In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria for seventeen years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from it. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually. Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them. (Yahweh gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them; and the Asherah also remained in Samaria.) For he didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria; and Joash his son reigned in his place.
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria for sixteen years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; but he walked in them. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat on his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
Now Elisha became sick with the illness of which he died; and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
Elisha said to him, “Take bow and arrows;” and he took bow and arrows for himself. He said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow;” and he put his hand on it. Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands. He said, “Open the window eastward;” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” and he shot. He said, “Yahweh’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you will strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them.”
He said, “Take the arrows;” and he took them. He said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground;” and he struck three times, and stopped. The man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed it; whereas now you will strike Syria just three times.”
Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a band of raiders; and they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the man touched Elisha’s bones, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect for them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet.
Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his place. Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Joash struck him three times, and recovered the cities of Israel.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23 By worshipping the calves which Jeroboam did erect in…
By worshipping the calves which Jeroboam did erect in Israel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–25 2Ki 13:1 In the three and twentieth year of…
2Ki 13:1 In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] seventeen years.
Ver. 1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash.] In the tenth year of his reign, the city of Carthage was built by Queen Dido, as Josephus reporteth out of the annals of the Tyrians. {a} This discrediteth Virgil’s poem of the hot affection between Dido and Aeneas, dead above two hundred years before.
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{a} Lib. i. contra Appion.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25 Began to reign, Heb. reigned; which is put for…
Began to reign, Heb. reigned; which is put for began to reign, 2Ki 3:1; 8:16,25; 12:1.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 20 This general account of the reign of Jehoahaz, and…
This general account of the reign of Jehoahaz, and of the state of Israel during his seventeen years, though short, is long enough to let us see two things which are very affecting and instructive: -
I. The glory of Israel raked up in the ashes, buried and lost, and turned into shame. How unlike does Israel appear here to what it had been and might have been! How is its crown profaned and its honour laid in the dust! 1. It was the honour of Israel that they worshipped the only living and true God, who is a Spirit, an eternal mind, and had rules by which to worship him of his own appointment; but by changing the glory of their incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, they lost this honour, and levelled themselves with the nations that worshipped the work of their own hands. We find here that the king followed the sins of Jeroboam (Kg2 13:2), and the people departed not from them, but walked therein, Kg2 13:6. There could not be a greater reproach than these two idolized calves were to a people that were instructed in the service of God and entrusted with the lively oracles. In all the history of the ten tribes we never find the least shock given to that idolatry, but, in every reign, still the calf was their god, and they separated themselves to that shame. 2. It was the honour of Israel that they were taken under the special protection of heaven; God himself was their defence, the shield of their help and the sword of their excellency. Happy wast thou, O Israel! upon this account. But here, as often before, we find them stripped of this glory, and exposed to the insults of all their neighbours. They by their sins provoked God to anger, and then he delivered them into the hands of Hazael and Benhadad, Kg2 13:3. Hazael oppressed Israel Kg2 13:22. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and pillaged by their neighbours as Israel was. This the people brought upon themselves by sin; when they had provoked God to pluck up their hedge, the goodness of their land did but tempt their neighbours to prey upon them. So low was Israel brought in this reign, by the many depravations which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the kingdom and all the force they could bring into the field were but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 footmen, a despicable muster, Kg2 13:7. Have the thousands of Israel come to this? How has the gold become dim! The debauching of a nation will certainly be the debasing of it.
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II. Some sparks of Israel's ancient honour appearing in these ashes. It is not quite forgotten, notwithstanding all these quarrels, that this people is the Israel of God and he is the God of Israel. For, 1. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they were a praying people: and here we find somewhat of that honour revived; for Jehoahaz their king, in his distress, besought the Lord (Kg2 13:4), applied for help, not to the calves (what help could they give him?) but to the Lord. It becomes kings to be beggars at God's door, and the greatest of men to be humble petitioners at the footstool of his throne. Need will drive them to it. 2. It was the ancient honour of Israel that they had God nigh unto them in all that which they called upon him for (Deu 4:7), and so he was here. Though he might justly have rejected the prayer as an abomination to him, yet the Lord hearkened unto Jehoahaz, and to his prayer for himself and for his people (Kg2 13:4), and he gave Israel a saviour (Kg2 13:5), not Jehoahaz himself, for all his days Hazael oppressed Israel (Kg2 13:22), but his son, to whom, in answer to his father's prayers, God gave success against the Syrians, so that he recovered the cities which they had taken from his father, Kg2 13:25. This gracious answer God gave to the prayer of Jehoahaz, not for his sake, or the sake of that unworthy people, but in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham (Kg2 13:23), which, in such exigencies as these, he had long since promised to have respect to, Lev 26:42. See swift God is to show mercy, how ready to hear prayers, how willing to find out a reason to be gracious, else he would not look so far back as that ancient covenant which Israel had so often broken and forfeited all the benefit of. Let this invite and engage us for ever to him, and encourage even those that have forsaken him to return and repent; for there is forgiveness with him, that he may be feared.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–21 In the twenty and third year of Joash the…
In the twenty and third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah,.... The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, Kg2 12:6,
Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, Kg2 10:36, and Kg2 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe:
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and reigned seventeen years; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 7, 8, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23 The reign of Jehoahaz, ver. 1-9. A general account…
The reign of Jehoahaz, ver. 1-9. A general account of the reign of Joash, ver. 10-13. Elisha falls sick, encourages Joash and dies, ver. 14-19. A dead body is raised by touching his bones, ver. 20-21. Hazael oppresses Israel, and dies, ver. 22-24. Joash beats the Syrians, ver. 25.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25 Jehoahaz reigns in Israel seventeen years; his various acts,
CHAPTER XIII
Jehoahaz reigns in Israel seventeen years; his various acts,
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and wars with the Syrians, 1-8.
He dies, and Joash reigns in his stead, and does evil in the
sight of the Lord, 9-13.
Elisha's last sickness; he foretells a three-fold defeat of
the Syrians, and dies, 14-20.
A dead man raised to life by touching the bones of Elisha, 21.
Hazael dies, having long oppressed Israel; but Jehoash recovers
many cities out of the hands of Ben-hadad, his successor, and
defeats him three times, 22-25.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash] The chronology here is thus accounted for; Jehoahaz began his reign at the commencement of the twenty-third year of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, fourteen alone, and three years with his son Joash; the fourteenth year was but just begun.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25 2Ki 13:3. The anger of the Lord was kindled…
2Ki 13:3. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel — Who, knowing the only living and true God to be a spirit, an eternal mind, an infinitely wise and mighty, just and holy, and absolutely perfect Being, besides all their other sins and abominations, still continued to change the glory of this their incorruptible God into the similitude of an ox, the truth of God into a lie, and, like the nations around them, to worship the work of their own hands. There could not be a greater reproach than the two idolized calves were, to a people acquainted with the nature and attributes of God, and intrusted with his lively oracles, in which he had given them rules, of his own appointment, to direct them how to worship him. Strange it is, indeed, that in all the history of the ten tribes, we never find the least shock given to that idolatry, but, in every reign, still the calf was their god! and that notwithstanding the many and repeated judgments executed upon them to reclaim them from that senseless and stupid practice. Well might the anger of God be kindled against them! And he delivered them into the hand of Hazael — It had been the honour of Israel that they were taken under the special protection of Heaven: God himself was their defence, the shield of their help, and the sword of their excellency. But here again, as often before, we find them stripped of this glory, and exposed to the insults of all their neighbours. Surely never was any nation so often plucked and pillaged as Israel was: but this they brought upon themselves by their sins: and when they had provoked God to break down their hedge, the goodness of their land did but tempt their neighbours. So low was Israel brought in this reign, by the many depredations which the Syrians made upon them, that the militia of the kingdom, and all the force they could bring into the field, was but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen, a despicable muster, 2Ki 13:7. Are the thousands of Israel come to this? How is the gold become dim!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25 In this chapter the history of the kingdom of…
In this chapter the history of the kingdom of Israel is traced through the two reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash. In 2 Kings 14 the history of Judah is resumed.
In the three and twentieth year - Rather, the “one and twentieth year.” See 2Ki 13:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25 Years. Two with his son Joas, (Usher) or three.…
Years. Two with his son Joas, (Usher) or three. (Capellus) (Du Hamel) See ver. 10.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Monarchy Under Jehoahaz And Joash And Jeroboam II.…
SECOND SECTION
The Monarchy Under Jehoahaz And Joash And Jeroboam II. In Israel, And Under Amaziah In Judah
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2 Kings 13-14
A.—The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash
2Ki_13:1-25
1In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over [became king of] Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. 2And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. 3And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their [the] days [of Jehoahaz]. 4And Jehoahaz besought1 the Lord, [.] [(] And the Lord hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because [that] the king of Syria oppressed 5them. ([omit(] And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 2 6Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam who made Israel sin, 3 but walked therein: and there remained 7[stood] the grove [statue of Astarte] also in Samaria.) Neither did [For] he leave [had left] of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing [beneath one’s feet]. 4 8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? 9And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they5 buried him in Samaria; and Joash his son reigned in his stead.
10In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. 11And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein. 12And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might [,] wherewith [how] he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not writen in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? 13And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
14Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died [was to die].6 And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father! the Chariot of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof! 15And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. 16And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands. 17And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The [an] arrow of the Lord’s [omit the Lord’s] deliverance [for Jehovah], and the [an] arrow of deliverance from [against] Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.7
18And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. 19And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten8 five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. 20And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the [marauding] bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in [commencement] of the year. 21And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men [marauders]; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down [came], and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
22But [Now] Hazael king of, Syria [had] oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 23[,] And [but] the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto [turned towards] them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet. 24So Hazael king of Syria died; and Ben-hadad his son reigned in his stead. 25And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by [in the] war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Ki_13:1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash. This chronological statement is not consistent with the one in ver 2 Kings 10 : “In the thirty-seventh year of Joash.” For, if Jehoahaz began to reign in the twenty-third year of Joash, and reigned for seventeen years, his son Jehoash cannot have followed in the thirty-seventh, but in the thirty-ninth, year of Joash of Judah. Again, if Jehoash of Israel became king in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, then his father Jehoahaz must have come to the throne in the twenty-first, and not in the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah. The old expositors sought to do away with this difficulty by assuming that Jehoash of Israel shared the throne for two years with his father Jehoahaz. This assumption, however, is untenable, both for the general reasons assigned above (Pt. II., p. 88, e) and because it is clearly shown in 2Ki_13:9-10 that Jehoash did not ascend the throne until after the death of Jehoahaz, and that he had not shared his authority before that. Only one of the two numbers, 23 and 37, can be correct, as is now generally admitted; but the question, which is correct? receives various answers. We start again, as we did above (Pt. II., p. 86), from the established chronological starting-point,9 884 b. c., when Jehu became king of Israel, and Athaliah became queen of Judah. Jehu reigned 28 years (2Ki_10:36), that is, from 884 to 856; his son Jehoahaz 17 years (2Ki_13:1), from 856–839; Jehoash, 16 years (2Ki_13:10), 839–823. Athaliah ruled 6 years, and Joash became king in the “seventh year” (2Ki_11:3-4), that is, 884–877; Joash, 40 years (2Ki_12:2), 877–837; Amaziah, 29 years, 837–808. It follows that the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah, in which Jehoahaz became king of Israel, according to 2Ki_13:1, was the year 854, but this cannot be correct because his father Jehu ruled 28 years, and so died in 856. This would bring Jehoahaz’ accession into the twenty-first, not the twenty-third, of Joash. This is the statement of Josephus: εἰκοστῷ δὲ καὶ πρώτῳ ἔτει τῆς ’Ιωάσου βασιλείας. The thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah, in which, according to 2Ki_13:10, Jehoash of Israel became king, is the year 840; in the second year of Jehoash of Israel, that is, in the year 838, Amaziah became king of Judah (2Ki_14:1). According to this reckoning, the death of Joash, the father of Amaziah, does indeed fall in 837, but, in view of the Jewish mode of reckoning which is explained Pt. II., p. 86 sq., a discrepancy of a single year has no significance. Josephus says, in agreement with 2Ki_13:10 : ἕβδομον ἤδη καὶ τριακοστὸν ἔτος βασιλεύοντος ’Ιωάσου τῆς ’Ιούδα φυλῆς. If, on the other hand, we hold fast the “twenty-third year” in 2Ki_13:1, and, in 2Ki_13:10, read thirty-ninth for thirty-seventh, as Ewald, Thenius, and others desire, this thirty-ninth year will be 838, Jehu will only have 26 years, not 28 (2Ki_10:36), and his son Jehoahaz’ reign, extending from 854 to 838, will amount to 16, not 17 years (2Ki_13:1); moreover, if Jehoash of Israel did not ascend the throne until 838, and Amaziah became king in Judah in his second year (2Ki_14:1), then the latter did not become king until 836, though his father did not live, at the utmost, beyond 837. If thirty-seventh is changed into thirty-ninth, then all the other numbers must be changed, and this is inadmissible. If then we let these numbers stand, we must suppose that the words: “in the twenty-third year,” in 2Ki_13:1, are either a copyist’s error (כסססג for כא), or, that it is a mistake growing out of the confusion to which the Jewish mode of reckoning gave occasion (see above, Pt. II., p. 86 sq.). All the versions and all the editions have “thirty-seventh” except the Editio Aldina of the Sept. (1518), which has “thirty-ninth.” Keil justly observes that this variant is “nothing but an unfortunate emendation, adopted in order to bring about a reconciliation, but without any critical value.”
2Ki_13:3. And the anger of the Lord was kindled. The sense and the connection of 2Ki_13:3-7, are as follows: In the time of Jehu, who, contrary to all just expectations, clung to the calf-worship which Jeroboam had introduced, Jehovah had already commenced to “cut off” from Israel, and had given the land east of the Jordan into the hands of the Syrians (2Ki_10:32 sq.). Since, however, Jehoahaz, Jehu’s successor, did not take warning, but, on the contrary, during his reign the worship of the image of Astarte was once more introduced (1Ki_14:15), so that the abolition of idolatry which had been accomplished was rendered ineffectual, God’s anger (i. e., His justice, and His avenging, punishing, rigor) was kindled, so that one defeat followed upon another, until the might of Israel was reduced to a minimum. In his great distress, when he was on the brink of ruin, Jehoahaz at length turned to Jehovah, and besought Him, and the Lord, seeing the distress of His people, answered his prayer and sent a deliverer.—[That is the sense of the passage, but it does not account for the grammatical form and succession of the sentences. The best modern expositors agree with the English translators in making a parenthesis of 2Ki_13:5-6. The only question is as to where it is to begin, and it seems best, with Thenius and Bunsen, to enclose all after the first clause of 2Ki_13:4. The explanation then is as follows: Israel was defeated by the Syrians again and again during the reign of Jehoahaz. He turned in his distress to the Lord and sought him. There was no apparent response to this prayer during his lifetime, but the writer inserts a parenthesis to the effect that the prayer was nevertheless heard and answered, that God saw the distress of Israel and sent a champion for them, and yet that they persisted in their sins. The כִּי at the commencement of 2Ki_13:7 then presents no further difficulty. It refers back to the first clause of 2Ki_13:4. Jehoahaz besought the Lord, because He had left but, &c.—W. G. S.]
