2 Kings 2

2:1 And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me as far as Beth-el. And Elisha said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Beth-el. And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they were divided hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not. And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho; and he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?

It is at this point that the sacred narrative introduces one of the greatest events of the old dispensation, the ascent of Elijah. The chronology is intricate, but the event seems to have taken place about the time of Ahaziah’s death. The chief difficulty arises from the letter which Elijah sent to Jehoram, king of Judah, prophesying his destruction because he followed the sins of the house of Ahab. This, by the way, is the only point of connection between Elijah and the house of David, and the only mention of his name in the Chronicles (21:12-15). Now Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram, took part in the campaign which is related after Elijah’s ascension, and in which too Elisha appears as the prophet. That Elisha ever left his attendance upon Elijah to act in public, before he received the prophet’s mantle, is a supposition quite unwarranted by the history. That the letter of Elijah to Jehoram was written before but delivered after his ascension, is a violent assumption. The true and simple explanation is, that Jehoram began to reign over Judah some years before his father’s death. There is therefore no reason to depart from the order of the narrative in Kings. P. S.

It is probable that during the eight or ten years of Elijah’s life, after the anointing of Elisha, the two prophets were quietly and actively ministering in the cities and villages of Israel. Taught by the “still small voice” of Horeb, Elijah would speak to the people of Jehovah’s goodness and mercy, and seek to win them to spiritual service and love. We read also of sons of the prophets settled in Bethel, which had been one of the chief seats of idolatry; and there are indications that “schools of the prophets” were organized and established throughout the land, and that to these Elijah devoted some years of assiduous culture, indicating that under his influence true religion made considerable progress in Israel. Allon.

Elijah’s work was finished. But he lies not down to die in despondency and gloom. God has assured him of an end more glorious than that of any of the whole race of men. The clouds that have swept over his day of toil and endurance are to pass away before the golden evening radiance, which for him shall burst instantly into the effulgence of heaven’s eternal day.

1-5. From Gilgal Elijah goes, with Elisha, to Bethel and Jericho, to take leave of the sons of the prophets. No dates are recorded of Elijah’s life. From Gilead he came; in Samaria his ministry was performed, perhaps for twenty years; to Gilead he returns and thence is translated. Of this translation, like Moses, he had received beforehand a Divine intimation. He is now directed first to pay a parting visit to those schools of the prophets that he had nurtured and trained. In these schools were men whom God had raised up from among the people, to act as instructors of His law and truth to such as desired and accepted this teaching. From these men God selected the superior prophets, and endowed them with special inspiration to declare His counsel and purpose as events demanded. Thus God had done and continued to do, in order to preserve the truth among His people, to counteract the influence of false and idolatrous teachers, to reclaim the people from iniquity and recover them from idolatry, and to hold firm in their integrity as many as would obey and serve Him.

Thrice, in his journey to the Jordan, Elijah sought to check Elisha’s purpose to accompany him. He seems to have designed in this to test the steadfastness and strength of Elisha’s faith. But the heart of Elisha firmly stood the trial to the end. He answers by the double asseveration “As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth”—thus appealing to the eternity of God and the immortality of the soul—“I will not leave thee.” So he abides at Elijah’s side until they are parted by the whirlwind which bears the prophet heavenward. At Bethel and Jericho the same events transpire. Words of instruction, encouragement and blessing Elijah spake to the pupils from whom he was now finally to part. And they seemed to have inferred the issue and naturally spoke of it to Elisha. His reply was not a denial or rebuke, but a caution that they should not suffer the fact they understood to be noised abroad. B.

1. From Gilgal.** The Gilgal here mentioned, from which the two prophets “went down” to Bethel, must be sought in the hill country of Ephraim, and at a higher elevation than Bethel itself, which is in the mountain region. Such a position belongs to the modern Jiljileb, on the highland between Nablous and Beitin (Bethel), about eight and a half miles from the latter; and this place is therefore now commonly supposed to be the Gilgal here mentioned. Some regard it as the ordinary residence of Elisha. B. C.

3. No record of Elijah’s parting intercourse with these sons of the prophets is given. We are left to imagine the seriousness, fidelity, and tenderness of his last words to these pious youths, whom he had gathered and trained for the religious ministry of the land. It is touching and beautiful to think that such should have been his last earthly occupation, his last counsels and blessings; that his last words should have been words of help to those who were to be God’s witnesses in the land. Allon.

6-8. From Jericho the two prophets proceed to the Jordan and cross the river. Fifty of Elijah’s pupils follow them afar off, and witnessed the crossing of the river, but no more. In the method of that crossing, the miraculous dividing of the waters, we witness Elijah’s last prophetic act. Herein we see conclusive proof, not only that he maintained his trust steadfast to the end, but that his faith culminated in force and sublimity at the very end. And God responded to his faith. As, under Divine direction, Moses at the Red Sea stretched forth his rod—the sign of his office—so now Elijah smites the waters with his mantle, and God honors the sign and divides the river as at Joshua’s entrance. “So they two went over on dry ground.” Into Gilead they went, Elijah’s native country, whence he would fain depart to be with Christ: into Gilead, under the shadow of Pisgah, whence Moses had finally withdrawn from the leadership and the love of the long-wandering people of God. B.

6. They two went on.** There was silence in all probability between them. They were solemnized by the consciousness of a Divine presence, by the feeling that they were every moment approaching nearer to an as yet unknown manifestation of the Divine counsels, by the persuasion that one of them at least was standing on the threshold of the unseen world. Under impressions such as these Elisha had already declined conversation with the sons of the prophets at Bethel and at Jericho. Under the same impressions he was silent now. Nor would Elijah be inclined to speak. His departure itself, and not the words with which he might accompany it, was to be the lesson to his companion and friend. When we stand by the death-bed of the child of God our impulse is not so much to speak as to learn the lessons that are taught us by the scene. Thus Elijah and Elisha—“they two went on.” W. M.

