "Ye know the man and his muttering," i.e., ye know that he is mad and says nothing rational. שׂיה includes both meditating and speaking.