2Ki_13:3. All the days, i.e., of Jehoahaz, not of Hazael and Benhadad, as is clear from 2Ki_13:22 [also 2Ki_13:25 shows that, as a matter of fact, the success of the Syrians did not continue through “the days” of Benhadad.—W. G. S.].
2Ki_13:5. A savior, cf. Jdg_3:9; Jdg_3:15; Neh_9:27. This was Jeroboam II., the grandson of Jehoahaz, as we see clearly from וַיּוֹשִׁיעֵם, 2Ki_14:27, which has an evident reference to מוֹשִׁיעַ in this verse. He completed what had already been begun by Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz (2Ki_13:25). Reference is here made to him in order to show that he was sent in answer to Jehoahaz’ prayer, although he came so long afterwards. The words: they dwelt in their tents, describe the peaceful state of things which was brought about by the deliverer; in war they did not dwell in tents, but in strongholds and fortified places.
2Ki_13:6 contains a restriction of what has just been said in 2Ki_13:5. The peaceful state of things, which was brought about, was not a perfectly happy and satisfactory one, for the worship of Jeroboam’s calves still continued, and even the worship of Asherah (the statue of Astarte) did not cease entirely. Thenius understands עָֽמְדָה to mean that the worship of Asherah “very soon obtained a firm foothold” (i.e., under Jeroboam II.). Ewald also thinks that it was reintroduced at about his time. But the history of Jeroboam II., 2Ki_14:23-27, contains no mention of it, and also the כִּי in 2Ki_13:7 fixes the attention upon the time of Jehoahaz, when the incidents took place which are referred to in 2Ki_13:7. [This כִּי does not refer to 2Ki_13:6 at all. No connection can be established which will make good sense. It refers back to the first clause of 2Ki_13:4, as shown above. Bähr’s interpretation, however, is correct, although it is difficult to understand, as Thenius says, how the Astarte-image survived Jehu’s reformation. עמדה is better translated “stood,” than “gained firm foot-hold.” האשׁרה has the article, and the form of statement of the first part of the verse is that the old apostasy of Jeroboam was still continued. If it had been intended to say that this old sin was continued, and that even the one which had been rooted up was reintroduced, it seems that some other word must have been used for עמדה which would have expressed this latter idea distinctly.—W. G. S.] 2Ki_13:7 is a continuation of [the first clause of] 2Ki_13:4. It shows how far the “oppression” of the Syrians had gone. Dathe and Houbigant are in favor of placing it between 2Ki_13:4-5, but the close connection between these verses forbids this. [For he had left. The English translation: “Neither did he leave,” cannot be defended. It is necessitated by the supposed connection between this clause and the last clause of 2Ki_13:4. It also seems to understand “the king of Syria” as the subject of הִשְׁאִיר, which does not make good sense. The subject of that verb is Jehovah, and the last half of 2Ki_13:7 repeats the same statement substituting “the king of Syria” (who was the instrument by which it was accomplished), in the place of the ultimate agent. The passage may now be made clear, if we get rid of the parenthesis by putting 2Ki_13:7 between the first and second clauses of 2Ki_13:4, as follows: Jehoahaz besought the Lord, for He (the Lord) had left but, … for the king of Syria had destroyed them … and the Lord hearkened unto him, seeing the distress, and gave a deliverer, who delivered them, yet they persisted in their sins.—W. G. S.] The expression כֶּעָפָר לָדֻשׁ does not mean chaff, as Luther understands it, for עָפָר is not dust which floats in the air, but dust which lies upon the ground and is trodden under foot. The fundamental meaning of דּוּשׁ is, to tread under foot (Hab_3:12; Mic_4:13). There is no reference to the barbarous usage of war referred to in Amo_1:3; 2Sa_12:31. [Literally the English for the words would be: dust for treading, i. e., dust which lies beneath one’s feet (see Grammatical note on the verse). It is an expression for utter defeat and destruction. They were reduced to utter helplessness and powerlessness. Thenius thinks that it refers to a definite defeat, and Hitzig, on Amo_4:10, suggests that the reference there may be to the same decisive defeat here alluded to.—W. G. S.]—On 2Ki_13:10 see notes on 2Ki_13:1. Jehoash’s war with Amaziah, mentioned in 2Ki_13:12, is narrated at length in 2Ki_14:8 sq. The concluding formula, 2Ki_13:12-13, belongs properly after 2Ki_13:25. It is given in this place only because it followed, in one of the authorities used by the author, directly upon 2Ki_13:10-11, and he did not consider it necessary to dissever it from this connection.
2Ki_13:14. Now Elisha was fallen sick, &c. The narrative in 2Ki_13:14-21 is, without doubt, taken from a different original document from that to which the verses belong which immediately precede and follow. It is not inserted here merely because it belongs to the time of king Jehoash. The end of the great prophet of Israel, who had wrought so influentially upon its history, and whose acts had been so circumstantially narrated, could not be passed over in silence, especially since the accompanying incidents stood in such close connection with what had gone before, and with what was to follow. Jehoahaz had, according to 2Ki_13:3-7, left the kingdom very much weakened. When Jehoash heard of Elisha’s illness, he went to him, and, weeping, called to him, as Elisha had once called to Elijah as he passed away (see Pt. II., p. 15, and cf. p. 69): O my father, my father! the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof! as much as to say: If now thou also, who hast so often shown thyself the strength and the protector of Israel, and hast helped by counsel and by act, if now thou also, in this time of distress, art about to depart, whence shall come help, and counsel, and deliverance from the hand of the powerful enemy? This humble and chastened spirit on his part leads the prophet to give him the declaration that the prayer of his father (2Ki_13:4) had been heard, and that the deliverance should commence in his time. The fulfilment of this promise is then narrated in the following verses, 22–25.
2Ki_13:15. And Elisha said unto him, &c. Elisha does not simply make known this promise to the king by words, but also, as a prophet, in that form which belongs to the essential character of the prophetical office, and is peculiar to prophetical announcements, that is, by means of a symbolic action (see note on chap. 11, 30 sq.). The declaration thereby receives the impress of a solemn and purely prophetical announcement. Here, as in all similar cases, the symbolic action precedes the words which explain it; thereby it represents the future event as a fact, as something which will come without fail. Inasmuch as it was the king himself who performed this symbolic action, and not the prophet, it became all the more a pledge to him of the fulfilment of the prophet’s words. The whole transaction consists of two acts; 2Ki_13:15-17 give the first one; 2Ki_13:18-19 the second, which is a continuation of the first. Each is followed by words of. the prophet, interpreting it. 2Ki_13:15. Take bow and arrows. The prophet made use of these for his symbolic action, because the matter in hand was a warlike contest with enemies, and the king, or at least his attendants, were provided with these arms. The command: “Take bow and arrows,” signifies: Arm thyself for war against the Syrians I There is not the least reference to a method of soothsaying by means of arrows (Belomancy, cf. Eze_21:21), which was practised by many ancient heathen nations.
2Ki_13:16. Put thine hand upon the bow; literally: Let thine hand ride upon the bow. In drawing the bow, it is held in a horizontal position in such a way that the left hand rests upon it. The prophet placed his hands upon those of the king “in token that the impulse which was to be given came, through the prophet’s hands, from the Lord” (Keil). The king’s act thereby becomes to a certain extent the act of the prophet, and so an act which is performed in the name and by the authority of Jehovah. Only in so far can the laying on of hands here be regarded as at once a consecration and a blessing, for that is not its primary significance here, as it is in other places where the hand is laid upon the head.
2Ki_13:17. Open the window, that is, order the grating, which is in front of the window-opening, to be removed. The king could not open it himself, for he had both hands upon the bow. Eastward, i. e., toward the country east of the Jordan, which the Syrians had taken (2Ki_10:33), and from whence they continually threatened the country this side the Jordan. The older expositors refer, by way of explanation of the words: And he shot, to the custom in ancient times of declaring war by shooting an arrow into the enemy’s territory (Virgil, Æneid, ix. 57), but that was not the significance of the arrow shot by the king in this case. The words which explain the symbolic act follow the discharge of the arrow: An arrow of deliverance for Jehovah, לַיהוָֹה, i. e., auctore Jehova. [The expression seems intended to interpret the arrow, thus discharged, on two sides, towards Jehovah, and towards the Syrians. It was an arrow of deliverance for, or in its relation to Jehovah, inasmuch as it represented the deliverance which He was determined to give; it was an arrow of deliverance against or upon the Syrians, as it signified the coming overthrow of their oppression.—W. G. S.] Let this arrow be a pledge to thee that Jehovah will help thee, and that thou wilt overcome the Syrians—at Aphek. Locus erat boni ominis (Menochius), for Jehovah had already once given Israel a great victory there (1Ki_20:26-29). The words עַד־כַּלֵּה refer, in this verse, only to the Syrian army at Aphek; in 2Ki_13:19, on the contrary, they refer to the entire Syrian military power.
2Ki_13:18. Take the arrows. The second part of the symbolical action which here begins not only continues the preceding, but consists of an enhancement of it. The article in הַחִצִּים, which is wanting in 2Ki_13:15, designates particular arrows, namely all, besides the one which had already been shot away, which remained in the quiver. הַךְ אַרְצָה does not mean: Smite the earth (Luther); nor: Smite upon the earth (De Wette); still less: Strike with the bundle of arrows in the direction of the earth [i.e., as if smiting an enemy to earth with it] (Thenius). The last interpretation has no support in the text; and arrows are not used for smiting enemies to the earth, or for striking upon the ground. נָכָה stands in contrast with יָרָה (2Ki_13:17); it does not mean jacere (sagittas), to shoot arrows, but, ferire, to hit (1Ki_22:34; 2Ki_9:24; 1Sa_17:49). The arrow in 2Ki_13:17 was only to be shot away through the window towards the east; the arrows in 2Ki_13:18 were to hit down to the earth, i.e., in such a way that what was hit by them should be stretched upon the ground. As the king only shot to the earth thus three times and then stopped, did not, therefore, use up all the arrows which remained, the prophet was displeased (Sept. ἐλυπήθη) and said (2Ki_13:19): Thou shouldest have smitten, &c. He meant: Thou hadst more than three arrows, and mightest have continued to hit; the fact, however, that thou hast ceased so soon, shows that thou lackest the zeal which is tireless, and which perseveres, trusting in the Lord; thou shalt indeed defeat the Syrians, but the complete destruction of their power will not come about through thee. The reason why the king shot three times and then stopped was that, according to the prevalent notion, that what was done thrice was done perfectly (Num_22:28; Num_22:32-33; Num_24:10; Exo_23:17), he supposed that this sufficed. It was not because he was afraid that, if he shot any more, the prophecies of Elisha would not come to pass (Starke), or because he did not dare to shoot more, “lest too extravagant demands might deprive him of all” (Von Gerlach). In the first part of the transaction (2Ki_13:16-17), it is promised him that Jehovah will give him victory over the Syrians; in the second (2Ki_13:18-19), he is exhorted to go on, trusting in Jehovah’s assistance, without hesitation; and putting forth all his energies, and so to make war upon the Syrians until he utterly destroys them.
2Ki_13:20. And Elisha died, &c., וַיָּמָח evidently refers back to יָמוּח in 2Ki_13:14. Vulg.: Mortuus est ergo Elisaeus et sepelierunt eum. This sentence closes the narrative which began with 2Ki_13:14. It ought not, therefore, to be treated as a subordinate clause to what follows, as Luther understood it: “When Elisha was dead and they had buried him, the Moabites made an incursion.” Elisha must have reached a great age, for Jehoash did not come to the throne till 840–39, and Ahab, in whose reign Elisha was already a grown man (1Ki_19:19), reigned from 919–897 (see above, Pt. II., p. 45). According to Jerome’s statement (Epitaph. Paulae), Elisha’s grave was in the neighborhood of Samaria, where he had a residence (2Ki_5:9; 2Ki_6:32). Krummacher locates it, without any definite reason, in the neighborhood of Jericho, and certainly raiding bands of the Moabites might much more naturally appear in the neighborhood of Jericho than near Samaria. בָּא שָׁנָה means literally: a year came. According to the Targum and the Rabbis this means: at the beginning of the year. They came at this season because then the country furnished pasture. It can hardly mean that they came every year (Ewald). Still less correct is the rendering of the Vulg. which Luther follows: in ipso anno, in the same year.—וַיַשְׁלִיכוּ, 2Ki_13:21, is not to be understood of a rude and violent “throwing in,” but it is meant to describe the haste with which they opened the grave and deposited the corpse in it. It is not necessary to change וַיֵּלֶךְ, as Hitzig and Thenius do, into וַיֵּלְכוּ, i. e., they went away, for הלךְ “is used not only of the motion of lifeless objects, but also of the gradual progress of an action” (Keil). [It has great dramatic force, describing the gradual approach of the corpse to that contact which involved such momentous consequences.—W. G. S.] The Hebrews brought their dead to the grave, not in closed coffins, but on an open bier (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s. 16), “so that the corpse which was being brought to the sepulchre, on being hastily deposited there, might easily come in contact with the remains of Elisha” (Keil).