7. By the ford opposite Beth-Nimrah, or Bethabara, did Elijah most probably pass, when he had vainly attempted to prevent his faithful Elisha from accompanying him, as, for the last time, he hastened toward the mountains of his native Gilead, thence to be carried up to his eternal home. Up to that bold peak of Quarantania behind, the sons of the prophets had climbed, and there they “stood to view” and watch as master and scholar walked across the plain, till they descended to the wooded bank. There was no delay, as the stricken waters made a path for them dryshod; and thence they would naturally follow the road to the mountains. Not long had they walked, still absorbed in converse, when the chariot and horses of fire appeared, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Not long—for when Elisha returned, the sons of the prophets had not yet relinquished their post of observation. Still had they gazed on, waiting till their fathers should return, when soon they recognized Elisha, coming back in all the power and spirit of Elijah. It could not, therefore, have been far from this ford that heaven and earth were brought so near together. There is a peculiar appropriateness in this identification since he who was to come “in the spirit and power of Elias” appeared, completed his mission and discharged his function of herald of the Kingdom, by the baptism of Christ at Bethabara, just opposite, near the very spot where his prototype had disappeared. By this ford, too, our Lord and His disciples passed over Jordan, when they came by the plain on the east side and ascended from Jericho to Jerusalem. Tristram.

8. The use of the “mantle” had undoubtedly a meaning. It had been the most characteristic token of the prophet’s work. As a garment of rough hair, it reminded both him and all who witnessed the use to which it was put, of his privations in the wilderness, of his loneliness, of his toils, of his self-denials, and of his sufferings, in the execution of his mission. It was associated with the thought of a good fight fought, of a course finished, of faith kept. Why should it not be a source of strength to him in a departing hour? It had covered him alike in his struggles and in his triumphs, in his sorrows and his joys. He rolled it together as his rod, struck the waters of the river with it, and he and Elisha passed over dry-shod. W. M.

9, 10. The sublime offer of Elijah, and the equally sublime request of Elisha. Never were two human souls moved by higher inspiration and more hallowed aspiration than in this invitation and response. The offer came from a deeper feeling than even Elijah’s love to Elisha. It was actuated by the desire to aid his inexperienced successor in lifting the burden he was about to lay down. And back of this desire was his yearning of soul for the glory of Jehovah to be manifested in the future blessing of His people. Thus true to God’s glory and to His people’s welfare was this grand man to the last. Once more Elisha could be availed of his mightily prevalent intercession. And how pure and lofty is the responsive request of the younger prophet! No thought of self-elevation marred its singleness and grandeur. About to take Elijah’s place and work, he knows his need of wisdom and courage, of strength and steadfastness of soul, of unfaltering trust and fidelity toward God. Therefore he simply asks for these qualities—so eminently vouchsafed to Elijah—that he too may carry forward God’s work among His people. Not for more than Elijah’s own gifts does he ask; but for the double portion allotted to a first-born son—for thus much more than the Lord’s remaining prophets. So pure, lofty and large is Elisha’s aspiration and request. And Elijah’s answer indicates his full appreciation of its reach and greatness. He cannot assure the reception of such high gifts. He can only, and will fervently, refer the petition to God. And God Himself will give a sign, if He grant it. As we know, the sign was given, and the prayer in its real intent and spirit abundantly answered. Living longer and in closer relations to the people, Elisha wrought twice as many miracles as Elijah, and exerted a wider personal influence. But none save Moses is comparable with Elijah in strength, depth and permanence of effect wrought upon Israel and Judah. B.

Elisha reckoned himself Elijah’s first-born spiritual son, and asked for the elder brother’s share, because he had been designated as successor, and would need more than others for his work. The new sense of responsibility is coming on him, and teaching him his need. Well for us if higher positions make us lowlier in the consciousness of our own unfitness without Divine help! Elijah knew that his spirit was not his to give, and can only refer his successor to the Fountain from which he had drawn; for the sign which He gives is obviously not within his power to determine. If the Lord shows him, who is left, the ascending master, He will give the servant his desire. A. M.

11, 12. The ascension of Elijah, and its effect upon Elisha. As they still went on, and talked, they were parted. Elijah had referred Elisha’s petition fervently to God, and now, like his ascending Lord, was uttering words of instruction and counsel and encouragement. Neither thought nor petition had he for himself, until God’s time and summons came. And the next record of Elijah—nine hundred years later—reveals him as talking with his transfigured Lord concerning the one central theme of heaven and eternity. Suddenly a violent storm surrounds and encloses them. Near to the earth Elisha sees a chariot and horses of fire, parting him from Elijah. And instantly he beholds Elijah caught up in the tempest and borne heavenward. The flaming chariot and horses were an acknowledged symbol of present Divine power and protection. Elisha may have witnessed this symbol, or, like his servant in Dothan (2 K. 6: 17), this may simply have been a spiritual vision.

No further record have we of this transcendent marvel. We are only assured of this, that in a moment, by the mighty working of Christ, the body of Elijah was changed into the likeness of His own glorified body. Here, as in the case of Enoch, was a complete victory over death. And here the event was far more glorious, significant, and cheering. Enoch’s quiet, unseen translation was suited to the undemonstrative character of that early time. Elijah’s visible ascent, like Christ’s, was equally suited to the period of Jehovah’s signal exhibition of Himself—through His express ordinances and by His prophets, to His chosen people. In the glory thus reflected from the exaltation of Elijah, God strikingly commended to people and prophets the worth of truth and fidelity, of trust in Him, and of purity in His worship. And He intimated that the reward of all these excellences in character and life was to be experienced in a loftier, freer and more beautiful heavenly existence.

In his exclamation, Elisha touchingly utters the noblest testimony concerning his ascended teacher. First, his loving heart overflows with a sense of its bereavement, in the tender appellation, Father. Then as the thought fills his own great mind of that intrepid, energetic, and effective life, and of its grand results in the spiritual deliverance and help of the people, he utters his grief in behalf of the people’s loss: Thou who wast the defence of Israel—“the chariot and the horseman thereof”—art departed! (And to himself, at his departure, these identical words were spoken, with this meaning, 2 K. 13: 14.) Then, as signifying this great loss to the nation and to himself, although he had received the sign of God’s answer to his own desire, he rent his garments in twain. B.

11. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven;** literally, and Elijah went up in a storm into the heavens. There is no mention of a “whirlwind;” and “the heavens” are primarily the visible firmament or sky which overhangs the earth. Elijah, like our Lord, rose bodily from the earth into the upper region of the air, and was there lost to sight. Three only of the seed of Adam—Enoch, Elijah, Jesus—have passed from earth to heaven without dying. P. C.—Literally, “Elijah went up in a storm into the sky.” There is no mention of a whirlwind, but only of a storm; and the word translated “heaven” is properly the visible firmament or sky. No honest exegesis can explain this passage in any other sense than as teaching the translation of Elijah, who was taken from the earth like Enoch, without dying. B. C.

Elijah is not said to have gone up into heaven in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. The chariots and horses of fire appeared, but they are so spoken of as to show that they were rather the accompaniment than the means of this translation. Such appearances Elisha actually beheld waiting, as it were, upon Elijah in the last moments of his life upon earth; and then, with that glory as his attendant satellite, he saw him swept away in a storm toward heaven. Thus with all reverence for the Sacred Word may we be permitted to speak of the translation of Elijah. W. M.

There are three bodily inhabitants of heaven, Enoch, Elijah, our Saviour Christ: the first, before the Law; the second, under the Law; the third, under the Gospel—all three in a several form of translation. Our blessed Saviour raised Himself to and above the heavens by His own immediate power: He ascended as the Son; they, as servants: He, as God; they, as creatures. Elijah ascended by the visible ministry of angels; Enoch, insensibly. Bp. H.

The essential fact is that Elijah was translated without dying. Not only does the credibility of the history demand this; but the entire biblical conception demands it also. If the gospels do not accept myths as veritable history, if the transfiguration of our Lord be a fact, and not a mere vision or legend, if there be any significance in the representation of Moses and Elias appearing with Him in glory, we must literally accept the representation that Elijah was translated without tasting death. The miracle it is impossible to remove, and those who reject miracles must reject the narrative as a whole. W. M.

Elijah was going and talking when the storm from heaven came to take him. There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to find us in than in a diligent prosecution of our calling. The busy attendance of our holy vocation is no less pleasing to God than an immediate devotion. Happy the servant whom the Master, when He comes, shall find so doing. Bp. H.

The removal of Elijah from the earth was in keeping with the manner and work of his life upon the earth. Like Enoch, we may say of him that “by faith he was translated that he should not see death;” and it is noteworthy that, so far as we know anything of it from the fragment of his prophecy preserved by Jude, Enoch’s career was just such a struggle and protest against prevalent iniquity as that of Elijah was. Thus both of these exceptions to the great law of human mortality were granted to men who had been faithful witnesses to God and His truth in periods of general apostasy. W. M. Taylor.

The teaching of the event is plain. As for the pre-Mosaic ages the translation of Enoch, and for the earlier Mosaic epoch the mysterious death of Moses, so for the prophetic period the carrying to heaven of Elijah, witnessed of a life beyond death, and of death as the wages of sin, which God could remit, if He willed, in the case of faithful service. Enoch and Elijah were led round the head of the valley on the heights, and reached the other side without having to go down into the cold waters flowing in the bottom; and though we cannot tread their path, the joy of their experience has not ceased to be a joy to us, if we walk with God. Death is still the coming of the chariot and horses of fire to bear the believer home. A. M.

One of the purposes, doubtless, of this translation of Elijah was to make plainer to our dull understandings the upward heavenly going of every saint when his work on earth is over. We are so apt to follow the body with our thoughts and to imagine our departed friends in the grave, that here God made the body go upward that we may be weaned of this wrong and heathenish notion. Enoch and Elijah certainly are not alone of men in heaven. They are there with all God’s saints who have departed this life. Paul shows us that to depart is to be with Christ. Elijah’s ascent is to elicit our look upward for our departed friends—to think of them as with the cloud of witnesses. H. Crosby.

Nor are we without assurance that the departing soul at death enters upon a state of joy and blessedness, as appears by the promise to the penitent thief on the cross; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; Christ telling the Sadducees that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living;” the translation of Enoch and Elijah, and the appearance of Moses with Elijah on the mount of transfiguration; our Lord’s arguing that they who kill the body are not able to kill the soul; His commending His spirit into His Father’s hands, and its being in Paradise while His body was in the grave; His promising, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be;” Stephen’s seeing heaven opened, and his praying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; our being come to the spirits of just men made perfect; Paul’s desiring to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, and to be absent from the body and present with the Lord; the blessedness of the dead which die in the Lord. Baxter.

Those who would find Elijah, let them aspire to the heavenly Paradise. Let them follow the high steps of his sincere faithfulness, strong patience, undaunted courage, fervent zeal. Shortly, let them walk in the ways of his holy and constant obedience; at last, God shall send the fiery chariot of death, to fetch them up to that heaven of heavens, where they shall triumph in everlasting joys. Bp. H.

The translation of Elijah, as aforetime of Enoch, was the transfiguration of life as well as of death. As such, it is hardly possible to overestimate its value to the faith of the saints of the olden world. For the Christian, too, whose life is hid with Christ in God, there come, now and then, in the rare, supreme moments of peculiar experiences, sometimes in the midst of life, sometimes as the end draws near, a Divine rapture and translation out of the earthy into the heavenly. It is then that others nearest them, if they may not at once follow on, do, at any rate, catch glimpses and get inspirations which henceforth are not to be forgotten. And the best of it is, such disclosures help us to such worthier conceptions of the Christian life; the life with possibilities so inconceivably richer, higher, sweeter, mightier than the dull heart of worldly wisdom could ever attain to. Oh, for their mantle to fall on us! Interior.

