The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 2
Chapter II · Vol. II, pp. 764–765
1 Elijah, taking his leave of Elisha, with his mantle divideth Jordan, 9 and, granting Elisha his request, is taken up by a fiery chariot into heaven. 12 Elisha, dividing Jordan with Elijah's mantle, is acknowledged his successor. 16 The young prophets, with difficulty obtaining leave to seek Elijah, could not find him. 19 Elisha with salt healeth the unwholesome waters. 23 Bears destroy the children that mocked him.
1 And it came to pass, when the LORD would takea up Elijah into heaven1 by a whirlwind, that Elijah went bwith Elisha from cGilgal.
1 The time and event had been predicted, ver. 3, for the distinctive characteristic of a miracle is the prophecy preceding, and fulfilment succeeding, De.18.21,22. Re.19.10.—C.
b 1 Ki.19.21.
c Jos.4.19; 5.9. 1 Sa.11.15.
2 And Elijah said unto Elisha, dTarry here, I pray thee;2 for the LORD hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, eAs the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, fI will not leave thee. So they went down to gBeth-el.
2 Not spoken with a desire to evade his company, but to spare him the journey and the pain of a more formal parting, while he went to give a last advice and blessing to the school of the prophets in Bethel.—C.
e Ju.8.19. Ru.3.13. 2 Sa.15.21. ver.4,6; ch.4.30.
f ch.4.30. Ru.1.16,17. Jn.6.68. Ac.11.23. Lu.24.29.
g Ge.28.19; 12.8; 13.3; 31.13; 35.1,3,6,7,15. Jos.8.9. 1 Ki.12.29; 13.11.
3 And the hsons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master ifrom thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.
4 And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to kJericho.3 And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.
k Jos.2.1; vi.; 18.21. 1 Ki.16.34. Which it was lawful to inhabit, though not to rebuild.
3 Jericho was in Benjamin, and Bethel in Ephraim, and there being a school of the prophets in each, patronized by Elijah, demonstrates that, in the midst of apostasy and idolatry, a religious education still formed a salt, Mat. 5. 13, resisting the corruption of both the kingdom of Judah and Israel.—C.
5 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.4
4 Lest a crowd, impelled by idle curiosity, should assemble to disturb the parting scene of the prophet.—C.
6 And Elijah said unto him, lTarry, I pray thee, here; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on.
l ver.2.
7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood mto view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
m Heb. in sight, or over against, Ac.1.9.
8 And Elijah took nhis mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were odivided hither and thither; so that they two went over on dry ground.
o Ex.14.21,22. Jos.3.17. ver.14.
9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, pAsk what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a qdouble portion of thy spirit be upon me.
10 And he said, Thou5 hast asked a hard6 thing:7 nevertheless, if thou rsee8 me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
5 Elijah's reply is in the usual style of the prophet, brief but clear and pointed—'Thou hast asked a difficult thing. If thou shalt see me being taken from thee, it shall be to thee so; but if not, it shall not be.'—P.
6 Heb. Thou hast done hard in asking.
7 Not hard to be obtained or bestowed—for neither was in the power of Elijah—but an office of difficulty and danger, where much 'hardness' was to be endured, 2 Ti.2.3,11.—C.
r Ac.1.10.
8 Seeing or not seeing was the sign of his appointment to, or rejection from, the prophetical succession.—C.
11 And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that, behold, there appeared sa chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12 And Elisha saw it; and he cried, tMy father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.9 And he usaw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and xrent them in two pieces.
t ch.5.13; 8.9; 6.20; 13.14. Job 22.30. Pr.11.11; 8.18,19. Ps.106.23. Eze.22.30.
9 Not, we think, that Elijah was the 'chariot and horsemen,' the defences 'of Israel;' but as evidence that he saw the ascent of his master, he gives this description of the means of his translation.—C.
x Ge.37.29,34. Jos.7.6. 1 Sa.4.12.
13 He ytook up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank1 of Jordan:
y 1 Ki.19.13,19. ver.8.
1 Heb. lip.
14 And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and zsmote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither; and Elisha went over.
z ver.8. Jn.14.12.
15 And when the sons of the prophets which were ato view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bbowed themselves to the ground before him.
16 And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men;2 let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon csome mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
2 Heb. sons of strength.
c Heb. one of the mountains, 1 Ki.18.12. Eze.8.3. Ac.8.39.
17 And when they durged him till he was ashamed,3 he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.
18 And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?
19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee,4 the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the ewater is naught, and the ground 5barren.6
4 The whole community spoke by a single representative.—C.
e Jos.6.26. 1 Ki.16.34.
5 Heb. causing to miscarry.
6 Probably, as in the margin, 'causing (seed) to miscarry,' when used for irrigation—a fact respecting several mineral waters that yet might be tolerable, though not agreeable to the inhabitants. And strange to say, commercial convenience and interests still found and maintain cities where the water or marsh miasmata are still as disagreeable and deadly as the waters of Jericho, ver. 21.—C.
21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, gI have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
g Ex.15.25,26. ch.4.41; 6.6. Pr.10.22.
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he 7spake.8
7 He chooses a material rather calculated to render the water more offensive, to show that the power was no chemical agency, but a miraculous interposition of mercy. The whole is a beautiful illustration of the power of the word of God to purify the fountain of life, and cause the barren 'earth to yield her increase,' Ps.67.6.—C.
8 The fountain beside the site of ancient Jericho still bears the name of the prophet who wrought the miracle. It is called 'The fountain of Elisha.' The valley of the Jordan abounds in fountains, many of which are strongly impregnated with sulphur and iron, and many are so intensely salt and bitter as to destroy vegetation. This was probably the case with the fountain at Jericho until Elisha 'healed it' by a miracle.—P.
