2 Kings 10:9

9 And when it was light, he went out, and standing, said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my master, and slew him; who hath slain all these?

2 Kings 10:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 10:9

And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and
stood, and said to all the people
Who were gathered together to this shocking sight, or on the above accounts:

ye be righteous;
having had no concern in taking off the heads of those men:

behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him;
I own it, and some may blame me for it, and charge me with treason and murder:

but who slew all these?
not he, but the chief men of Samaria, and therefore must be more guilty than he, having shed the blood of so many persons, who had not offended against God and man to so great a degree as Joram; this he said to lessen his own sin, and wipe off the reproach of it, that his character might appear fairer in the eyes of the people, concealing, at the same time, his orders for the slaying of them.

2 Kings 10:9 In-Context

7 And when the letters came to them, they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezrahel.
8 And a messenger came, and told him, saying: They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said: Lay ye them in two heaps by the entering in of the gate until the morning.
9 And when it was light, he went out, and standing, said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my master, and slew him; who hath slain all these?
10 See therefore now that there hath not fallen to the ground any of the words of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Achab, and the Lord hath done that which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias.
11 So Jehu slew all that were left of the house of Achab in Jezrahel, and all his chief men, and his friends, and his priests, till there were no remains left of him.
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