From the Death of Ahab to the Captivity of the Ten Tribes - Flavius Josephus

fourscore men without, they being such of his soldiers as he knew to be most
faithful to him, and bid them slay the prophets, and now vindicate the laws of
their country, which had been a long time in disesteem. He also threatened,
that if any one of them escaped, their own lives should go for them. So they
slew them all with the sword, and burnt the house of Baal, and by that means
purged Samaria of foreign customs [idolatrous worship]. Now this Baal was
the god of the Tyrians; and Ahab, in order to gratify his father-in-law,
Ethbaal, who was the king of Tyre and Sidon, built a temple for him in
Samaria, and appointed him prophets, and worshipped him with all sorts of
worship, although, when this god was demolished, Jehu permitted the
Israelites to worship the golden heifers. However, because he had done thus,
and taken care to punish the wicked, God foretold by his prophet that his
.sons should reign over Israel for four generations. And in this condition was
Jehu at this time.
Footnotes:
1. Spanheim here notes, that this putting off men's garments, and strewing
them under a king, was an Eastern custom, which he had elsewhere
explained.
2. Our copies say that this "driving of the chariots was like the driving of
Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously," 2 Kings 9:20; whereas
Josephus's copy, as he understood it, was this, that, on the contrary, Jehu
marched slowly, and in good order. Nor can it be denied, that since there
was interval enough for king Joram to send out two horsemen, one after
another, to Jehu, and at length to go out with king Ahaziah to meet him,
and all this after he was come within sight of the watchman, and before
he was come to Jezreel, the probability is greatly on the side of
Josephus's copy or interpretation.
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