2Ki_13:22. But Hazael, king of Syria, &c. The narrative here returns to 2Ki_13:3-7. Seb. Schmidt: reassumitur hoc de Chasaele ad exponendum complementum prophetiae Elisae. In sense, לָחַץ is to be taken as a pluperfect. 2Ki_13:23 contains a remark of the author: Israel had been brought by Hazael to the brink of ruin, but, for the sake of His covenant, Jehovah took pity upon His people once more: He did not as yet permit it to be destroyed, as He did later (2Ki_17:6). Hazael died (2Ki_13:24), and Jehoash defeated his son and successor three times, as the prophet had foretold. The cities of Israel (2Ki_13:25) which Jehoash took away from Benhadad must have been “those which lay upon this side the Jordan, for Hazael had conquered the territory beyond Jordan during the reign of Jehu (2Ki_10:32 sq.), and it is expressly stated that the cities which he now recovered were those which had been taken from his father Jehoahaz” (Thenius). Jeroboam II. was the first who restored the ancient boundaries (2Ki_14:25).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. In regard to the reign of King Jehoahaz, we have but scanty records; the Chronicle does not mention him at all. The kingdom had declined very much during the last years of Jehu (2Ki_10:31-33), but, under this king, it sank still lower in every respect. The worship of the calves, which his father had retained, still continued; also the licentious worship of Astarte was once more practised. The entire revolution mentioned in chaps. 9 and 10, the overthrow of the House of Ahab, the foundation of a new dynasty, the abolition of idolatry, thus proved fruitless and vain. The divine judgments and chastisements which had begun under Jehu therefore increased, so that the kingdom came nigh to ruin. Jehoahaz, therefore, turned and prayed to God in anxiety and despair, and He once more had pity on His people. Schlier justly says of Jehoahaz: “His prayer was the best thing that he bequeathed to his successor.” The state of things during his reign is a proof that worship of images always leads to worship of false gods, and that there is only one step from the one to the other (see 1Ki_12:25-33, Hist. § 2). It shows how, universally, the weeds of religious error, when they have taken root amongst a people, although they may be pulled up again and again, nevertheless strike root again and spread, and endure more storm and hard usage than good and useful plants. Is it not true that even Christian nations cling more stubbornly to the errors which have fastened upon Christian doctrine, than to Christian truth itself? On the other hand, God, who guides the destinies of Israel, appears here as one whose wrath is indeed kindled at the sin and apostasy of His people, but who does not remain angry forever. He never ceases to be pitiful and gracious, kind and faithful (Exo_34:6; Psa_103:8-9). When His people, call upon Him, He hears the cry, and in due time sends a deliverer.
2. There is no mention made of the prophet Elisha from the anointing of Jehu in 884 to the reign of Jehoash (839), that is, for a period of at least forty-five years, whereas we should have expected that his influence would be especially wide and great under a dynasty which he put upon the throne. The fact that Jehoash called him “Father” and the “Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof” shows that he enjoyed high honor and esteem, and it would be very astonishing, if Elisha had not even given a sign of his existence for forty-five years. We are therefore compelled to infer either that the original documents used by our author were silent in regard to his activity, or that some of the incidents mentioned in chap. 4 sq. belong to this period (see Pt. II., p. 45). It cannot be proved, as Ewald asserts, that “all the incidents, in which he appears as standing in high estimation with the king of the northern kingdom, belong to the times of the house of Jehu,” that is to say, especially chaps. 5 and 6 It is far more probable that it was he who warned and threatened king Jehu (2Ki_10:30), and also induced king Jehoahaz to humble himself and turn to God in prayer (2Ki_13:4). He shows himself once more on his death-bed in his full and distinctive prophetical character. He appears here in his last hours in the character which was peculiar to him as compared with Elijah, i. e., as the one who built up, rescued from distress, and preserved (see Pt. II., p. 24). He departs from the world with a great promise of deliverance to his people, with the announcement of coming release from the oppression of the arch-enemy. “Salvation and Victory from Jehovah!” is his last prophetic oracle. While the young and vigorous king, despairing of deliverance, stands crushed and tearful before him, the prophet, oppressed by disease, and age, and approaching death, raises himself up from his death-bed, spiritually full of life and strength, and gives orders to the king to do this and that, in the tone of one who has set up and deposed kings, and whose calling it has been to break in pieces and to destroy, to build and to plant (Jer_1:10). He commands the king to execute the significant operation, not because he himself was too weak to talk much (Thenius), but because the king was to be the actor, was to be filled with courageous faith, and was to be assured of the victory he should win. It must have made a deep and solemn impression upon him and upon all who stood about, that he himself executed this symbolic action with the hands of the prophet laid upon him. When the prophet’s wrath was kindled against the king for desisting from shooting, it was not a sinful ebullition, but a wrath which sprang from love, because the king did not secure still more of the promise for himself and his people.
3. The story of the restoration to life of a man who was laid in Elisha’s grave stands in close connection with what precedes, not only historically, but also as respects its significance, and its moral. This is sufficient to show that it cannot have, as Ephraim Syrus and some other church fathers suppose, the general moral, that “Elisha, even in the grave, surpassed Elijah in miraculous power,” nor, as Theodoret says: ὡς διαπλασίαν τοῦ διδασκάλου τὴν χάριν ἐδέξατο [that he had a double portion of his master’s spirit]. This notion rests upon the erroneous interpretation of 2Ki_2:9 (see notes thereon). Elisha is nowhere placed superior to Elijah. According to the opinion which is now generally received, and which was proposed by Seb. Smith, the object of this miracle of resuscitation was to “impress the seal of the Divine confirmation upon the prediction of the dying prophet in regard to Jehoash’s victory over the Syrians” (Keil), or, “to give a pledge of the fulfilment of the promise which had been given” (Thenius). But the resuscitation of a dead man has no essential connection with the contents of this prediction, and the miracle would then be a mere display of supernatural power, having no special significance, and presenting no reason why this rather than any other form of supernatural work should have been chosen. The incident is connected, not with the victory over the Syrians, but with the death and burial of the prophet, which are mentioned just before. Its significance is this: Elisha died and was buried as all men are, but even in the grave testimony was borne to his character as a prophet and servant of God. The spirit (רוּחַ) of Jehovah, which made him, as well as his master, prophets (2Ki_2:9; 2Ki_2:15), and which is the principle of all prophetical life and work, made itself manifest in him even in the grave. It manifested itself, moreover, in a manner which corresponds exactly to the form of activity of this prophet, who was a preserver, savior, and life-giver (see Pt. II., p. 24). Salvation and life proceed from him, by the spirit of God, which makes alive, and is the fountain of life (Eze_37:1-14; Hos_6:2; Deu_32:39), even after he is in the grave. This interpretation is confirmed by the passage Sir_48:1-15. The praises of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha are there pronounced, and especial reference is made to the end of each. The translation of Elijah is mentioned in 2Ki_13:9, and then, in 2Ki_13:13, with which the panegyric of Elisha begins, the author refers back to it again: “Elijah was enveloped in a storm-cloud, and Elisha was filled with his spirit. During his life he feared before no ruler, and no one ever imposed restraint upon him. He yielded to no compulsion, καὶ ἐν κοιμήσει ἐπροφήτευσε τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ. During his life he performed wonders, καὶ ἐν τελευτῇ θαυμάσια τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ.” Whereas, in 2Ki_13:1—8, Elijah’s separate deeds are particularly described, Elisha’s activity is only delineated in general outline; on the contrary his end, like that of Elijah, is noticed especially. This shows that, in the time of Sirach, this incident was considered important and significant. Taken in connection with the context the sense is: as the greatest of all prophets, Elijah, the second Moses, was marvelously glorified at the close of his career; so was his successor, Elisha, also. Though his end was not like that of his master, yet it was not without divine testimony to his prophetical calling, for the spirit of Jehovah made itself manifest in him even in the grave. It was not the dead bones which brought the dead to life, but the living God. The resuscitation of the dead man was only “brought about by contact with the bones of the dead prophet, because God desired thereby to show to His people that the divine energy, which had been active in Elisha, had not, by his death, disappeared from Israel” (Keil Commentar, Ed. of 1845). This shows that it is as great an error to charge the writer with ascribing to the bones of Elisha a magical, miraculous power, as to refer to this narrative as a proof of the miraculous efficacy of relics. “This instance,” says Starke, “proves nothing in behalf of the relics of saints and their misuse in the Romish Church, for it was not the bones of Elisha, but the power of God, which made this dead man live. The Church did not then, and has never since, dug up the bones of Elisha, much less encased them in gold and silver, and given them to the people to kiss and reverence, as is done under the papacy, in order to gain favor with God, for which there is neither precept nor example in the Scriptures.” Neither is it necessary to have recourse to the typical and allegorical method of interpretation. J. Lange says: “The chief object (of this miracle) was to affirm the doctrine of the future, universal resurrection of the dead. Elisha was, therefore, in this point, a type of Christ.” In like manner, Krummacher says, basing his view on Sir_48:13, that the corpse of Elisha prophesied of the “flowing, new-creating, life-giving, miraculous power, which was to be poured out in the world through the death of his great anti-type, Jesus Christ.” This latter notion is inapt, because life and resurrection proceed, not from the crucified and dead, but from the risen, Christ. Cassel (Der Prophet Elisa, s. 162 sq.) even finds the prophetical spirit represented in the (dead) Elisha, and the people of Israel in the dead man restored to life. He says: “When the spirit of the prophets breathed over Israel like an evening wind, then the nation rose again, became living, and made all live whom its word touched. All the dead who fall upon prophecy rise again to life. Elisha is the prophetic law, whosoever in Israel believes on it experiences the resurrection of the dead in Jesus Christ. The miracle at Elisha’s grave is a type—but since all, Jews and heathen, alike become living at the grave of Christ through repentance and faith, no dead man’s bone any longer restores to life.” It is not necessary to show that such interpretations have no foundation in the text. [Scarcely a better means of exposing their frivolity could be found than to translate them. They are inflated, rhetorical inventions. When they are translated literally, they appear to be scarcely more than ridiculous and incoherent jargon. The principal utility of quoting them is to keep before us a warning of the pitfalls which environ the science of interpretation.—W. G. S.] Finally, the naturalistic interpretation of this incident, according to which “an apparently dead man, when he was thrown into the grave of Elisha, was restored to life by the violent shock of the fall” (Exeget. Handbuch on the passage; Baur, Hebr. Mythologie, ii. s. 197; Jahn, Einleitung in’s A. T. ii. 1. s. 261) may be regarded as antiquated and abandoned. Thenius says: “The incident may have occurred very naturally,” but does not tell how. Knobel’s remark: There is something analogous in the legend that the ground, where Amphiaraus lay buried, prophesied (Cicero, De Divin. i. 40),” rests upon an entire misconception of the aim and significance of the miracle.
[This might be regarded as a test case among the Old Testament miracles. It is very doubtful if many readers will find themselves satisfied with the above discussion of it. The notion that Elisha was a “constructive” prophet, in contrast with Elijah, who was “destructive,” is a mere whim. The fondness for historical parallels and contrasts seduces many into finding coincidences, correspondences, and contrasts where none exist out of the imagination of the writer. Elijah and Elisha differed somewhat in character, it is true, but they must be taken together as two men who worked with the same general method, under very similar circumstances, and towards the same ends. There is no ground for any such contrast as is here affirmed. Yet this contrast is made to be, in Bähr’s explanation of the miracle, after all verbiage is stripped from it, the motive of this wonderful event. God bore testimony to Elisha’s calling even after his death, and this testimony took the form of the restoration of a dead man to life by physical contact with the bones of the dead prophet, because Elisha had been a constructing, life-giving prophet. Of course, an affirmed miracle would not be disproved, if we did not see the necessity for it, but no miracle recorded in Scripture would seem more superfluous than one which was intended to ratify the calling of Elisha as a prophet of Jehovah, after his death. As for the authority of Sirach, it is not worth while to go into it. His panegyric is poetical and rhetorical in form, and when he says, for instance, that “the body (of Elisha) prophesied in the tomb,” although there is a reference to this passage, and although it is a perfectly justifiable thing for him to refer to it in this poetical strain in the course of such a composition as that he was making, yet it is difficult to see how these words could be reduced to any statement which would be available for critical and exegetical purposes. The attempts to lend significance to this incident, on one side and on the other, are all failures. The simple statement of the text is that an incursion of Moabites interrupted a funeral. The corpse was hastily thrown into the sepulchre of Elisha, and when it touched the bones of the prophet, the man returned to life. The remarkable dramatic minuteness of the description in 2Ki_13:21 : “when the dead man came and touched the bones of the prophet, he revived,” shows that the resuscitation was dependent on, and, we may say, caused by the physical contact, according to the conviction of the writer of the narrative. Different persons will receive this story in different ways, according to their theological and philosophical prepossessions. Some will see in it a popular legend or myth which insisted on glorifying the prophet by ascribing miraculous efficacy to his bones after his death, a mere legend which grew up in the course of time, but had no historical foundation. Others will simply take the story as it is given as an indisputable fact, and will go no farther than the record goes. It is not stated that the bones of the prophet were ever tested again to see if they would repeat the miracle, or that any other persons than this one were ever restored, and it is not stated why the miracle was performed at all. Those who adopt this second course must decline to speculate on these questions. They must assume that, for some reasons unknown, God, on a single occasion, attached to the bones of the prophet this efficacy. They must decline to deduce general inferences from this incident. Others again will go still farther, and infer that the sanctity of the man was due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that this became physically inherent in the remains of his body, that his bones, therefore, had miraculous efficacy, and that the bones of other individuals of equal sanctity will have equal efficacy. It is a development and extension of the second view, and it elevates the isolated instance into a law. In this way the story is made to lend support to the use of relics. It is remarked above, in reference to this, that it was not the prophet’s bone, but the power of God, which wrought the miracle. No one would assert anything else of the use of any relic. It is clearly stated that the resuscitation depended upon the physical contact with the physical object, and the latter had mysterious and supernatural efficacy inherent in it, which it could only have acquired as part of the body of a man who had been marked by extraordinary spiritual superiority. That, however, is the principle which lies at the root of the use and veneration of relics.—W. G. S.]
4. King Jehoash did not indeed renounce the worship of Jeroboam’s calves, but he was one of the best among the kings of the northern kingdom. This much is clear from the story of his interview with Elisha, if from nothing more. We do not hear that any other one of the four kings, under whom the prophet lived, stood in similar relations to him. Even though the tears which he shed at the prophet’s death-bed were not tears of penitence, and of a “lively regret for his past behavior towards the prophet” (Krummacher), yet they certainly show how deeply he was touched by the distress of Israel, and how helpless he felt at the departure of the prophet. By his exclamation: “My Father!” &c., he proclaimed to all who stood by that the prophet was more to him than all the military force which still remained. He then goes on to do what the prophet commands him, as a servant obeys his master. He desisted after shooting three times, not, as Krummacher thinks, from fear of condescending below his royal dignity, but from shame and fear of demanding too much [or rather, because what was done three times was thought to be completely done. See Exeg. note on 2Ki_13:19] He took courage, and soon showed himself a bold and victorious soldier, both in his war with Syria, and in that with Amaziah (see chap. 14).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki_13:1-13. See Histor. and Eth. The history of the kingdom of Israel under Jehoahaz shows us (a) God’s severity, and (b) God’s goodness. Rom_11:22; cf. Sir_5:6 sq.; 2Ki_16:12.—Starke: Men who have a personal interest in deeply rooted customs or traditions, are very loath to see them overthrown and abandoned, although they often thereby draw down God’s judgments by their own hands.
