The images - Or “pillars” of wood. The Phoenician pillar idols were mere columns, obelisks, or posts, destitute of any shaping into the semblance of humanity (compare 1 Kings 14:23 note). read more
And they brake down the image of Baal - The other images, it appears, were not images of Baal, but of inferior deities. The image of Baal, which was “broken down,” and not burned, would seem to have been of stone, perhaps erected in front of the temple. read more
2 Kings 10:26-27. The images of the house of Baal A collection of different images. The image of Baal The chief image, which they worshipped more than the rest. And brake down the house of Baal As, no doubt, they did the rest of the houses of Baal in Israel. And made it a draught-house A sink or common shore; that the remembrance of it might be blotted out or made infamous. Thus was the worship of Baal quite destroyed, at least for the present, out of Israel, though it had once... read more
End of Jezebel’s Baalism in Israel (10:15-36)Jehu next put into operation a plan to rid Israel of all Jezebel’s Baal-worshipping followers. In this he had the cooperation of Jehonadab, a man who had led his people to give up the agricultural life (possibly because of its tendencies to Baal worship) and go back to the simple way of life followed by Abraham and the early Israelites (15-17; cf. Jeremiah 35:6-10). Through deceit and butchery, Jehu wiped out Jezebel’s Baal worshippers... read more
images, or statues. them = each of them. read more
draught house = dunghill, middens, latrince. read more
Jehu’s purge of Baalism 10:18-28This purge evidently took place in Samaria (1 Kings 16:32). Jehu’s true religious preferences had not yet become known publicly. The various Hebrew words translated "pillar" in 2 Kings 10:26-27 indicate that Jehu desecrated two or more kinds of objects, probably flammable wooden and non-flammable stone idols. Jehu also converted the temple of Baal into a public latrine, the greatest possible insult to Baal, the god of fertility. His act made Baal’s temple an... read more
Jehu’s Extermination of Baal Worship1. Ahab.. sons] These were probably his grandchildren rather than his children. Unto the rulers of Jezreel] LXX has ’unto the rulers of Samaria,’ which the sense requires.2. A fenced city] i.e. Samaria. Ahab’s dynasty had obtained the throne by force of arms (1 Kings 16:21-22), and Jehu implied that its supporters must defend it by the same means.4. Two kings] Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. 5. Over the house.. over the city] These officials are also... read more
(26) The images.—Rather, the pillars; which were of wood, and had a sacred significance. (Comp. Hosea 3:4.) “In primitive times a pillar was the distinguishing mark of a holy place. Idolatrous pillars were commanded to be destroyed (Exodus 23:24), but most critics think that pillars to Jehovah were quite allowable till the time of Hezekiah or Josiah, to which they assign the Book of Deuteronomy. (Comp. Deuteronomy 16:21-22.) At any rate, the prophet (Isaiah) gives an implicit sanction to the... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Kings 10:27
And they brake down the image of Baal ; rather, they brake in pieces the pillar of Baal . The representation of Baal, the main stele of the temple, being of stone or metal, could not be destroyed by fire, and was therefore broken to pieces. And brake down the house of Baal — i.e. partially ruined it, but still left portions of it standing, as a memorial of the sin and of its punishment—a solemn warning, one would have thought, to the people of the capital— and made it a... read more