Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
Parallel Translations
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Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
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And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
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And Hazael said: 'Why weepeth my lord?' And he answered: 'Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child.'
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 8:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Nahum 3:10 Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
- 2 Kings 15:16 Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its border areas, from Tirzah. He attacked it because they didn’t open their gates to him, and he ripped up all their women who were with child.
- 2 Kings 12:17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
- 2 Kings 13:3 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.
- Isaiah 13:16 Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Amos 1:13 Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
- 2 Kings 13:7 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.
- 2 Kings 10:32-33 In those days Yahweh began to cut away parts of Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel; from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
- Isaiah 13:18 Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Hosea 10:14 Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children.
- 1 Kings 18:13 Wasn’t it told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed Yahweh’s prophets, how I hid one hundred men of Yahweh’s prophets with fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
- 2 Kings 4:28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
- Psalms 137:8-9 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
- Amos 1:3-5 Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,” says Yahweh.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 8:12 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord?…
2Ki 8:12 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
Ver. 12. Because I know the evil, &c.] This pained the prophet at the very heart, and drew tears from him. "Weep with those that weep," saith the apostle. Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, saith Cyprian, moerores et funeris pondera luctuosa participo, &c. Ambrose wished to God that all the Church’s adversaries would turn upon himself, and satisfy their thirst with his blood.
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 So here was a double cause of his grief…
So here was a double cause of his grief and tears, the evil of sin in Hazael, and the evil of suffering upon Israel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord?.... Imagining it…
And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord?.... Imagining it was for the death of Benhadad he had predicted, for which he could see no reason; of the title, "my lord", see Kg1 18:7.
and he answered, because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel; which he foresaw by a spirit of prophecy; and Israel being his own people, he sympathized in their calamities before they came:
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their strong holds wilt thou set on fire; which should be taken by him, see Kg2 10:32
and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword; in battle:
and wilt dash their children; against rocks and stones, or stone walls, or upon the ground, floor, or pavement, as was usual in war (g), see Psa 137:9,
and rip up their women with child: which was the height of barbarity and cruelty. Ben Gersom and Ben Melech interpret this of breaking down the walls of fortified cities, built strong, like hills and mountains; but this is supposed in the first clause.
(g) Vid. Homer. Iliad. 22. ver. 63, 64.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. I know the evil that thou wilt…
Verse 12. I know the evil that thou wilt do] We may see something of the accomplishment of this prediction, 2Kg 10:32-33; 2Kg 13:3; 2Kg 13:7.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ki 8:12. I know the evil thou wilt do…
2Ki 8:12. I know the evil thou wilt do unto the children of Israel — It was not in Hazael’s countenance that Elisha read what he would do; but God did at this time reveal it to him, and gave him such a clear and full view of it, that it greatly affected him. The sins of Israel provoked God to give them up into the hands of their cruel enemies: yet Elisha wept to think that ever Israelites should be so abused as he foresaw they would be by Hazael. For though he foretold, he did not desire, the woful day. Their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, &c. — See what havoc and destruction war makes! what destruction sin makes! and how the nature of man is changed by the fall, and stripped even of humanity itself! Wilt dash their children — That dashing young children against the stones was one piece of barbarous cruelty which the people of the East were apt to run into, in the prosecution of their wars, is plainly intimated Psa 137:8-9. Nor was this inhuman practice out of use among nations pretending to more politeness; for, according to the remains of ancient fame, the Grecians, when they became masters of Troy, were so cruel as to throw Astyanax, Hector’s son, a child in his mother’s arms, headlong from one of the towers of the city. The ripping up of women with child is the highest degree of brutal cruelty; but there is reason to believe that Hazael, in his war with the Gileadites, (2Ki 10:32-33,) verified this part of the prophet’s prediction concerning him; for, what Amos, complaining of his cruelty to this people, calls thrashing Gilead with thrashing instruments of iron, both the Seventy and Arabic versions read, He sawed the pregnant women with iron saws. — Le Clerc and Calmet.
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 The evil that thou wilt do - The intention…
The evil that thou wilt do - The intention is not to tax Hazael with special cruelty, but only to enumerate the ordinary horrors of war, as it was conducted among the Oriental nations of the time. Compare the marginal references.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. I know the evil that thou wilt do…
12. I know the evil that thou wilt do — All that long and steadfast gaze had been a fathoming of Hazael’s heart, and a kenning of his future life and destiny. It had already been foretold in the word of the Lord to Elijah, 1Ki_19:17. The burning of Israelitish fortresses, and the other cruelties here named, which Hazael would perpetrate, all doubtless came to pass in the wars which this usurper carried on with Israel. See 2Ki_8:28-29; 2Ki_10:32-33; 2Ki_12:17-18; 2Ki_13:3-7; 2Ki_13:22; and 2Ch_24:23-24. Hazael reigned more than forty years, and seems generally to have had the advantage over the Israelites, and greatly oppressed them.
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 12. and wilt dash their children] R.V. and wilt…
12. and wilt dash their children] R.V. and wilt dash in pieces their little ones. We have no details of Hazael’s cruelty in the future, but hints of it are found. In 2Ki_10:32 it is said ‘Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel’, and in 2Ki_13:3 we read ‘the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Hazael’, and in verse 22 of that chapter ‘Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz’. The special instances of cruelty mentioned in this verse were those perpetrated among all the Eastern nations of Hazael’s time, and examples are to be found in several places in Scripture. Cf. Isa_13:15-16; Hos_10:14; Hos_13:16; Nah_3:10.
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 (12) The evil that thou wilt do unto the…
(12) The evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel.—Fulfilled in 2Ki_10:32-33; 2Ki_13:3-4. The cruelties enumerated here were the ordinary concomitants of warfare in that age. (Comp. Amo_1:3-4; Amo_1:13; Hos_10:14; Hos_13:16; 2Ki_15:16.)
Set on fire.—Literally, send into the fire (Jdg_1:8).
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Young men.—Chosen warriors.
Dash.—Dash in pieces.
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 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? While inwardly…
And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? While inwardly contemplating an act of audacious wickedness in defiance of the prophet"s implied rebuke, Hazael preserves towards him outwardly an attitude of extreme deference and respect. "My lord" was the phrase with which slaves addressed their masters, and subjects their monarchs. (see 2Ki_5:3 2Ki_6:12, etc.) And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. The prophet does not intend to tax Hazael with any special cruelty, tie only means to say, "Thou wilt wage long and bloody wars with Israel, in which will occur all those customary horrors that make war so terrible the burning of cities, the slaughter of the flower of the youth, the violent death of children, and even the massacre of women in a state of pregnancy. These horrors belonged, more or less, to all Oriental wars, and are touched on in Psa_137:9; 2Ki_15:16; Isa_13:16, Isa_13:18; Hos_10:14; Nah_3:10; Amo_1:13, etc. The wars of Hazael with the Israelites are mentioned in 2Ki_10:32, 33 13:3-7; and Amo_1:3, Amo_1:4.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.