the outer courts or beyond the precincts, fires lit to burn the
abominations, and busy hands, always more ready for pillage and
destruction than for good work, pulled down the temple, the ruins of
which were turned to base uses. The writer, picturing the wild scene,
sums up with a touch of exultation: 'Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of
Israel'--where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the
king, the god, and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible
deed.

Now the main interest of this passage lies in its disclosure of the
strangely mingled character of Jehu, and in the fact that his bloody
severity was approved by God, and rewarded by the continuance of his
dynasty for a longer time than any other on the throne of Israel.

Jehu was influenced by 'zeal for the Lord,' however much smoke mingled
with the flame. He acted under the conviction that he was God's
instrument, and at each new deed of blood asserted his fulfilment of
prophecy. His profession to Jehonadab (ver. 16) was not hypocrisy nor
ostentation. The Rechabite sheikh was evidently a man of mark, and
apparently one of the leaders of those who had not 'bowed the knee to
Baal'; and Jehu's disclosure of his animating motive was meant to
secure the alliance of that party through one of its chiefs. No doubt
many elements of selfishness and many stains mingled with Jehu's zeal.
It was much on the same level as the fanaticism of the immediate
successors of Mohammed; but, low as it was, look at its power. Jehu
swept like a whirlwind, or like leaping fire among stubble, from
Ramoth to Jezreel, from Jezreel to Samaria, and nothing stood before
his fierce onset. Promptitude, decision, secrecy,--the qualities which
carry enterprises to success--marked his character; partly, no doubt,
from natural temperament, for God chooses right instruments, but from