2Ki_13:3-4. How hard it often is to bring a man, who has turned away from the living God and from His word, to seek the Lord’s face. Jehoahaz had to be pushed to the last extremity by the enemy, and to be most deeply humiliated, before he called upon the Lord and saw where help is to be found in all distress (Isa_26:16).
2Ki_13:4-5. Berleb. Bibel: The Lord heard him and thereby showed distinctly how easily He may be moved to show mercy, if we will only bring ourselves to ask Him in humility and sincere penitence.—Starke: Faithful Christian! If God heard Jehoahaz, how much more will He hear thee, if thou callest upon Him.—The Lord gave Israel a deliverer, but Jehoahaz did not live to see him. God hears the cries of those who earnestly call upon Him, and helps them, but the time and place and manner of His aid are retained in His own discretion. Do not despair if thy prayer does not seem to be heard, and the Lord delays His assistance. He knows the fitting seasons and knows what is useful for us.
2Ki_13:5-6. The Lord gave Israel a temporal saviour in its hour of physical need; to us He has given a spiritual Saviour, who can and will save us out of the hands of the greatest of all enemies: sin, death, Satan, and Hell (Luk_1:69-71). What can we expect, if it must be said of us also: Yet they did not renounce their sins.—Richter: Many a one prays, like Jehoahaz, in his time of distress, and when the trouble is past, the good impulses quickly disappear again. 2Ki_13:7. Würt. Summ.: No nation is so great and mighty that God cannot take away its might and make it so small and slight that it is only like dust which the wind scatters (Psa_18:42). Therefore, ye godless! plume yourselves not so much upon your strength (Psa_75:5). Look at the chaff, how quickly it is scattered; so shall it be with your strength. 2Ki_13:14-21. Elisha’s End. (a) His death-bed, 2Ki_13:14-19. (b) His grave, 2Ki_13:20-21. 2Ki_13:14-17. Krummacher: The sick-bed. (a) Elisha in illness; (b) bewailed by the king; (c) but a prophet until his latest breath.
2Ki_13:14-19. King Jehoash at the death-bed of Elisha. (a) He weeps and laments; (b) He is consoled and strengthened.—How did Elisha pass away from earth? Sick and weakened by age—(his lot was the ordinary one of mortals; he also had to pass away into darkness and death, however much he had wrought and fought and labored, Psa_90:10; Psa_90:12. God has ordained sickness before death, that we may set our house in order, may seek refuge in the mercy of God, and may ponder what is our sole consolation, in life and in death)—yet, as a man of God. (In spite of weakness and physical decay, he is strong and firm; he asks no help from men, but he, the dying one, consoles and strengthens the living. His last word is a promise of victory. The words of Isaiah [Isa 40:29–31] are verified in him.)
2Ki_13:14. It is rarely recognized how great and irreparable is the loss of a true man of God, a great benefactor, and a faithful servant, until he is gone.—King Jehoash was not ashamed to come to the dying prophet, and to confess with tears his own helplessness; but how many shun such holy men, and are glad if they never need have anything to do with them.
2Ki_13:15 sq. From the example of Elisha, we see how one who can say: “The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation” (Psa_118:14). stands before the gates of eternity; proclaiming salvation, extending blessings, sure of victory. There is no greater thing than a man who, in the face of death, can cry: “O death! where is thy sting,” &c. (1Co_15:55; 1Co_15:57).—Krummacher: Here we see Elisha’s patriotism. If we would know what true love of one’s fatherland is, let us ask the prophet. In his case it received a divine consecration. It is truly touching to see with what tenderness the prophets enfold in their hearts their country and people, even when they see in them little but spiritual death, decay, and corruption, and experience from their fellow-countrymen little but bitterness, hate, and persecution.
2Ki_13:18-19. Berleb. Bibel: Cease not to shoot arrows of love into the heart of God, so shall one arrow of deliverance after another come back to thee from the Lord, and be given to thee in the word of truth. So shalt thou smite thy spiritual foes and tread them under foot even more completely than Jehoash did the Syrians.—Roos: The cowardly unbelief of men causes that God cannot reveal His glory in some places as he gladly would (Mar_6:5), and that their way is not made so easy for them as God would be willing to make it (Pro_4:12). The measure of the victory depends upon the measure of the faith. The Lord said to the centurion of Capernaum: “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee” (Mat_8:13). He who is called to execute a work for God may not stop and desist according to his own good judgment, but must go on in it tirelessly and faithfully, till the Lord commands him to cease.—Calw. Bibel: Many enemies are to be conquered, many tests to be endured. Faith must hold firm until the end. When one battle is won, the conflict is not over. How much is it to be regretted when one only half believes, half obeys, or when one, after a good beginning, desists.
2Ki_13:20-21. The Miracle at the Grave of Elisha; its Object and its Significance, (a) for the prophet himself; (b) for us all (see Hist. § 3). Von Gerlach: The Lord showed thereby that He was not a God of the dead, but of the living; that the dead in Him live for Him (Mat_22:32); that the spirit of life which proceeds from Him spreads life and blessing everywhere where it comes, and that it is superior to death and decay.—The dead cannot make the dead to live; the spirit of the Lord alone penetrates even into the place of corruption, and changes it into a place of life (Eze_37:1 sq.). We, therefore, rest our confidence and hope, not upon dead men’s bones, but upon the God who makes all things to live, and who raised up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep. If we are buried with Him, we have this consolation: the God who raised Him will also raise us to life through His might (1Co_6:14; 2Co_4:14; Col_2:12; Rom_6:4).—Berleb. Bibel: The precept and example of men of God can have power, even after their death, to the resuscitation of those who are spiritually dead, if the latter will only study and follow them (Heb_13:7). This is the way in which the bones of the dead are truly efficacious. If thou art dead in sin, cast thyself into the tomb of the Saviour in humility and self-renunciation, so shalt thou revive and rise to life again as He did, for he who truly grasps the virtue of the death of Christ (comes into contact with that Dead One) is thus revived to the true life of his soul.
2Ki_13:23 sq. Calw. Bibel: When God turns Himself from us, then we are given over to wretchedness; when He turns back to us again, then we find salvation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for a thousand years, and yet their blessing was efficacious.—Würt. Summ.: God does not take pleasure in our ruin, but remembers, even in the midst of His anger, His promised grace and the covenant which He has made with us (Luk_1:72 sq.).—Cramer: Tyrants are rods by means of which God chastises His people; but finally the tyrants themselves are chastised by God and cast into the fire.
2Ki_13:25. Starke: It was unjustly obtained and quickly lost. Unrighteous wealth rarely comes to the third generation (Jes. 33:1).—Richter: Israel is to-day, as it was then (2Ki_13:23), a covenant people of God, and is not rejected entirely and forever (Romans 11).
Footnotes:
[1]2Ki_13:4.—[חִלָּה אֶת־פְּנֵי. See 1Ki_13:6.]
[2][כִּתְמוֹל שִׁלשׁוֹם, “as yesterday and day before,” i.e., as before. Cf. Gen_31:2; Gen_31:5; Exo_5:7; Exo_5:14; 1Sa_21:6.]
[3]2Ki_13:6.—[The א is omitted in the chetib on account of the א which immediately follows. Cf. 2Sa_5:2; 1Ki_21:21. Böttcher, §§ 414, and 1080, 1.
[4]2Ki_13:7.—[כֶּעָפָר לָדֻשׁ, literally “like dust to tread upon.”]
[5]2Ki_13:9.—[וַיִּקְבְּרֻהוּ,—the plural, as in English, for the passive, equivalent to the active singular with indefinite subject. (Germ. man, Fr. on). Cf. 2Ki_7:13; 1Ki_1:1; 1Ki_9:9; 1Ki_18:10.]
[6]2Ki_13:14.—[The imperfect tense in יָמוּת has its proper force of the future, and is equivalent to the perfect of the Latin periphrastic conj. in rus. Ewald, § 136, d.]
[7]2Ki_13:17.—[עַד־כַּלֵּה, lit. “until consuming,” gerund form, = until thou consume, finish destroying, them.
[8]2Ki_13:19.—[לְהַכּוֹת; the infinitive is used like the Latin participle in dus: “It was to be smitten,” i.e., thou shouldest have smitten. Ewald, § 237, c. In the conclusion we have a perfect in the sense of the pluperfect conjunctive. Cf. Gen_18:12; 1Sa_13:18. Böttcher, § 947, d.—W. G. S.]
[9]See the Appendix on the Chronology. For the purpose of the calculation here made, it is immaterial whether this date is correct or not, but it is certainly wrong to call it “an established chronological starting-point.”—W. G. S.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 20 he saw the oppression of Israel--that is, commiserated the…
he saw the oppression of Israel--that is, commiserated the fallen condition of His chosen people. The divine honor and the interests of true religion required that deliverance should be granted them to check the triumph of the idolatrous enemy and put an end to their blasphemous taunts that God had forsaken Israel (Deu 32:27; Psa 12:4).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ, KING OF ISRAEL, 2Ki_13:1-9.
REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ, KING OF ISRAEL, 2Ki_13:1-9.
1. Three and twentieth year — There is a discrepancy between this verse and 2Ki_13:10. If Jehoahaz began to reign in the twenty-third, and his son Jehoash in the thirty-seventh year of Joash, king of Judah, Jehoahaz must have reigned, not seventeen years, as says this verse, but fourteen, or at most fifteen, years. To meet the difficulty some assume that there is an error in the text, and that we should read one and twentieth, or two and twentieth year. Others suppose that Jehoahaz associated his son with him as co-regent two or three years before his death. There are no sufficient data to decide the question. Wordsworth remarks: “In the latter years of the kingdom of Israel the dates of the accession of the sovereigns are fluctuating. This was a natural consequence of the precarious tenure of their rule. It often happened, by reason of the confusion and dissolution of their polity, that it was a matter of doubt whether a king was really king or no at any given time. No wonder, therefore, that the dates are variously given.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 Ch. 2Ki_13:1-9. Reign of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, over…
Ch. 2Ki_13:1-9. Reign of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, over Israel (Not in Chronicles)
1. In the three-and-twentieth year of Joash … king of Judah, Jehoahaz … began to reign] The chronology here seems inconsistent with verse 10. Jehoahaz’s seventeen years, according to the statement before us, would go on to the fortieth year of Joash king of Judah, whereas the successor of Jehoahaz is stated in verse 10 to have begun his reign in the thirty-seventh year of Joash. It is possible that seventeen years, according to Jewish reckoning, may really have been very little more than fifteen. Still that does not bring the dates into accord. Where the mistake may be is not easy to discover. The LXX. represents the same numbers, which it is clear cannot all be correct, though the error is not large. See Chronological Table in the Introduction.
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Jehoahaz the son of Jehu] The first of the four generations for which God promised that the line of Jehu should continue.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (1) In the three and twentieth year of Joash.—Josephus…
XIII.
(1-3) THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ.
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(1) In the three and twentieth year of Joash.—Josephus makes it the twenty-first year of Joash, but wrongly. According to 2Ki_12:1, Joash succeeded in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned twentyeight years (2Ki_10:36).
Seventeen years.—This agrees with 2Ki_14:1.
(2) And he did.—See Notes on 2Ki_3:3.
(3) He delivered them into the hand of Hazael.—Comp. 2Ki_10:32, seq. The meaning is that Jehovah allowed Israel to be defeated in successive encounters with the Syrian forces, and to Suffer loss of territory, but not total subjugation. According to the Assyrian data, Shalmaneser warred with Hazael in 842 B.C. , and again in 839 B.C. (See Notes on 2Ki_8:15; 2Ki_9:2.)
All their days.—Rather, all the days, i.e., continually (not all the days of Jehoahaz, nor of Hazael and Ben-hadad). The phrase is an indefinite designation of a long period of disaster.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–25 Vers. 1-25. REIGNS OF JEHOAHAZ, SON OF JEHU, AND…
Vers. 1-25. REIGNS OF JEHOAHAZ, SON OF JEHU, AND JOASH, SON OF JEHOAHAZ, OVER ISRAEL. NOTICES OF ELISHA. WAR OF ISRAEL WITH SYRIA.
Vers. 1-9. THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ. The writer returns in this chapter to the history of the Israelite kingdom, taking it up from the death of Jehu, which was recorded in the closing verses of 2Ki 10. He sketches briefly the reign of Jehu"s son and successor, Jehoahaz, in the present section, after which he passes to that of John"s grandson, Jehoash or Joash. The Syrian oppression was the great event of Jehoahaz"s reign.
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In the three and twentieth year of Joash; rather, as in Josephus ("Ant. Jud:," 9:8. in the one and twentieth year. This is a correction required by ver. 10 and also by 2Ki_12:1. The proof is given at somewhat tedious length by Keil ("Biblical Commentary," pp. 373, 374) and Bahr ("Books of the Kings," pp. 139, 140). It seems unnecessary to enter into a lengthy discussion of the point, since all the synchronisms of the later kings of Israel and Judah are in confusion, and appear to be the work of a later hand. The son of Ahaziah. (comp. 2Ki_11:2; 2Ch_22:11) King of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel; literally, reigned over Israel. The "later hand," which inserted the synchronism, neglected to bring the two portions of the verse into agreement. Our translators have sought to cover up his omission by translating malak "began to reign ," and then supplying "and reigned" in the next clause. And reigned seventeen years (so also Josephus, l.s.c. ).
Vers. 1-7. God"s severity and God"s goodness alike shown in the history of Israel under Jehoahaz.
I GOD"S SEVERITY. Two sins only are noted as existing among the people at this time the calf-worship, and the maintenance of the "grove" or asherah (ver. 6). One of these, the worship of the calves, was ancestral. It had been an established usage for a hundred and twenty years, and had been upheld by every king from the date of its institution. Even the prophets, with one exception, (1Ki_13:2, 1Ki_13:3) had not denounced it. The people at this time accepted it without question, and were probably quite unconscious that it was a sin at all, The other sin, the maintenance of the asherah, was negative rather than positive the emblem still stood erect; it had not been removed but it is not said that it was worshipped. Yet God, in his severity, visited the people for these two sins heavily, terribly (vers. 4 and 7). He did not accept thoughtlessness, unconsciousness, absence of any evil intention, as an excuse. His honor was impugned by both practices, and he is very jealous of his honor. To leave the asherah standing, not to break it down, was to show a want of zeal for the purity of religion, for the honor of God, for the true faith, for virtue, for decency. To be indifferent to the calf-worship, to tolerate it, to continue it, was to live in constant violation of the second commandment. God could not, would not, tolerate this. If the conscience of the nation had gone to sleep, he must rouse it. By sharp pains, by severe afflictions, by actual agonies, if necessary, he must stir them from their self-satisfaction, awake them to self-examination and keen searchings of heart, and so bring them to a sense of their sinfulness, if not to a distinct recognition of their special sins.
