Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 2:12
And Elisha saw [it], and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
12. My father, my father ] That this title of affection was given by the younger prophets to an elder seems clear from 1Sa 10:12, where the question ‘Who is their father?’ appears to refer to Samuel, and the whole passage to shew that men need not be surprised at Saul being among the prophets, if they only know that he is coming from close communication with Samuel. The use of the title ‘father’ suits perfectly with the request that has just been made for the share which falls to the firstborn.
the chariot [R.V. chariots ] of Israel, and the horsemen thereof ] These words are in apposition with the former clause, and mark the sense which Elisha had of the protection afforded to the land by the presence of Elijah. Horses and chariots might be prepared in abundance, but they who had God’s prophet as their guide, and his voice lifted to heaven for their help, were guarded by a might against which armies were powerless. Though the noun in the Hebrew is in the singular, it has a plural sense here, and signifies ‘the chariotry’, the mounted force of the nation, to which Elijah’s presence is here compared.
and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them ] Grief prevailing over every other feeling, and the Oriental demonstrativeness being uncontrollable even in the lonely gorges of Gilead.
We may compare this ‘taking away’ with the translation of Enoch, and the Ascension of Christ, as marking the three periods of the world’s history, giving witness to each of man’s immortality, but in very different degrees.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof – These difficult words are probably said of Elijah, whom Elisha addresses as the true defense of Israel, better than either the chariots or horsemen which he saw. Hence, his rending his clothes in token of his grief.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.] The Chaldee translates these words thus: ‘My master, my master! who, by thy intercession, wast of more use to Israel than horses and chariots.” This is probably the sense.
In the Book of Ecclesiasticus 48:1, &c., the fiery horses and chariot are considered as an emblem of that burning zeal which Elijah manifested in the whole of his ministry: “Then stood up Elijah the prophet as fire, and his word burned as a lamp,” &c.
And rent them in two pieces.] As a sign of sorrow for having lost so good and glorious a master.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My father, my father; so he calls him for his fatherly affection to him, and for his fatherly authority which by his office he had over him, in which respect the scholars of the prophets are called their sons, as 1Ki 20:35.
The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; who by thy example, and counsels, and prayers, and power with God, didst more for the defence and preservation of Israel, than all their chariots and horses, or other warlike provisions. The expression alludes to the form of chariots and horses which he had seen.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Elisha saw it, and he cried, Myfatherthat is, spiritual father, as the pupils of the prophetsare called their sons.
the chariot of Israel, andthe horseman thereofthat is, that as earthly kingdoms aredependent for their defense and glory upon warlike preparations,there a single prophet had done more for the preservation andprosperity of Israel than all her chariots and horsemen.
took hold of his own clothesand rent themin token of his grief for his loss.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Elisha saw it,…. The ascension of Elijah to heaven, the manner of it, and all relative to it, as the disciples saw the ascension of Christ, between which and this there is a great agreement, see Ac 1:9, and so Elisha had the token by which he might expect to have the double portion, as the disciples after the ascension of Christ had an extraordinary effusion of the Spirit and gifts upon them:
and he cried, my father, my father; or my master, my master, as the Targum; Elijah being a father to Elisha, and the rest of the prophets, in the same sense as disciples of the prophets are called sons:
the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; who was a greater defence to Israel, and was of more service to them by his instructions and prayers, than an army consisting of chariots and horsemen; so the Targum,
“he was better to Israel by his prayers than chariots and horsemen:”
and he saw him no more; he was carried up in the above manner into the heaven of heavens, out of the sight of mortals, and never seen more, but at the transfiguration of Christ on the mount:
and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces; not on account of Elijah’s case and circumstances, who was now in a most happy and glorious state and condition, but as lamenting his own loss, and the loss of the public.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Elisha’s Double Portion – Verses 12-18
Elisha saw the fiery chariot and horses and cried out, as it wafted his father in the ministry heavenward, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” And as he gazed into the heavens he saw Elijah disappear from his sight. It was a sight which reminds one of the ascension of Christ (Act 1:8-11), and well it might. This translation of Elijah was a prophetic figure of the rapture of the living saints when the Lord returns in glory (1Th 4:13-18). The ascension of Christ, He having first broken the power of death (Heb 2:14-15), was with promise of His return to receive to Himself the saved (Joh 14:3).
Elisha had qualified for receipt of the double portion. The mantle of Elijah had fallen down to him, and he gathered it up and returned to the Jordan There he smote the waters with the mantle, as Elijah had done, saying, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah,” proving to himself whether God would, indeed, grant to him that miraculous power or not. And the water parted for him, as it had for Elijah, and he crossed back to Jericho on dry ground. The fifty observers on the hill took in these things and immediately concluded that the spirit possessed by Elijah had come upon Elisha. They came meeting him and bowing to him as obedient servants to hear the work of the Lord through him as they had previously listened to Elijah.
Elisha, however, was immediately faced with a problem of weak faith on the part of the student prophets. Though they had seen the miracle performed by both prophets at the Jordan’s water and must have detected the departure of Elijah (though it is unlikely they saw the fiery chariot and horses as Elisha did), they were fearful that the old prophet might be stranded out in the wilderness on a high mountain or in a deep valley. They volunteered to go out and search for him. though they had known that the Lord was going to remove Elijah from Elisha’s head that very day, they became fearful lest the Lord was not able to get him into heaven, and had left him stranded in the wilderness. How weak the faith of men often is!
Elisha forbade them to go looking for him, but they aggravated him about it until he finally consented for them to go, to prove for themselves that Elijah had gone to heaven. After the fifty men had searched for three days they came back and reported to Elisha that they had found nothing. Elisha reminded them of how he had told them not to go.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(12) And Elisha . . . cried.Literally, And Elisha was seeing, and he (emphatic) was shouting. (Comp. 2Ki. 2:10, If thou see me taken away.)
My father, my father.Expresses what Elijah was to Elisha. (See Note on 2Ki. 2:9.)
The chariot (chariotsrkeb) of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.Expressing what Elijah was to the nation. The Targum paraphrases, My master, my master, who was better to Israel than chariots and horsemen by his prayers. The personal work and influence of a prophet like Elijah was the truest safeguard of Israel. The force of the expression will be seen, if it is remembered that chariots and horsemen constituted, in that age, the chief military arm, and were indispensable for the struggle against the Aramean states. (Comp. 2Ki. 7:6; 2Ki. 10:2; 2Ki. 13:14; 1Ki. 20:1; Psa. 20:7.)
He saw him no more.After his outcry. He had seen him taken up.
Rent them in two pieces.From top to bottom, in token of extreme sorrow. (For the phrase, comp. 1Ki. 11:30.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Elisha saw Saw the whole scene; the chariot, and horses, and the transfigured Elijah moving away from the earth. Elisha saw this, however, not with his natural eyes, for it was a scene belonging to the spiritual world, and to behold it he must, like the young man mentioned, 2Ki 6:17, have his inner senses unvailed. This sight was a special Divine favour, and was made by Elijah the conditional sign of Elisha’s obtaining a double portion of his spirit. 2Ki 2:10.
My father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof These words should be understood as an exclamation of wonder and amazement. Elisha sees his spiritual father depart, and he sees the chariot and the celestial steeds, and he calls after them all. We can hardly suppose that by this exclamation he meant at that moment to express the thought which the Targum attaches to the words: “My master, my master, who wast better to Israel by thy prayers than horses and chariots.” Doubtless Elisha afterwards often related this marvellous scene, and uttered these words in the hearing of men; and as he was ever associated in the minds of the people with his ascended master, and they spoke of him as the one “who poured water on the hands of Elijah,” (2Ki 3:11,) so it was very natural for the king of Israel when he visited him in his last sickness to weep over his face and repeat these very words. See 2Ki 13:14.
He saw him no more His inner vision was closed again, and all that wondrous scene vanished from his view.
