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2 Kings 9:22

in 2 Kings 9

When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

KJV

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

This verse in 2 Kings 9

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

What peace, so long as the whoredoms - Though the words whoredom, adultery, and fornication, are frequently used to express idolatry, and false religion, in general; yet here they may be safely taken in their common and most obvious sense, as there is much reason to believe that Jezebel was the patroness and supporter of a very impure system of religion; and to this Jehu might refer, rather than to the calf-worship, to which himself was most favourably disposed.

This site's exposition

the whoredoms of thy mother

on 2 Kings 9:22-23

Joram's question, is it peace, gets an answer aimed past him at his mother: what peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. Wesley observes that Jehu names her sins rather than Joram's own, because hers were the more notorious and the real cause of the judgment he has come to carry out. Joram turns to flee with one word for his nephew, treachery, the first he has understood of what has already happened at Ramoth-gilead.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 9:1-24 · Written before 373.

proposed

So he went out with a group of select men. But he met Joram, king of Israel, in the course of his journey, and little later Ahaziah, king of Judah. He was able to defeat them after the first attack and killed them both.

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

He mentions not Joram's, but his mother's sins; because they were more notorious and infamous: and because they were the principal cause why God inflicted, and he was come to execute these judgments. The way of sin can never be the way of peace.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Note, It is no new thing for those that are doing God's work to be looked upon as out of the way of peace. Active reformers, faithful reprovers, are threatened with trouble; but let them be in nothing terrified, Phil. i. (3.) She quoted a precedent, to deter him from the prosecution of this enterprise: " Had Zimri peace?

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

And it came to pass, when Joram saw, Jehu, that he said, is it peace, Jehu?....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Jezebel daring the judgment. She heard that Jehu had slain her son, and slain him for her whoredoms and witchcrafts, and thrown his dead body into the portion of Naboth, according to the word of the Lord, and that he was now coming to Jezreel, where she could not but expect herself to fall next a sacrifice to his revenging sword.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

A report was made to Joram in his palace below. A messenger on horseback was quickly despatched down into the plain to meet the ambiguous host and to question the object of their approach. "Is it peace?" We may safely assume that this messenger would meet Jehu at the distance of three miles or more.
Joram had asked the usual question, “Is it peace?” - meaning simply, “Is all well?” In Jehu’s reply, by “whoredoms” we are probably to understand “idolatries,” acts of spiritual unfaithfulness; by “witchcrafts,” dealings with the Baal prophets and oracles. Compare 2Ki 1:2 note.

The words behind it

17 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.

  • וַיְהִ֗יand it was

    vayhiH19613559 times

  • כִּרְא֤וֹתwhen saw

    kirotH72001300 times

  • יְהוֹרָם֙Jehoram

    yehoramH308829 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • יֵה֔וּאJehu

    yehu'H305858 times

  • וַיֹּ֖אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • הֲשָׁל֣וֹם¿ peace

    hashalomH7965236 times

  • יֵה֑וּאO Jehu

    yehu'H305858 times

  • וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙and he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • מָ֣הwhat?

    mahH4100752 times

  • הַשָּׁל֔וֹם[is] <the> peace

    hashalomH7965236 times

  • עַד־until

    ʾad-H57041261 times

  • זְנוּנֵ֞י[the] prostitutions of

    zenuneiH2183

  • אִיזֶ֧בֶלJezebel

    ʾizevelH34822 times

  • אִמְּךָ֛mother your

    ʾimekhaH517220 times

  • וּכְשָׁפֶ֖יהָand sorceries her

    ukheshafeihaH3785

  • הָרַבִּֽים׃<the> many

    harabimH7227454 times

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

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Nahum 3:4

    because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 47:9

      These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the…

    • Isaiah 47:12–13

      So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

    • Revelation 18:23

      The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of…

    • Revelation 17:1–5

      Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.

    • Ezekiel 16:25–29

      At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

  • Through

    2 Chronicles 21:13

    but you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and have caused Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab prostituted itself. You have…

    it leads to

    • 2 Chronicles 21:4

      When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened himself by putting to the sword all his brothers along with some of the princes of Israel.

    • 2 Chronicles 21:11

      Jehoram had also built high places on the hills of Judah; he had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.

    • 1 Kings 16:30–33

      However, Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Kings

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 9:1-24; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.