2 Kings 9:11,12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? What business has he with thee? And why wouldst thou gratify him so far as to retire to converse with him? They perceived him to be a prophet by his air, habit, and manner of speech, as well as by his accosting Jehu so boldly, and so suddenly vanishing when he had done his business. And these profane soldiers accounted the Lord's prophets madmen, judging their neglect of themselves, and their contempt of temporal wealth and honours, which the wise men of this world so eagerly seek, with their rigid and obscure course of life, to be a kind of infatuation: and considering the holy exercises to which they devoted themselves as the effects of a religious phrensy. Indeed; those that have no religion commonly speak of those that are religious with disdain, and look upon them as crack-brained. They said of our Lord, He is beside himself, and of St. Paul, that much learning had made him mad. The highest wisdom is thus represented as folly, and they that best understand themselves, as persons beside themselves. He said, You know the man, and his communication You know him to be a prophet: why then do you call him a mad fellow? And, being a prophet, you may guess what his business is with me; that it is to teach me my duty. Thus he thought to have put them off; but they said, It is false We do not know, and cannot conjecture, what was his errand: but that there is something extraordinary and of great importance in it we plainly perceive, by his calling thee into an inner chamber, by his great expedition, and by his gesture and carriage. Tell us now His concealing the matter made them the more eager to know it.