23 And he went up from thence unto hBeth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and imocked him, and said unto him, Go kup, thou bald-head; go up, thou bald-head.9
h ver.2. 1 Ki.12.29. Am.5.5. Ho.4.15. Pr.20.11; 22.6,15.
i Ge.21.9. Ga.4.29. He.11.36. 1 Ch.16.22. 2 Ch.36.16.
k ver.11.
9 The Hebrew words translated 'little children' ought rather to be rendered 'young men' or 'youths.' The mode in which they mocked Elisha was equivalent to blasphemy, for they mocked him as a prophet of the Lord; and in contemptuous allusion to the translation of Elijah, of which they had heard, but which they do not seem to have believed, they said, 'Go up, bald head!'—P.
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and lcursed them in the name of the LORD:1 and there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare2 forty and two children of them.
A.M. 3108. B.C. 896.
l 2 Ch.14.11; 20.12; 36.15,16. ch.1.10,12. 2 Co.10.6. Ac.23.3; 13.9-11. Je.20.2-6; xxviii.; 29.24-32; 36.29-31; 11.21-23.
1 Not an angry imprecation, but pronounced a prophetic sentence upon them 'in the name of the Lord.'—C.
2 It may be questioned whether this denotes any thing more than severe laceration; it does not necessarily mean destruction, for then the phrase would have been 'tare in pieces.'—I.
25 And he went from thence to mmount Carmel; and from thence he returned to nSamaria.
m 1 Ki.18.19. ch.4.25. Je.46.18. Jos.19.26.
n 1 Ki.16.24,29. ch.3.1; 17.9,10.
Notes
[Ver. 1. This was not the Gilgal in the Jordan valley near Jericho, where the Israelites first encamped, but a city in Mount Ephraim, north of Bethel. The statement in verse 2? proves this, for it is said 'they went down to Bethel;' whereas Gilgal in the plain of Jericho is more than 3000 ft. below Bethel. There is a village called Jiljilia, six miles north of Bethel, on the top of the mountain ridge, which is probably the same as the Gilgal here mentioned. P.]
Ver. 8. [At, or close to, the same spot where the waters of the river had been dried up, six centuries before, to let the Israelites pass over; at, or close to, the same spot where our Lord was baptized, nine centuries later. P.]
Ver. 9. [Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. If the translation fully represent the original, it may be a reference to the double portion of the first-born, De. 21. 17. And if it were so, it was no vain ambition that dictated the desire; for if the spirit of Elijah was a spirit of power, it was also a spirit of much affliction, which no worldly mind can desire. But it has been translated 'a repetition,' or continuance, a sense that seems to be favoured by ver. 15. C.]
Ver. 23. [There came forth little children. Not necessarily little children, but young persons. Isaac was so called (in the Hebrew) when twenty-eight, and Joseph when thirty-nine, Ge. 25. 6; 45. 9. See also Ge. 14. 24; 18. 7.—Go up, thou bald head. Marking the idea of Elijah's ascent into heaven in a manner that proves they were not 'little children,' in the literal sense, but infidel sons of Belial, with thoughts only for earth, and contempt of eternity and glory. C.]
Ver. 24. [There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two. It is not said whether any were killed, or how much they were torn. The bears were probably mothers 'robbed of their whelps,' Pr. 17. 12, whose maternal fondness is a lesson to humanity; but whose fierceness would be immeasurably increased by the destruction of their young. C.]
Reflections.—What honour God delights to put upon his faithful servants! The least of them shall lack nothing of Elijah's happiness, but that they must lodge a little in the grave on their way to the perfect felicity above. Faithful saints have the good of the rising generation much on their heart; and we should make the most of their conversation while we can have it. It is very distressing, though hopeful, to part with dear friends, high in favour with God. And how easy and majestic is their composed retirement to the heavenly state, even in their passage through Jordans of trouble and of death! The removal of such is indeed a great loss to churches and nations, especially if iniquity be come to a great height. But when God removes one eminent servant, he can raise up another equally endowed with the Holy Ghost. And when an animating pattern, a powerful prayer of faith, and the distinguished presence of God concur, there is great ground of hope. They whom God honours ought to be honoured; and the strong must bear with the infirmities of the weak. A people ought to make all the profitable improvement of their ministers they can while they have them: for what bitterness, barrenness, and death can God cure by their gospel ministrations! They often bring, even to accursed places, the most distinguished mercies where Providence orders their lot. But how terrible are the consequences of idolatry, and of careless education of children! For parents are often punished for their neglect, or bad example, in the loss, the wretchedness, or ruin of their seed.
But stop, thou ascending Elijah, till in thy character and work I contemplate the glories of my Redeemer. His call to his mediatorial office was solemn; and was remarkably confirmed by miracles of mercy and judgment. His condition on earth was mean, afflicted, and persecuted. His holy zeal was ardent; his rebukes pungent; his denunciations of wrath terrible and effective: his prayers for mercy to his friends, or destruction to his foes, were always prevalent; his fast was long and afflicting; his great sacrifice was inflamed by infinite and unquenchable love from within, and by infinite wrath from above: and by means of it he showed the Lord to be God, restored the true worship of God in the world, and made the unclean spirits and false prophets to pass out of the land. By him kings are appointed to death or dominion; and prophets, apostles, and ministers called to, and furnished for, their office. In infinite wisdom he removed his ordinances from the Jews, that he might dwell with raven-like publicans and sinners; dwell with long-widowed Gentiles, and restore to life their children, dead in trespasses and sins. Baptized in Jordan, and travelling through trouble and death, he ascended to heaven without seeing corruption. In vain have the Jews ever since searched for a promised Messiah. And dreadful and lasting justice has, or shall overtake his Jewish, heathen, antichristian, or other obstinate enemies, according to the predictions of his mouth.