II GOD"S GOODNESS. As soon as any relenting is shown, as soon as the king acknowledges God"s hand in his punishment, and turns to him and entreats his aid, even although he does not put a stop to the practices by which God"s anger has been provoked (ver. 6), yet the Divine compassion is stirred. "The Lord hearkened unto him" (ver. 4). A savior is given, in the Divine counsels, if not at once in fact. The nation"s fall is arrested, its life prolonged. "O faithful Christian, if God heard Jehoahaz, how much more will he hear thee, if thou callest upon him! The Lord gave Israel a deliverer, but Jehoahaz did not live to see him. God hears the cry of those who earnestly call upon him, and helps them; but the time, and place, and manner of his aid are retained in his own discretion. Do not despair if thy prayer does not seem to be heard, and the Lord delays his assistance. He knows that fitting season as well as he knows what is useful to us" (Starke).
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN. Vers. 1-13, with 22-25. The reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash, kings of Israel. Observe here
I THE PERPETUITY OF EVIL. How sad it is to read of one king after another, "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord"! And then the statement is usually made, "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." A bad man does harm to others besides himself. "None of us liveth to himself." Not merely while we live, but after we are gone, our lives and words and deeds will influence others. We may think ourselves very obscure and insignificant, so insignificant that we may argue it does not matter to others how we live. But who can measure the circle of his influence? In ways that we know not, influence may reach other hearts and other lives. Oh! how dangerous is one evil influence in a community! It takes a long time to do away with its effects.
The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.
Let us be careful how we are influencing others. For good or for evil we are exercising some influence, however unconsciously, on those around us. If we would influence men for good, we ourselves must live near to God.
II THE MERCY OF GOD. God punished Jehoahaz and his people for their sins. "He delivered them into the hand of Hazael King of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their days." When suffering or troubles come, let us see whether the cause of them is not within our own hearts and lives. But he mingled mercy with judgment. God is ever on the watch for signs of the prodigal"s return. His ear is ever open for the cry of penitence, for the faintest" prayer for forgiveness and help. Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the King of Syria oppressed them" (ver. 4; see also ver. 23).
Come, let us to the Lord our God With contrite hearts return; Our God is gracious, nor will leave The desolate to mourn.
His voice commands the tempest forth, And stills the stormy wave; And, though his arm be strong to smite, "Tis also strong to save.
III HUMAN INGRATITUDE. Though God delivered them from their difficulty and distress, and gave them peace from their enemies, yet, when the difficulty was over, they forgot all about God"s mercy. They went back to their old sins. "Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat... but walked therein" (ver. 6). How prone the human heart is to forsake God! The Books of Judges and Kings are full of illustrations of this painful fact. By forsaking God the Israelites brought themselves into misery and bondage. Time after time God raised up judges and kings and prophets to be the means of their deliverance. But when these were dead, or when the immediate danger had passed away, once again the people forsook God. It is the same in the history of the individual. How ungrateful we are for God"s unceasing and unfailing goodness! How forgetful of his commandments and his promises! "The way of man is not in himself; and it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." We need all the influence of Divine grace to keep us in the way that is right.
IV A HUMBLED NATION. To what a low level sin reduces a nation! How shamefully Israel was humiliated before Syria! The King of Syria only left to Jehoahaz fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; "for the King of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing." The fate of Israel, the fate of other mighty nations of the past, are a great national lesson to be remembered so long as the world shall last. Ought we not earnestly to pray that this great British empire, which has been built up by God-fearing men, and which God has blessed and honored so highly, may not forsake God for secularism or gross corruption, and thus fall into the fate of the fallen nations of the past? Knowing how great are the forces of evil, it becomes every true Christian to be more valiant for the truth, to be more active in everything that will extend the kingdom of Christ in this and other lands. C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-21. The death of Elisha.
the three and twentieth," etc. The Book of Kings is, to a large extent, a record of crime, and of crime of the most heinous and aggravated character. The terrible monstrosities recorded are, for the most part, ascribable, directly or indirectly, to kings. In this very chapter we have a sketch of two of those monarchs who have been among the greatest curses of their race. Jehoahaz, son and successor of Jehu King of Israel, whose reign was disastrous to the kingdom to such a degree that his army was all but utterly destroyed, and had become like the dust on the "threshingfloor;" and Jehoash, who for three years was associated with his father in the government, and who, when his father was swept away, was a curse to the world for sixteen years. The only portion of this chapter which requires notice is from ver. 14 to ver. 21. These verses present to us four subjects of thought a great man dying; a good man leaving the world interested in posterity; a wicked man regretting the event; and a dead man exerting a wonderful influence.
I A GREAT MAN DYING. "Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died." The whole history of Elisha is not only the history of the marvelous, but the history of loyalty to Heaven and of devotion to the interests of the Israelite race. But here we find this great and good man dying. Elijah, his master, had escaped death and had been borne to heaven in a chariot of fire, but Elisha had to die in the ordinary way of mankind, through sickness. It is true he was an old man; threescore years had passed since he commenced his prophetic ministry. For a great many years we are told nothing about him, but no doubt he had been actively and usefully engaged. Even the most useful public men, and the most popular too, cease to attract great public attention as they pass into years. Often they become as "dead men out of sight," albeit they are useful. Though all men have to die, death is not the same to all men. It has a widely different significance to different men. To the good man it is life breaking through exuviae and taking wing to revel in a sunny universe. It is the "mortal putting on immortality.
II A WICKED MAN REGRETTING THE EVENT. "And Joash the King of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father!" Why did he weep? Not because he had any sympathy with the character of the departing man. His moral sympathies were in antagonism to those of the prophet. Not because he felt that the prophet himself would suffer loss. He was not thinking of the prophet"s gaining or losing by death. Not because he knew that the event would be a loss to the living in general. He cared nothing for his race, not he; but because he knew that the prophet was the "chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." His chariots and horsemen were gone, and Elisha was his only hope.
III A GOOD MAN LEAVING THE WORLD INTERESTED IN POSTERITY. Elisha, though dying, stilt took an interest in the future of his country. "Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows," etc. (vers. 15-19). Elisha seems to have been touched by the king"s tears; and he held out the hope that he would yet become victorious over the Syrians. The symbolic action which the prophet recommended, putting his hand upon the bow, opening the window, shooting the arrow, smiting the ground, does not, I think, necessarily mean that the prophet approved of the future wars of the king, but merely indicated the fact. He foretold his success; for, in three campaigns against the Syrians, he recovered the cities which they had taken from his father. He was also successful in the war with Amaziah King of Judah. But the point worth notice is the interest felt in the future by the prophet in his dying hours. Had he not done with life? Would he not soon be in his grave? What would the world be to him in the future? An interest in posterity seems to be an instinct in humanity. There is a nerve in humanity that runs through all races and all generations, linking men together. No man liveth to himself;" all men are in one. The more moral goodness a man has in him the more sensitive this nerve becomes. Hence the best men in all ages have been the men who made provision for posterity.
IV A DEAD MAN EXERTING A WONDERFUL INFLUENCE. "It came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." The incident which takes place in his grave is as strange as it is significant and suggestive. The bearers of a dead man, struck with terror at the approach of enemies, instead of carrying the remains to their appointed resting-place, pushed them into the sepulcher where slept the bones of the illustrious Elisha. No sooner did the corpse touch the sacred relics of the great seer than it quivered with life, and the dead man, to the astonishment of all, revived, and stood on his feet. This miraculous incident was desired and calculated to make a wholesome moral impression on the mind of the age. It had a tendency to demonstrate to all the Divinity of the prophet"s mission, to show the honor with which the Eternal treats the holy dead, to prove the existence of a Power superior to death, and to foreshadow a future state. Whilst I would at all times studiously endeavor to avoid the mistake of what is called spiritualizing God"s Word, I feel that it is lawful to use an incident like this as an illustration of spiritual realities. The incident which occurred in the grave of Elisha on this occasion, viz. the deriving of life by contact with the holy dead, is, in the material department of things to which it belongs, sublimely singular. Such an event as this, perhaps, will never occur again; but a thing analogous to this in the spiritual domain is, thank God, of frequent occurrence. The dead minds of earth are constantly deriving life from contact with the spiritual remains of the dead. D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-7. Israel"s humiliation under Jehoahaz.
The story of the reign of Jehoahaz, Jehu"s son, is a story of unmitigated misfortune. We note
I JEHOAHAZ"S EVIL REIGN.
1. The downward movement in Israel. With the extinction of Ahab"s house, the rooting out of Baal, and the establishment of Jehu"s dynasty, Israel obtained a new chance of doing well. But Jehu"s reforming zeal soon died out, and he fell back into godless ways. His son followed the worse, and not the better, traditions of his father"s reign. Thus the downward movement again began, Of Jehoahaz also the old monotonous refrain has to be spoken, "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." This is the burden of the song regarding every king of Israel. In the whole line, from first to last, there is not one of whom a different report can be given.
2. The cardinal sin. The foremost sin of all these monarchs-that which fatally entangled them in other sins was the perpetuation of the worship of the calves. Religion affects the springs of morality, and this idolatrous cultus sent poisonous streams through the whole life of the nation. It was the grand transgression which, amidst all temporary reforms, was never abandoned.
II THE SYRIAN OPPRESSION.
1. Divine anger. "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel" God had done so much for the people, had granted them so favor-able an opportunity for repentance, had counseled and warned them so long by great prophets like Elijah and Elisha, that he was justly wroth with them for their continued transgressions. God is jealous of his honor, and presumptuous transgressors must expect to find his hand laid heavily upon them. When God"s anger is kindled against a people, things cannot go well. Troubles break out on every side, and calamities fall thick and fast.
2. Weighty chastisements. God delivered the people of Israel into the hands of the kings of Syria Hazael and Benhadad. This time it was no passing invasion. The completeness of the conquest, and the severity of the oppression, recall the days of the judges, or the Philistine oppression of the reign of Saul (Jud_1:5:6, 7; 1Sa_13:19-22) Out of the hosts of Israel there was left to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen. Elisha"s foresight of the evils which Hazael would inflict on the nation was thus terribly verified. Again is the reflection forced on us How bitter is the fruit of sin! The Bible is little else than a repeated enforcement of the truth, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him.... Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him". (Isa_3:10, Isa_3:11)
III JEHOAHAZ"S PRAYER, AND ITS ANSWER.
1. The kings prayer. The very existence of the kingdom seemed threatened. Happily, the desperate straits to which he was reduced led Jehoahaz to humble himself before God. He felt himself in the hands of a living God, and, rightly tracing the calamities which had befallen him to Jehovah"s anger, he turned to Jehovah for his help. The chastisements with which God visits men for their sins are designed to break their pride and stubbornness, and lead them to repentance. They often have the effect of producing a temporary submission, though they cannot of themselves change the heart. We have examples in Pharaoh. (Exo_8:28 and in 1Ki_21:27)
1. God"s answer to the prayer. A prayer wrung from the king, not by the sense of his sin, but by the intolerable pressure of affliction, might have been thought undeserving of an answer. But the Lord is very pitiful, and welcomes the faintest approach of the sinner unto him. He does not thrust the suppliant away, but seeks, by giving him tokens of his grace, to ripen his imperfect desires into real repentance. Accordingly, the approaches of Jehoahaz to the throne of grace met with a gracious response. God promised a savior to the land, and ultimately raised one up in the person of Joash, who, but for his want of perseverance, would have completely delivered the nation from the Syrians. The work which he left undone was finished by his son, Jeroboam II Thus God shows himself ready to hear the cries even of the worst of men. None need despair in calling on Heaven when Jehoahaz was listened to in such dire straits. Happy they who are led to call, though it be from the depths, to God. (Ps 130 Ps 50) He will not turn any away. His promise is, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee". (Psa_1:1-5)
2. Imperfect repentance. The imperfection of Jehoahaz"s repentance is seen in the fact that the worship of the calves was still maintained; also there remained the symbol of Astarte in Samaria. God"s promise having been given, was not revoked, and there were other reasons why he was willing to help the people (ver. 23). But these sins in high places wrought ruin afterwards. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2, 8, 14, 15, 16, 20 He did that which was evil in the sight…
2Ki_13:2-13
He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
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Defection
Just as two roads that diverge from each other at a very sharp angle, get the wider apart the further they go, till at last half a continent may be held betwixt them--the little deflection from the narrow line of Christian duty and simple faithfulness, it is only Gods mercy that will prevent it from leading thee away out, out, out into the waste plains and doleful wildernesses, where all sinful, and dark, and foul things dwell for ever.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
THE DYNASTY OF JEHU
Jehoahaz
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814-797
{2Ki_13:1-9}
Joash
797-781
{2Ki_13:10-21; 2Ki_14:8-16}
Jeroboam II
781-740
{2Ki_14:23-29}
Zechariah
740
{2Ki_15:8-12}
"Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."
- 1Sa_2:30
ISRAEL had scarcely ever sunk to so low a nadir of degradation as she did in the reign of the son of Jehu. We have already mentioned that some assign to his reign the ghastly story which we have narrated in our sketch of the work of Elisha. It is told in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Kings, and seems to belong to the reign of Jehoram ben-Ahab; but it may have got displaced from this epoch of yet deeper wretchedness. The accounts of Jehoahaz in 2 Kings 13 are evidently fragmentary and abrupt.
Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years. Naturally, he did not disturb the calf-worship, which, like all his predecessors and successors, he regarded as a perfectly innocent symbolic adoration of Jehovah, whose name he bore and whose service he professed. Why should he do so? It had been established now for more than two centuries. His father, in spite of his passionate and ruthless zeal for Jehovah, had never attempted to disturb it. No prophet-not even Elijah nor Elisha, the practical establishers of his dynasty-had said one word to condemn it. It in no way rested on his conscience as an offence; and the formal condemnation of it by the historian only reflects the more enlightened judgment of the Southern Kingdom and of a later age. But according to the parenthesis which breaks the thread of this kings story, {2Ki_13:5-6} he was guilty of a far more culpable defection from orthodox worship; for in his reign, the Asherah-the tree or pillar of the Tyrian nature-goddess-still remained in Samaria, and therefore must have had its worshippers. How it came there we cannot tell. Jezebel had set it up, {1Ki_16:33} with the connivance of Ahab. Jehu apparently had "put it away" with the great stele of Baal, {2Ki_3:2} but, for some reason or other, he had not destroyed it. It now apparently occupied some public place, a symbol of decadence, and provocative of the wrath of Heaven.