Rent them in two pieces In token of sorrow and bereavement. He would fain have gone with Elijah into heaven. He had closely followed his master all that day, persistently refusing to leave him; and now, when the chariot and horses of fire separate them, and he suddenly finds himself alone, a bitter sense of loneliness comes over him, and he acts like a heartbroken mourner.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 2:12. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! He calls him his father, as being his master and instructor; and the expression, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, most probably alludes to the chariot and horses which he had just then beheld, and seems to imply that Elijah, by his example, counsel, prayers, and power with God, did more for the defence and preservation of Israel, than all their chariots, and horses, and other warlike preparations. All good men, but especially men of extraordinary wisdom and piety, are the guard and defence of their country; they are better than an army. See Hos 12:3.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hereby Elisha gave proof that the petition he had asked was granted. The renting of his garment perhaps had a greater signification than the mere expression of grief.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 2:12-25
12. And Elisha saw it, and he cried [literally, Elisha was seeing, and he (emphatic) was shouting (comp. 2Ki 2:10 , “If thou see me taken away”)], My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces [from top to bottom, in token of extreme sorrow].
13. He took up also the mantle of Elijah [the badge of the prophet’s office was naturally transferred to his successor], that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan.
14. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? [has he left the earth with his prophet? The words are a sort of irony of faith], and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
15. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest [hath alighted, i.e. settled, rested] on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
16. And they said unto him [after he had told them of the Assumption of Elijah], Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty [Heb., sons of strength] strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up [comp. 1Ki 18:12 ; Act 8:39 , Act 8:40 . The suggestion of the sons of the prophets is a good comment on Act 8:11 , Act 8:12 . It shows that what is there told is certainly not that Elijah ascended a fiery chariot and rode visibly into heaven, as the popular notion is], and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
17. And when they urged him [ Gen 33:11 ] till he was [lit., unto being] ashamed, 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 [now he was abiding in] at Jericho), he said unto them, Did I not say [or, command] unto you, Go not?
19. And the men of the city [not “the sons of the prophets,” but the citizens] said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this [the] city is pleasant [good; Deu 34:3 ], as my lord seeth: but the water is naught [bad], and the ground barren [Heb., causing to miscarry].
20. And he said, Bring me a new cruse [vessel; either dish, bowl, or cup], and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
21. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land [the same word as in 2Ki 2:19 ; lit., and making (or, multiplying) abortion].
22. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
23. And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way [the highway; the way par excellence], there came forth little children [young boys (or, lads)] out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head [baldness was a reproach (Isa 3:17 , Isa 15:2 )]: go up, thou bald head.
24. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them [to avenge the honour of Jehovah, violated in his person. (Comp. Exo 16:8 ; Act 5:4 )] in the name of the Lord. And there came forth [directly fulfilling the menace of Lev 26:21 , seq. ] two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two [showing that the mob was considerable] children of them.
25. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria [where he had his permanent abode. (Comp. chap. 2Ki 6:32 )].
