Bible Strands
2 Kings 10:24
And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and warned them, “If anyone allows one of the men I am delivering into your hands to escape, he will forfeit his life for theirs.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jehu addresses the guards stationed outside the temple of Baal while his agents inside prepare the ritual slaughter. He issues a lethal perimeter order to ensure no captive escapes during the operation.
The words — שָׂם (sam) means "he stationed," and שְׁמֹנִים (shemonim) means "eighty," precisely identifying the armed contingent Jehu positioned beyond the temple doors.
The thread — The text describes a coordinated temple purge enforced by armed guards. This pattern of inescapable judgment through military execution also appears in 1 Kings 20:30, where fleeing survivors are crushed by a collapsing wall.
Why it lands — The passage records a non-negotiable enforcement of divine judgment where escape is explicitly forbidden. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant enforcement operates without compromise or mercy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 20:30 The rest of them fled into the city of Aphek, where the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. Ben-hadad also fled to the city and hid in an inner room.