2 Kings 9:22 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Is it peace, Jehu? Dost thou come to me with a peaceable mind, or in a way of hostility? For now, when it was too late, he began to suspect some treachery, God hiding it from him before, in order to his destruction. And he answered, What peace, &c.? What cause hast thou to expect peace, when thou hast so long abetted, and dost still abet, thy mother in her abominable practices? So long as the whoredoms, &c. This may be understood, either literally or spiritually; spiritual whoredom, which is idolatry, being often punished with corporal, and witchcraft being often practised by idolaters; or rather, spiritually, of her idolatry, which is often called whoredom, because it is a departing from God, to whom we are tied by many obligations; and witchcraft, because it doth so powerfully bewitch men's minds; and because it is a manifest entering into covenant with the devil. 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.