As soon as he had made an end. — The Syriac has, when they (i.e., the Baal priests) had made an end. This is probably right. (Comp. the beginning of 2 Kings 10:24). We can hardly suppose with Ewald that Jehu personally offered sacrifices in the character of an ardent Baal-worshipper. For the massacre Jehu chose the moment when all the assembly was absorbed in worship.
To the guard and to the captains. — Literally, to the runners (or couriers) and to the adjutants (or squires; 2 Kings 9:25). (Comp. 1 Kings 9:22.) The royal guardsmen and their officers are meant.
Cast them out. — That is, threw the dead bodies out of the temple. This is the explanation of the Targum and the other versions. Thenius asks why this should be specially mentioned, and proposes to understand the verb intransitively, “rushed out,” which suits very well with what follows.
And went to the city of the house of Baal. — The word city has here its original meaning, which is also that of the Greek πόλις — viz., citadel, stronghold; properly, a place surrounded by a ring-fence or rampart. Jehu’s guards, after the completion of their bloody work in the court of the temple, rushed up the steps into the sanctuary itself, which, like the temple of Solomon, resembled a fortress. (“Ex atrio irruperunt satellites Jehu in ipsam arcem templi.” — Sebastian Schmidt.) Gesenius explains the word as meaning the temenos or sacred enclosure of the temple, but that does not suit the context. (The origin of the word ‘îr, “city,” obscure in Hebrew, is revealed by the cuneiform inscriptions in the Accadian word erim or eri, meaning “foundation,” and Uru — i.e., Ur, a proper name, meaning “the city.”)