Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 6:19
And Elisha said unto them, This [is] not the way, neither [is] this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.
19. This is not the way, neither is this the city ] i.e. the way to Elisha, and the city where you shall find him.
I will bring you to the man whom ye seek ] But you shall find him in a place where you shall not be able to arrest him. Thus does Elisha use the glamour, or hallucination, under which these men were cast, to secure his own safety.
But [R.V. and ] he led them to Samaria ] That there he might make himself known unto them; and they, still under the influence which had been supernaturally cast over them, followed him without alarm till they were within the walls of the strongly fortified royal city.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2Ki 6:19
And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way.
The guidance of life
The prophet went boldly into their midst, as Alfred went into the camp of the Danes, and to the confused men he said, This is not the place, and this is not the city. He misdirected them, and led them to Samaria, exactly the place where they did not wish to be. Now, Elisha did all this with a generous purpose: and his action stands redeemed by the magnanimity that he cherished. But isnt it a picture of much of that misleading and misdirection that is perpetually befalling us in life?
I. Mistaken routes! This is not the way, and this is not the city! Isnt it true of thousands of men that they are under an illusion on that point? You know there must be the one path in life that is best for a man. There must be one path for a man through this world that is better than any other, a path that suits him better, in which he realises his personality, and in which he will render the best service to the community. There must be one path that is best. But is anything more clear than the fact that a great number of men in this world have never got into that path, and live without plan and without purpose? Isnt it true of multitudes of lives that they are altogether misdirected, aimless, purposeless? Mr. Seton, the great traveller, adverts in one place to the difficulty of keeping in a straight direction. There is a tendency in men always to turn imperceptibly to the right hand or to the left. So in Australia you will set out in the morning for some particular settlement in the distance. All day you travel along believing that you are in the right path. You are delighted, about sunset, to see the settlement, but when you arrive you find it is the place you left in the morning. You have taken a circuit, you have wandered. Isnt that a picture of multitudes of lives? They wander in the wilderness. There is a picture of wandering, drifting–an aimless, purposeless life! And I say it is a picture of the life that multitudes live. The last thing in their life that they think about is a programme–a progress. Mistaken routes!
II. Treacherous guides! How many men and women, at every street-corner, who are ready to attract you into pathways that lead to death. This is not the way, they say–the way to the Sunday school–this is not the city. What is then? The racecourse, they tell you, the theatre; and so they lead you to Samaria. There was a case given in the papers, of a shipwreck on the coast of Australia, whilst under the direction of an able pilot. It was a most mysterious incident, but when they came to examine the pilot they found that he was blind. The ship had been under the direction of a blind pilot. They have established a rule now to examine the vision of pilots every few months. Blind pilots! There are plenty of them about. They are only too ready to give you the direction. Some of them would mislead you from ignorance, some from malice, a great many for the sake of interest. In our great cities we have blind pilots to steer you into the fogs of unbelief and pessimism and atheism; blind pilots to lead you into practices and pleasures which destroy the soul. Treacherous guides! blind guides! What else? Fatal goals. And he led them into Samaria. They opened their eyes with astonishment to find themselves in Samaria. And a great many people open their eyes with astonishment, as they get further on in life, at the particular places at which they have arrived. They start life with design and with exalted hopes, but a few years afterwards how many find that instead of arriving at Jerusalem, they have arrived at Samaria.