Elisha
When Elijah supposed that his work was done he was ordered by Jehovah to go up and return on his way to the wilderness of Damascus; and he who supposed that his ministry was concluded had yet to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel ( 1Ki 19:15-16 ). But the anointing of these kings was a comparatively insignificant circumstance, the great point of the commission we find in the conclusion of the sixteenth verse of the same chapter: “And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.” Probably it had not occurred to Elijah that he could have a successor. A very subtle indication is thus given of his approaching end; the Lord instead of telling him that he had many a year left to spend in holy service, gave him to understand that even he, mighty prophet though he was, could be dispensed with, and that a man of almost unknown name would be qualified by divine inspiration to take his room. We cannot imagine Elijah’s feelings under these circumstances. If a great demonstration of regard had been made, on the part of the Lord God of Israel, because Elijah was weary, the prophet might have supposed himself to be of vital consequence to the divine economy; but to be told that Elisha, a man who was ploughing the twelfth plough in the field whilst his eleven servants were ploughing beside him, would succeed to the high dignity was really to inflict in the most gracious way a very solemn humiliation upon a man who had become so self-conscious as practically to ignore the resources of the living God. Elisha was a man in what we should now term comfortable circumstances. As he was ploughing in his field of Abel-meholah (“the meadow dance”), Elijah drew near and threw over the ploughman his prophetic sheepskin mantle, and passed on in silence, leaving Elisha himself to interpret the graphic symbol. Elisha instantly comprehended the purpose, and running after Elijah he begged to be allowed to kiss his father and mother, after which he promised to follow the senior prophet. It is noteworthy that at this time Elisha must have been quite a young man, an inference which may be fairly drawn from the fact that sixty years after this event he was still in the exercise of his prophetic office. It is a noticeable circumstance, which repeats itself even in our own day, that Elisha was in many respects the exact counterpart of Elijah. By choosing all kinds of character and capacity to represent the divine kingdom, God shows his infinite wisdom in a way which even the dullest understanding can hardly fail to appreciate. He is not dependent upon one particular aspect of genius, or one particular accent of eloquence; he calls whom he will to the prophetic office and the ministerial function, and it should be our part to accept his vocations, however much we may be surprised at the course which they take and at the social consequences which they involve. At the time in which Elijah and Elisha exercised their functions religion and morals had gone down to the lowest possible point in Israel. The very schools of the prophets had themselves felt the corrupting influence of the times. Ahab was able to gather four hundred false prophets at a time, the remarkable circumstance being that they were not prophets of Baal but false prophets of the Lord himself. It can hardly be matter of surprise, therefore, that a man of burning spirit, arising under such circumstances, should begin his ministry with displays of power which can hardly escape the charge of being stern or even violent.
This chapter introduces us to the beginning of Elisha’s ministry. He had just seen Elijah ascend, and he felt that he was left alone to carry on the great work which had been so wondrously conducted by a master-hand. In verse twelve we see how Elisha estimated the character and service of Elijah. He exclaims, “My father, my father:” he thus indicates the most serious loss which can befall human life; this is not altogether a cry of reverence, it is also a cry of orphanhood; in their brief intercourse one with the other, Elijah had naturally taken the paternal place, and Elisha as a very young man had felt the comforting influence exercised upon him by the mighty prophet. This is a cry of young sensibility: the almost child feels himself to be quite alone; he who an hour ago supposed that after all he might be able to continue the work of Elijah now felt how terrible was the void that was created by Elijah’s absence. We do not know the bulk and value of some ministries until they are removed from us; we become familiar with them, and attach no particular significance to their exercise; we come to think we have some right in them, and that by some means or other they will always be present with us: when, however, the great removal does take place, and we look around for the familiar face, and expect to be touched by the familiar hand, and our expectations are disappointed, the natural cry is “My father, my father.” These words, too, may fairly be construed as suggesting an aspect of Elijah’s character which is generally overlooked. Probably it has hardly occurred to us to regard Elijah as a man of special tenderness: we think of him as a great comet, or as a flash of lightning, or as a mighty whirlwind, or under any figure that suggests grandeur, majesty, and force; but we have never associated with Elijah the notion of graciousness, tenderness, love, and that easy familiarity which constitutes the very soul of friendship. Now, however, by the ascription of his name we seem to know somewhat of the genial intercourse which passed between father and son the senior prophet and the young apostle of God; and it is delightful to infer that that intercourse had been conducted on the one side paternally and on the other side filially. We do not know altogether what men are when we only see them in public life. The great parliamentary orator may be the simplest of all men when he is in the domestic circle. The great commander of armies, whose courage never quails, may have the heart of a woman when he stands in the presence of suffering childhood. It is important for all who attempt to delineate the characters of public men to remember that they see only one aspect of those characters and are therefore not qualified to pronounce upon the whole man.
