and took every: The spreading of garments in the street, before persons to whom it was intended to shew particular honour, was an ancient and very general custom; the garments in these cases being used for carpets. In the Agamemnon of Aschylus, the hypocritical Clytemnestra commands the maids to spread carpets before her returning husband, that on his descending from his chariot he may place his foot on "a purple-covered path." We also find this custom among the Romans. Plutarch relates, that when Cato of Utica left the Macedonian army, where he had become legionary tribune, the soldiers spread their clothes in the way. Matthew 21:7-8; Mark 11:7-8
on the top: The ancient fortified cities were generally strengthened with a citadel (Judges 9:46, Judges 9:51), commonly built on an eminence, to which they ascended by a flight of stairs (Nehemiah 3:15). It is extremely probable, therefore, that Ramoth-gilead, being a frontier town of Israel and Syria, had a tower of this nature; and that Jehu was proclaimed king on the top of the stairs by which they ascended the hill on which the tower stood, i.e., in the area before the door of the tower, and consequently the most public place in the city.
blew with trumpets: 2 Samuel 15:10; 1 Kings 1:34, 1 Kings 1:39; Psalms 47:5-7, Psalms 98:6
is king: Heb. reigneth