Jehoahaz sank very low. Hazaels savage sword, not content with the devastation of Bashan and Gilead, wasted the west of Israel also in all its borders. The king became a mere vassal of his brutal neighbor at Damascus. So little of the barest semblance of power was left him, that whereas, in the reign of David, Israel could muster an army of eight hundred thousand, and in the reign of Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, Amaziah could hire from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of valor as mercenaries, Jehoahaz was only allowed to maintain an army of ten chariots, fifty horsemen, and ten thousand infantry! In the picturesque phrase of the historian, "the King of Syria had threshed down Israel to the dust," in spite of all that Jehoahaz did, or tried to do, and "all his might." How completely helpless the Israelites were is shown by the fact that their armies could offer no opposition to the free passage of the Syrian troops through their land. Hazael did not regard them as threatening his rear; for, in the reign of Jehoahaz, he marched southwards, took the Philistine city of Gath, and threatened Jerusalem. Joash of Judah could only buy them off with the bribe of all his treasures, and according to the Chronicler they "destroyed all the princes of the people," and took great spoil to Damascus. {2Ch_24:23}
Where was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the scene. Unless the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced, we do not so much as once hear of him for nearly half a century.
The fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove him to repentance. Wearied to death of the Syrian oppression of which he was the daily witness, and of the utter misery caused by prowling bands of Ammonites and Moabites-jackals who waited on the Syrian lion-Jehoahaz "besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him, and gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime." If this indeed refers to events which come out of place in the memoirs of Elisha; and if Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, not Jehoram ben-Ahab, was the king in whose reign the siege of Samaria was so marvellously raised, then Elisha may possibly be the temporary deliverer who is here alluded to. On this supposition we may see a sign of the repentance of Jehoahaz in the shirt of sackcloth which he wore under his robes, as it became visible to his starving people when he rent his clothes on hearing the cannibal instincts which had driven mothers to devour their own children. But the respite must have been brief, since Hazael (2Ki_13:22) oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. If this rearrangement of events be untenable, we must suppose that the repentance of Jehoahaz was only so far accepted, and his prayer so far heard, that the deliverance, which did not come in his own days, came in those of his son and of his grandson.
Of him and of his wretched reign we hear no more; but a very different epoch dawned with the accession of his son Joash, named after the contemporary King of Judah, Joash ben-Ahaziah.
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles Joash of Israel is condemned with the usual refrains about the sins of Jeroboam. No other sin is laid to his charge; and breaking the monotony of reprobation which tells us of every king of Israel without exception that "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," Josephus boldly ventures to call him "a good man; and the antithesis to his father."
He reigned sixteen years. At the beginning of his reign he found his country the despised prey, not only of Syria, but of the paltry neighboring bandit-sheykhs who infested the east of the Jordan; he left it comparatively strong, prosperous, and independent.
In his reign we hear again of Elisha, now a very old man of past eighty years. Nearly half a century had elapsed since the grandfather of Joash had destroyed the house of Ahab at the prophets command. News came to the king that Elisha was sick of a mortal sickness, and he naturally went to visit the death-bed of one who had called his dynasty to the throne, and had in earlier years played so memorable a part in the history of his country. He found the old man dying, and he wept over him, crying, "My father; my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." {Comp. 2Ki_2:12} The address strikes us with some surprise. Elisha had indeed delivered Samaria more than once when the city had been reduced to direst extremity; but in spite of his prayers and of his presence, the sins of Israel and her kings had rendered this chariot of Israel of very small avail. The names of Ahab, Jehu, Jehoahaz, call up memories of a series of miseries and humiliations which had reduced Israel to the very verge of extinction. For sixty-three years Elisha had been the prophet of Israel; and though his public interpositions had been signal on several occasions, they had not been availing to prevent Ahab from becoming the vassal of Assyria, nor Israel from becoming the appendage of the dominion of that Hazael whom Elisha himself had anointed King of Syria, and who had become of all the enemies of his country the most persistent and the most implacable.
The narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it-as it occurs, with but little apprehension of its exact significance.
Elisha, though Joash "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," seems to have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth take his bow, and laid his feeble, trembling hands on the strong hands of the king.
Then he ordered an attendant to fling open the lattice, and told the king to shoot eastward towards Gilead, the region whence the bands of Syria made their way over the Jordan. The king shot, and the fire came back into the old prophets eye as he heard the arrow whistle eastward. He cried, "The arrow of Jehovahs deliverance, even the arrow of victory over Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them." Then he bade the young king to take the sheaf of arrows, and smite towards the ground, as if he was striking down an enemy. Not understanding the significance of the act, the king made the sign of thrice striking the arrows downwards, and then naturally stopped. But Elisha was angry-or at any rate grieved. "You should have smitten five or six times," he said, "and then you would have smitten Syria to destruction. Now you shall only smite Syria thrice." The kings fault seems to have been lack of energy and faith.
There are in this story some peculiar elements which it is impossible to explain, but it has one beautiful and striking feature. It tells us of the death - bed of a prophet. Most of Gods greatest prophets have perished amid the hatred of priests and worldlings. The progress of the truth they taught has been "from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake."
"Careless seems the Great Avenger. Historys pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness twixt old systems and the Word-
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own!"
Now and then, however, as an exception, a great prophetic teacher or reformer escapes the hatred of the priests and of the world, and dies in peace. Savonarola is burnt, Huss is burnt, but Wicliff dies in his bed at Lutterworth, and Luther died in peace at Eisleben. Elijah passed away in storm, and was seen no more. A king comes to weep by the death-bed of the aged Elisha. "For us," it has been said, "the scene at his bedside contains a lesson of comfort and even encouragement. Let us try to realize it. A man with no material power is dying in the capital of Israel. He is not rich: he holds no office which gives him any immediate control over the actions of men; he has but one weapon-the power of his word. Yet Israels king stands weeping at his bedside-weeping because this inspired messenger of Jehovah is to be taken from him. In him both king and people will lose a mighty support, for this man is a greater strength to Israel than chariots and horsemen are. Joash does well to mourn for him, for he has had courage to wake the nations conscience; the might of his personality has sufficed to turn them in the true direction, and rouse their moral and religious life. Such men as Elisha everywhere and always give a strength to their people above the strength of armies, for the true blessings of a nation are reared on the foundations of its moral force."
The annals are here interrupted to introduce a posthumous miracle-unlike any other in the whole Bible-wrought by the bones of Elisha. He died, and they buried him, "giving him," as Josephus says, "a magnificent burial." As usual, the spring brought with it the marauding bands of Moabites. Some Israelites who were burying a man caught sight of them, and, anxious to escape, thrust the man into the sepulcher of Elisha, which happened to be nearest at hand. But when he was placed in the rocky tomb, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Doubtless the story rests on some real circumstance. There is, however, something singular in the turn of the original, which says (literally) that the man went and touched the bones of Elisha; and there is proof that the story was told in varying forms, for Josephus says that it was the Moabite plunderers who had killed the man, and that he was thrown by them into Elishas tomb. It is easy to invent moral and spiritual lessons out of this incident, but not so easy to see what lesson is intended by it. Certainly there is not throughout Scripture any other passage which even seems to sanction any suspicions of magic potency in the relics of the dead.
But Elishas symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply fulfilled. About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in the feebler hands of his son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able to make any way against him, {2Ki_13:3} but Joash his son thrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As a consequence of these victories, he won back all the cities which Hazael had taken from his father on the west of Jordan. The east of Jordan was never recovered. It fell under the shadow of Assyria, and was practically lost forever to the tribes of Israel.
Whether Assyria lent her help to Joash under certain conditions we do not know. Certain it is that from this time the terror of Syria vanishes. The Assyrian king Rammanirari III about this time subjugated all Syria and its king, whom the tablets call Mari, perhaps the same as Benhadad III. In the next reign Damascus itself fell into the power of Jeroboam II, the son of Joash.
One more event, to which we have already alluded, is narrated in the reign of this prosperous and valiant king.
Amity had reigned for a century between Judah and Israel, the result of the politic-impolitic alliance which Jehoshaphat had sanctioned between his son Jehoram and the daughter of Jezebel. It was obviously most desirable that the two small kingdoms should be united as closely as possible by an offensive and defensive alliance. But the bond between them was broken by the overweening vanity of Amaziah ben-Joash of Judah. His victory over the Edomites, and his conquest of Petra, had puffed him up with the mistaken notion that he was a very great man and an invincible warrior. He had the wicked infatuation to kindle an unprovoked war against the Northern Tribes. It was the most wanton of the many instances in which, if Ephraim did not envy Judah, at least Judah vexed Ephraim. Amaziah challenged Joash to come out to battle, that they might look one another in the face. He had not recognized the difference between fighting with and without the sanction of the God of battles.
Joash had on his hands enough of necessary and internecine war to make him more than indifferent to that bloody game. Moreover, as the superior of Amaziah in every way, he saw through his inflated emptiness. He knew that it was the worst possible policy for Judah and Israel to weaken each other in fratricidal war, while Syria threatened their northern and. eastern frontiers, and while the tread of the mighty march of Assyria was echoing ominously in the ears of the nations from afar. Better and kinder feelings may have mingled with these wise convictions. He had no wish to destroy the poor fool who so vaingloriously provoked his superior might. His answer was one of the most crushingly contemptuous pieces of irony which history records, and yet it was eminently kindly and good-humoured: It was meant to save the King of Judah from advancing any further on the path of certain ruin.
"The thistle that was in Lebanon" (such was the apologue which he addressed to his would-be rival) "sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife. The cedar took no sort of notice of the thistles ludicrous presumption, but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trod down the thistle."
It was the answer of a giant to a dwarf; and to make it quite clear to the humblest comprehension, Joash good-naturedly added:
"You are puffed up with your victory over Edom: glory in this, and stay at home. Why by your vain meddling should you ruin yourself and Judah with you? Keep quiet: I have something else to do than to attend to you."
Happy had it been for Amaziah if he had taken warning! But vanity is a bad counselor, and folly and self-deception-ill-matched pair-were whirling him to his doom. Seeing that he was bent on his own perdition, Joash took the initiative and marched to Beth-Shemesh, in the territory of Judah. There the kings met, and there Amaziah was hopelessly defeated. His troops fled to their scattered homes, and he fell into the hands of his conqueror. Joash did not care to take any sanguinary revenge; but much as he despised his enemy, he thought it necessary to teach him and Judah the permanent lesson of not again meddling to their own hurt.
He took the captive king with him to Jerusalem, which opened its gates without a blow. We do not know whether, like a Roman conqueror, he entered it through the breach of four hundred cubits which he ordered them to make in the walls, but otherwise he contented himself with spoil which would swell his treasure, and amply compensate for the expenses of the expedition which had been forced upon him. He ransacked Jerusalem for silver and gold; he made Obed-Edom, the treasurer, give up to him all the sacred vessels of the Temple, and all that was worth taking from the palace. He also took hostages-probably from among the number of the kings sons-to secure immunity from further intrusions. It is the first time in Scripture that hostages are mentioned. It is to his credit that he shed no blood, and was even content to leave his defeated challenger with the disgraced phantom of his kingly power, till, fifteen years later, he followed his father to the grave through the red path of murder at the hand of his own subjects.
After this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king, in whom the characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in softer outline. He left his son Jeroboam II to continue his career of prosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of greatness which she had never yet attained, in which she rivaled the grandeur of the united kingdom in the earlier days of Solomons dominion.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 14, 20, 22 2Ki_13:1. Jehoahas, the son of Jehu, began to reign…
THE DEATH OF ELISHA
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
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2Ki_13:1. Jehoahas, the son of Jehu, began to reign over Israel—Here the historian turns from the records of Judah to those of Israel. The date—“three and twentieth year”—does not accord by two years with that given in 2Ki_13:10, as the corresponding year of the reign of Joash [or Jehoash], king of Judah; but copyist’s blunders in Hebrew numerals occurred so easily.
2Ki_13:4. The Lord saw the oppression of Israel—He allowed the Syrians to become His scourge for Israel’s guilt in apostatizing from His worship.
2Ki_13:5. The Lord gave Israel a saviour—Not a supernatural saviour—angel or prophet—but in both the kings Joash and Jeroboam He gave them a מוֹשִׁיע, “saviour,” from the Syrians, for the former recovered all the lost cities (2Ki_13:25), and the latter restored all the old boundaries of Israel (2Ki_14:25).
2Ki_13:6. But walked therein—Who? Jeroboam or Israel? בָּהּ הָלַךְ—“walked he” (Jeroboam), or “walked it” (Israel). There remained the grove—Comp. 1Ki_16:33.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_13:1-13
NATIONAL DECAY
IN this paragraph we have grouped together the history of the two sister kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Their condition is alike. They are both dragged down to the same level. The same evil that has been so fatal to Samaria is now prevalent in Jerusalem. The same dark record is true of both—a record of apostasy, intensified corruption, and rapid decay of national prestige. In the case of Judah, one bright ray relieves the gloom; there are indications of repentance and return; but it seems more a desire to be delivered from calamities that have become intolerable, than a genuine effort to reform. Observe—
I. That national decay is the inevitable result of religious apostasy (2Ki_13:2-3). Religion exalts a nation by exalting the individual. It is equally the basis of private virtue and public faith; of the happiness of the individual and the prosperity of the nation. When God is honoured, the nation is blessed; but when He is forsaken and despised, suffering and disaster follow. “True religion,” says Burke, “is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.” How strikingly is this illustrated in the history of the Jewish kingdom!
II. That national decay is hastened by the devastations of continuous war (2Ki_13:3-7). War exhausts the sources of a nation’s strength, and destroys its noblest sons. It is a waste of blood and treasure. If it does not utterly obliterate the nation, it puts back for years its progress and advancement. A strong nation may recover with surprising rapidity the damage inflicted by a single war; but the strongest nation cannot long survive the sufferings of uninterrupted warfare. Nor is it always evident which suffers most—the victorious or the vanquished. No greater calamity can happen to a nation than to be given up to the horrors and ravages of war.
Oh world!
Oh men! what are ye, and our best designs,
That we must work by crime to punish crime,
And slay, as if death had but this one gate!—Byron.
III. That national decay may be arrested for a time by humiliation and prayer (2Ki_13:4-5). We may here trace the influence of Elisha upon king Jehoahaz. It was a familiar teaching in the lips of the prophet that the nation’s troubles were brought about by forsaking God, and the only way of deliverance was to be found in returning to Him in penitence and prayer. “Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him.” The grip of the Syrian was relaxed, the terror of war passed away, and once more peace and security were restored. The Lord has no pleasure in sights of suffering, even where suffering is most deserved. His compassion is touched with the cry of the helpless, and He is swift to save.
