Chapter 10 of Sefer Melachim B is the chapter of the great annihilation: Yehu ben Nimshi completes the work of destroying the house of Achav, and then turns to uproot the worship of the Baal from Israel. At the end of the chapter the other side of the coin is revealed: this same Yehu, who was zealous for Hashem and cut off the Baal, does not remove the calves of Yeravam, and with that his fate and the fate of his dynasty are sealed. Let us follow the pesukim in light of the Malbim's explanations, and learn from them lessons of mussar that touch our own times as well.
וַיִּקְבֹּץ יֵהוּא אֶת־כָּל־הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם אַחְאָב עָבַד אֶת־הַבַּעַל מְעָט יֵהוּא יַעַבְדֶנּוּ הַרְבֵּה׃ - And Yehu gathered all the people and said to them: Achav served the Baal a little, Yehu will serve him much.
Yehu now wants to take vengeance also on all the worshippers of the Baal. He knows very well that if he summons them openly in order to kill them, many of them will simply not come. Therefore in his eyes the correct approach is to summon them to a great celebration, deceive them, and thus trap them. Notice his wording: Achav died because the Baal was strict with him, as it were, since he served him only a little, he was not "righteous" enough in the worship of the Baal. But I, says Yehu, will serve him properly.
And examine his wording closely: he did not say "Yehu will serve the Baal much," but rather "יֵהוּא יַעַבְדֶנּוּ הַרְבֵּה" - serve whom? The Holy One, blessed be He. He did not specify whom he was going to serve. They understood that the reference returns to the Baal, whereas his inner intention was the worship of Hashem. Later on we will see that this double meaning did not serve him so well.
וְעַתָּה כָל־נְבִיאֵי הַבַּעַל כָּל־עֹבְדָיו וְכָל־כֹּהֲנָיו קִרְאוּ אֵלַי אִישׁ אַל־יִפָּקֵד כִּי זֶבַח גָּדוֹל לִי לַבַּעַל כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יִפָּקֵד לֹא יִחְיֶה וְיֵהוּא עָשָׂה בְעָקְבָּה לְמַעַן הַאֲבִיד אֶת־עֹבְדֵי הַבָּעַל׃ - And now, all the prophets of the Baal, all his worshippers and all his priests, summon to me, let no man be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for the Baal, whoever is missing shall not live. And Yehu acted with cunning, in order to destroy the worshippers of the Baal.
Yehu summons them all without exception: the prophets of the Baal, his worshippers and his priests. "אִישׁ אַל־יִפָּקֵד" - let there be no man absent from the great sacrifice, and whoever is absent shall not live. The verse itself reveals to us that it was all deceit: "וְיֵהוּא עָשָׂה בְעָקְבָּה," a phrase of cunning, like "and he has supplanted me these two times," and all in order to destroy the worshippers of the Baal.
And here too there is a double meaning. In its plain sense he says: I want to offer a great sacrifice to the Baal. But his inner intention is entirely different: a great slaughter, a great butchering, I have for the Baal - that is, for the worshippers of the Baal. They understood a sacrifice to the Baal, and he intended to slaughter and butcher his worshippers, and so indeed he did.
וַיֹּאמֶר יֵהוּא קַדְּשׁוּ עֲצָרָה לַבַּעַל וַיִּקְרָאוּ׃ - And Yehu said: Sanctify an assembly for the Baal. And they proclaimed it.
He commands to establish a festival day, an "atzarah" - a day forbidden in work, like a festival day, and to proclaim it in all the streets of the cities: a festival day for the Baal.
וַיִּשְׁלַח יֵהוּא בְּכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל־עֹבְדֵי הַבַּעַל וְלֹא־נִשְׁאַר אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר לֹא־בָא וַיָּבֹאוּ בֵּית הַבַּעַל וַיִּמָּלֵא בֵית־הַבַּעַל פֶּה לָפֶה׃ - And Yehu sent throughout all Israel, and all the worshippers of the Baal came, and there was no man left who did not come, and they came into the house of the Baal, and the house of the Baal was filled from end to end.
Everyone heard about such an event and everyone came. "פֶּה לָפֶה" - "peh" means the entrance of the house, that is, the house filled up from entrance to entrance.
וַיֹּאמֶר לַאֲשֶׁר עַל־הַמֶּלְתָּחָה הוֹצֵא לְבוּשׁ לְכֹל עֹבְדֵי הַבָּעַל וַיֹּצֵא לָהֶם הַמַּלְבּוּשׁ׃ - And he said to the one in charge of the wardrobe, "Bring out garments for all the worshipers of the Baal." So he brought out the vestments for them.
