Then
they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
2 Kings 9:13
2 Kings 9 [11.] When Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?”
He said to them, “You know the man and how he talks.” They said, “That is a lie. Tell us now.”
He said, “He said to me, ‘Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel.’”
2 Kings 9 [13.] Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, “Jehu is king.”
2 Kings 9 [14.] So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth Gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria; but king Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, “If this is your thinking, then let no one escape and go out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.” So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram. Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, “I see a company.”
Joram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’”
Meaning:
The northern kingdom of Israel had been led into Baal worship by King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. God had decreed judgment on their house. Elisha the prophet sent a young prophet to Ramoth Gilead, where the army was camped, to anoint the commander Jehu as king in a private room and then flee. When Jehu came out, his fellow officers asked what the “mad fellow” had wanted. At first Jehu brushed the question aside, then he told them the truth: “Yahweh says, I have anointed you king over Israel” (see the Context above).
- “Then they hurried”
The officers did not hesitate. As soon as they heard that God had anointed Jehu, they acted. Their speed shows both how weary they were of Ahab’s family and how quickly a new king could be acclaimed when the army stood behind him.
- “Each man took his cloak, and put it under him on the top of the stairs”
Without a throne, the officers made one. They spread their cloaks on the bare steps so that Jehu could stand or sit on them above the rest. Laying one’s garment under someone was an act of homage, a way of saying, “You are my lord, and I submit to you.”
The same gesture was made when Jesus entered Jerusalem: “Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees, and spreading them on the road” (Mark 11:8). The crowd was greeting him as a king.
- “And blew the trumpet, saying, ‘Jehu is king’”
The trumpet announced a new reign. Jehu immediately rode to Jezreel, where he killed King Joram and Jezebel, and he later wiped out Baal worship in Israel: “They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal” (2 Kings 10:27). Yet his reign was marked by great bloodshed, and he did not wholeheartedly follow God himself.
- Two kings compared
Jehu came as a warrior with chariot and sword. Jesus came as Zechariah foretold: “Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). When crowds once wanted to seize him “to make him king”, he withdrew (John 6:15). His throne was reached through the cross, where the title read, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (John 19:19).
The Significance of 2 Kings 9:13
- Honour the true King
The officers gave Jehu their cloaks at once. Jesus, the King of kings, deserves our wholehearted and immediate allegiance.
- God’s kingdom comes through humility
Earthly kingdoms are often won by force. Christ’s kingdom comes through humble, self-giving love.
Cross-References:
Mark 11:8: "Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees, and spreading them on the road." Garments spread for Jesus.
Zechariah 9:9: "Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey" The humble King.
John 6:15: "Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself." Jesus refused a crown by force.
Conclusion: When Jehu’s fellow officers learned that he had been anointed king by God’s command, they hurried to spread their cloaks under him on the stairs, blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.” Their act of homage is echoed when the crowds spread their garments before Jesus. But Jehu ruled by the sword, while Jesus came as the lowly King whose throne was the cross, and he alone deserves our full allegiance.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible