2 Kings 13
DOYLY2 Kings 13:7
- — had made them like the dust] Had, as it were, beaten the nation to dust, killing many, carrying away many captive, and thus mightily dispeopling the kingdom of Israel. Dr. Wells.
2 Kings 13:14
- Now Elisha was fallen sick] Good Elisha, who had now lived some ninety years, a wonder of Prophets, and had outworn many successions in the thrones of Israel and Judah, is now cast upon the bed of his sickness; yea, of his death. His very age might seem a disease, which yet is seconded by a languishing distemper. It is not in the power of any holiness to privilege us from infirmity of body, from final dissolution. He that stretched himself upon his bed over the dead body of the Shumamite’s son, and revived it, must now stretch out his own limbs on his sick bed and die. He, who had seen his master Elijah rapt up suddenly from the earth, and fetched by a fiery chariot from this vale of mortality, himself must leisurely wait for his last pangs, in a lingering passage to the same glory.
There are several ways appointed to us by the Divine Providence unto one common blessedness. One has more pain; another passes off with more speed: violence snatches away one; another, by an insensible pace, draws every day nearer to his term. Happy is he, that, after due preparation, is passed through the gates of death, ere he be aware! Happy too is he, who, by the
holy use of long sickness, is taught to see the gates of death afar off, and is prepared for a resolute passage! The one dies like Elijah, the other like Elisha; both blessedly. Bp. Hall.
— wept over his face.] He lamented at the idea of losing a person, who had been the hope and support of the nation, by his prayers and miracles, and after whose death nothing was to be expected but helpless ruin and calamity. Pyle. How sensible should we be of the loss of holy men, when a Joash spends his tears upon Elisha! Bp. Hall.
— the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.] These are the same words which Elisha uttered concerning Elijah, when he was taken up to heaven, (2 Kings ii. 12,) signifying the great authority he had maintained among them included in the word “father,” and the many glorious victories he had obtained for them by the efficacy of his counsels and prayers, signified by the words “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen.” Bp. Patrick.
2 Kings 13:15
- — Take bow and arrows.] This was a symbolical action, by which the Prophet intended to represent the victory, which he had promised the king of Israel against the Syrians, more fully and plainly to him. His shooting the first arrow eastward, or to that part of the country which the Syrians had taken from his ancestors, was a declaration of war against them for so doing; and his striking the other arrows against the ground was an in-
2 Kings 13:19
- And the man of God was wroth with him.] The king, not giving due attention, or perhaps not much credit, to this emblemstick sort of reasoning, struck three times only, and left off: on which the Prophet blamed him for his neglect, telling him that, had he done it with more earnestness and vigour, his conquests should have been complete, but that now he must be contented with only three victories. Pyle. It is probable the Prophet had spoken so to him as to give him to understand that he intended he should smite several times. And he was angry at his sloth and unbelief, which made him stop at the third stroke. Bp. Patrick. It is not difficult to apprehend, that when the Prophet, by God’s command, directed the king to perform a significative action, whose meaning God had beforehand explained to His servant; he had himself been informed of this among other particulars, that the Syrians would be smitten as often as the king smote upon the ground, when the Prophet should order him (only in general words) to smite it. Hence the Prophet’s anger, occasioned by his love to his country, on the king’s stopping after he had smitten thrice. Bp. Warburton. The slack hand of the king smites but thrice: so apt are we to be wanting to ourselves; so coldly do we execute the commands of God. The sick Prophet is not more grieved than angry at this dull negligence. Bp. Hall.
2 Kings 13:20
- — at the coming in of the year.] Whether this was the next year after his death, or some years after, has been doubted. The words seem plainly to import the next spring. From the expression in the next verse of
and Ben-hadad his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings 13:21
- — he revived, and stood upon his feet.] By this miracle, God did the highest honour to the Prophet, and confirmed both the truth of what he had promised to the king of Israel, and the belief of a future state: for the miracle was greater than Elisha had done in his lifetime, when he could not raise the child to life again, without many prayers, and stretching himself with much application on his body; whereas now, upon the mere touch of his dead body, God restored the man to life in an instant, so that he stood upon his feet. Bp. Patrick. This miracle is a symbol and prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; there being this important difference, that Elisha raised a dead body without raising himself, while Jesus Christ, not only raised Himself, but gives life to all those that believe in Him. Calmet. This miracle was the immediate work of God, and concurred with the translation of Elijah, to keep alive and confirm, in a degenerate and infidel age, the grand truth of a bodily resurrection, which the translation of Enoch was calculated to produce in the antediluvian world, and which the resurrection of Christ, in a glorified body, fully illustrated. Dr. Hales.
The memory of the holy Prophet Elisha ought to be esteemed blessed in the church: his zeal and other virtues ought to be our example, and to animate all Christians, especially those who are in any office in the church, to serve God faithfully in their several stations. Ostervald.
Chap. XIV. This chapter is to be compared with 2 Chron. xxv.