"Meltacha" is the place where clothes are kept, and Yonatan translates it as "the one appointed over the treasury," that is, the storehouse of garments, similar to what we call today a wardrobe. Yehu asks that a special garment be given to all the worshipers of the Baal, and he had his reason: he was concerned that people who came merely to watch might be mixed in with the crowd, and then innocent people would also be killed. Through the uniform garment he would know their exact number, and would also ensure that none of them would escape, for if one were to flee, he would immediately be identified by his clothing.
וַיָּבֹא יֵהוּא וִיהוֹנָדָב בֶּן־רֵכָב בֵּית הַבָּעַל וַיֹּאמֶר לְעֹבְדֵי הַבַּעַל חַפְּשׂוּ וּרְאוּ פֶּן־יֶשׁ פֹּה עִמָּכֶם מֵעַבְדֵי ה' כִּי אִם־עֹבְדֵי הַבַּעַל לְבַדָּם׃ - And Yehu came with Yehonadav son of Rechav into the house of the Baal, and he said to the worshipers of the Baal, "Search and see that there are none here among you of the servants of Hashem, but only the worshipers of the Baal alone."
On the surface the claim makes sense: I do not want any of the servants of Hashem here, lest the Baal be displeased and our sacrifice not be received favorably. So he asks them themselves to search and expose whether any of the servants of Hashem is hiding there. But his real intention was the opposite: that, Heaven forbid, no righteous person be killed there.
וַיָּבֹאוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת זְבָחִים וְעֹלוֹת וְיֵהוּא שָׂם־לוֹ בַחוּץ שְׁמֹנִים אִישׁ וַיֹּאמֶר הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִמָּלֵט מִן־הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא עַל־יְדֵיכֶם נַפְשׁוֹ תַּחַת נַפְשׁוֹ׃ - And they came in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Yehu had stationed eighty men outside for himself, and he said, "The man who lets any of the people whom I place in your hands escape, his life shall be forfeit for that man's life."
Why was it necessary for them first to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings? Because there had to be an absolute justification for killing them. The moment they offer a burnt offering to the Baal, their verdict is clear: one who offers a sacrifice to idolatry is liable to death. Only after it became clear that all those present fell into the category of those liable to death did he command that they be struck down according to the law. And outside he stationed eighty guards, and he warned them: anyone who lets any of the men that I deliver into your hands escape - the guard's life shall be forfeit for the life of the one who escaped.
There is something very interesting here. How many people could this hall hold? A thousand people, let us say even two thousand. And these were all the worshipers of the Baal, its priests and its prophets, from all of Israel, from all ten tribes. When we read the history we imagine that all of the people of Israel worshiped idolatry, and yet it turns out that Yehu gathered them all into a single hall and not one remained outside. And there is a further proof: how many men did he need in order to kill them? Eighty men. You do not bring eighty men to deal with three thousand. Eighty are brought at most for a few hundred. True, armed men can overpower even large numbers, but not thousands; thousands would certainly have managed to break out and flee. This means that the worshipers of the Baal, its prophets and its priests, were not many.
On the other hand, I found this difficult, and I once even asked Rav Neugroschel about it: we have another source from which it emerges that specifically those who did not bow to the Baal were few - only seven thousand, "all the knees that did not bow to the Baal." So on one hand only seven thousand were untainted, and on the other hand from the chapter before us it emerges that the worshipers of the Baal were at most one or two thousand. How does this reconcile?
The answer is that they were "limping between two opinions." The seven thousand are those whose heart was whole with Hashem, who never bowed to the Baal, in whose minds not even a shred of a thought of idolatry ever arose: the righteous of Israel. Opposite them, those whom Yehu gathered were the worshippers of the Baal, its priests and prophets, who belonged one hundred percent to the Baal and had no inclination whatsoever toward Hashem. And all the rest, as Eliyahu said on Mount Carmel, were limping between two opinions: somewhere in the middle, sometimes with the Baal and sometimes with Hashem, their heart divided within them. It turns out that there is no contradiction at all, for the two extremes were few, and the great majority were those who had strayed from the path.