The translation of Elijah conveyed to the Old Testament Church an intimation of immortality. No doubt life and immortality are brought clearly to light only in the Gospel of Christ. Of Him alone who rose on the third morning from the grave can we say that He hath abolished death, and hath given us the assurance that an hour is coming when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. But as for all the other truths of the Christian dispensation, so for this great truth there was a preparation made before Jesus came. We are distinctly taught by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that those saints of old who received the promises, and were led in doing so to confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, thus plainly declared that they sought a better country, even an heavenly (Heb. 11:16); and throughout the prophets there are not a few passages which show that the expectation of life in a world to come was rising upon the mind of Israel with increasing clearness as time ran on. Such views the translation of Elijah must have deepened and confirmed. W. M.

One such translation, well certified, might spread its influence over vast countries, and send it down through long succeeding ages. How grand and yet how specific the testimony it bears to the resurrection of the righteous dead! How it must awaken thought and inquiry! For it could not be supposed that the blessed home for God’s saints in His presence could be for Enoch and Elijah only; it could not be assumed that those two human bodies and those only among all the saved would find place before the throne of God. Certainly, men must infer that the bodies of other saints—nay of all the saints—must reach that blessed world, as well as theirs, in God’s due time, and in His ordained method. It scarcely need be suggested that in an age, drifting like that of Elijah so fearfully away from the true God into Baalworship, the call for such a demonstration of the future life would be urgent, and the scope for its influence vast. H. C.

A most instructive view of Elijah’s translation is its parallel and contrast with Christ’s ascension. The one was by outward means; the other, by inward energy. Storm and fire bore Elijah up into a region strange to him. Christ ascended up where He was before, returning by the propriety of His nature to His eternal dwelling-place. The one is accomplished with significant disturbance, of whirlwind and flame; the other is gentle, like the life which it closed, and the last sight of Him was of extended hands of blessing. Each life closed in a manner corresponding to its character. The one was swift and sudden. The other was a slow solemn motion, vividly described as being “borne upward” and as “going into heaven.” The one bore a mortal into “heaven.” In the other, the Son of God, our great High-priest, “hath passed through the heavens,” and now, far above them all, fills all things. . . . And the Scripture teaches us ever to associate together the departure and the coming of the Lord, and always when we meditate on His ascension to prepare a place for us, to think of His real presence with us through the ages, and of His coming again to receive us to Himself. A. M.

Midway between the incarnation and the ascension, the transfiguration blended the humiliation and the glory, the humanity and the Divinity, of our Lord. As of His person, so of His kingdom: this was the unifying symbol, which conjoined all agencies and dispensations in Jesus as the centre of glory and of power. The great law-giver of the Old Testament and the grandest of the prophets came in their heavenly forms and splendor to do homage to the Son of man on earth, to testify of His crucifixion as the crowning of their work, and to greet the apostles of His future Church. The unity of doctrine, the unity of purpose, the unity of ministration, the unity of fellowship, the unity of redemption, were thus manifested in Him who “gathered in one all things which are in heaven and which are on earth.” Supreme in authority as the Son of God, Jesus must be heard and obeyed by every soul that would be saved. Yet from the glory of that presence which would fill us with dread He comes to us with the tender voice of friendship, saying, “Arise; be not afraid.” Equally at home with God in heaven and with man on earth, passing and repassing from one world to the other, He has effaced the shadows of the spiritual world, has peopled that world with loved and familiar names, and transfigured death into His own glorified presence. J. P. T.

The appearance of Moses and Elijah set forth Christ’s death, which was their theme, as the climax of revelation. The Law with its requirement and its sacrifices, prophecy with its forward-looking face, stand there, in their representatives, and bear witness that their converging lines meet in Jesus. The finger that wrote the Law and the finger that smote and parted Jordan are each lifted to point to Him. The stern voices that spoke the commandments and that hurled threatenings at the unworthy occupants of David’s throne both proclaim “behold the Lamb of God, the perfect fulfiller of law, the true king of Israel.” Their presence and their speech was the acknowledgment that this was He whom they had seen from afar; their disappearance proclaims that their work is done when they have pointed to Him. Their presence also teaches us that Jesus is the life of all the living dead. Of these two, one had died, though mystery hung round his death and burial; the other had passed into the heavens by another gate than that of death; and here they both stand with lives undiminished by their mysterious changes, in fulness of power and of consciousness, bathed in glory, which was congruous with them now. They are witnesses of an immortal life, and proofs that His yet unpierced hands held the keys of life and death. He opened the gate which moves backward to no hand but His, and summoned them; and they come, with no napkins about their heads and no trailing grave-clothes entangling their feet, and own Him as the King of life. They speak too of the eager onward gaze which the Old Testament believers turned to the coming deliverer. In silent anticipation, through all these centuries, good men had lain down to die, saying, “I wait for Thy salvation,” and after death their spirits had lived expectant, and crying, like the souls under the altar, “How long, O Lord, how long?” A. M.

12. And he cried, My father! my father!** Elisha regarded himself as Elijah’s specially adopted son, and hence had claimed the “double portion” of the firstborn. That his request was granted showed that the relationship was acknowledged. The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof—i.e., the best earthly defence of Israel. “In losing thee,” he means, “we lose our great protector—him that is more to us than chariots and horsemen—the strength of Israel, against both domestic and foreign foes.” The sight of the fiery chariot and horses may have determined the imagery, but they are not spoken of. P. C.

The only possible farewell of Elisha, the only sign of his reverence and love, was the tender, piercing cry, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” To him Elijah had been a father; to Israel, the simple prophet had been a defence and a glory, more than armies, more than chariots and horses. They are not the phenomena of death that are so wonderful, they are the characteristics of the life that death crowns. So God testified to His servant “not that he was unclothed, but clothed upon—mortality swallowed up of life.” So, after the great conflicts and depressions of his life, this great servant of God entered into his rest—“an abundant entrance administered unto him”—the supreme and typical instance of the glorious end of a good and great life. Allon.