The next expression of Elisha is, “The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” ( 2Ki 2:12 ). This is an apparently incoherent exclamation. When properly understood, however, it conveys a further tribute to the ministry which was exercised by the ascending prophet. The real meaning is: My father, my father, so much better than all chariots and horses, in thy absence the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof, are useless; they were used by thee, and under thy conduct could be turned to good account, but now that thou art gone they do but mock our loneliness and make us feel still more bitterly our helpless condition. A greater question than, Where is Elijah? now occurred to the desolate young man. Instantly he seizes the reality of the occasion, and by exclaiming, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” he shows that he is not called to a merely official position, but that he is elected to represent the divine majesty upon earth. The young man thus begins well. There is nothing frivolous in his inquiry or in his interpretation of events. The very depth of his feeling gives us an index to the capacity of his mind. Rely upon it that he who can feel as Elisha did must have a mind equal in its proportions to the fine emotions which enlarge and ennoble his heart. Had the young man deported himself in a way which suggested self-sufficiency, his prophetic office would have been destroyed well-nigh before it was created. It is when we stand back in humility and in almost despair, and cry out in our desolateness, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” that we begin our work in the right spirit, and only then. In this whole ministry of righteousness and redemption there is no place for self-sufficiency. The apostle Paul said, “Our sufficiency is of God.” The great inquiry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” keeps down human ambition and vanity, and prepares the heart for the utterance of prevailing prayer. The question which was thus propounded by Elisha is full of suggestion to ourselves. When we come to read the Bible we should not inquire so much Where is inspiration: but, Where is wisdom which can be applied to our own circumstances and be made unto us as the very staff of life? We need not exclaim in considering the Christian ministry of our own day, Where are the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles? Our inquiry should be, Where are the healed men, the comforted hearts, the forgiven souls, the rejoicing spirits? Who cares to inquire into the mechanism of the organ when he can hear its music and be bowed down by its most solemn appeals?
“And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him” ( 2Ki 2:15 ).
There was no mistaking that spirit. Who can mistake the presence and influence of fire? Better that our spirit should be discovered than that our credentials should be examined. Of what avail is it that a man can produce a whole portfolio of testimonials, if nobody has discovered in him the presence and effect of the divine Spirit? This tribute is also to the credit of the sons of the prophets, for their judgment was vital and not accidental. There are men who will only regard providence as operating in one way or as operating in one form. These sons of the prophets did not belong to such an inferior class of judges. It is remarkable too, that the organic unity of the prophetic office is hereby recognised. The sons of the prophets do not treat Elisha as a novelty, a new sensation, or as representing a new point of departure; they unite the old with the new; though the man has changed, the spirit remains the same. This is what must be always regarded in reading Christian history and in watching the course of the Christian ministry. Old ministers depart, but when new men come they come with the old spirit and the old truth, or if they come with any other spirit or any other doctrine, they should, in the degree of the change, be suspected of being other than genuine successors of the prophets. From the beginning God has signalised ministers less by some outward badge than by an inward and spiritual power. “The Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him [Moses] and took of the spirit that was upon him, and and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.” “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” And the apostle Peter recognises the same doctrine as continuing in the Christian Church, for he says, “The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” We are thus brought back to pentecostal days and pentecostal signs. The age will care little about names, offices, and ceremonial claims, but will set more and more store upon spiritual insight, spiritual sympathy, and the power of revealing the human heart to itself and applying divine remedies to human diseases.
“And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?” ( 2Ki 2:16-18 ).