Today too one can see this reality. The extremist haters of religion are very few, they make a great deal of noise but they are few. The God fearing who are meticulous in the mitzvot are also not many, thank God they are growing in number but they are still not many. And the rest of the public is somewhere in the middle: more than ninety percent of Jews fast on Yom Kippur, and on the other hand look at how Shabbat appears, may God have mercy. We too today are in a state of limping between two opinions, and may Hashem bring us all back in complete repentance, amen.
וַיְהִי כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹת הָעֹלָה וַיֹּאמֶר יֵהוּא לָרָצִים וְלַשָּׁלִשִׁים בֹּאוּ הַכּוּם אִישׁ אַל־יֵצֵא וַיַּכּוּם לְפִי־חָרֶב וַיַּשְׁלִכוּ הָרָצִים וְהַשָּׁלִשִׁים וַיֵּלְכוּ עַד־עִיר בֵּית־הַבָּעַל׃ - And it came to pass, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, that Yehu said to the runners and to the officers, Come in and strike them, let none come out. And they struck them with the edge of the sword, and the runners and the officers cast them out, and went to the city of the house of the Baal.
Immediately upon finishing the offering of the burnt offering, since, as stated, a sufficient reason to kill them was needed, Yehu commanded the runners and the officers, those guards whose task was to prevent escape: "Come in and strike them, let none come out." A tumult broke out, people tried to leave, and everyone who came out was struck at the entrance. "וַיַּשְׁלִכוּ" - they cast out the slain worshippers of the Baal. And there were those who began to flee, and they pursued them as far as the city of the house of the Baal to kill them; or they reached as far as the city of the house of the Baal in order to demolish the pillars of the Baal.
וַיֹּצִאוּ אֶת־מַצְּבוֹת בֵּית־הַבַּעַל וַיִּשְׂרְפוּהָ׃ - And they brought out the pillars of the house of the Baal, and burned them.
The Malbim says: this pillar was of wood, and therefore the easiest way to destroy it was by burning.
וַיִּתְּצוּ אֵת מַצְּבַת הַבָּעַל וַיִּתְּצוּ אֶת־בֵּית הַבַּעַל וַיְשִׂמֻהוּ לְמוֹצָאוֹת עַד־הַיּוֹם׃ - And they broke down the pillar of the Baal, and broke down the house of the Baal, and made it a latrine to this day.
This pillar of the Baal, the Malbim explains, was of stone, and therefore the proper way to eradicate it completely is by demolition, and likewise the house of the Baal which was made of stone. "וַיְשִׂמֻהוּ" - the written form is "למחראות" and the read form is "למוצאות," and this is a scribal emendation. "מחראות" is from the language of "their holes," that is, excrement, that which comes out of the holes, and this is a less clean expression, and therefore the read form is "למוצאות," which too is from the language of their excretions. They made the place into a site of refuse and a latrine.
The Gemara brings that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha would say: "We read it as latrines" - he would call it by its disgraceful name. And why? For Rav Nachman said: all mockery is forbidden, except for mockery of idolatry. Mockery is a flawed and lowly thing, but to mock matters of vanity, idolatry, and matters belonging to the sitra achra: that is good mockery.
And here it is fitting to relate: Rav Shalom Schwadron, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing, when he delivered his talks, his way was to mock sinners and everything that opposes Torah and mitzvot, and to make fun of it. Once people came and complained before the Chazon Ish: there is a rabbi here who gives sermons and engages in mockery, and this is not an accepted way; one goes to hear words of mussar, but mockery? The Chazon Ish called for him, so Rav Schwadron himself related, and asked him to deliver a talk in the way he delivered it in Zichron Moshe in Jerusalem. I said, what shall I speak before the Rav? He said to me: yes, speak just as you are accustomed to deliver. And then I spoke exactly in my usual way, with the stories and with my style of mockery, and the Chazon Ish sat with his eyes closed and listened. When I finished, the Chazon Ish said to me: this is how one must speak today. From here we see: all mockery is forbidden except for mockery of idolatry. When a person looks at something with admiration, and you make fun of it and say that it is vanity and nonsense and turn it into the dust of the earth, that is the proper way through which a person will nullify the matter in his heart.
וַיַּשְׁמֵד יֵהוּא אֶת־הַבַּעַל מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל׃ רַק חֲטָאֵי יָרָבְעָם בֶּן־נְבָט אֲשֶׁר הֶחֱטִיא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא־סָר יֵהוּא מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶם עֶגְלֵי הַזָּהָב אֲשֶׁר בֵּית־אֵל וַאֲשֶׁר בְּדָן׃ - And Yehu destroyed the Baal out of Israel. Only from the sins of Yeravam ben Nevat, who caused Israel to sin, Yehu did not turn away from following them, the golden calves that were in Beit El and that were in Dan.
