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Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 10:30 and Hosea 1:4

Jehu rewarded, Jehu judged

2 Kings 10:30 says God approved Jehu's destruction of Ahab's house and promised his sons four generations. Hosea 1:4 says God will avenge "the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." The texts agree in every witness checked; the tension is between two biblical books.

Read 2 Kings 10:30 and Hosea 1:4 in every edition

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Hosea 1:4 (Masoretic Text)Hosea, 8th century BC
  2. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. ADTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Hosea, 8th century BC

      Hosea 1:4 (Masoretic Text)

      ✓ Contains this passage

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

      for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu

      KJV of the Masoretic Text.

    2. Unknown (debated)

      Original Kings

      – No copy survives

      No original survives.

    3. Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD

      Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      tes fils règneront sur Israël jusqu'à la quatrième génération

      One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

    4. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      יַעַן אֲשֶׁר־הֱטִיבֹתָ לַעֲשׂוֹת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינַי… בְּנֵי רְבִעִים יֵשְׁבוּ לְךָ

      because you have done well in doing what is right in my eyes… sons of the fourth generation shall sit for you

    5. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Because thou hast done well… thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

    What changed, and why

    Explanations: Jehu went beyond his commission; Jehu's own unfaithfulness (10:31) made his house liable; Hosea reflects a later prophetic judgment on the dynasty's violence. Both statements are kept in Scripture.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedKings and Hosea evaluate Jehu's bloodshed differently.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Jehu's Purge and Assyrian Tribute →Jehu has the seventy sons of Ahab in Samaria beheaded and their heads piled at Jezreel's gate. He kills Ahaziah's relatives on the road. With Jehonadab son of Rechab he gathers all Baal's worshipers in Baal's temple and has them killed, and makes the temple a latrine. God promises Jehu's sons the throne for four generations, but Jehu keeps the golden calves. Hazael begins to cut off Israel's territory east of the Jordan.
      • Ethics and Prophecy: Power, Violence and Unexpected Witnesses →2 Kings contains some of the Bible's most disturbing scenes: fire on soldiers, bears and youths, child sacrifice, siege cannibalism, Jehu's massacres, atrocities in war, executions of priests. It also gives voice to unexpected witnesses: a captive girl, four outcasts, a Shunammite landowner, Huldah. This lesson gathers both.