And when it was light, he went out, and standing said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired against my master, and slew him, who hath slain all these?

And it cometh to pass in the morning, that he goeth out, and standeth, and saith unto all the people, 'Righteous are ye; lo, I have conspired against my lord, and slay him, and who smote all these?

And in the morning he went out and, stopping, said to all the people there, You are upright men: it is true that I made designs against my master, and put him to death; but who is responsible for the death of all these?

And when it had become light, he went out. And standing there, he said to all the people: "You are just. If I have conspired against my lord, and if I have killed him, who has struck down all of these?

Ye be righteous - i. e., "Ye are just, and can judge aright." Jehu unfairly keeps back the fact that he had commanded the execution.

Ye be righteous - Another irony, intended partly to excuse himself, and to involve them in the odium of this massacre, and at the same time to justify the conduct of both, by showing that all was done according to the commandment of the Lord.

And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye [be] (d) righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him: but who slew all these?
(d) You cannot justly condemn me for the king's death, seeing as you have done the same to his posterity: for the Lord commanded me, and moved you to carry out his judgment.

And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people,.... Who were gathered together to this shocking sight, or on the above accounts:
ye be righteous; having had no concern in taking off the heads of those men:
behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him; I own it, and some may blame me for it, and charge me with treason and murder:
but who slew all these? not he, but the chief men of Samaria, and therefore must be more guilty than he, having shed the blood of so many persons, who had not offended against God and man to so great a degree as Joram; this he said to lessen his own sin, and wipe off the reproach of it, that his character might appear fairer in the eyes of the people, concealing, at the same time, his orders for the slaying of them.

said to all the people, Ye be righteous, &c.--A great concourse was assembled to gaze on this novel and ghastly spectacle. The speech which Jehu addressed to the spectators was artfully framed to impress their minds with the idea that so wholesale a massacre was the result of the divine judgments denounced on the house of Ahab; and the effect of it was to prepare the public mind for hearing, without horror, of a similar revolting tragedy which was soon after perpetrated, namely, the extinction of all the influential friends and supporters of the dynasty of Ahab, including those of the royal house of Judah.