Yeravam ben Nevat set up two calves that served as a substitute for the service in the Beit HaMikdash, so that the people would not have to make the pilgrimage, and this was one of the hardest things for the kings of Israel to abolish. Yehu managed to abolish the Baal and killed all its worshippers, but the calves that Yeravam had set up he did not manage to abolish. Why? Because this had already become a habit for them, it appeared in their eyes as something good and upright. And some explain: because at first they worshipped the calves in the name of Hashem, and therefore a feeling remained in them that there was no flaw or deficiency in the matter.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin 102a asks: But Yehu was a great tzaddik, how could it be that he left the calves standing? On the one hand it is written "Because you have done well in doing what is upright in My eyes," and on the other hand "But Yehu did not take care to walk in the Torah of Hashem... he did not turn away from the sins of Yeravam." What caused this? Abaye said: a covenant is sealed with the lips, as it says "Achav served the Baal a little, Yehu shall serve him much." You said "he shall serve him much," therefore your end will be that you will serve him much.
We hear how careful a person must be not to let a disparaging word leave his mouth. We saw this even with Moshe Rabbeinu: all his merit did not stand for him. What did Moshe say to Yitro about the first son who would be born? That he would be a priest for idol worship. And who was the "priest," in quotation marks, at the idol of Michah? Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Moshe, the grandson of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe said that his son would be for idol worship, a covenant is sealed with the lips, and the matter came to pass. Therefore one must be very careful that a person not say anything bad about himself, and not "if such and such happens to me." Even when interpreting a dream one must always interpret it for the good. A person says "it seems to me that such and such will happen," and the Gemara sometimes says "like an error that issues from before the ruler" - he let it out of his mouth, and, Heaven forbid, the words are realized and become reality.
Rava said: he saw the seal of Achiyah HaShiloni. As we recall, Achiyah HaShiloni was misled by Yeravam. When Achiyah informed him that Hashem had made him king, Yeravam asked: and everything I say, will they accept from me? He said to him: yes. He said to him: sign for me on this. He asked: even if I tell them to worship idols? He said to him: yes, and he signed for him on a document that the people would listen to him even if he told them to worship idols. How could it be that Achiyah HaShiloni would sign such a thing? Rather, Achiyah reasoned: would a great man like Yeravam worship idols?! This is a man whom the Holy One, Blessed be He, chose, and of whom it was said that all the sages of Israel were before him like the grasses of the field, a giant among giants. Imagine that the Chafetz Chaim would come and ask for such a signature, who would suspect the Chafetz Chaim of going to worship idols? And the Chafetz Chaim is nothing and not even a fraction compared to Yeravam ben Nevat. And if so, said Achiyah, I have no reason to doubt him at all; surely his intention is service of the king, even work that is foreign to them, hard labor, and he signed for him. And this document Yeravam took, framed it, set up calves and showed it to the people: see, Achiyah HaShiloni wrote that even if I tell you to worship idols you must obey. And according to Rava, Yehu too saw this seal and erred, and thought that he was permitted to mislead the people and continue with idol worship.
In Tanna DeVei Eliyahu Zuta, chapter 7, it is brought: they said about Yehu ben Nimshi that he was God-fearing and did not go after the golden calves that Yeravam ben Nevat made, but since he came to greatness and kingship, he corrupted his deeds. We hear what caused it to him? The greatness and the kingship. When a person is small, it is easy for him to serve Hashem. But when he has authority, and people come and praise him, glorify him and bow down before him, through this he reaches places he would never have reached had there been humility and lowliness in him. And thus he came all the way to idol worship and corrupted his deeds.
And Yehonadav ben Rechav, whom we saw here that Yehu met on the way and who helped him cut off the criminals, learned a lesson from this and warned his sons not to stumble in it: do not aspire to greatness, and if you do not aspire to greatness, you will not become corrupted. So Yirmeyahu relates in chapter 35: "Go to the house of the Rechavites" - not a garage, but the sons of Yehonadav ben Rechav, the family of Rechav - "and speak with them and bring them to the House of Hashem, to one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink." Yirmeyahu brought them to the chamber of the sons of Chanan ben Yigdalyahu the man of God, placed before them goblets full of wine and cups and said to them: drink wine. "And they said, we will not drink wine, for Yonadav ben Rechav our father commanded us saying, you shall not drink wine, you and your sons, forever, and you shall not build a house, nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor shall you have any; for in tents you shall dwell all your days, so that you may live many days upon the face of the land where you sojourn." And they testify: "And we obeyed the voice of Yehonadav ben Rechav our father in all that he commanded us... and we dwelt in tents, and we obeyed and did according to all that Yonadav our father commanded us."
