Is it peace, Jehu? — Joram meant, “Is all well at the seat of war?” Jehu’s reply left no doubt of his intentions. He assumes the part of champion of the legitimate worship against Jezebel and her foreign innovations, and the lawless tyrannies by which she sought to enforce them. (Comp. 2 Kings 9:25-26.)
What peace... are so many? — Rather, What is the peace during the whoredoms of thy mother, and her many witchcrafts — i.e., so long as they continue?
Whoredoms. — In the spiritual sense, i.e., idolatries. (See Note on 1 Chronicles 5:25.)
Witchcrafts. — Sorceries; the use of spells and charms, common among Semitic idolaters. (Comp. the prohibitions in the Law (Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:10-11.) A great number of the Assyrian tablets contain magical formulas, incantations, and exorcisms. Babylonia was the home of the pseudo-science of magic; and the oldest collection of such formulas is that of Sargina king of Agadê (Accad), compiled in seventy tablets, about 2200 B.C.