More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.
For what are men better than sheep or goats,
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer,
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round world is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.—Tennyson.
IV. That national decay cannot be prevented while temptations to apostasy are allowed to exist. “There remained the grove also in Samaria (2Ki_13:6). The incompleteness of the reforming work of the father became a snare to the son (chap. 2Ki_10:29).The seductions of idolatry led the people away from the worship of Jehovah, and from the path of virtue and uprightness. No nation can rise to its true purity and strength until every public enticement to evil is abolished. There is no safety with idols, but in their destruction.
Still they plead and still they promise; wilt thou suffer them to stand?
They have pleasures, gifts, and treasures, to enrich thee, at command.
Heed not thou, but boldly strike them; let descend the faithful blow.
From their wreck and from their ruin first will thy true riches flow.—Trench.
LESSONS:—
1. The blessing of God is the strength and glory of a nation.
2. When that blessing is forfeited by unfaithfulness the nation sinks into ruin.
3. Prayer for Divine help should be followed by reformation of life.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_13:2-3; 2Ki_13:11. A bad example. I. Transmits its baneful influence to succeeding generations. II. Is all the more potent for evil when found in persons in the highest station. III. Is no excuse for any who do evil—does not absolve from personal responsibility. IV. Rouses the anger of God against all who imitate it. V. Cannot be followed without suffering and chastisement.
2Ki_13:4. Adversity. I. A sharp spur to devotion. II. Appeals to the Divine compassion. III. Affords an opportunity for the gracious exercise of Divine power.
—The house of correction is the fittest hospital for those cripples whose legs are lame through their own laziness.—Fuller.
God alone
Instructeth how to mourn. He doth not trust
This higher lesson to a voice or hand
Subordinate. Behold! He cometh forth!
O sweet disciple—bow thyself to learn
The alphabet of tears.—Sigourney.
—Prayer—I. An evidence of repentance. II. Should be addressed to the Being whom we have offended. III. Secures the Divine compassion and help. IV. The best method of obtaining victory over our enemies.
—Repentance is God’s choicest and deepest gift; repentance for our habitual dreariness and coldness, for that shallowness of heart which overtakes us when we are surrounded with the tokens of His presence, when we are partakers of the ordinances of His grace; which those very privileges seem to produce in us; from which troubles, individual or national, cannot of themselves deliver us. Divines may have infinite refinements about the mode, degrees, and effect of repentance. That one phrase of Scripture, “turning to God,” contains all that we can say of it. Man, thou art living, moving, having thy being in One whom thou art habitually forgetting. That forgetfulness makes thee forget thy brethren; yea, and in the truest sense forget thyself. Thou dost not know what thou art, whither thou art tending. All the earth is a riddle to thee. Thy fellow-men are hindrances in thy way. Thou art thine own great curse and terror. Recollect from whom come the thoughts and impulses of the mind and will within thee; who can make those thoughts and impulses an order instead of a chaos. Turn round to the light which is ever sending flashes into the midst of thy darkness. Ask that instead of such momentary appearances, from which thou shrinkest as from a guilty thing surprised, it may penetrate thee and possess thee, and become thy constant habitation. When thou yieldest thyself to its transforming energy, thou wilt not bear to see the earth lying crushed under the weight of its sins and oppressions. Thou wilt believe in thy heart and declare with thy lips that in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, in the church which God has set up, in the people who believe in His love, there is a prophecy of deliverance for the universe.—F. D. Maurice.
2Ki_13:5. The Lord gave Israel a temporal saviour in its hour of physical need; to us He has given a spiritual Saviour, who can and will save us out of the hands of the greatest of all our enemies. Many a one prays, like Jehoahaz, in his time of distress; and when the trouble is past, the good impulses quickly disappear.
2Ki_13:7. No nation is so great and mighty that God cannot take away its might, and make it so small and slight that it is only like dust which the wind scatters (Psa_18:42).—Lange.
2Ki_13:12. War-like valour. I. Not the highest kind of valour. II. Called into exercise by the extremities of a nation. III. Is of no avail when opposed to Divine chastisements.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 2Ki 13:17
2Ki 13:17
We have here a picture of the old generation in contact with the new. We see the old testing the new and teaching the new.
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I. If we were to measure the hopes of Joash’s life from the attitude which he holds towards the old man, we must admit that everything promises well. Here is one in whose heart and mind the instinct of hero-worship is very strong. But the old prophet is not satisfied. He would fain test this young man’s ardour, and see of what mettle he was. In the scene before us we have the test. After letting fly the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, he was to strike upon the ground. Having struck thrice, he stayed, with a hesitating self-consciousness, waiting for some gesture or directions from the prophet, and the old man was wroth. He had applied the test, and the king had failed to bear it, and he saw weakness written there. Joash lacks the two qualities which make up greatness: (1) the spirit of thoroughness, and (2) the glorious power of imagination. A man cannot achieve practical work unless he has the prosaic instinct that does not shrink from the drudgery of it. This Joash has not. He strikes feebly thrice, and then looks round for instructions. Self-consciousness, a weak dependence upon others, the eye askance to see how far he may go, a feebleness within the mind, are his, and he has no power of living by individual heroism and devotion.
II. The prophet is not merely one to test, but also one to teach. He teaches the king to realise himself and to realise God. He sets before him these two things: the insight to see the power of God and action to discharge the duties of life. As one of our own prophets has taught us, what is wanted to make a hero is, not a great soul, but simply a God-begotten soul that is true to its own origin. The heroes and the saints of old were great, but we must remember that the power which made them great was the spirit which was within.
Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, Oxford Review, May 6th, 1885.
References: 2Ki 13:17.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 65. 2Ki 13:18, 2Ki 13:19.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 79. 2Ki 13:19.—J. Baines, Sermons, p. 255; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 569; R. C. Trench, Brief Thoughts and Meditations, p. 109.
2Ki 13:18-19
You have here a man in extreme debility, with his natural strength ebbing away from him. The man of war, the man of action, in his flush of hope, comes to him; and the dying prophet rallies him with his faith and clear views, and lays his thin fingers upon him, through which the king feels the electric power which comes from the prophet, giving him new strength. The dying saint is the stronger of the two.
I. Let us consider whence comes this strength. Not through self-confidence. Not through the splendour of any actions he has done. Not through the cool, deliberate, and iron will which gives the cold, calculating intellect of man power over the mighty forces of nature. Self-confidence is one thing; faith is another.
II. We are not to abuse self-confidence. It is not the brazen courage which challenges the homage of the world. You cannot watch the career of public men or read biography without facing the forces which self-confidence has raised.
III. But having said this, we must remember that there is a limit to the natural resources of this power. By reason of your self-confidence being contracted within the narrow outline of yourself, you have no security for your own personal well-being or the triumph of your cause in that great future which lies beyond sight. On the other hand, by faith you attach yourself to a Power outside of you, to a Power which is infinite. You acquire a command over resources which are inexhaustible. You cast in your fortunes with One who is eternal.
IV. From this line of thought we may draw these practical directions. (1) As to the way in which we are to try the revelations of the truth of God. God has revealed certain truths to us. If we then decline any part of a truth which He reveals, we so far fall short of our knowledge of Him. As children in our Father’s house, we take the crumbs while we are bidden to sit down with the saints at the supper of our Lord. (2) If God gives us implements, resources, and material instruments, our claim on His assisting grace may be assured, for we are to make use of them to the utmost.
C. W. Furse, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 42.
Reference: 2Ki 18:19.—H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 544, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 80.
2Ki 13:20-21
We Protestants do not attach much virtue to relics in the ordinary sense of the term, but there is a sense in which we may reasonably do so. Relics are remains; and while we believe that no virtue resides in the material remains of a good man, we do not therefore exempt from efficacy his mental or spiritual remains. If he has left behind him in writing the effusions of a devout mind, we believe that these writings, by which "he, being dead, yet speaketh," often exercise an influence for good upon readers long after he himself has passed away, and that thus the miracle wrought by the bones of Elisha is continually repeating itself in the experience of the Church.
Consider:—
I. The power of devotional reading. (1) The power of devotional reading may be seen from considering the effect which constant association with the wise and good would naturally exert upon the mind. It is an axiomatic truth which has passed into a proverb, "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise." (2) Spiritual reading has to a certain extent taken the place of preaching. This has come about in the order of God’s providence, which has ordained the diffusion of literature in the press, just as it has ordained many less important movements. The reading of spiritual books may be regarded, and ought to be regarded, more or less in the light of a Divine ordinance.
II. Some suggestions may be given as to the conduct of this exercise. (1) A discrimination must be used in the choice of books. (2) Prayer or devout aspirations must be mingled with the reading. (3) Carefully avoid all dissipation in the method of reading.
E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 88.
References: 2Ki 13:20, 2Ki 13:21.—A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 318; H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 886, and Old Testament Outlines, p. 79.
2Ki 13:21
I. This narrative teaches us that the influence of faithful workers for the kingdom of God extends beyond the grave, and that frequently a cause for which men have laboured and spent themselves is advanced by the departure from amongst us of those who have taken it in hand. Contact with the death of such a worker not unfrequently imparts life—the life of earnestness, the life of devotion, the life of Christian self-sacrifice—to those who did not possess it, or who possessed it only imperfectly and inefficiently before.
II. It is not very difficult to discover why it should be so. Independently of the fact that when a gap is made by the fall of a leader many others may feel that more effort and devotion is required of themselves, there is a contagion about one who has gone to the extremest length of self-sacrifice that is possible in man. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And as it is the dying of the Saviour which draws His followers round Him and makes Him the centre of their adoration and their love, so it is the dying of men in the cause they have espoused which kindles the enthusiasm of other spirits and makes them willing to rush forward and take the banner from the fallen warriors’ failing grasp.
G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit, No. 730.
References: 2Ki 13:21.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 155; W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 189. 2Ki 13—Parker, vol. viii., p. 228. 2Ki 14:25.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 161. 2Ki 14—Parker, vol. viii., p. 239. 2Ki 15:5.—E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 117. 2Ki 15:10.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 259. 2Ki 15:19.—E. H. Plumptre, Ibid., 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 230. 2Ki 15—Parker, vol. viii., p. 250. 2Ki 17:1.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 83. 2Ki 17:1-14.—Ibid., vol. xix., p. 105. 2Ki 17:4, 2Ki 17:5.—E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., pp. 316, 318. 2Ki 17:41.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1622; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 94. 2Ki 17—Parker, vol. viii., p. 263. 2Ki 18:1-37.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 92. 2Ki 18:3.—E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. ii., p. 221. 2Ki 18:3-7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 162.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 2 Kings
2 Kings
ELIJAH’S TRANSLATION AND ELISHA’S DEATHBED
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2Ki 2:12. - 2Ki 13:14.
The scenes and the speakers are strangely different in these two incidents. The one scene is that mysterious translation on the further bank of the Jordan, when a mortal was swept up to heaven in a fiery whirlwind, and the other is an ordinary sick chamber, where an old man was lying, with the life slowly ebbing out of him. The one speaker is the successor of the great prophet, on whom his spirit in a large measure fell; the other, an idolatrous king, young, headstrong, who had despised the latter prophet’s teaching while he lived, but was now for the moment awed into something like seriousness and reverence by his death.
Now the remarkable thing is that this unworthy monarch should have come to the dying prophet, and should have strengthened and cheered him by the quotation of his own words, spoken so long ago, as if he would say to him, ‘All that thou didst mean when thou didst stand there in rapturous adoration, watching the ascending Elijah, is as true about thee, lying dying here, of a common and lingering sickness. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.’ Seen or unseen, these were present. The reality was the same, though the appearances were so different.
I We have in the first case the chariot and horsemen seen.
To feel the force of the exclamation on the lips of Joash, we must try to make clear to ourselves what its original meaning was. What did Elisha intend when he stood beyond Jordan, and in wonder and awe exclaimed, ‘The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof’?
It does not seem to me that the interpretation of the words now in favour is at all satisfactory. It tells us that the expression is to he taken as in apposition with the exclamation ‘My father, my father’; and that both the one phrase and the other mean-Elijah! Yet what a preposterous and strange metaphor it would be to call a man a chariot and pair, or a chariot and cavalry! It seems to me that the very statement of this explanation, in plain English, condemns it as untenable. It is surely less probable that Elisha in that exclamation was describing Elijah than that he was speaking of that wondrous chariot of fire and horses of fire that had come between him and his master, and that his exclamation was one of surprised adoration as he gazed with wide-opened eyes on the burning angel-hosts, and saw his master mysteriously able to bear that fire, ringed round by these flaming squadrons, possibly standing unscathed on the floor of the chariot, and swept with it and all the celestial pomp, by the whirlwind, into heaven.
But why should he say ‘the chariot of Israel’? I think we take for granted too readily that ‘Israel’ here means the nation. You will remember that that name was not originally that of the nation, but of its progenitor and founder, given to Jacob as the consequence and record of that mysterious wrestling by the brook. And I think we get a nobler signification for the words before us if, instead of applying the name to the nation, we apply it here to the individual. When Elijah and Elisha crossed Jordan they were not far from the spot where that name was given to Jacob, ‘the supplanter,’ whom discipline and communion with God had elevated into Israel. And they were near another of the sites consecrated by his history, the place where, just before the change of his name, the angels of God met him and ‘he called the name of the place Mahanaim.’ That means ‘the two camps,’ the one, Jacob’s defenceless company of women and children, the other, their celestial guards.
It seems reasonable to suppose that, in all probability, a reminiscence of that old story of the manifestation of the armed angels of God as the defenders and servants of His children broke from Elisha’s lips. As he looks upon that strange appearance of the chariot and horses of fire that parted him and his friend, he sees once more ‘the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,’ the reappearance of the shining armies whose presence had of old declared that ‘the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.’ And now the same hosts in their immortal youth, unweakened by the ages which have brought earthly warriors to dust and their swords to rust, are flaming and flashing there in the midday sun. What was their errand, and why did they appear? They came, as God’s messengers, to bear His servant to His presence. They attested the commission and devotion of the prophet. Their agency was needful to lift a mortal to skies not native to him. Strange that a body of flesh should he able to endure that fiery splendour! Somewhere in the course of that upward movement must this man, who was caught up to meet the Lord in the air, have been ‘changed.’ His guards of honour were not only for tokens of his prophetic work, but for witnesses of the unseen world and in some sort pledges, suited to that stage of revelation, of life and immortality.