Verses 13-18.

13, 14. The second dividing of the Jordan at the believing appeal of Elisha. As Elijah was taken up, his mantle—the sign of the prophetic office—fell from him at Elisha’s feet. Cast down from the heavens by the hand of God, it was His token of Elisha’s full investiture with the commission and work of Elijah. Instantly the intimation is accepted. The youthful prophet, tarrying not to grieve, lifts the mantle and returns to the east bank of the river. And his first word and act prove that his prayer for high spiritual gifts, and Elijah’s seconding intercession, have been answered. Smiting the waters with the mantle, he cries, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” Though Elijah was removed, he knew that Elijah’s God continued His all-controlling presence. The words are a sublime appeal in testimony of this faith. They are uttered in the spirit of the Old Testament saints; based upon God’s own naming of Himself as the God of their great fathers. Thus associating Elijah with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he asserts his belief that the Lord had equally distinguished His just ascended servant. And he further affirms his faith in his own Divine commission, and his assurance that Elijah’s God will be his God; that He will direct, actuate, deliver and succeed his appointed work. And this signal faith at the outset continued to the end of his long career. The faith and the prayer met on the instant a Divine response. The Lord God of Elijah again parted the stream, and Elisha’s spirit was strengthened as he passed between the retiring waters. B.

15. The fifty “sons of the prophets” yonder are watching to see what he will do. It is necessary that they should know that he has received his credentials to act as Elijah’s successor. He believes that the power to stay the river lay not in Elijah, but in Elijah’s God. He knows no reason why that God may not work with him as well as with another. And therefore he calls upon the Lord. “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” he cries, and lifts the mantle, as Elijah had done, to smite the waters. And lo, for him too they part; the bed of the river lies bare, and he passes to the other side as dry-shod as before. And the wondering spectators, convinced that the same Divine presence remains on earth which had distinguished the Tishbite’s life, exclaim, “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha!” C. E. Smith.

When God removes one servant, He has another ready to take up his mantle. On the beautiful monument erected to the memory of the brothers Wesley in Westminster Abbey, these words are engraved: “God buries the workers, but He carries on the work.” When Moses dies, Joshua is ready to take the leadership. When Elijah is translated, Elisha is so invested with his miraculous might, that the sons of the prophets could see, and say: “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” W. M. Taylor.

The mantle that passed from one to the other was the symbol of office and authority transferred; the functions were the same, while the holders had changed. The sons of the prophets bow before the new master; “the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” So the world goes on. Man after man serves his generation by the will of God, and is gathered to his fathers; and a new arm grasps the mantle to smite Jordan, and a new voice speaks from his empty place, and men recognize the successor, and forget the predecessor. A. M.

Elijah and Elisha. In personal character and history there is a marked contrast between Elijah and Elisha. No genealogy is recorded of Elijah, and no human relationship anywhere hinted at. Strong and stern in spirit, with an unequalled majesty of demeanor and elevation of soul, he stands forth as superior to human tenderness and affection. He represents the God of Sinai, and the predominating spirit of severity that marks His Law. But Elisha is presented to us at the outset as a beloved and loving son, who desires and seeks the parental blessing as he obeys the call of God (1 K. 19: 19, 20). His life is spent in close contact with men. His spirit, too, is full of human sympathy and interest. And thus he exemplifies the gentler and more gracious temper which predominates in the Gospel. B.

Elisha is distinctly secondary to Elijah. He is in no sense an originator, either of fresh revelations or of new impulses to obedience. He but carries on what Elijah had begun, inherits a work, and is Elijah’s Timothy and “son in the faith.” The same spirit was on him, though the form of his character and gifts was in strong contrast to the stormier genius of his mightier predecessor. Elisha had no such work as Elijah—no foot-to-foot and hand-to-hand duels with murderous kings or queens; no single-handed efforts to stop a nation from rushing down a steep place into the sea; no fiery energy; no bursts of despair. He moved among kings and courts as an honored guest and trusted counsellor. He did not dwell apart, like Elijah, the strong son of the desert; but, born in the fertile valley of the Jordan, he lived a life “kindly with his kind,” and his delights were with the sons of men. His miracles are mostly works of mercy and gentleness, relieving wants and sicknesses, drying tears and giving back dear ones to mourners. He is as complete a contrast to his stern, solitary, forceful predecessor, as the still small voice was to the roar of the wind or the crackling hiss of the flames. A. M.

Elisha’s reception by the sons of the prophets. From their view-point near the river, beholding the amazing miracle now performed by Elisha, they saw in it the proof of his Divine appointment to the place of Elijah. To this Spirit of God now resting upon him they did reverence, as they came and bowed before him. And yet their strong love for the grand old prophet asserted itself in

16-18. Their earnest request and fruitless search. The possible recovery of Elijah’s body seems to have been their aim. If God had taken his soul, as they inferred from Elisha’s return alone and with Elijah’s mantle, they might at least find and honor the prophet’s body. They would, at least, be assured that he was beyond this last friendly ministry. To their continued importunity, when his patience was exhausted, he at last assented; perhaps lest they might draw some unfavorable inference from his denial. On their return to Jericho from a fruitless search on the other side of the Jordan, Elisha merely met their account with the gently reproving reminder that he had not sent them. B.

17. And they sought him three days, but found him not.** He was gone, no more to be seen by mortal eyes; or, if ever again, only in far-distant ages, when on the summit of “a high mountain, apart by themselves,” three disciples, like Elisha, should be gathered round a Master whose departure they were soon expecting; “and there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him.” The ascension or assumption of Elijah stands out alone in the Jewish history, as the highest representation of the end of a great and good career; of death as seen under its noblest aspect—as the completion and crown of the life which had preceded it, as the mysterious shrouding of the departed within the invisible world. Stanley.

