Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 10:8

"And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king`s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning." — 2 Kings 10:8 (ASV)

There came a messenger.—Literally, and the messenger came in. Josephus says Jehu was giving a banquet.

Heaps. —The noun (çibbûr) occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. In the Talmud it means “congregation,” as we say colloquially “a heap of persons.” The verb (çâbar) means “to heap up.” .

At the entering in of the gate. —The place of public business, where all the citizens would see them. (Compare to 2 Kings 7:3; 1 Kings 22:10). But perhaps not the city gate, but the gate of the palace is to be understood.

Parallels to this deed of Jehu are not lacking in the history of modern Persia. (Compare to 1 Samuel 17:54; and the comparatively recent custom in our own country of displaying the heads of traitors on London Bridge).