The meaning of the matter: Yehonadav saw what greatness and the aspiration to kingship did to Yehu, and said: I will not allow my children to become corrupted like him. Therefore he warned them not to build houses, not to plant vineyards and not to drink wine, for all these are liable to bring a person close to sin. And indeed their sons were great and righteous and guarded in their holiness in the merit of that command. And it is further written that he knew they were destined to be exiled from the land, and he did not want the exile to be hard on them: when a person has to leave a built-up place, a house and a field and a vineyard, sometimes he stays until it is already too late, and even when he wants to flee he can no longer do so.
So it was in Europe. When they began to feel the ground burning under their feet, there were those who got up and left, and who were they? Those who had no assets to leave behind. Rav Shach related that he and his wife had a single suitcase. They lived at his father-in-law's in one room that they divided with plywood: he and his wife on one side, his father-in-law and mother-in-law on the other side. And clothing, who needs a closet when he has one garment and his wife has one garment? We folded, put it in the suitcase, got up and went. But there were friends who received from their father-in-law houses and assets and much money, for he had taken a Torah scholar as a son-in-law and paid a lot for him. When they had to leave the houses they felt bad about it: this is real estate, this is a lot of money, shall I leave everything behind me? They said it will be fine, this is temporary, this will pass. And in the end, Heaven protect us, when they already understood that it was a matter of life and death, it was already impossible to leave, the borders were closed and locked.
From here he drew a lesson for the yeshiva boys: there is a fellow who is not willing to marry until they promise him an apartment, and another one looks for a car, and another wants the keys to a business, everyone has his demands. He told them: I did not demand anything, and for three days I did not come to yeshiva out of sheer embarrassment that they would ask me what I received and what my father in law gave me. And they knew that had Rav Shach made demands, they would have given him everything, the most fitting match and the greatest wealthy man would have been willing to take him as a son in law for his daughter. He said: look, those who received a great deal, what did they gain from it? And I, who received nothing, look at the kindness of Hashem, I received the most precious thing, I received my life.
וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל־יֵהוּא יַעַן אֲשֶׁר־הֱטִיבֹתָ לַעֲשׂוֹת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינַי כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר בִּלְבָבִי עָשִׂיתָ לְבֵית אַחְאָב בְּנֵי רְבִעִים יֵשְׁבוּ לְךָ עַל־כִּסֵּא יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And Hashem said to Yehu: because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Achav all that was in My heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
The Holy One, blessed be He, promises him kingship for four generations, because he did to the house of Achav exactly as commanded: I commanded to destroy the house of Achav, and you destroyed it as commanded.
וְיֵהוּא לֹא שָׁמַר לָלֶכֶת בְּתוֹרַת־ה' אֱלֹהֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּכָל־לְבָבוֹ לֹא סָר מֵעַל חַטֹּאות יָרָבְעָם אֲשֶׁר הֶחֱטִיא אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - But Yehu did not take care to walk in the Torah of Hashem, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not turn away from the sins of Yeravam, who caused Israel to sin.
He does not walk in the Torah of Hashem with all his heart, and he continues the sins of Yeravam and maintains the calves. And, as it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, is in a bind: He cannot destroy him, for He already promised him four generations. On the other hand, says the Malbim, the very promise turned against him. How so? Had the kingship not been promised to you, you would still have had a way to justify yourself: I left the calves out of that same fear that Yeravam feared, lest the people go up to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals, and the king of Yehudah would draw them to himself and they would not return to accept my kingship. But if the kingship was promised to you and to four generations after you, what concern is there here? The Holy One, blessed be He, sealed for you four generations, so what need did you have for the calves? It turns out that the promise itself increased the accusation against him: ordinarily he could have justified himself that the matter was done under duress out of fear of losing the kingship, but here there is no fear at all. And therefore the anger of Hashem burned against him.
בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם הֵחֵל ה' לְקַצּוֹת בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּכֵּם חֲזָאֵל בְּכָל־גְּבוּל יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - In those days Hashem began to cut off parts of Israel, and Chazael struck them throughout the border of Israel.
