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2 Kings 10:12

in 2 Kings 10

Then Jehu set out toward Samaria. At Beth-eked of the Shepherds,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way,

KJV

And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house in the way,

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This verse in 2 Kings 10

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

at the shearing house in the way

on 2 Kings 10:12-14

On the road to Samaria, at a place named for shepherds binding their flocks to shear them, Jehu meets forty-two kinsmen of Ahaziah of Judah traveling north in ignorance of the revolution. He takes them alive and kills every one at the pit of the shearing house, a slaughter that reaches south into David's own line even though Ahaziah himself had already died at Jehu's hand. The same totality appears again when Athaliah moves against Judah's own royal line at chapter eleven, a crime this chapter's slaughter of Ahaziah's kinsmen already anticipates.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

The shearing-house - literally, as in margin. Perhaps already a proper name, Beth-eked, identical with the Beth-akad of Jerome, which is described as between Jezreel and Samaria; but not yet identified.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

The shearing house - Probably the place where the shepherds met for the annual sheep shearing.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

And the queen’s sons. Ezevel. 6 They were unaware that Yeihu killed Yehorom, otherwise they would have fled.—Radak
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Kings 10:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

9 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּ֙קָם֙and he arose

    vaiyakomH6965 →628 times

  • וַיָּבֹ֔אand he went

    vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times

  • וַיֵּ֖לֶךְand he went

    vaiyelekhH1980 →1546 times

  • שֹׁמְר֑וֹןSamaria

    shomeronH8111 →109 times

  • ה֛וּאhe

    hu'H1931 →1879 times

  • בֵּֽית־[was at] Beth

    beit-H1044 →4 times

  • עֵ֥קֶדEked of

    ʾekedH1044 →4 times

  • הָרֹעִ֖ים[the] Shepherds

    haroimH7462 →

  • בַּדָּֽרֶךְ׃on [the] way

    badarekhH1870 →707 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Kings: the study guide →Read 2 Kings 10 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.

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