This proposal on the part of the young men must not be taken as an evidence of their scepticism, but as a proof of their determination to show that the case was from end to end thoroughly genuine in all its phases. They determined upon going out in quest of Elijah, if haply he might have hidden upon some mountain. They said, “Lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.” Elisha did not need any such demonstration of the reality of Elijah’s ascension. Why? because Elisha himself saw the ascension, as we read in verse twelve, and he was therefore in the position of an eye-witness. Elisha insisted that the young men should not go, but they plied him with such importunity that at length he consented. A very beautiful expression occurs in 2Ki 2:17 “They… found him not.” All God’s ways, so far as they are known to us, prove that when he has accomplished an end it is impossible to reverse it to open a door which he has shut, or to shut a door which he has opened. When God takes away a man, who can find him? This is not only true of the man bodily, but of the man influentially. We have seen men removed who exercised a very baleful influence upon their age, and not only have they themselves been buried and put out of sight, but their whole influence has been utterly and externally extirpated; so to say, their roots have been torn up out of the earth and flung into the devouring fire, to be found no more for ever. But not to find Elijah suggests the great question whether something better than the merely personal Elijah cannot be found? We can now find Elijah’s spirit; we can find Elijah’s example; we can, above all things, find Elijah’s God. What, then, is it, that is really taken away from us when the great man dies? Is it not his bodily presence only that is removed? We remember him, we can recall his visage, we can reanimate his voice; we know precisely what he would have done under given circumstances; we can now sympathetically commune with him in prayer and study as we read and expound the holy oracles; we know well how spotless and pure was his heroic character; all these memories and impressions are with us, not only as memories and impressions, but as amongst the most solid certainties of our life; what, then, though we find him not in the body, the man, in the largest and best acceptation of the term, is with us alway, even unto the end of the world.
“And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.( 2Ki 2:19-22 ).
Elisha begins his ministry by doing good: that is to say, by healing the water that was diseased. This appeal to the prophet to do something for the city or Jericho was itself a tribute to the genuineness of the prophetic office as exercised by him. It is always beautiful to notice how great power is associated with the doing of good. What is it to be a prophet of any age if the age is not practically benefited by the exercise of the office? The age does not want ornamental prophets, nominal prophets, official prophets; the age is crying out for men who can give it bread, who can heal its water, who can mitigate its sorrows, who can destroy its oppressions. By this sign must all prophets live or die. It would have been a poor thing on the part of Elisha to have shown the mantle of his predecessor if he could not also show his power. We are only in the apostolic succession as we are in the apostolic spirit. We may have all the relics which the apostles left behind, the cloak that was left at Troas, and the parchment, and the staff, and the vessels out of which they ate and drank: we may even have the scrolls which they used in reading the Holy Scriptures; but all these things will constitute only a burden if we have not along with all other possessions the mighty and eternal Spirit of the living God, without whose energy even the apostles themselves were but common men. The apostles of the age must come to bless our home, to bless our bread, to sanctify our love, and give our whole life a new and better impulse: in the degree in which they do this they will never forfeit the respect of their contemporaries. Depraved as the world is, it comes in the long run to recognise with gratitude the men who do most for the alleviation of its distresses and the lessening of its burdens.
Elisha having cured the water, he went up from the depressed plain of Jericho to the top of the highland of Jordan, to the height of three thousand feet, that he might come unto Beth-el, which, alas! became the chief stronghold of the calf-worship. The popular sentiment was debased to the lowest possible point; even the little children were tainted with the awful disease of contempt for the greatest names and the greatest thoughts in Israel.
“And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria” ( 2Ki 2:23-25 ).
This miracle has occasioned no little difficulty to those who read it only in the letter. It is not a narrow incident which can be regarded as a mere anecdote and treated as it were within the limits of its own four corners. We must understand the spirit of the age in which the incident occurred; we must realise that the whole air was full of idolatry and blasphemy; we must remember that the very church of Israel itself was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, with hardly one spot of health on all the altar from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; we must keep steadily before our minds the fact that the places which are mentioned in this incident had become as Sodom and Gomorrah, not perhaps in the physical and carnal sense, but in the still worse sense of spiritual alienation and spiritual contempt for everything associated with the name of the living God. When Elisha, therefore, wrought this deed of violence this miracle of destruction his action must be regarded as typically, and as strictly in keeping with the necessities of the occasion. Only this kind of miracle could have been understood by the people amongst whom it was worked, and who had an opportunity of feeling its effects either directly or incidentally. How often it happens that the first miracle is one which is marked peculiarly by a destructive energy! This would seem to be the miracle which our own first zealous impulses would work, had they the power to express themselves in such a form. When the soul is alive with the purity of God, when the heart glows and burns with love, when the whole being is in vital sympathy with the purposes of the cross of Christ, the first and all but uncontrollable impulse is to destroy evil not to reason with it, or make truce with it, or give it further treatment of any kind, but instantly and violently to crush it out of existence. This impulse will be trained to other uses in the school of Christ. Nothing could have been easier to the Son of God than to have destroyed his enemies; he who raised the dead and quieted the sea could easily have put his hand upon his foes and crushed them so that they never could rise again. Not for this purpose, however, did he come into the world: “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Jesus Christ thus undertakes the most difficult part of all. There is nothing so easy as to destroy; there is nothing so difficult as to save. Who could not in one black night destroy the finest fabric ever raised by human hands? Gunpowder would do it, dynamite would do it; but who could put up that fabric again in all its massiveness and beauty? Let us always understand that Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and thus to destroy the devil himself. He would destroy sin; he would save the sinner.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
2Ki 2:12 And Elisha saw [it], and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
Ver. 12. And Elisha saw it. ] See on 2Ki 2:10 .