Elijah’s work was singularly simple and direct. One idea runs throughout it all. At his first appearance before Ahab at Carmel, at Horeb, in the vineyard of Naboth, in his dealings with the captains of Ahaziah, and at his translation into heaven, he has one truth to enunciate and one lesson to enforce. He is the embodiment of law. He stands in a position wholly different from that of the evangelical prophets of the Old Testament. He is a second Moses. He is the prophet of judgment and of fire. No one could fulfil such a function who was not stern, bold and unflinching even unto death. His dependence was wholly upon God. In every event of his life he looked to Him, and to Him alone, for guidance. He had neither wishes nor purposes of his own. With this simplicity of faith was closely connected singleness of aim. He had one thing to do, to reawaken the religious life of Israel, and to that he directed all his efforts, assured that the final issue must be for the common welfare, and that, if we seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, all things will be added unto us. In this respect, he embodied the essence of the true prophetic spirit; and his character thus possessed all the force which belongs in every age to men who become so possessed by one great cause that for its sake they are ready both to live and die. No one of the old prophets is so frequently mentioned in the New Testament; and his name never occurs except in a conconnection which testifies to the deep impression that he had made. His memory was cherished with admiration and reverence. The priests and Levites could not comprehend the Baptist’s right to baptize unless he was either the Christ, or the great prophet that was to come, or Elijah (John 1: 25). Paul refers to an incident in his history to give force to his argument that Israel was not wholly cast away (Rom. 11: 2). James sees in him the most striking illustration of the power of prayer (5: 17); and our Lord’s disciples quote him as one whose deeds afforded a justification of what they were anxious to do to the inhabitants of the village that would not receive their Master (Luke 9: 54). It was the rugged sternness and severity of his character which most of all left this impression upon men’s minds. They had an instinctive feeling that it had been needed, and that there was no one by whom it had been so strikingly and consistently displayed. Possessed of elements of character like these, Elijah stands out on the page of Old Testament history the grandest and most unique of all its figures except the great law-giver Moses. He was the prophet of fire, and it was most of all, by being so, that he prepared the way for Him who was the Hope at once of Israel and of the world. W. M

Suggestions and Lessons.

Love remains to the last, thoughtful of the beloved. Like Christ, the Christian loves his own to the end. But not less is he faithful to his Lord, in supreme mindfulness of His glory!

Working on up to the last in the work set before you is the best way to prepare for death—to make the transition a translation!

The prayer that needs neither qualification nor stint is that for gifts of spirit that we need for the Lord’s assigned work. We cannot too earnestly covet or aspire after the highest and best of spiritual gifts—wisdom, courage, trust in God and single-souled faithfulness. Of these possessions (which are the elements of spiritual character) only can it be said: We are what we have, as well as what we wish for.

Since we are together but a little while at the most, is it not the part of true wisdom, affection and fidelity to impart and to receive all the good that may be communicated and exemplified?

Elijah’s words conclusively show that dead saints cannot intercede for living ones. Whatever earthly ministry, if any, pertains to departed believers, the blessed office of intercession ceases with their departure.

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His! Elijah’s tenderness, affection and fidelity, as well as his serenity in the brief period after the crossing of Jordan, naturally suggest this prayer. So ought Christian love to remain thoughtful of and helpful to its beloved to the last. So ought Christian fidelity to toil on in the service given it to the end. Thus is death best prepared for in loving helpful work for the glory of the Master; thus is the transition made a translation.

In Elijah’s translation we see how this life, had it been sinless, might have ended. We learn how “they that remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.” We have a glimpse and gleam of the life immortal brought to light in the Gospel. And so, in his exaltation, who was a man of like passions as we are, we may well take to heart, by an anticipating faith, the apostle’s triumphant challenge: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

What prayer is, and what it does, is nowhere more effectively taught and shown than in Elijah’s career. What it is—a constant, close, fervid, importunate asking, seeking and knocking, in the very presence, at the very heart of God. As shown at Carmel, it is an address to the personal God revealed by covenant to Abraham; it is the asking something definite; it has a plea; comprising two always inseparable things, God’s glory and His people’s welfare. And what prayer does—in the training of his own intrepid faithful spirit; in the marvellous events that followed his prevalent supplication: the shutting and opening of the heavens—restoring the widow’s dead child—bringing down the fire upon the prepared sacrifice, and the flame of judgment upon the two companies! And our simple conclusion is, that if one man’s prayer wrought such marvels, every man’s prayer—of like spirit—will assuredly avail to secure God’s best blessings of grace and providence freely promised to all. And this conclusion, at least, the Apostle James clearly substantiates in his intimation that Elijah was only a man. B.

18th of Jehoshaphat to 8th of Jehoram, of Judah.

IT is evidently the object of the writer or compiler of 2 Kings to collect in this place the principal, or at any rate the most noted, of the miraculous acts of the great prophet who succeeded Elijah, and so to preserve them from oblivion. This object, which he began to set before himself in chap. 2 : 13, is pursued in chaps. 4 and 6. Hammond.—These six miracles are here set together, not merely to secure unity and order in the arrangement of sections, but also to classify this group of similar topics, and to facilitate their comparative study. B.

19. And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city 20 is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the water is naught, and the land miscarrieth. And he 21 said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying. 22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spake.

19-22. A miracle of mercy to Jericho. Although this city had been rebuilt in the face of a Divine curse (which was fulfilled upon the builder) yet no order for its demolition followed. There were now good men living in it. Not only the sons of the prophets, but it would seem the chief men of the city, recognized Jehovah in the person of His prophet. Faith in His power must have helped to prompt this prayer to Elisha for the removal of their chief trouble. Their personal comfort and the productiveness of the neighboring country depended upon the purity of the spring which has ever been the one source of supply to Jericho. “The city is pleasant,” they said, “but the water is bad and the soil barren.”

