Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 1:1-8
We have here Ahaziah, the wicked king of Israel, under God's rebukes both by his providence and by his prophet, by his rod and by his word.
I. He is crossed in his affairs. How can those expect to prosper that do evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoke him to anger? When he rebelled against God, and revolted from his allegiance to him, Moab rebelled against Israel, and revolted from the subjection that had long paid to the kings of Israel, Kg2 1:1. The Edomites that bordered on Judah, and were tributaries to the kings of Judah, still continued so, as we find in the chapter before (v. 47), till, in the wicked reign of Joram, they broke that yoke (Kg2 8:22) as the Moabites did now. If men b…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 1:5
the messengers turned back--They did not know the stranger; but his authoritative tone, commanding attitude, and affecting message determined them at once to return.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 1:4
But shalt surely die - The true God tells you this; he in whose hands are both life and death, who can kill and make alive. Baal-zebub can do nothing; God has determined that your master shall die.
John Gill on 2 Kings 1:7
And he said unto them, what manner of man was he,.... What appearance or figure did he make? what his habit or clothing?
which came up to meet you, and told you these words? they had related to him.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 1:1-8
After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel (Kg2 1:1). The Moabites, who had been subjugated by David (Sa2 8:2), had remained tributary to the kingdom of the ten tribes after the division of the kingdom. but when Israel was defeated by the Syrians at Ramoth in the time of Ahab, they took advantage of this defeat and the weakening of the Israelitish power in the country to the east of the Jordan to shake off the yoke of the Israelites, and very soon afterwards attempted an invasion of the kingdom of Judah, in alliance with the Edomite and other tribes of the desert, which terminated, however, in a great defeat, though it contributed to the maintenance of their independence. For furt…