III. The Divine Guidance. Look at all nature to-day! It is a wonderful assistance to us on this point. Look at inanimate nature! Look at the great beautiful world! How is it that this world is such a vision of order and loveliness? Oh! you say, it is because every atom has its place, has its task, and the world at large is so magnificent, so superb, so musical, because the individual atoms on which it is built are properly adjusted and rightly ordered. The magnificence of the whole is the consequence of a just disposition of the atom. Scientists tell us that every atom has its characteristics, its place, its service, and the grandeur of the world is the result of the well-ordered atom. I had almost said that if an atom were out of its place, the balance of the world would be broken, nay the world itself would be broken. Do you think that every atom that makes this planet is justly disposed, and yet God takes no care of a man? Can you believe for a moment that there is a government over elections, and not a government over souls? It is not a question of theology. A man is shut up to it by the very science of our age, that there is nothing accidental but that a great law pervades all nature, directing and controlling, and shaping everything to a splendid consequence. And if you leave inanimate nature, and come to what I may call instinctive life, you see just the same. Look at birds–your migratory birds! Is there anything more astonishing than the way in which they understand their pathway, and their goal. That does not look like chaos. And it is almost more wonderful still with insects. A great French naturalist says that he sometimes takes insects in a dark box for miles and miles. They know nothing about the direction in which he is going. They have never been there before, and yet when he returns after releasing them he finds them there. How is it? Well, he says, it is because they have a topographical consciousness. Topographical consciousness! That explains it. And so they find their way back in that deft and astonishing manner. Almost more wonderful still is it with the butterfly. If there is a fantastic creature in the world it is the butterfly. It moves zigzag, arbitrarily here and there, and away yonder over the garden-wall. You say it is all arbitrary. No! it is not. Butterflies know their way about. They move in one given direction. Moths and butterflies are said to come from Southern France, and even from Central Africa; and these dainty delicate creatures find their way across seas, and continents. Doesnt it look as if, after all, there were a great Thinker at the back of things? Butterfly, bee, bird, all have a singular instinct of direction. Now what I want to say to you is this (and I always like to find a naturalistic basis for a spiritual doctrine)–do you think that there is a law to guide a bird from Africa through the veiled heavens; a law to guide an insect across a country; a law that pilots a moth for thousands of miles; and that there is no law that governs the individual life of humanity? You cant think it. Look up to God for guidance in all the questions of your creed. There are plenty of people to give you a creed, but no man gets the whole truth that way. Each man must go to God for himself, and the Spirit of God shall guide you into all truth. And in all earthly things seek that guidance. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. I will bring you to the man whom ye seek.] And he did so; he was their guide to Samaria, and showed himself to them fully in that city.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is not the way, neither is this the city, to wit, where you will find the man for whom you seek; which was very true, because he was now come out of the city; and if they had gone on in that way into the city, they had found that Elisha was gone thence. There is indeed some ambiguity in his speech, and an intention to deceive them, which hath ever been esteemed lawful in the state of war, as appears from the use of stratagems.
I will bring you to the man whom ye seek; and so he did, though not in such manner as they expected and desired.
He led them to Samaria; which seemed to them to be some small and ordinary city; their senses being still deluded by a Divine operation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19-23. This is not the way, neitheris this the cityThis statement is so far true that, as he hadnow left the place of his residence, they would not have got him bythat road. But the ambiguity of his language was purposely framed todeceive them; and yet the deception must be viewed in the light of astratagem, which has always been deemed lawful in war.
he led them to SamariaWhenthey were arrived in the midst of the capital, their eyes, atElisha’s request, were opened, and they then became aware of theirdefenseless condition, for Jehoram had received private premonitionof their arrival. The king, so far from being allowed to slay theenemies who were thus unconsciously put in his power, was recommendedto entertain them with liberal hospitality and then dismiss them totheir own country. This was humane advice; it was contrary to theusage of war to put war captives to death in cold blood, even whentaken by the point of the sword, much more those whom the miraculouspower and providence of God had unexpectedly placed at his disposal.In such circumstances, kind and hospitable treatment was every waymore becoming in itself, and would be productive of the best effects.It would redound to the credit of the true religion, which inspiredsuch an excellent spirit into its professors; and it would not onlyprevent the future opposition of the Syrians but make them stand inawe of a people who, they had seen, were so remarkably protected by aprophet of the Lord. The latter clause of 2Ki6:23 shows that these salutary effects were fully realized. Amoral conquest had been gained over the Syrians.
2Ki6:24-33. BEN-HADADBESIEGES SAMARIA.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Elisha said unto them, this is not the way, neither is this the city,…. Which is an answer to some questions of the Syrians; as, whether this was the way to find the prophet Elisha, and this the city in which he was to be found? and he answers most truly, though ambiguously, that the way they were in, and in which should they proceed, was not the way, nor this the city, in which he was to be found, because he was come out of it, and was going to Samaria:
follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek; as he did: but he led them to Samaria: whither he was going, they being still under that sort of blindness with which they were smitten; otherwise they would have known the country better than to have been led thither.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(19) This is not the way, neither is this the city.These words pre-suppose, according to Josephus, that the prophet had asked them whom they were seeking, and that they had replied, The prophet Elisha. Thenius and Bhr accept this. Keil says, Elishas words contain a falsehood, and are to be judged of in the same way as every ruse by which an enemy is deceived. Thenius declares that there is no untruth in the words of Elisha, strictly taken; for his home was not in Dothan (where he had only stayed for a time), but in Samaria; and the phrase to the man might well mean to his house. Surely it is easier to suppose that the dazing had caused the Syrians to go wandering about in the valley at the foot of the hill, vainly seeking to find the right way up to the city gate. (Comp. Gen. 50100, They wearied themselves to find the door.) If the prophet found them in this plight, his words would be literally true.