On Elisha’s part there is no hesitation or delay. The opportunity is used to signalize God’s mercy in answer to their call. The occasion is furnished to further confirm and establish Elisha’s prophetic mission among the people. And the means employed help this confirmation as they make the miracle more conspicuously God’s work. At the spring-head of the waters Elisha cast in a bowl full of salt. This was indeed a symbol of purifying power. But its only natural effect was to increase the brackishness of the waters, and the unproductiveness of the ground. Well did the people know this, living so near the salt Dead Sea, and familiar with its desolating waters. Yet “the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha.” And this spring, the only one in the neighborhood, still exists; and its pleasant waters extend over the whole plain of Jericho. B.

The situation of Jericho is indeed pleasant, as its inhabitants observed to Elisha. And to this day it deserves the epithet. It has been called a diamond in the desert; for it pushes forward from under the steep mountain range of the central hills of Palestine, which shelter it, into the dreary gypsum-strewn Ghor or Plain of Jordan—a bright green gem in a wide setting of desert. A square of two or three miles in extent each way is one luxuriant mass of exuberant verdure; and this is all due to the live-giving streamlets that are carefully led in every direction from Ain es Sultân, “the prophet’s fountain.” Many copious fountains spring from the base of the mountains near the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. But, with two or three exceptions, all are salt or brackish.

19. The water is naught. The cause for this is not far to seek. The upper strata of the plain are saturated with various salts and with sulphur, and often crusted with gypsum. After a rainstorm has washed the ground, I have often seen the surface coated with an efflorescence of thin minerals of a yellowish-white color. No wonder, then, that the water percolating through such a soil should become impregnated with salts. The two remarkable exceptions are the giant fountains of Ain Dûk and Ain es Sultân. But Ain Dûk is more than three miles northwest of Jericho, immediately under the mountains, here most precipitous, and is doubtless fed by their drainage without coming in contact with the lower deposits. Not so Ain es Sultân, “the prophet’s fountain.” It bursts up, a stream full grown at birth, at the foot of an insignificant rocky mound, only a few feet high, in the middle of the plain. Its very position seems to attest the reality of the miraculous healing; for by all analogy it should be salt. The tradition of the beneficent wonder-working prophet still lingers on the spot. It has always struck me that the very existence of this marvellous spring is in itself a witness of the miracle. But how came a place without good water to be a city of such importance in the Canaanitish days, before the conquest by Joshua? Careful research explains this; for there are many traces of ancient aqueducts which brought down to the plain the sweet waters of Ain Dûk, and also those of the Wady Kelt (the valley of Achor), a little to the south of it. These aqueducts were, of course, destroyed by Joshua when he razed Jericho to the ground. Long after, when Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho (1 K. 16: 34), he did not reconstruct the aqueduct, and the inhabitants were dependent on the brackish waters of their own fountain, excepting for the small supply they might carry from a distance. Tristram.

20. The “new cruse” and the “salt” are evidently chosen from a regard to symbolism. The foul stream represents sin, and to cleanse it emblems of purity must be taken. Hence the clean “new” dish, previously unused, and thus untainted; and the salt, naturally very unapt to heal an unwholesome stream, which generally holds too much salt in solution, but a common scriptural symbol of incorruption. B. C.

20-22. The cruse and the salt must be their own; the act must be his; the power, God’s; he cast the salt into the spring and said, “Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness.” Far was it from Elisha to challenge aught to himself. How careful is the man of God that Jericho shall know to whom they owe the blessing, that they may duly return the thanks! Elisha professes he can do no more of himself than that salt, than that cruse: only God shall work by him, by it; and whatever that Almighty hand undertakes cannot fail, yea is already done. Neither doth he say, “I will heal,” but “I have healed.” Even so, O God, if Thou cast into the fountain of our hearts but one cruseful of the salt of Thy Spirit we are whole; no thought can pass between the receipt and the remedy. Bp. H.

The effect of the cure. There was not to be from thence (the spring) any more death or barrenness. The result of Elisha’s word was that “the waters were healed unto this day.” “Down to the present hour all travellers to Palestine—Robinson, Dean Stanley, Professor Porter—speak in glowing terms of the cool, sweet, and pleasant waters of the ‘Fountain of Elisha.’ The soil is extensively cultivated. Sugar-yielding canes are plentiful. Fig-trees abound on all sides.” All which things may again be interpreted as a parable. The Gospel is the new cruse, and in it is the healing salt—the word of truth—which, cast into the diseased spring of the human heart, heals and purifies its waters; yet is the effect not wrought by the natural action of the truth apart from the Divine and omnipotent operation of the Holy Spirit, who works through human means yet is Himself the efficient Agent in all conversion. The work is of God, and the effects are incalculable. “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5: 17). The most marvellous influence is exerted by Christianity on the spring, not only of private, but of public and social life; and State as well as Church is blessed. Christianity is the salvation of peoples—the source of true national as well as of individual well-being. J. O.—Out of the heart are the issues of life. Into the heart, the fountain of evil, is to be put that grace of God which alone can give healing to the soul, sweetness and fruitfulness to the life. When God thus quickens the spirit there is no more death or barrenness. B.

How striking an image is this rebuilt city, with its unhealed spring, of godless civilizations, founded on self-will and defiance of God’s counsel, often stately and imposing, yet ending in vanity, because no means exist to cure the spring of the corrupt human heart! “Of republican Athens, of imperial Rome, it might well be said, ‘The city was pleasant.’ In both there was learning, genius, high civilization, the cultivation of the fine arts to an extent that has made the Elgin marbles, for example, the wonder of the world. But ’the water was naught, and the ground was barren,’ because there was the absence of true religion. No country whatever can in the highest sense prosper without it.” T. H. Howat.—Politics, literature, art, science, material civilization, will dwindle and decay unless a pure stream can be made to flow from the people’s heart; for “out of it are the issues of life.” J. O.

The men of Jericho believed the prophet of God, and in response to their believing request, received God’s blessing. The men of Bethel scoffed, and God returned to them the judgment of the scoffer. So is the same message of God from the lips of the Gospel preacher a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, as it is believed or rejected. B.

23. And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children (or, young lads) out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.

