2 Kings 9:20 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Driving. — Correct. The margin is wrong.

The son of Nimshi. — Jehu was son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. The former phrase may have fallen out of the text here. (Yet comp. 2 Kings 8:26, “Athaliah daughter of Omri.”) The Syriac and Arabic call Jehu “the son of Nimshi” in 2 Kings 9:2 also.

He driveth ſuriouslyi.e., the foremost charioteer so drives. The word rendered “furiously” is related to that rendered “mad fellow” in 2 Kings 9:11. (Comp. margin here.) Jehu’s chariot swayed unsteadily as he drove madly on. LXX., ἐν παραλλαγῇ. The Targum explains in an exactly opposite sense, “quietly;” and so Josephus: “Jehu was driving rather slowly, and in orderly fashion” (perhaps confounding shiggâ‘ôn, “madness,” Deuteronomy 28:28, with shiggâyôn, “a slow, mournful song,” or elegy).

2 Kings 9:20

20 And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the drivingd is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.