2 Kings 9:28

And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Carried him in a chariot.—Literally, made him ride. After this verb the LXX., Syriac, and Vulg. supply what the Hebrew text almost demands, “and brought him.”

In his sepulchre.—In his own sepulchre, which he had in his lifetime prepared, according to the custom of antiquity.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:16-29 Jehu was a man of eager spirit. The wisdom of God is seen in the choice of those employed in his work. But it is not for any man's reputation to be known by his fury. He that has rule over his own spirit, is better than the mighty. Joram met Jehu in the portion of Naboth. The circumstances of events are sometimes ordered by Divine Providence to make the punishment answer to the sin, as face answers to face in a glass. The way of sin can never be the way of peace, Isa 57:21. What peace can sinners have with God? No peace so long as sin is persisted in; but when it is repented of and forsaken, there is peace. Joram died as a criminal, under the sentence of the law. Ahaziah was joined with the house of Ahab. He was one of them; he had made himself so by sin. It is dangerous to join evil-doers; we shall be entangled in guilt and misery by it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By the way of the garden-house - Or "by the way of Beth-Gan," which has been conjectured to be another name for En-Gannim, "the spring of the gardens." Both are considered identical with Ginaea, the modern Jenin, which lies due south of Jezreeh The road from Jezreel (Zerin) to Jenin passes at first along the plain of Esdraelon, but after a while begins to rise over the Samaritan hills. Here probably was "the ascent of Gur, by Ibleam," which may have occupied the site of the modern Jelama. Whether the soldiers attacked him there or not is uncertain. The words, "And they did so," are not in the original.

Megiddo - On its situation, see Joshua 12:21 note; and on the possible reconcilement of this passage with 2 Chronicles 22:9, see the note there.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ki 9:27-35. Ahaziah Is Slain.

27. Ahaziah—was grandnephew to King Joram, and great-grandson to King Ahab.

Ibleam—near Megiddo, in the tribe of Issachar (Jos 17:11; Jud 1:27); and Gur was an adjoining hill.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which they did by Jehu’s permission for Jehoshaphat’s sake, 2 Chronicles 22:9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem,.... With the leave of Jehu, because he was the grandson of Jehoshaphat, a sincere worshipper of God, 2 Chronicles 22:9,

and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David; see 1 Kings 22:50.

Geneva Study Bible

And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem] As is seen afterwards by his conduct in Jezebel’s case Jehu had no wish to deprive the kin of Ahab of regal burial after they were slain. Hence the servants of Ahaziah would be allowed to carry their master’s body to Jerusalem without molestation. The italics of A.V. in this verse are a mistake. The verb signifies ‘to carry in a chariot’.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem. No king of the house of David had as yet been buried elsewhere than in the rock-hewn sepulcher which David had constructed for himself and family at Jerusalem. As soon, therefore, as Ahaziah was dead, his attendants conveyed his dead body in a chariot to the Judaean capital. Jehu did not oppose, having no quarrel with the dead. And buried him in his sepulcher; i.e. in the particular excavation, or loculus, which he had prepared for himself. Jewish, like Egyptian, kings seem to have made it their business to see to the construction of their tomb as soon as they mounted the throne. Thus Ahaziah, though he had reigned but a year (2 Kings 8:26), had already prepared, himself, a sepulcher. His "servants" buried him in it. With his fathers in the city of David (comp. 1 Kings 11:43; 14:37; 15:8, 24; 22:50; 2 Kings 8:24). 2 Kings 9:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When Ahaziah saw this, he fled by the way to the garden-house, but was smitten, i.e., mortally wounded, by Jehu at the height of Gur near Jibleam, so that as he was flying still farther to Megiddo he died, and was carried as a corpse by his servants to Jerusalem, and buried there. After הכּהוּ, "and him also, smite him," we must supply ויּכּהוּ, "and they smote him," which has probably only dropped out through a copyist's error. The way by which Ahaziah fled, and the place where he was mortally wounded, cannot be exactly determined, as the situation of the localities named has not yet been ascertained. The "garden-house" (הגּן בּית הגּ) cannot have formed a portion of the royal gardens, but must have stood at some distance from the city of Jezreel, as Ahaziah went away by the road thither, and was not wounded till he reached the height of Gur near Jibleam. מעלה־גוּר, the ascent or eminence of Gur, is defined by Jibleam. Now, as Ahaziah fled from Jezreel to Megiddo past Jibleam, Thenius thinks that Jibleam must have been situated between Jezreel and Megiddo. But between Jezreel and Megiddo there is only the plain of Jezreel or Esdrelom, in which we cannot suppose that there was any such eminence as that of Gur. Moreover Jibleam or Bileam (1 Chronicles 6:55, see at Joshua 17:11) was probably to the south of Jenin, where the old name בּלעם has been preserved in the well of Arab. bl'mh, Belameh, near Beled Sheik Manssr, which is half an hour's journey off. And it is quite possible to bring this situation of Jibleam into harmony with the account before us. For instance, it is a priori probable that Ahaziah would take the road to Samaria when he fled from Jezreel, not only because his father's brothers were there (2 Kings 10:13), but also because it was the most direct road to Jerusalem; and he might easily be pursued by Jehu and his company to the height of Gur near Jibleam before they overtook him, since the distance from Jezreel (Zern) to Jenin is only two hours and a half (Rob. Pal. iii. p. 828), and the height of Gur might very well be an eminence which he would pass on the road to Jibleam. But the wounded king may afterwards have altered the direction of his flight for the purpose of escaping to Megiddo, probably because he thought that he should be in greater safety there than he would be in Samaria.

(Note: In 2 Chronicles 22:8-9, the account of the slaying of Ahaziah and his brethren (2 Kings 10:12.) is condensed into one brief statement, and then afterwards it is stated with regard to Ahaziah, that "Jehu sought him, and they seized him when he was hiding in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu and slew him, "from which it appears that Ahaziah escaped to Samaria. From the brevity of these accounts it is impossible to reconcile the discrepancy with perfect certainty. On the one hand, our account, which is only limited to the main fact, does not preclude the possibility that Ahaziah really escaped to Samaria, and was there overtaken by Jehu's followers, and then brought back to Jehu, and wounded upon the height of Gur near Jibleam, whence he fled to Megiddo, where he breathed out his life. On the other hand, in the perfectly summary account in the Chronicles, בשׁמרון מתחבּא והוּא may be understood as referring to the attempt to escape to Samaria and hide himself there, and may be reconciled with the assumption that he was seized upon the way to Samaria, and when overtaken by Jehu was mortally wounded.)

- In 2 Kings 9:29 we are told once more in which year of Joram's reign Ahaziah became king. The discrepancy between "the eleventh year" here and "the twelfth year" in 2 Kings 8:25 may be most simply explained, on the supposition that there was a difference in the way of reckoning the commencement of the years of Joram's reign.