“Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.”
My Notes
What Does 2 Kings 10:29 Mean?
The narrator delivers a devastating assessment of Jehu: he destroyed Baal worship from Israel but didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam — the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The man who executed God's judgment against Ahab's house practiced his own form of the same basic sin: unauthorized worship at unauthorized locations.
The word "howbeit" (raq — only, however, nevertheless) marks the qualification: the zeal for removing Baal was real, but the personal practice was compromised. Jehu's reform was selective. He destroyed the foreign god (Baal) but preserved the domestic idol (the golden calves). The purge was external; the compromise was internal.
The golden calves represent Israel's homegrown idolatry — the worship system Jeroboam I created to prevent northern Israelites from traveling to Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26-30). Jehu's failure to address the calves means the most foundational sin of the northern kingdom survives his purge. The foreign infection is treated; the domestic disease remains.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What 'golden calf' (homegrown compromise) survives your reform of foreign sins?
- 2.Why is domestic idolatry (the sins of your own tradition) harder to see than foreign idolatry?
- 3.How does Jehu's selective zeal (destroying Baal, keeping the calves) mirror patterns you recognize?
- 4.What 'howbeit' qualification undermines an otherwise genuine spiritual achievement in your life?
Devotional
Jehu killed every Baal worshipper in Israel. And then he went home and worshipped the golden calves. The man who executed God's most violent judgment against foreign idolatry practiced his own nation's idolatry without a second thought.
The "howbeit" is the saddest word in Jehu's story. He did so much right: the destruction of Ahab's house (God's explicit command), the elimination of Baal worship (a genuine purge), the execution of Jezebel (prophetic fulfillment). And then — howbeit. Nevertheless. But. The qualification that undoes the achievement.
The selectivity of Jehu's reform is the diagnostic: he destroyed the foreign god but kept the domestic one. Baal was Jezebel's import — easy to oppose because it was obviously alien. The golden calves were Jeroboam's creation — harder to oppose because they were Israel's own tradition. Jehu could see the sin that came from outside. He couldn't see the sin that grew from inside.
This pattern — zealous reform against someone else's sin while maintaining your own — is the most common form of religious hypocrisy. The preacher who thunders against the sins of the culture while harboring his own version of the same disease. The reformer who tears down the foreign idol and worships at the domestic one. The activist who identifies evil everywhere except in the mirror.
Jehu's story asks: what's your golden calf? Not the obvious sin from outside your tradition that's easy to condemn. The one from inside — the homegrown compromise that feels normal because it's always been there. The sin you inherited rather than imported. The one you don't see because it looks like your furniture.
Baal was removed. The calves remained. And the narrator's 'howbeit' turned a revolution into a footnote.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart,.... As to his moral conversation,…
To abolish the calf-worship was a thought which had probably never occurred to Jehu. He had religious feeling enough,…
Here is all the account of the reign of Jehu, though it continued twenty-eight years. The progress of it answered not to…
who[R.V. wherewith he] made Israel to sin See above on 2Ki 2:3. The same change is to be made in verse 31.
golden calves…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture