Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 7:1
Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, Tomorrow about this time [shall] a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
Ch. 2Ki 7:1. Hear ye the word of the Lord ] Having seen the change in the king’s disposition, even though it were a change to despondency, rather than trust, Elisha in the name of the Lord gives a solemn assurance that help is nigh. This he does in the presence of the elders who had been sitting with him, and of those persons who had come in the king’s retinue.
a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel ] The measure is the Hebrew seah, which is said to be about a peck. It was six times as much as the Kab mentioned in 2Ki 6:5. So that the change which Elisha foretells would provide six times as much good food for one-fifth of the price for which, in the famine, the vilest had been sold.
in the gate of Samaria ] Where people congregated for markets and other purposes.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The division between the chapters is most awkward here. Elisha, in this verse, replies to the kings challenge in 2Ki 6:33 – that his God, Yahweh, will give deliverance in the space of a day. On the morrow, by the same time in the day, the famine will have ceased, and food will be even cheaper than usual.
A measure of fine flour – literally, a seah of fine flour; about a peck and a half.
For a shekel – About 2 shillings 8 12 d.
Two measures of burley – Or, two seahs of barley; about three pecks.
In the gate – The gates, or gateways, of Eastern towns are favorite places for the despatch of various kinds of business. It would seem that at Samaria one of the gates was used for the grain market.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 7:1-17
Then said Elisha, Hear ye the word of the Lord.
The famine in Samaria
The emphasis of the teaching of this account of the Samaritan famine should undoubtedly be placed upon the complete fulfilment of the word of God. The prophet specified the time when plenty would reign in the city. He named the price that would rule in the markets for breadstuffs. Elisha, the prophet of the Lord, since he left his twelfth yoke of oxen in the field to follow Elijah, had not watched carefully the prospects for a good crop in the valley of the Jordan. He could not have told the value of the freight arrived in Damascus by the last caravan from Persia. There were no bulletins that he had lately been consulting as to the outlook for a good harvest on the plain of Sharon or in the Nile valley. He had received no private advices of the number of cattle herding on the hills of Bashan. The ships that arrived at Tyre and Sidon with corn from Africa did not report their invoices to the herdsmans son in the beleaguered city. There was no private wire in the house of the man of God, that announced the arrival of rich convoys at the Red Sea ports, and which were now on their way to Samaria. Elisha was alone with the elders. The only messenger that came was one to take his life. Ignorant thus of the world outside, and yet undaunted, the prophet spake in the name of the Lord, telling the price of even the fine flour that only luxury could afford. On the morrow the humble workman could buy the barley for his frugal meal, and the high-born dame the necessaries for a feast. Tomorrow about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
I. The flight of the Syrians. The besiegers of Samaria did not deliberately gather their equipments and stores and return to their own country. They left everything, and that suddenly. The threatenings that came to them were such as to destroy all thoughts of anything but the safety of their own lives. Thus it was they left literally the spoil. The inhabitants of Samaria, if the enemy had slowly departed, might have gathered grain from other cities. This would have taken time, however, and the quantity that a country could furnish which an army had foraged over would have been small. The Syrians came for a siege, not simply as horsemen to make a wild foray and then retire. They were well equipped. Fine flour, that must else have been brought from far, or slowly ground from the corn, was already on hand for the perishing people. All this preparation, however natural it seems, was of Gods planning. When the soldiers of Syria enlisted for a long campaign against Samaria, and the commissary trains gathered luxuries for a permanent encampment, the thing was under the eye of God. Emphasise the miraculous as we will, we must not forget Gods provision for all results that seem to us so strange. God has His hand on the springs of all action and the sources of supply. Long before the Syrians began to prepare for the siege of the city, God had laid His trains to oppose them. If we think of God as a Father and Provider for mankind at every step of life, we shall be helped in our faith in Him as one who can work miracles. Faith is not difficult when we daily mount upward on steps of Providence.
II. The conduct of the lepers.
1. It was wise. There was only death if they returned within the city. There was one hope. They followed it. On a much greater question than that before the lepers, how many have decided so wisely as these outcasts? The teaching of this world and of mens hearts is that there is no salvation possible unless outside of self and mankind. The lepers seized their opportunity. It proved life for them. The future is not clear to any man, but it offers something real in Jesus Christ. Each of us has more to encourage us to accept Christ than the lepers had to go to the army of Syria. Let a man act on his best convictions instead of sinking down to die. He will find a boon more precious than that which the lepers found.
2. The conduct of the lepers was magnanimous. Men who are outcast from their fellows often feel, when good fortune comes, like retaliating upon those who have neglected or wronged them. A young man who has seen hardship in his early days is often tempted in the beginning of prosperity to show others that he can do without them. This bitter feeling because of neglect on the part of others often becomes a motive for effort towards success. It is ignoble for a man to cherish any of the wrongs he has endured. He ought to try and erase the scars that sorrow and hardship have wrought on his heart. The lepers were mindful of their duty to their fellow-men. They resolved to hasten back with the good tidings. No man, however poor or successful, neglected or exalted, but owes more to the world than he can repay, There is ever an unfailing obligation on every man to do all that lies in his power for the race Christ died to redeem. Learn of the lepers to be magnanimous. They showed they were still men with noble instincts that sorrow and neglect could not crush. There is always a temptation to keep the good to ourselves. We keep back the money, the kind words, the comfort that men need. If it is not done with malicious purpose, it is done in our stolidity, our indifference to others necessities.
III. The blaspheming Lord. Over against the hope just held out by the man of God, the courtier places his sneer at all Providence. How many hearts would sink at his words? The widow still hiding her son from death will now conquer her maternal instinct and sustain life on the horrible sacrifice. Those who have been roused to hope will go back to deeper despair. A single day adds multitudes to the victims of the plague or famine. The blood of children, of men, and of women is on the head of the scorner. That the words of the kings favourite had a terrible effect upon the distressed city, we may infer from the manner of his death. When plenty came, the maddened populace trod to the earth the blasphemer and destroyer of hope. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VII
Elisha foretells abundant relief to the besieged inhabitants
of Samaria, 1.