23,24. A miracle of judgment at Bethel. This was one of the chief centres of idolatrous worship. Here also was the leading school of God’s prophets, whereby alone the interests of pure religion were preserved in Israel. But the mass of the people were wholly given up to their false and iniquitous worship. Under this influence their children were trained as scoffers at the true God and His prophets. It was the natural result of this training that led a number of these children (rather, young men) to go forth on Elisha’s coming and shout their impious mockery. They expressed the spirit of the parents, who rejoiced to be rid of Elijah, and would have Elisha also taken out of their way. Hence the cry, Go up, and the insulting epithet, thou bald head! The curse of Elisha which followed was spoken under a Divine impulse. As in the miracle of mercy at Jericho it was the Lord who inspired Elisha’s act and words, so here it is the Lord who puts the impulse to curse in the prophet’s heart. And it is the Lord who Himself carries out His appointed doom. He who elsewhere uses fire, flood, pestilence, or famine as instruments of His judgments, here summons savage beasts to destroy these impious mockers. Mocking the Lord’s messengers and misusing His prophets are specifically referred to among the crying sins of Israel (2 Chron. 36 : 16; see also Lev. 26 : 21, 22). And this offence was aggravated here by the blasphemous allusion to God’s translation of Elijah. Richly deserved, therefore, was this terrible punishment by these youthful mockers. Through them its effects reached to their parents, while it conveyed to the whole nation a fearful warning against impiety. It foreshadowed the doom that would surely follow God’s unheeded patience and long-suffering.

And it furnished a needed authentication of Elisha’s Divine mission as the successor of Elijah. It is to be noted that this miracle of judgment and the leprosy pronounced on Gehazi are the exceptions among the many wonders performed in connection with Elisha’s whole ministry. All the rest were miracles of mercy. This one instance in a long life of helpful beneficence shows, as the Incarnate Master of Elisha clearly intimated, that love may flash with the spirit of judgment and wield the power of doom. B.

The prophet Elisha, ridiculed by a band of children in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, denounces against them the malediction of God; immediately forty-two of them are torn by bears that rush forth out of the forest. This event occurs at Bethel, the chief seat of idolatry in the kingdom of Israel. The taunts uttered by these children against the prophet of Jehovah were, consequently, an outrage against Jehovah Himself. Their sarcasm is even carried to blasphemy; for when they cry after Elisha, “Go up, thou bald head!” they sneer at the ascension of Elijah, which, as Elisha had declared, had recently taken place; and they urge the servant to follow, if he can, his master into heaven. The immediate punishment of these children was destined to warn the entire nation of Samaria of the total ruin which so much impiety was about to bring upon it. Godet.

This shocking impiety toward the God of the holy prophets; this inexpressibly awful hardihood in joking thus upon the chariot and horses of fire which swept Elijah up to heaven—what shall we say or think of it? We are not surprised that a Divine impulse moved Elisha to curse them, and that God made them examples of swift and terrible retribution. H. C.—The offence, involving as it did a blasphemous insult upon one of the Lord’s most signal acts, made a near approach to what in the New Testament is called the sin against the Holy Ghost. It became the Lord to vindicate His own honor among a people governed by sensible dispensations of judgments and of mercy; and it became Him to vindicate the character and authority of His anointed prophet at the outset of his high career. Kitto.—O fearful example of Divine justice! This was not the revenge of an angry prophet: it was the punishment of a righteous Judge. God and His seer look through these children, at the parents, at all Israel. He would punish the parents’ misnurturing their children to the contemptuous usage of a prophet, with the death of those children whom they had mis-taught; He would teach Israel what it was to misuse a prophet; and if He would not endure these contumelies unrevenge in the mouths of children, what vengeance was enough for aged persecutors? Bp. H.

I take this story as teaching us what I think we very much need to be taught—viz., that the faults of our youth, and those which are most natural to us at that age, are not considered by God as trifling. . . . You may hear grown-up people talk in a laughing manner of the faults which they committed at school, of their idleness, and their various acts of mischief, and worse than mischief. And when boys hear this, it naturally makes them think it really does not matter much whether they behave well or ill—they are just as likely to be respectable and amiable men hereafter. . . . Men measure faults by the harm which they do in this world, and not by the harm which they do in unfitting us for the kingdom of God by making us unlike God and Christ. T. Arnold.

Children will ordinarily tread in the steps of their parents. In their hearts is reproduced the spirit that rules in the household, either of reverence or of impiety. Hence the fearful responsibility of parents.

No thought concerning God’s character and dealing is more impressive than this—His patience and long-suffering! Everywhere in the history it meets us. Here and there only, as in the doom of the priests of Baal and the children of Bethel, we read of His “strange work” of judgment! But even these would have been withheld, if His very mercy to the nation had not required them. They must be warned in a way that they could recognize and feel. How ought this sublime thought of God’s amazing patience to exalt our estimate of His character, and to draw us nearer to His heart of love and mercy! Yet we know that God’s patience has a limit with every soul. If His long-suffering, active mercy be persistently unheeded, it will at length give place to His wrath. He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy! B.

25. From Bethel Elisha goes to Carmel and returns to Samaria. He remains for a time at Mount Carmel, where he had lived with Elijah. Here he retired at this early period of his ministry—and, we infer, frequently afterward—to recall previous impressions, and to receive fresh and deeper Divine influences from quiet communion with God. He subsequently took up his residence at Samaria until his death. Unlike Elijah, he lived in close and constant association with the people. His ministry was performed in view of the court and the nation. B.—Elisha does not imitate the seclusion of his master. He “prefers from the first the companionship of men,” fixes his home in the capital of his country, Samaria; is a friendly counsellor of the king and highly honored by him; his whole life, indeed, is, compared with that of Elijah, one of ease and tranquillity. But, though living “in the world,” he is not “of the world.” As Ewald says, “In spite of all the seductions to which he was abundantly exposed through the great consideration in which he was held, he retained at every period of his life the true prophetic simplicity and purity, and contempt for worldly wealth and advantages.” Hammond.