The man whom ye seek.An irony.
Bring you.Lead you.
But he led.And he led (or, guided).
To Samaria.Heb., Shmrnh. The Assyrian spelling is Shmerna; and this, compared with the Greek , suggests that the original name was Shmirn (the warders). The final in the present Hebrew form may be due to confounding y with w.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. I will bring you to the man There was a sort of irony in these words of Elisha, which virtually treated the enemy with derision. He brought them indeed to the man they sought, but not in the place nor under the circumstances in which they would fain have found him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 6:19. This is not the way, &c. Elisha says this without being asked; for if the Syrians had asked him whether this was the way to the city of Dothan, his answer certainly would have been a falsehood; from which his words are clear; this is not the way, neither is this the city; because the prophet does not say the way to Dothan, nor the city of Dothan; but uses a feint or stratagem which has always been allowed in war against enemies whom he afterwards treated humanely. We are not to imagine that the blindness wherewith the Lord smote there men was so total that they quite lost the use of their eyes; but only that it was such a dimness and confusion in their sight, as hindered them from distinguishing one object from another: the city of Dothan, for instance, from the city of Samaria. See a similar case, Gen 19:11. This is no more than what happens to several men in their liquor, that though their eyes be open, and can perceive the several objects which surround them, yet they cannot discern wherein they differ: and if we may suppose that the Syrian army was under the same , as the Greeks happily term it, we need no more wonder that they readily accepted a guide who offered his service, than that a drunkard, after having lost his way, and found himself bewildered, should be thankful to any hand which should undertake to conduct him safe home. See Houbigant and Scheuchzer.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 6:19 And Elisha said unto them, This [is] not the way, neither [is] this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.
Ver. 19. This is not the way, neither is this the city. ] Here the prophet doth not equivocate; much less doth he tell an officious lie, as Tostatus holdeth he did; but useth a mere ambiguity of speech, This is not the city, sc., of Samaria, where Elisha dwelleth, but of Dothan, whence he is now come out; This is not the way, sc., to find Elisha, for he was now going to Samaria. By an answer not much unlike, Athanasius was, once at least, delivered from those cut-throats that pursued him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I will bring. So he did.
But = And; or. So.
he led them to Samaria: where they found the man they sought: i.e. Elisha himself.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
follow me: Heb. come ye after me, Mat 16:24, Mar 8:34, Luk 9:23
I will bring: 2Sa 16:18, 2Sa 16:19, Luk 24:16
Reciprocal: Gen 37:15 – What Jos 2:4 – General Jdg 4:18 – Jael Jer 38:27 – and he told
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 6:19. Elisha said, This is not the way, &c. Elisha does not speak this in answer to an inquiry made by the Syrians respecting the way to Dothan; if he had, his words would have contained a falsehood, from which they are clear, because he does not say, This is not the way to Dothan This is not the city of Dothan: but he uses a feint or stratagem, (which has always been allowed in war,) and that against enemies who sought his life, from whom he was delivered only by a miracle, and whom, nevertheless, he afterward treated very humanely and kindly. Indeed, his expressions are ambiguous; but in that ambiguity he intended their benefit; and the very wonderful manner in which, unknown to themselves, he brought them into Samaria, and the generosity with which he treated them there, were sufficient to have given them high ideas of the God of Israel, whose prophet he was, and thereby to have brought them to the worship of the true God, which might have proved an infinite and everlasting blessing to them. I will bring you to the man whom you seek And so he did, though not in such a manner as they expected and desired.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:19 And Elisha said unto them, This [is] not the way, neither [is] this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led {k} them to Samaria.
(k) Thus he did being led by the Spirit of God, and not because he sought his own revenge, but only to set forth the glory of God.