One of the lords questions the possibility of it; and is
assured that he shall see it on the morrow, but not taste
of it, 2.
Four lepers, perishing with hunger, go to the camp of the
Syrians to seek relief and find it totally deserted, 3-5.
How the Syrians were alarmed, and fled, 6, 7.
The lepers begin to take the spoil, but at last resolve to
carry the good news to the city, 8-11.
The king, suspecting some treachery, sends some horsemen to
scour the country, and see whether the Syrians are not
somewhere concealed; they return, and confirm the report that
the Syrians are totally fled, 12-15.
The people go out and spoil the camp, in consequence of which
provisions become as plentiful as Elisha had foretold, 16.
The unbelieving lord, having the charge of the gate committed
to him, is trodden to death by the crowd, 17-20.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. To-morrow about this time] This was in reply to the desponding language of the king, and to vindicate himself from the charge of being author of this calamity. See the end of the preceding chapter. 2Kg 6:33.
A measure of fine flour – for a shekel] A seah of fine flour: the seah was about two gallons and a half; the shekel, two shillings and four-pence at the lowest computation. A wide difference between this and the price of the ass’s head mentioned above.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Elisha said; either to the messenger, to be reported to the king; or rather, to the king, being then come to him, as it is expressed, 1Ki 7:18; and to his courtiers, who were come with him, 1Ki 7:2. Thus saith the Lord: the Lord, whom you have so highly offended, and at present despise and refuse to wait upon, of his own mere grace and bounty hath sent you the glad tidings of your deliverance. A measure, Heb. seah; a measure containing 6 cabs, or 144 egg-shells, or about a peck and a pottle of our measure. Be sold for a shekel: compare this with 2Ki 6:25.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Hear ye the word of the LordThisprediction, though uttered first to the assembled elders, wasintimated to the king’s messengers, who reported it to Jehoram (2Ki7:18).
To-morrow about this timeshall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, &c.Thismay be estimated at a peck of fine flour for 2s. 6d.,and two pecks of barley at the same price.
in the gate ofSamariaVegetables, cattle, all sorts of country produce, arestill sold every morning at the gates of towns in the East.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord,…. This he said to the king and those that were with him:
thus saith the Lord, tomorrow, about this time; which very probably was the forenoon:
shall a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel; “a seah”, the measure here spoken of, or “saturn”, according to some r, was a gallon and an half; but Bishop Cumberland s makes it two wine gallons and an half; and a shekel, according to his accurate computation, was two shillings and four pence farthing, and near the eighth part of one t:
and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria; where the market was kept; the same sort of measure and of money is here used as before; and we learn from hence that a measure of wheat was equal to two of barley.
r Godwin, ut supra. (Moses & Aaron, B. 6. c. 9.) s Of Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 3. p. 86. t lb. c. 4. p. 104, 105.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Elisha announced to him the word of the Lord: “At the (this) time to-morrow a seah of wheaten flour ( , see at 1Ki 5:2) will be worth a shekel, and two seahs of barley a shekel in the gate, i.e., in the market, at Samaria.” A seah, or a third of an ephah = a Dresden peck (Metze), for a shekel was still a high price; but in comparison with the prices given in 2Ki 6:25 as those obtained for the most worthless kinds of food, it was incredibly cheap. The king’s aide-de-camp ( : see at 2Sa 23:8; , an error in writing for , cf. 2Ki 7:17, and for the explanation 2Ki 5:18) therefore replied with mockery at this prophecy: “Behold (i.e., granted that) the Lord made windows in heaven, will this indeed be?” i.e., such cheapness take place. (For the construction, see Ewald, 357, b.) The ridicule lay more especially in the “windows in heaven,” in which there is an allusion to Gen 7:11, sc. to rain down a flood of flour and corn. Elisha answered seriously: “Behold, thou wilt see it with thine eyes, but not eat thereof” (see 2Ki 7:17.). The fulfilment of these words of Elisha was brought about by the event narrated in 2Ki 7:3.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Elisha Foretells the Relief of Samaria. | B. C. 891. |
1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
Here, I. Elisha foretels that, notwithstanding the great straits to which the city of Samaria is reduced, yet within twenty-four hours they shall have plenty, v. 1. The king of Israel despaired of it and grew weary of waiting: then Elisha foretold it, when things were at the worst. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity of magnifying his own power; his time to appear for his people is when their strength is gone, Deut. xxxii. 36. When they had given over expecting help it came. When the son of man comes shall he find faith on the earth? Luke xviii. 8. The king said, What shall I wait for the Lord any longer? And perhaps some of the elders were ready to say the same: “Well,” said Elisha, “you hear what these say; now hear you the word of the Lord, hear what he says, hear it and heed it and believe it: to-morrow corn shall be sold at the usual rate in the gate of Samaria;” that is, the siege shall be raised, for the gate of the city shall be opened, and the market shall be held there as formerly. The return of peace is thus expressed (Judg. v. 11), Then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates, to buy and sell there. 2. The consequence of that shall be great plenty. This would, in time, follow of course, but that corn should be thus cheap in so short a time was quite beyond what could be thought of. Though the king of Israel had just now threatened Elisha’s life, God promises to save his life and the life of his people; for where sin abounded grace doth much more abound.
II. A peer of Israel that happened to be present openly declared his disbelief of this prediction, v. 2. He was a courtier whom the king had an affection for, as the man of his right hand, on whom he leaned, that is, on whose prudence he much relied, and in whom he reposed much confidence. He thought it impossible, unless God should rain corn out of the clouds, as once he did manna; no less than the repetition of Moses’s miracle will serve him, though that of Elijah might have served to answer this intention, the increasing of the meal in the barrel.