How striking is the contrast between the translation of Elijah and the Ascension of Christ! He who ascended up where He was before needed no whirlwind, nor chariot of fire, nor extraneous power to elevate Him to His home. Calmly, slowly, as borne upwards by indwelling affinity with heaven, He floated thither with outstretched hands of blessing. The servant angels did not need to surround Him, but, clad no longer in fiery armour, but ‘in white apparel,’ the emblem of purity and peace, they stood by the disciples and comforted them with hope. Elijah was carried to heaven. Christ went. The angels disappeared with the prophet and left Elisha to grieve alone. They lingered here after Christ had gone, and turned tears into rainbows flashing with the hues of hope.
II. We have in our second text the chariot and horsemen present though unseen.
We are now in a position to appreciate the meaning of Joash’s repetition to Elisha of his own words, spoken under such different circumstances.
Elisha was by no means so great a prophet as Elijah. His work had not been so conspicuous, his character was not so strong, though perhaps more gentle. No such lofty and large influence had been granted to him as had been given to the fiery Tishbite to wield, nor did he leave his mark so deep upon the history of the times or upon the memory of succeeding generations. But such as it had been given him to be he had been. He was a continuer, not an originator. There had been a long period during which he appears to have lived in absolute retirement, exercising no prophetic functions. We never hear of him during the interval between the anointing of Jehu to the Israelitish monarchy and the time of his own death, and that period must have extended over nearly fifty years. After all these years of eclipse and seclusion he was lying dying somewhere in a corner, and the king, young but impressible, although, on the whole, not reliable nor good, came down to the prophet’s home, and there, standing by the pallet of the dying man, repeated the words, so strangely reminiscent of a very different event-’ My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!’
And what does that exclamation mean? Two things. One is this, that the angels of the Divine Presence are with us as truly, in life, when unseen as if seen. So far as we know, it was only to Elisha that the vision had been granted of that chariot of fire and horses of fire. We read that at Elijah’s translation on the other side of Jordan, and consequently at no great distance off, there stood a company of the sons of the prophets from Jericho to see what would happen, but we do not read that they did see. On the contrary, they were inclined to believe that Elijah had been caught up and flung away somewhere on the mountains, and that it was worth while to organise search-parties to go after him. It was only Elisha that saw, and Elijah did not know whether he would see or not, for he said to him, ‘If thou shalt see me when I am taken from thee, then’ thy desire shall be granted.
The angels of God are visible to the eyes that are fit to see them; and those eyes can always see them. It does not matter whether in a miracle or in a common event-it does not matter whether on the stones by the banks of Jordan or in a close sick chamber, they are visible for those who, by pure hearts and holy desires, have had their vision purged from the intrusive vulgarities and dazzling brightnesses of this poor, petty present, and can therefore see beneath all the apparent the real that blazes behind it.
The scenes at Jordan and in the death-chamber are not the only times in Elisha’s life when we read of these chariots and horses of fire. There was another incident in his career in which the same phrase occurs. Once his servant was terrified at the sight of a host compassing the little city where Elisha and he were, with horses and chariots, and came to his master with alarm and despair, crying, ‘Alas! my master, how shall we do?’ The prophet answered with superb calmness, ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them . . .. Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.’ They had always been there, though no one saw them. They were there when no one but Elisha saw them. They were no more there when the young man saw them than they had been before. They did not cease to be there when the film came over his eyes again, and the common round took him back to the trivialities of daily life.
And so from the mouth of this not very devout king the prophet was reminded of his own ancient experiences, and invited to feel that, unseen or seen, the solemn forms stood ‘bright-harnessed,’ and strong, ‘in order serviceable,’ ranged about him for his defence and blessing.
And are they not round about us? If a man can but look into the realities of things, will he see only the work of men and of the forces of nature? Will there not be-far more visible as they are far more real than any of these-the forces of the Eternal Presence and ever operative Will of our Father in Heaven? We need not discuss the personality of angels. An angel is the embodiment of the will and energy of God, and we have that will and energy working for us, whether there are any angel persons about us or not. Scripture declares that there are, and that they serve us. We may be sure that if only we will honestly try to purge our eyes from the illusions and temptations of ‘things seen and temporal,’ the mountain or the sick chamber will be to us equally full of the angel forms of our defenders and companions.
Do we see them for ourselves; and, not less important, do we, like Elisha, lying there on his deathbed, help else blind men to see them, and make every one that comes beside us, even if he be as little impressible and as little devout as this king Joash was, recognise that in our chambers there sit, and round our lives there flutter and sing, sweet and strong angel wings and voices? Will anybody, looking at you, be constrained to feel that with and around you are the angels of God?
Still further, another cognate application of these great words is that one which is more directly suggested by their quotation by Joash. It does not matter in what way the end of life comes. The reality is the same to all devout men; though one be swept to heaven in a whirlwind, and another lady slowly away in old age, or ‘fall sick of the sickness wherewith he should die.’ Each is taken to God in a chariot of fire. The means are of little moment, the fact remains the same, however diverse may he the methods of its accomplishment. The road is the same, the companions the same, the impelling-I was going to say the locomotive-power, is the same, and the goal is the same.
Of Enoch we read, ‘He was not, for God took him.’ Of Elijah we read, ‘He went up in a whirlwind to heaven.’ Of Elisha we read, ‘He died and they buried him.’ And of all three-the two who were translated that they should not see death, and the one who died like the rest of us-it is equally true that ‘God took’ them, and that they were taken to Him. So for ourselves and for our dear ones we may look forward or backward, to deathbeds of weariness, of lingering sickness, of long pain and suffering, or of swift dissolution, and piercing beneath the surface may see the blessed central reality and thankfully feel that Death, too, is God’s angel, who’ does His commandments, hearkening to the voice of God’s word’ when in his dark hearse he carries us hence.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash of Israel. The last…
Reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash of Israel. The last Prediction of Elisha
3. All their days] RV 'continually,' i.e. throughout the reign of Jehoahaz.
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5 A saviour] either Jehoash (2Ki_13:25) or Jeroboam II (2Ki_14:25-27) is meant. In their tents] i.e. in their homes, the phrase being a survival from earlier times when the Israelites were a body of nomads roaming the desert.
6. The grove] RV 'the Asherah': see on 1Ki_14:15. If Jehu had altogether abolished the worship of Baal (2Ki_10:28), this Asherah must have been connected with the worship of the Lord, like the pillars before the Temple of Solomon (1Ki_7:15.)
13. Jeroboam] usually designated as Jeroboam II.
14. Joash.. unto him] Both Elijah and Elisha, though strenuous antagonists to the religion of Baal, yet seem to have tolerated the worship of the Lord under the form of a calf, for both prophets had friendly relations with kings who retained that mode of worship. Corrupt in character as it was, it was nevertheless directed towards the true God. This passage is the first mention of Elisha since he sent a prophet to anoint Jehu (c. 9). The chariot of Israel] The reference is to Elisha, who had been Israel's greatest safeguard, a host in himself: cp. 2Ki_3:15.; 2Ki_6:9.
16. Elisha put, etc.] in order to indicate that the king's destined success came from another source than his own strength.
17. The arrow, etc.] The shooting of the arrow eastward was symbolic of a victory in that direction, Syria lying NE. of Israel. Aphek] the Aphek of 1Ki_20:26.
19. The man of God was wroth] because the king displayed too little confidence in the God whose minister the prophet was.
20. The bands of the Moabites] If Elisha was buried either at Samaria or at his home of Abel-meholah, the Moabites must have crossed the Jordan.
21. Touched] The corpse would not be placed in a coffin but swathed in grave-clothes; and the tomb was probably an excavation in the side of a hill, not a hole in the ground.
24. Ben-hadad] Probably the third of the name mentioned in the Bible: see 1Ki_15:18; 1Ki_20:1.
25. Three times] in accordance with Elisha's prophecy (2Ki_13:19). The success of Israel over Syria was probably aided by the disasters which that country sustained from Assyria. The contemporary Assyrian king was Ramman-nirari, who in his inscriptions relates that he besieged Damascus and compelled its ruler to tender allegiance and pay tribute. The Syrian king is called 'Mari,' but this may be a title, not a proper name. Ramman-nirari also claims to have received tribute from 'the land of Omri,' i.e. Northern Israel; so that Jehoash may have purchased the aid of the Assyrian king against Syria by sending presents to him.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 5. Jehoahaz and Jehoash of Israel, Elisha’s Death
5. Jehoahaz and Jehoash of Israel, Elisha’s Death
CHAPTER 13
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1. The reign of Jehoahaz and his death (2Ki 13:1-9)
2. Jehoash King of Israel (2Ki 13:10-13)
3. Elisha and Joash (2Ki 13:14-19)
4. The death of Elisha (2Ki 13:20-21)
5. Hazael and his death (2Ki 13:22-25)
Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, reigned after the death of his father (2Ki 10:35) and here we learn that he also followed in the abominable worship which Jeroboam had instituted in Bethel and in Dan. The Lord delivered therefore Israel into the hands of Hazael of Syria and into his son’s hand. Jehoahaz prayed to the LORD and the LORD, so abundant in mercy, hearkened, for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the King of Syria oppressed them. Verses 5 and 6 form a parenthesis. The seventh verse tells of the havoc which the King of Syria had wrought among Israel. The prayer of Jehoahaz, though heard, was not fully answered at once. The parenthetic verses (5 and 6) must be looked upon as giving a summary of the entire history; God sent a saviour and yet they continued in their sins. Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was the first one through whom a partial deliverance was wrought (verse 25) and the full deliverance came under the grandson Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:25-27). We have here a good illustration of how the Lord hears prayer and how in His sovereignty and all-wise purposes He may delay the answer for many years. It should be enough for God’s people to know that prayer is heard and to leave the answer with Him, who does all things well. And so Jehoahaz saw nothing but oppression (verse 22) though he had turned unto the LORD and had prayed. It was a trial of faith.
After his death his son Jehoash (also called Joash, distinguished from the King of Judah of the same name) reigned. There was no change for the better. Verses 10-13 are another brief summary giving briefly the character of his reign, his death and his successor.
The deathbed scene of Elisha and Joash’s visit follows. Over sixty years Elisha had been the prophet of God. The last we heard of this great man of God was when he sent his messenger to anoint Jehu. Forty-five years had passed and no ministry of Elisha is recorded. He was quite forgotten and neglected. The same was the case with Daniel in Babylon. When apostasy advances, the Lord’s true prophets are not wanted; they share the rejection of the Lord and His Truth. Joash then visited the dying prophet. From this we may gather that his abode was known and that Joash realized that Elisha’s death would be a great loss. He utters the same words which Elisha spoke when Elijah went to heaven. He wept and still his words were the words of unbelief, as if with Elisha’s death “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” the protection and blessing for Israel would have an end. Then follows the symbolical shooting of the arrows and the smiting of the ground. Halfheartedly the unbelieving king enters into that which Elisha had made so plain. It was Joash’s lack of faith, indicated by smiting the ground but thrice, which made the complete victory over the Syrians impossible. Only “three times did Joash beat him (Hazael’s son Ben-hadad) and recovered the cities of Israel” (verse 25). If he had faith it would have been five and six times.
Elisha had died. A corpse about to be buried was hastily cast into the sepulchre of Elisha, where his bones rested. “And when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet.” This final miracle bears a great and blessed testimony. Here an application must be made concerning Him who is foreshadowed in Elisha’s ministry of grace. It is by faith in Him who died that sinners receive life and are raised up from the dead. To touch Him in faith means to live. And Israel, moreover, is typically represented by the dead man and through Him who died for that nation, Israel is yet to live.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 Jehoahaz King of Israel
Jehoahaz King of Israel
v. 1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, began to reign over Israel. The reign of Joash occupied twenty-one full years, the extra months being reckoned, according to Jewish chronology, as full years. And reigned seventeen years, or sixteen years and a few months according to the modern exact way of reckoning.
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v. 2. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed, walked in the way of, the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not there from
v. 3. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, for the continuation of the calf-worship, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael, king of Syria, whose devastating campaigns Elisha had foreseen, 2Ki 8:12, and into the hand of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, all their days, that is, those of Jehoahaz.
v. 4. And Jehoahaz besought the Lord, as even unbelievers will in great dangers, and the Lord hearkened unto him; for He saw the oppression of Israel; His sympathy was with the people rather than with the king, because the king of Syria oppressed them.
v. 5. (And the Lord, not immediately, but after some years, gave Israel a savior, in the person of Joash, but especially in Jeroboam II, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians. And the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, safely in their homes, as beforetime.
v. 6. Nevertheless, or although, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein; and there remained the grove also in Samaria; the worship of Asherah, the female idol Astarte, to whom wooden images were erected, did not cease entirely. The Lord showed much patience for the sake of gaining and keeping the people in His worship. )
v. 7. Neither did he, the king of Syria,
v. 4. leave of the people to Jehoahaz, of his army, but fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing, as the dust which is trodden under foot, an expression which signifies utter defeat and destruction. Such was the situation when Jehovah decided upon His merciful and unmerited course.
v. 8. Now, the rest of the acts of 3ehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, his military exploits, are they not written In the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
v. 9. And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. And Joash, his son, reigned in his stead. The Lord is full of long-suffering and mercy, for He does not desire the death of sinners, but that they should repent and live.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 24 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah…
In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah
"After Joash had been ruling Judah for almost 23 years" (See: Numbers)
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reign over Israel in Samaria
"rule over the kingdom of Israel located in Samaria"
he reigned seventeen years
"Jehoahaz was king for 17 years"
what was evil in the sight of Yahweh
The sight of Yahweh represents Yahweh's judgment or evaluation. AT: "what was evil in Yahweh's judgment" or "what Yahweh considers to be evil" (See: Metaphor)
followed the sins of Jeroboam
"did the same sins as Jeroboam"
Jehoahaz did not turn away from them
Here stopping his sin is spoken of as if he turned away from them. This can also be stated in positive form. AT: "Jehoahaz did not stop doing the sins of Jeroboam" or "Jehoahaz continued to do the same sins as Jeroboam" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Joash
Ahaziah
king
kingdom of Judah
Jehu
reign
kingdom of Israel
Samaria
evil
Yahweh
sin
Jeroboam
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 18, 20, 23, 24 13:1-2 Jehoahaz (814–798 BC) began his reign in Israel…
13:1-2 Jehoahaz (814–798 BC) began his reign in Israel in the year that King Joash of Judah assumed direction of repairs on the Temple (12:6). Because Jehoahaz perpetuated the state religion instituted by Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26-33), his spiritual evaluation was negative.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.