The horsemen of Israel.
a Diod.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Kings
ELIJAH’S TRANSLATION AND ELISHA’S DEATHBED
2Ki 2:12
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.
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.
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.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
2Ki 2:12-14
2Ki 2:12-14
THE MANTLE OF ELIJAH FELL UPON ELISHA
“And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they were divided hither and thither; and Elisha went over.”
“He took hold of his own clothes and rent them” (2Ki 2:12 b). This, of course, was an evidence of the grief of Elisha in the loss of the companionship of Elijah.
“He took up the mantle of Elijah” (2Ki 2:13). “This means that the responsibilities and authority were transferred from one to the other.”
“The Vulgate version renders this place in such a manner as to indicate that Elisha struck the Jordan twice, one in vain, and a second time successfully; but none of the other versions accept this.”
Elisha’s smiting the waters of Jordan with Elijah’s mantle enabled him to return on dry ground, just as he and Elijah had crossed over eastward. Elijah’s thus dividing the waters of Jordan was interpreted by Martin, “As his `undoing’ the victorious crossing of Israel under Joshua some four centuries earlier.” There is surely a strong possibility of this being a true understanding of what happened; because Israel’s apostasy and their wholesale degeneration into the same wicked perversions of the prior Canaanites who had inhabited the land before them most positively did indicate a reversal of God’s purpose in dealing with the Northern kingdom.
“Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah” (2Ki 2:14) ? “This question suggests that Elisha was not sure of the result at this time.” However, Elisha never again doubted that the power and spirit of Elijah indeed rested upon him.
E.M. Zerr:
2Ki 2:12. The word for father is so rendered in most places, but by “chief” in a few other places. It was evidently used in that sense by Elisha. As chief person among the children of Israel, he would mean to Elisha as much as all the other chariots and their drivers. With such a loss to him and his people, he expressed his grief by a well known custom of rending his garment.
2Ki 2:13. A popular saying supposed to be based on this circumstance is, that the mantle of Elijah fell on Elisha, when people are moralizing on the subject of one person’s committing his work to another. A careful reading will show that to be erroneous. The mantle had fallen to the ground, and Elisha picked it up voluntarily.
2Ki 2:14. Where is the Lord God of Elijah was said in the sense of calling upon that God. As Elisha made that call he also used the same mantle and for the same purpose as did Elijah in 2Ki 2:8. See the comments at that verse. After invoking, successfully, the mantle, Elisha recrossed the Jordan back into Canaan proper.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
II. THE PROPHET ELISHA
1. The Beginning of His Ministry
CHAPTER 2:12-25
1. The mantle used (2Ki 2:12-14)
2. The sons of the prophets (2Ki 2:15-18)
3. The healing of Jerichos waters (2Ki 2:19-22)
4. Judgment upon the scoffers (2Ki 2:23-25)
Both Elijah and Elisha are types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names indicate this. Elijah means my God is Jehovah, and Elisha, my God is salvation. Suffering, affliction and rejection are prominent in the life of Elijah, but it ended for him by being taken into heaven. It foreshadows the path of Him who was rejected by His own, cast out by the world and who has gone to heaven. In Elisha and his ministry, sovereign grace towards Israel in apostasy and ripening for judgment, is the predominant feature, foreshadowing Him who appeared in the midst of His people, ministering grace and truth (Joh 1:14; Joh 1:18). (Another typical application is to look upon Elishas ministry as typifying what will be bestowed upon Israel and upon the Gentiles with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.)