III. The just doom passed upon him for his infidelity, that he should see this great plenty for this conviction, and yet not eat of it to his comfort. Note, Unbelief is a sin by which men greatly dishonour and displease God, and deprive themselves of the favours he designed for them. The murmuring Israelites saw Canaan, but could not enter in because of unbelief. Such (says bishop Patrick) will be the portion of those that believe not the promise of eternal life; they shall see it at a distance–Abraham afar off, but shall never taste of it; for they forfeit the benefit of the promise if they cannot find in their heart to take God’s word.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Second Kings – Chapter 7
Lepers’ Discovery – Verses 1-11
There is no natural break between chapters six and seven. At the end of six the king has come with his messenger to arrest and put to death Elisha as the cause of the judgment of God on Samaria. In the beginning of this chapter Elisha gives king and elders God’s prediction. Within twenty-four hours the situation will be completely changed. Where people were eating children and garbage and manure they would be able to get good wheat and barley flour at reasonable prices in the very gates of Samaria. The measure was the Hebrew seah, and amounted to a little over two bushels. A seah of wheat flour would be selling for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel. These were reasonable prices (amounting to about $7.28 in today’s values).
This was such a preposterous and unlikely prediction from the viewpoint of the king’s Counselors that one of them scoffed that such would not be possible though the Lord opened the windows of heaven. It is such unbelievers today who deny God and mock His coming (2Pe 3:3-4). Elisha promptly added to his prediction that the mocker would indeed see this with his eyes, but would eat none of it.
The scene now shifts outside the starving city of Samaria, where sit four starving lepers in the entering of the gate. These men probably were usually supplied by considerate relatives or others out of the city, and there was nothing coming to them now. They asked themselves why they should just sit there and die. In their condition they had little to lose and much to gain. They might somehow slip unseen inside the city, where they were excluded, but were they able to do this they would just go on starving there. So it was death whatever they choose at Samaria. They might therefore make a desperate move by going to the Syrian camp and asking for food. If they were killed they would be no deader than if they stayed where they were and starved. It was their last hope.
Many a preacher has used this text of the lepers as an analogy sermon to the lost. The unsaved can continue in his lost condition, skeptical and unbelieving, concerning the power of Jesus to save his soul. He will gain nothing by continuing in his unbelief, and he has everything to gain by repenting and calling on the Lord for salvation. Of course the analogy may be applied to the saved who waste their lives in worldliness, forfeiting the reward they might have for faithful service. What is gained in the world will be left at death, and they will stand at the judgment seat of Christ void of any reward, saved, “but so as by fire” (1Co 3:15).
So the lepers went out to the Syrian camp at twilight, just before dark, and found it deserted. Elisha’s God had begun to fulfill his prediction. The Syrians had been made to hear the sound of mighty armies on the move. It came from north and south of them, and the Syrians concluded that somehow the king of Israel had hired help from Egypt on the south and the Hittites from the north. They were about to be trapped between two mighty forces, they thought. So urgently did they flee that they took not time to untie the horses and donkeys that they might ride them. Instead they simply began running on foot, attempting to get back to their own land of Syria. The Lord had told Israel generations earlier how He would make their enemies fear and flee, but they turned from Him. He shows them His verity and faithfulness in caring for them in spite of their disobedience (Pro 28:1; Job 15:21).
The lepers went into the first tent they came to, first appeasing their hunger from the foodstuff left behind, then stripping it of its valuables, which they took and hid. They proceeded then to the second tent, but after a while they began to think of the people in the starving city of Samaria. Not perhaps that they were so considerate of those there, but they were considerate of what might happen to them if the people of Samaria found out the Syrians had fled and that the lepers had served themselves without apprising the hungry folk there. They reasoned that it was a day of good tidings, that should they delay till morning the divulgence of it, they were likely to come to mischief.
Here is another good sermon by analogy. God’s people do not well if they serve themselves instead of spreading the good news of salvation. Their lifetime on earth as God’s children is a day of good tidings, and yet many hold their peace, or remain quiet as though they wish to keep it secret. If they do not spread the good news of salvation many will be lost, and they will suffer mischief in the chastisement and rebuke of the Lord who has told them to go with the gospel (Mat 28:19-20).
So the lepers returned to Samaria and called for the porter of the gate. They told him what they had found, and he summoned the other porters, who relayed the message inside to the palace of the king.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE FLIGHT OF THE SYRIANS
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 7:1. A measure of fine flourThis seah would probably contain about three gallons of flour. In the gate of Samariai.e., the market. Agricultural and garden produce from the country were brought to the gates of cities for sale.
2Ki. 7:2. Then a lord, on whose hand the king, &c.This may be described as a knight or chariot-warrior; the plural word is rendered in 1Ki. 9:20, rulers of his chariot (see Note in loc.) The king, when on foot abroad, would usually be attended by his highest courtier, resting his hand on his arm. Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heavenOmit if. The Lord will, &c. is , demonstrative: Lo! behold, the Lord will. Strong irony; scoffing incredulity.
2Ki. 7:3. Four leprous menPerhaps living in some lazar-house outside the gate (see Num. 5:3-4).
2Ki. 7:5. In the twilightThis twilightwas not the early dawn, but the evening twilight, as is evident from
2Ki. 7:9. and also from the kings prompt action, which was in the night (2Ki. 7:12).
2Ki. 7:6. Hear a noise. This sound as of the march of two hostile armies was evidently a supernatural illusion; and it is an unimportant question whether the illusion was objective or subjective. God created it for His own purpose. Kings of the Hittites kings of EgyptGeneral phrases for the northern and southern kings.
2Ki. 7:9. Some mischief will come upon usGuilt, or punishment of guilt.
2Ki. 7:10. Horses tied, asses tied, and the tentsIn Eastern encampments, the tents are placed central, and the cattle picketted around outside as a defence. Hence the lepers first come to the horses and asses, then to the tents.
2Ki. 7:11. And he called the portersBeing the soldier on guard, he could not leave his post, so called to other soldiers within the gate, who carried the news to the palace guards.
2Ki. 7:13. One of the servants answered, &c.His advice to the king, who suspects a stratagem, is given in confused words, but meansSend out five scouts; if they perish, then their fate will be only as the fate of the multitude of Israel is sure to be if no Divine deliverance arises.