"לְקַצּוֹת" is from the language of cutting off and severing, like "וְקַצֹּתָה אֶת כַּפָּהּ". He began to strike those who dwell at the edge of the land of Israel, in the land east of the Jordan.
מִן־הַיַּרְדֵּן מִזְרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ אֵת כָּל־אֶרֶץ הַגִּלְעָד הַגָּדִי וְהָראוּבֵנִי וְהַמְנַשִּׁי מֵעֲרֹעֵר אֲשֶׁר־עַל־נַחַל אַרְנֹן וְהַגִּלְעָד וְהַבָּשָׁן׃ - From the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilad, the Gadites and the Reuvenites and the Menashites, from Aroer, which is by the Arnon river, both Gilad and the Bashan.
וְיֶתֶר דִּבְרֵי יֵהוּא וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְכָל־גְּבוּרָתוֹ הֲלוֹא־הֵם כְּתוּבִים עַל־סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים לְמַלְכֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ וַיִּשְׁכַּב יֵהוּא עִם־אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ בְּשֹׁמְרוֹן וַיִּמְלֹךְ יְהוֹאָחָז בְּנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו׃ וְהַיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ יֵהוּא עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל עֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁמֹנֶה שָׁנָה בְּשֹׁמְרוֹן׃ - And the rest of the acts of Yehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Yehu lay with his fathers, and they buried him in Shomron, and Yehoachaz his son reigned in his place. And the days that Yehu reigned over Israel were twenty eight years in Shomron.
Regarding the house of Yehu we have a prophecy in the book of Hoshea, chapter 1: "The word of Hashem that came to Hoshea son of Beeri... Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has utterly strayed from following Hashem. And he went and took Gomer daughter of Divlayim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And Hashem said to him: call his name Yizreel, for in a little while I will visit the blood of Yizreel upon the house of Yehu, and I will bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel" (we will explain the details of that matter, with the help of Hashem, when we reach there).
Who was at Yizrael? Achav. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will in the future exact punishment from Yehu for killing the house of Achav. But how can this be? It was the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself who commanded through prophecy to destroy the house of Achav, and Yehu did exactly as was told to Eliyahu the prophet!
Rather, the explanation is this: had you killed the house of Achav because you are righteous and could not bear idol worshippers, and you went to fulfill the command of Hashem, you would have received reward for it. But if you killed them because they were idol worshippers, and afterward you yourself go and worship idols, what becomes clear? That you did not act for the sake of Heaven, but in order to seize the kingship. If idolatry pained you so much that you killed on its account, how did you then go and worship it yourself? What was considered until now a mitzvah turns into an entirely different reckoning. And therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will visit the blood of Yizrael upon the house of Yehu, and I will bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel.
The principle in this is: one who pursues the pursuer must be clean of the pursuer's sin. If there is a pursuer chasing his fellow to kill him, any person is permitted to strike the pursuer in order to save the pursued. But if the one who pursues the pursuer himself has sin in him, and he pursues not in order to save the pursued but because he has an old score with the pursuer, and only now he found a pretext according to halacha to take revenge on him, then he does not have the status of one who saves the pursued, but he himself is under the law of a pursuer and murderer. And so too here. From this we learn that when a person performs an act, he must direct his intention for the sake of Heaven, for sometimes even a necessary and fitting act, if you did not intend it for the sake of Heaven, a person will still be held to account in Heaven for the very act.
Yehu opens the chapter with a holy cunning: a double expression, "he will serve him greatly" and "a great sacrifice I have for Baal," in order to gather all the worshippers of Baal to one place, to dress them in an identifying garment, to wait until they would become liable to death through their sacrifice, and to wipe them out and demolish the house of Baal and turn it into a place of refuse. From here we learned that the extremes are always few and the majority straddles the two positions, and that mockery of idolatry is permitted and even desirable. Yet for all his greatness Yehu failed: he did not remove the calves of Yeravam, whether by force of the "covenant made with the lips" in his words, whether because of the seal of Achiya the Shiloni, and mainly because greatness and kingship corrupted his deeds, until Yehonadav ben Rechav warned his sons to flee from greatness and from possessions. The promise of four generations that was given to him turned into a charge against him, and in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, exacted from him the blood of Yizrael, to teach us that even the most correct act is measured according to the intention within it: if it is not for the sake of Heaven, in the end one will be held to account for it.