2 Kings 10:22 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Bring forth vestments— It was the custom of almost all idolaters, to be very curious about the external pomp of their ceremonies, wherein, indeed, the chief part of their worship consisted. All the priests of Baal were clothed in fine linen, and their chief priest, no doubt, had some particular ornaments to distinguish them. Baal and Astarte were Phoenician deities; and therefore, as Silius Italicus, lib. 1: in his description of the feasts of Hercules, has given us an account in what manner the Phoenician priests, when in their offices, were habited, we have reason thence to suppose that the dress of the prices of Baal was much of the same kind. The worshippers of Baal, in the text, probably do not mean all the people in general, because they wore no distinct garments in their worship, either of GOD or Baal, but the priests and ministers only. These were the great support of the present idolatry; and therefore Jehu might conclude, that if he did but once destroy them, all the common worshippers would fall away of course. However, taking the words servants and worshippers (2 Kings 10:19; 2 Kings 10:21.) in their utmost latitude, the temple of Baal, which was built in the capital city, and near the royal palace, and, being the chief in its kind, was designed for the use of the king and queen, and particularly for such great and high solemnities, might be large and capacious enough to contain them all. For, beside the principal building, there might be several outward courts, as there were to the temple at Jerusalem, where the people stood while they worshipped, as they did in the temple-service; and these, together with the temple itself, might afford sufficient space for all the idolaters of that kind, both ministers and people, that were then in the whole kingdom: for, since the days of Ahab, by the ministry of Elijah, Elisha, and the rest of the prophets, as well as by the slaughter which Hazael in his wars against Israel had made among many of them, the number of Baal's worshippers had been greatly diminished. See Patrick and Poole.