2Ki. 7:14. Took two chariot horses , two pairs of horses. After the host of the Syrianslit., after the camp.
2Ki. 7:16. And the people went outThe news that the enemy had fled in a panic sped through the city, and the crowds poured out in a rush to seize the stores and spoil of the Syrian camp. Such plenty was found that food was sold at nominal prices to the famished people.
2Ki. 7:17. Charge of the gateThus the king placed his knight, who the day before had derided Elishas prophecy, in the very position for the predicted fate to overtake him. By such blunders, knowing not what they do, men unwittingly work out Gods fore-ordained plans.W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 7:1-20
THE UNFAILING CERTAINTY OF THE DIVINE WORD
In this chapter we have an illustration of how the Scripture narrative subordinates everything to the setting forth of the Divine word and purpose. To the historian there is ample material for the most graphic picture-writing: the beleagured city wasting in faminethe lepers: their desperate decision, their struggle with the spirit of covetousness in the midst of plenty; their generous recognition of the claims of a common brotherhoodthe alarm and rout of the Syriansthe mad stampede of the famished citizens when the news of the flight was confirmed, and the wild avidity with which the provisions and treasures of the Syrians were seizedall this is told with the utmost simplicity, and would not be told at all, but to point out the fulfilment of a promise and a threat (compare 2Ki. 7:1-2, with 2Ki. 7:18-20). Jehovah interposes to arrest a national calamity at the last moment, and the people are taught to respect His prophet, and to receive His word for their warning and instruction. They are again taught the utter worthlessness of their heathen deities in extremity. Observe
I. That the Divine word is uttered at a time when it seems very unlikely that its promises or threatenings will ever be fulfilled.
1. The natural obstacles to its fulfilment seem insuperable. Samaria was closely invested by a powerful and numerous army. Within was famine; without was the sword. Every passing moment was in favour of the besieging host; starvation would soon bring the victory denied to their arms. It seemed very improbable that flour and barley, that had become almost a forgotten luxury to the besieged, should be both abundant and cheap on the morrow. How often are the Divine utterances environed with mystery and improbability: e.g., the promise to Abram of a numerous posterity; the threat of the deluge; the prophecies concerning Messiah; the gifts and operations of the Holy Ghost; the call and salvation of the Gentiles. What appears impossible to us is the normal order with God. Human faith is tested; Divine power is vindicated.
2. The Divine word is ridiculed by the unbelieving. If the Lord would make windows in Heaven might this thing be. Such was the sneer of a Jewish peer, probably the prime minister of Jehoram. We can almost hear his scornful laugh, as he pictures Jehovah opening heaven, and showering down meal and grain like rain. Would it arrest his mockery to hear his doom so promptly threatened that he should see it, but not partake of it? Unbelief is highly offensive to God; it is the parent of the grossest sins, and deprives man of the richest blessings. The discontented Hebrews saw the promised land; but their unbelief prevented them entering into its possession. It is an evidence of the blindness and audacity of sin, that it questions the word of infinite Goodness and Justice.
II. That the Divine word is fulfilled by unexpected agencies. The Lord made the host to hear a noise (2Ki. 7:6). This may have been the noise of the same host whose movements David was once permitted to hear in the tops of the trees, and which led him on to the conquest of the Philistines (2Sa. 5:24). Or the noise may have had no objective reality, but may have been a mere delusion produced in the minds of the Syrians. In either case it was caused by the Lord, and the Syrians were led to imagine that Jehoram had hired against them the armies of other nations. The sight of horses and chariots encouraged the servant of Elisha (2Ki. 6:17). The noise of horses and chariots terrified the Syrians. The Lord can make the ordinary senses and faculties of the human mind the means of blessing or of punishment. The Syrians fled in dismay, and in such headlong haste as to leave their provisions and baggage behind them. Samaria was delivered and knew it not, and might have remained in ignorance for several days. But the word of the Lord must be fulfilled, and the lepersbeings from whom every one shrank with disgustare used as messengers of joyful tidings. Not till the lepers were surfeited with spoil, did they listen to the dictates of a common humanity; but the night is deepening, and the word of the Lord must be fulfilled on the morrow. The news of the leprous messengers is received with suspicion, and the cautious king is unwilling to act; but the morn is breaking, and the word of the Lord must be fulfilled. The counsel of the kings servants prevails, two chariots are timidly sent forth, the news is confirmed, and the camp that threatened death a few hours before, furnishes in abundance the necessaries of life. Thus, by the most unlikely agencies, and in the most unexpected way, the Divine purpose is accomplished.
III. That the Divine word is fulfilled with unfailing certainty. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken (2Ki. 7:18). The spoil of the deserted Syrian camp fulfilled the promise of cheap food; and the death of the unbelieving nobleman, who was crushed by the overwhelming crowd of famished citizens, in their wild eagerness to press through the gate, fulfilled the threat, Thou shalt see with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. With what gratitude and with what awe should we regard the word of God! With gratitude, because its promises are so rich and sure; with awe, because its threatenings will be inevitably fulfilled. As certain as the moving glacier, impelled by an irresistible law, bears down all obstruction, and buries in ruin whatever lies in its course, so certainly will the word of God, impelled not by blind, unthinking force, but by the loftiest intelligence and irreproachable justice, bring to pass its threatenings against the impenitent and disobedient. That people is hopelessly sunk that is not moved and instructed by either promise or threatening.
LESSONS:
1. It is a solemn responsibility to declare or listen to the word of God.
2. The most formidable nation cannot prevent the fulfilment of the Divine word.
3. The word of God should be reverently feared, and implicitly trusted.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 7:1-2. The Divine method of relief.
1. Is seen in the moment of human extremity.
2. Makes demands upon our faith.
3. Is inexplicable to the unbelieving.
4. Magnifies the Divine power and generosity.
2Ki. 7:2. The children of this world consider their unbelief to be wisdom and enlightenment, and they seek to put that which is a consolation and an object of reverence to others in a ridiculous light. The Lord will not leave such wickedness unpunished. It is only too often the case that high-born and apparently well-bred men at Court take pleasure in mockeries of the word of God and of its declarations, without reflecting that they thereby bear testimony to their own inner rudeness, vulgarity, and want of breeding. It is a bad sign of the character of a prince, where scoffers form the most intimate circle of his retinue. Unbelief is folly, because it robs itself of the blessing which is the portion of faith.Lange.
Prophecies before they be fulfilled are riddles; no spirit can read them but that by which they are delivered. It is a foolish and injurious infidelity to question a possibility, where we know the message is Gods. How easy it is for that Omnipotent hand to effect those things which surpass all the reach of human conceit! H God intended a miraculous multiplication, was it not as easy for Him to increase the corn or meal of Samaria as the widows oil? Was it not as easy for him to give plenty of victuals without opening the windows of Heaven, us to give plenty of water without wind or rain? The Almighty hates to be distrusted.Bp. Hall.
2Ki. 7:3; 2Ki. 7:10. The conduct of the lepers illustrative of varying phases in human experience.
1. Desperate in extremity (2Ki. 7:3-4). Death threatened-them at every point. To enter the city was to starveto remain inactive was to diethey could be no worse if they threw themselves upon the mercy of the enemy. A drowning man will snatch at a passing straw. The dread of death drives many to the most desperate measures.
2. Forgetful and selfish in sudden prosperity (2Ki. 7:8). They were intoxicated with the sight of such abundant spoil, and not content with allaying the pangs of hunger, they were carried away with the spirit of greed, and hid the treasure they had so suddenly acquired. Their captivity rendered them forgetful of the starving city. The chief butler, when restored to his wealth and dignity, forgot the imprisoned Joseph (Gen. 11:23). Sudden prosperity brings its special perils.
3. The subjects of reflection and of humane and generous impulses (2Ki. 7:9-10). Their consciences smote themthey thought of their starving brethrenthey could no longer delay to carry the tidings of deliverance and plenty. The grosser demands of their animal nature were satisfied, and the Instincts of their higher nature began to assert themselves. Hunger, and the excitement of sudden plenty, had demoralized their better feelings; but when the famine fiend was expelled, they felt again the generous pulse of a common brotherhood. And yet how few who are blessed with abundance are remarkable for generosity!
2Ki. 7:3-4. How often we meet with a similar disposition. Instead of a joyful and believing look up to Heaven, a faithless looking for help from human hands; instead of submission to God, a dull discontenta despair which quarrels with the eternal. And what language is thisIf they kill us, we shall only die?as if the grave was the end of men, and the great beyond were only a dream; or as if it were a matter of course that the pain of death atones for the sins of a wasted life, and most rightfully purchases their pardon and a reception into heavenly blessedness. Our life lies in the hand of God, who sets its limit which we may not anticipate. Circumstances may indeed arise in which a man wishes for death. It makes a great difference, however, whether this wish comes from weariness of life, or whether we have, with Paul, a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Only when Christ has become our life, is death a gain.Krummacher.
2Ki. 7:6. It is only necessary that in the darkness a wind should blow, or that water should splash in free course, or that an echo should resound from the mountains, or that the wind should rustle the dry leaves, to terrify the godless, so that they flee as if pursued by a sword, and fall, though no one pursues them. It happens to the unconverted man as it did here to the Syrians. God causes him to hear the rumbling of His anger, the roaring of the death floods, the thunder of His law, and the trumpet sounds of the judgment day. Then he flees from the doomed camp in which he has dwelt hitherto, and hurls away the dead weight of his own wisdom, justice, and strength.Lange.
2Ki. 7:8-9. Many a one gets chances to acquire property dishonestly, to enjoy luxury and debauchery, to gratify fleshly lusts, and to commit other sins; and, if he is secure from human eye, he does not trouble himself about the all-seeing eye of God; but his crime is discovered at last in his own conscience, and, by Gods judgment, it is revealed and punished. Conscience can, indeed, be benumbed for a time, but it will not rest for ever; it awakes at last, and stings all the more the longer it has been still. He who conceals what he has found is not better than a thief.Wurt. Summary.
2Ki. 7:9. Glad tidings.
1. When they offer life to the perishing.
2. May be borne by the afflicted and despised.
3. May be wickedly suppressed.
4. Should be eagerly proclaimed by all who have benefited by them.
How far self-love carries us in all our actions, even to the neglect of the public! Not till their own bellies and hands and eyes were filled did these lepers think of imparting this news to Israel. At last, when they themselves are glutted, they begin to remember the hunger of their brethren, and now they find room for remorse. Nature teaches us that it is an injury to engross blessings, and so to mind the private as if we had no relation to a community. We are worthy to be shut out of the city gates for lepers, if the respects to the public good do not oversway us in all our desires, in all our demeanour; and well may we, with these covetous lepers, fear a mischief upon ourselves if we shall wilfully conceal blessings from others.Bp. Hall.
(2Ki. 7:9).The moral and spiritual claims of London. The lepers revelled for some hours, forgetful of the many of their countrymen who were starving with hunger, and after they had done all for themselves that they could, then they thought of their brethren. We may apply the circumstances of this narrative to the conduct of the citizens of London. ObserveI. That we are in possession of a blessing peculiarly adapted to benefit our fellow-countrymen. The gospel contains glad tidings to all people, and is adapted to benefit man in four senses.
1. As conscious of guilt. All men know that they are transgressors, and in a city like this, who has not to look upon himself as guilty and unholy? The gospel reveals the remedy; and this message it is in the power of the humblest to communicate. It is not necessary he should ascend the pulpit or the hustings; he may do it by his life and by his visits.
2. As exposed to temptation. Great cities are ever the focus of vice. Such was Ninevah, such was Rome, such is Paris, such is London.
3. As liable to suffering. Sorrow is the portion to which flesh is heir; and as a city these are generally concentrated. Think of the want of labour, the high price of provisions, the ravages of disease, the frauds of the designing, the failure of credit, &c.
4. As subject to death. It is the law of nature and the sentence of God that all must die; and oh! what a mass does this city present to death! II. That we have been guilty of a culpable omission in neglecting to communicate those things.
1. Because the melancholy circumstances of our fellow-citizens have not been realized by us. Had these four lepers thought of the extent of actual misery among their fellow-citizens, they would have hastened to them as soon as they had satisfied their first cravings. So it is with us; we do not think of our fellow-men around us.
2. Because the relative importance of our fellow citizens has not been by us regarded. London, as it is the seat of royalty, the head of legislation, the residence of nobility and gentry, the mart of commerce, is the resort of all classes. We forget that we dwell in a vortex, which draws from many a league around, and draws many into ruin. That grain of gunpowder, yonder, if ignited, will explode, but will do little mi chief, because it is alone. But let it be one of a vast magazine, and where shall the mischief end?
3. Because our own necessities have been exaggerated. The lepers would say they had not had a meal for a month, that they were so naked they wanted clothing, so poor they wanted treasure, so sick they wanted medicine. True, he is to blame who does not keep his own vineyard; but there is reason to fear that a spirit of selfishness has hitherto prevented the citizens of London doing the good they might.
4. Because the design of the Divine goodness has been overlooked. Yon are blessed that you may bless. You are lights, and your lights should shine. We overlook the design of God in doing us good, if we suppose it for ourselves alone. III. We should experience the most powerful emotions at the remembrance of our past indifference.
1. An emotion of shame for our criminal neglect. While we have thought of the distant village, and the distant heathen, we have forgotten those who breathe the same air, and reside in the same city.
2. An emotion of sorrow for inseparable mischief. While the lepers were eating almost to surfeit, and loading themselves with treasures almost to faintness, another and another in the city fainted and died.
3. An emotion of alarm for threatening evil. We are conscious of the anti-social and demoralizing effect of infidelity. Could it be diffused, it would do infinite mischief.
4. An emotion of pity for present destitution. Think of the claims of the metropolis. We ask your pity for those by whom you got your wealth. We must feel for those who are perishing, as He who felt beheld a devoted city, and wept over it.The Pulpit.
The day of good things. I. The text describes the times in which we live. This day is a day of good tidings.
1. Because Jesus Christ has obtained a complete conquest over all our enemies.
2. Because He has procured an ample provision for all our necessities.
3. Because He has made many of us participate in the provisions of His love.
4. Because He has opened channels for the publication of these good tidings to others. II. The text reproves our indifference to the miseries of others. We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings.
1. While this disposition exists in our minds, we dishonour our character.
2. We disobey Christs commands. III. Consider our punishment if we delay to send help to those who need it. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us.
1. If we delay in the work, our eyes shall see the destruction of our kindred. Our souls shall want the joys of Gods salvation.
3. Our conduct will receive the condemnation of Christ. IV. The text suggests the course of conduct you ought to adopt under the present circumstances. Let us go and tell the kings household. We should carry the Gospel to our poor brothers and sisters.
1. Because they are perishing for lack of knowledge.
2. Because success is certain.
3. Because opportunities are vanishing.
2Ki. 7:10. Outcast and despised men were destined, according to Gods providence, to announce to the threatened city in the crisis of its danger the great and wonderful act of God. God is wont to use slight and contemptible instruments for His great works, that He may, by the foolish things of the world confound the wise. Fishermen and publicans brought to a lost world the best good newsthe Gospel, which is a power to make all blessed who believe in it.
2Ki. 7:12-16. Hunger v. Suspicion. I. Suspicion, the fruit of unbeliefreadily gives up the hope of Divine deliverance. II. Suspicion regards the tidings of relief as a ruse of the enemythe lack of truth and righteousness leaves the mind a prey to endless questionings. III. Hunger catches at the faintest shadow of reliefis prepared for great risksthe enemy without cannot be more formidable than starvation within. IV. The exigencies of hunger overcome the scruples of suspicion. The wary king is persuaded to despatch two chariots to reconnoitre, so that if one is seized, the other may escape. The news brought by the lepers is confirmed. The risks of hunger are rewarded with the much-needed provision.
2Ki. 7:12. By such a stratagem as here mentioned, Tomyris, the Scythian queen, circumvented and destroyed Cyrus and his Persians. So when the Christians besieged Ptolemais, and were themselves at the same time besieged by Saladin, they were so hard bested for victuals that they were forced to beg and buy it of their enemies. This, when Saladin perceived he pretended to go his way, leaving his camp full fraught with plenty of all things; and when the hunger-starved Christians fell upon the spoil in a confused way, he, turning short again, slew them.Trapp.
2Ki. 7:17. The perils of a crowd. In this incident, God speaks to us by showing us
1. What a terrible thing is a crowd.
2. What a terrible thing is thoughtlessness.
3. How terrible it is to break Gods laws, natural and moral.
4. That it is safest to do always that which is right.
5. That we should prepare to meet our God.Spence.
The judgment of the kings officers proclaims aloud, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. His corpse became a bloody seal upon the words of Jehovah and of His prophet. In the last days, also, when the abundance of the Divine grace shall be poured out like a stream, in the midst of the greatest misery, many despisers of the glorious promises of God will see the beginning thereof, but will not attain to the enjoyment of it; they will be thrust aside by marvellous judgments.Lange.
Whether he had been an oppressor of the people, and was therefore justly trodden to death by them, is uncertain; but that he had shamefully trodden under foot the honour of Gods power is upon record, wherefore he was worthily trampled on by the hungry people who would not be kept in by his authority. The belly hath no ears; and hunger breaketh through stone walls. Such a like death Constantius Paleologus, the last Greek emperor, suffered in the gate of Constantinople when the Turkish army pressed into that city and took it, A.D. 1453.Trapp.
2Ki. 7:18-20. Unbelief.
