Jehu met with. — Literally, And Jehu found.
The brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah — i.e., Ahaziah’s kinsmen. His brothers, in the strict sense of the word, were slain by a troop of Arabs, in the lifetime of his father Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:17; 2 Chronicles 22:1). (See the Notes on 2 Chronicles 22:8.)
We go down. — Rather, we have come down.
To salute — i.e., to inquire after their health, to visit them.
The children of the king — i.e., the sons of Joram.
The children of the queen. — Literally, the sons of the mistress (gebîrah) — i.e., the sons of the queen-mother, Jezebel, and so Joram’s brothers. Both these and the former are included in the “sons of Ahab” whom Jehu slew.
The news of the taking of Ramoth, and of Joram’s convalescence, may have reached Jerusalem, and induced these princes to make a visit of pleasure to the court of Jezreel, not suspecting the events which had meanwhile happened with the headlong rapidity characteristic of Jehu’s action.