Elisha had seen Elijahs departure into heaven, and when he saw him no more he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He thus expressed his grief, but at the same time he took Elijahs mantle (symbolical of the prophetic ministry, which had fallen upon him) and used it at once. He smites with it the waters of Jordan and the Lord God of Elijah answers faith by parting the river. It was the first miracle of his administration. So shall the waters of difficulty, nay, the cold flood of death itself, part, if we smite in faith with the heaven given garment; so shall the promise of God ever stand sure, and God be true to His Word; and so may we go forward undauntedly, though humbly and prayerfully, to whatever work He gives us to do (A. Edersheim).
The sons of the prophets then acknowledged Elisha. They are seen ever after in close fellowship with the prophet; they belonged to the faithful remnant in Israel. However, not having witnessed Elijahs translation they were unbelieving and thought that the Spirit might have transported the prophet (1Ki 18:12; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3). They were not obedient to Elishas command and urged him to send, till he was ashamed and yielded to their request. After a three days unsuccessful search they returned and now they had to be ashamed, when their master told them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? They were like the disciples of our Lord slow to believe.
The second miracle is one of mercy, followed by a miracle of judgment. The healing of Jerichos waters is a miracle of much significance. Jericho is a type of the world under the curse (Joshua 6). The water was naught and the ground barren. A new cruse with salt is brought. The salt is put into the waters and the prophet said: Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. When He, who is greater than Elisha, comes back to this earth again, now under the curse and death reigning upon it, the curse will be removed; there will be healing as it was for Jericho. The other miracles of grace and mercy teach the same lesson.
The third miracle is one of judgment. Judgment well deserved fell upon those who despised the chosen messenger of God. The mockers were not little children, but young men. They were of Bethel, and no doubt associated with the wicked worship established there (1Ki 7:25-33). They were infidels and scoffers. They mocked the translation of Elijah and taunted Elisha. The curse of the Lord fell upon them. Forty-two of their number were torn by she-bears. The punishment has been declared by critics disproportionate to the offence. It certainly is not when the offence is considered as an insult to the man of God, who had gone to heaven and to the prophet who had taken his place; besides, these young men had scoffed at the power of God. And we must not overlook the fact that present day mockers and rejecters of the ministry of the gospel and grace of God will also receive their punishment in due time (2Pe 3:3-7).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
saw it: 2Ki 2:10
My father: 2Ki 13:14, Job 22:30, Pro 11:11, Ecc 7:19, Ecc 9:16-18, Isa 37:4, Isa 37:15, Isa 37:21, Act 27:24
he saw him: Pro 30:4, Mar 16:19, Luk 2:15, Luk 24:51, Joh 3:13, Act 1:9, 2Co 5:2, 2Co 5:4, Eph 4:8, Rev 11:12
rent them: Job 1:20, Job 1:21, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2, Act 8:2
Reciprocal: Exo 20:12 – Honour 2Sa 1:27 – weapons 2Ki 5:13 – My father 2Ki 6:10 – saved 2Ki 6:21 – My father Mat 23:9 – call Mar 9:4 – Elias Act 1:10 – while
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 2:12. Elisha saw it, and cried, My father, &c. So he calls him for his fatherly affection to him, and for his fatherly authority which he had over him; in which respect the scholars of the prophets are called their sons. He saw his own condition like that of a fatherless child, and laments it accordingly. The chariot, &c. Who, by thy example, and counsels, and prayers, and power with God, didst more for the defence and preservation of Israel than all their chariots and horses. The expression alludes to the form of chariots and horses which he had seen.