1. Is rebuked by the faithful fulfilment of the Divine word.
2. Is signally punished.
3. Is a universal danger to man.
4. Should be prayerfully guarded against.
2Ki. 7:20. Extreme hunger has no respect to greatness. Not their rudeness, but his own unbelief, hath trampled him under foot. He that abased the power of God by his distrust, is abased worthily to the heels of the multitude. Faith exalts a man above his own sphere; infidelity presses him into the dust. He that believes not, is condemned already.Bp. Hall.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. ELISHAS PREDICTIVE MIRACLES 6:24-8:15
Three predictive miracles of Elisha are recorded in connection with this period of Aramean invasion: He predicted (1) the deliverance of Samaria from an Aramean siege (2Ki. 6:24 to 2Ki. 7:20); (2) a famine in Israel (2Ki. 8:1-6); and (3) the murderous career of Hazael (2Ki. 8:7-15).
A. PREDICTION OF DELIVERANCE FOR SAMARIA 6:24-7:20
Several different stories connected with an Aramean siege of Samaria have been collected in 2Ki. 6:24 to 2Ki. 7:20. The main purpose of the section, however, is to demonstrate the predictive powers of Elisha. This somewhat lengthy section can be discussed under six heads: (1) the sad plight of Samaria (2Ki. 6:24-29); (2) the personal jeopardy of Elisha (2Ki. 6:30-33); (3) the dramatic prediction of the prophet (2Ki. 7:1-2); (4) the joyous discovery of four lepers (2Ki. 7:3-11); (5) the cautious investigation by the king (2Ki. 7:12-15); and (6) the literal fulfillment of Elishas prophecy (2Ki. 7:16-20).
1. THE SAD PLIGHT OF SAMARIA (2Ki. 6:24-29)
TRANSLATION
(24) And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Aram gathered all his camp, and went up, and besieged Samaria. (25) And a great famine came about in Samaria, and behold besiegers were against it until the head of an ass was worth eighty pieces of silver, and the forth part of a qab of doves dung was worth five pieces of silver. (26) And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king! (27) And he said, If the LORD does not save you, whence shall I save you, from the threshing floor or from the wine vat? (28) And the king said to her, What do you want? And she said, This woman said unto me, Give your son, that we may eat him today, and my son we shall eat tomorrow. (29) And we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said unto her the next day, Give your son that we may eat him, and she had hidden her son!
COMMENTS
Though the nuisance raids of the marauding bands came to an end, Israel was still to suffer much at the hands of Aram. Some considerable time after the memory of Jehorams kind deed had been forgotten, Benhadad the king of Aram gathered his entire force and invaded Israel. Realizing that he was no match for Benhadads forces in the field, Jehoram withdrew to his capital at Samaria and prepared for a long siege (2Ki. 6:24). Benhadad blockaded the city and attempted to starve its inhabitants into submission. The situation in the city deteriorated to such a degree that an asss head, the worst part of an unclean animal, which would normally never be eaten, sold for eighty pieces of silver (about $50.00) and a qab (pint) of doves dung for five pieces of silver ($3.00; 2Ki. 6:25). Doves dung may have been the popular name for some food such as roast checkpeas. If actual doves dung is intended, it was probably sold as fuel.[541]
[541] Gray, OTL, p. 522. But Josephus relates that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem people ate dung, Ant. IX, 4.4.
King Jehoram[542] made regular inspections of the fortifications and guard posts on the broad walls of Samaria during the siege. On one such tour a womanpossibly one of the inhabitants of the houses which abutted on the wallcried out to the king for help (2Ki. 6:26). The king was taken back by this pitiful appeal and assumed that the woman was seeking relief from the pangs of hunger. What could he do for the woman? Only God could provide food under the circumstances! Did this woman think that the king had secret stores of food or vats full of wine which he had withheld from the populace? The royal stores were as much exhausted as those of the lowliest subjects (2Ki. 6:27). The woman must have explained that she was not attempting to beg food from the king, but that she was seeking from him a decision as the supreme judicial officer of the land. This being the case, the king asked the woman to relate her complaint. She told a gruesome story of a pact with a neighbor lady to eat their two sons, the one on one day, and the second the following day (2Ki. 6:28). The one child was boiled and eaten. But the following day the neighbor woman had reneged on the agreement and had hidden her son to avoid the terrible ordeal of seeing him killed and eaten (2Ki. 6:29).
[542] Others think the unnamed king was Jehoahaz or Joash. In this case, the Benhadad of 2Ki. 6:24 would be Benhadad II, the son of Hazael.
2. THE PERSONAL JEOPARDY OF ELISHA (2Ki. 6:30-33)
TRANSLATION
(30) And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his garments. And as he was passing by upon the wall, the people looked, and behold sackcloth upon his flesh within. (31) And he said, Thus may God do to me, and thus may he add if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remain on him this day. (32) Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him when the king sent a man from before him. But before the messenger came unto him, he said unto the elders, Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to remove my head? See when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast in the door. Is not the sound of the feet of his master behind him? (33) While he was yet speaking with them, behold the messenger came down unto him. And he said, Behold this evil is from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer.
COMMENTS
The king was horrified at this terrible tale of the desperate mother, and he realized how deplorable conditions within the capital had become. He tore open his clothes in anguish, and his subjects standing about noticed that he had on sackcloth. These penitential garments were worn close to the skin so as to constantly chastise the flesh. Secretly the king was repenting of his sins, though no doubt he was far from possessing a chastened or humble spirit. No one knew of his personal spiritual struggle until the terrible tale of the distressed woman caused him to rend his robes (2Ki. 6:30).
In his distress, the king swore an oath[543] that he would have Elisha decapitated that very day (2Ki. 6:31). It is not entirely clear why the king blamed the horrors of the famine on Elisha. Perhaps he felt that Elisha should work some mighty miracle to relieve the city of its suffering and to vanquish the enemy. The Law of Moses nowhere sanctioned decapitation, and in taking this oath, Jehoram was assuming the arbitrary power of other monarchs of that day.
[543] The Hebrew oath was an imprecation of evil on oneself if one did, or failed to do, a certain thing.
