2 Kings 10:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But Jehu took no heed, &c.— Jehu indeed made great ostentation of his zeal for the Lord; and it must be acknowledged, that for his performance of the divine commands in this respect, he received commendations from God: yet he was still a bad man, though he did well in executing that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as to the abolition of the worship of Baal; for, his obstinate persistance in the sin of Jeroboam may be justly alleged against him as an argument of his false-heartedness in all his other actions. The reasons why he continued in this kind of idolatry were much the same with him, as they were with the first institutor of it; namely, lest, by permitting his subjects to go to the place appointed for divine worship, he might open a door for their return to the obedience of the house of David; and not only so, but disoblige likewise a great part of the nobility of the nation, who by this time had been long accustomed, and were warmly affected, to the worship of the golden calves. Herein, however, he made a clear discovery of his folly and his sin, in not daring to trust God with the preservation of that kingdom which he had so freely bestowed upon him. The truth is, Jehu was a bold, wicked, furious, and implacable man; but a man of this complexion, considering the work he was to be set about, was a proper instrument to be employed; and so far is it from tending to the reproach, that it is infinitely to the glory of God, that he can make use of such boisterous and unruly passions of mankind for the accomplishment of his just designs; Psalms 76:10. This he plainly did in the case of Jehu: for, after the Lord had settled him in the possession of a kingdom, and found that he still persisted in his political idolatry, he brought down the king of Assyria upon him, who smote the coasts of Israel, and quite wasted all that part of his kingdom which lay beyond the river Jordan. See the next verses, and Poole.