Elisha was sitting in his home in Samaria with the elders of the land sitting before him at the time the king dispatched the prophets executioner. These elders had probably come to consult the man of God about the critical conditions within the city and, if possible, obtain from him some miraculous assistance. Their conversation was interrupted when Elisha received a supernatural revelation of what was about to take placethat an executioner had already been dispatched, but that the king would arrive shortly thereafter. Elisha referred to Jehoram as that son of a murderer in reference to his father Ahab who had sanctioned all the atrocities perpetrated by Jezebel. By his recent order to have Elisha eliminated, the king had shown the same bloodthirsty disposition as his father. The prophet called upon those present with him to resist the royal messenger and bar the door to him, because the king himself would shortly arrive, and he would either confirm or countermand that original order (2Ki. 6:32).
Even while Elisha talked to the elders, the messenger of the king appeared at the door. Apparently the elders did obey Elisah and barred the door to this royal representative. Meanwhile, the king himself seems to have arrived, and he, of course, was admitted to the prophets abode. The king seems to have repented of his hasty order to slay the prophet and hurried after his own messenger in order to give the prophet a final opportunity to live. The question asked by the kingWhy should I wait for the Lord any longer?implies that Elisha had previously urged the king to wait for divine interposition. The king interpreted the calamity as being from the Lord. Why should he try to hold out any longer? Why should he not break with God, slay his lying prophet, and surrender the city to the Arameans?
3. THE DRAMATIC PREDICTION OF THE PROPHET (2Ki. 7:1-2)
TRANSLATION
(1) And Elisha said, Hear the word of the LORD: Thus has the LORD said: About this tune tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be worth a shekel, and two seahs of barley will be worth a shekel in the gate of Samaria. (2) Then an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said: Behold, if the LORD were about to make windows in the heavens, would this word come to pass? And he said, You will see with your eyes, but of it you shall not eat!
COMMENTS
Elisha responded to the king in the most solemn mannera manner which could not help but arrest the attention and command the respect of Jehoram. The prophets life was hanging in the balance. Everything depended on whether Elisha, with a half dozen or so words, could change the kings mind. He therefore made such a precise prediction that within a short period of time the whole nation would know whether or not he was a true spokesman for the living God. Within twenty-four hours, declared the prophet, such a quantity of grain would be available to the inhabitants of Samaria that barley and fine flour would again be bought and sold at the pre-siege prices, and this right in the city gate of Samaria (2Ki. 6:1). A seah is roughly equivalent to a peck in modern measures, and the shekel would be worth about a dollar. The gates of ancient cities were spacious places consisting of several buildings where public business was transacted.
One of the officersthe kings personal attendantwas vocally incredulous. With scoffing sarcasm he insisted that the prediction was utterly impossible of fulfillment. Even if the Lord were to make windows in the heavens, and pour down through them grain instead of rain, could this prediction come to pass? The disdain of this officer was directed not only at the veracity of the prophet, but at the power of God. For this reason Elisha answered him sternly: You will see it, but not partake of it. By these words, the officer, if he was wise enough to discern it, was forewarned of his imminent death, and thus given time to set his house in order and make his peace with God.
4. THE JOYOUS DISCOVERY OF FOUR LEPERS (2Ki. 7:3-11)
TRANSLATION
(3) And four men, lepers, were at the entrance of the gate. And they said one to another, Why should we continue sitting here until we die? (4) If we think we shall go into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we remain here, then we shall die. And now come, and let us fall unto the camp of the Arameans! If they allow us to live, we shall live; and if they slay us, then we shall die. (5) And they arose in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Arameans, and they came to the edge of the Aramean camp, and behold no man was there. (6) The Lord had caused the Aramean camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great host; and they said one to another, Behold the king of Israel has hired against us the Hittite kings and kings of Egypt to go against us. (7) And they arose, and fled in the twilight, and forsook their tents and their horses and their donkeys, the camp as it was; and they fled for their lives. (8) Now these lepers came to the edge of the camp, and they went into the first tent, and they ate, and they drank, and took up silver and gold and garments from there, and went and hid them; and they returned and went into another tent, and took from it and hid it. (9) Then they said one to another, What we are doing is not right! This is a day of good news, but we are remaining silent; if we delay unto the light of morning, punishment will overtake us. Now come, that we may go and tell the house of the king! (10) And they came and called to the gate-keepers[544] of the city, and told them, saying, We came unto the Aramean camp, and behold no man was there, nor voice of a man; but horses tied, and tents as they were. (11) And the gate-keepers called out[545] and told the house of the king within.
[544] Though singular in the Hebrew, the word seems to be used here collectively.
[545] The verb is singular. However context seems to demand, and some manuscripts point to, a plural verb.
COMMENTS
Lepers were forbidden by law from dwelling within the cities of Israel. Relatives within the city normally kept them supplied with food, and hence they congregated about the city gates. Because of the extreme scarcity within the city during the siege, these unfortunates were on the verge of perishing (2Ki. 6:3). As they contemplated their plight, they realized that even if they were able to re-enter the city by some means or the other, they would perish there of the famine. Yet to remain at the citys gate would only bring death. The only alternative was to desert to the enemy. Perhaps they would be able to exchange some intelligence information for food to prolong life awhile longer. And if the Arameans should kill them, they would be no worse off than sitting where they were and dying by degrees (2Ki. 6:4).
The lepers waited for the lengthening shadows of evening twilight before they began to move toward the Aramean camp. Had they attempted to head for the enemy camp in broad daylight, Israelite soldiers on the walls of Samaria would have shot arrows at them. Entering the outer edge of the Aramean camp, the lepers found no sign of life. Not a soul was to be seen anywhere (2Ki. 6:5). Shortly before the arrival of the lepers, the Lord had miraculously intervened on behalf of His people by causing the Arameans to hear what they thought was the sound of an enormous army sweeping down upon them. The jittery Arameans thought that Jehoram had hired the Hittite kings from the north and the rival dynasties of Egyptian Kings from the south to attack from both directions[546] (2Ki. 6:6). In their panic the Arameans never paused to contemplate how remote was the possibility that Jehoram could have arranged a simultaneous attack by two powers so widely removed from one another. The Arameans simply fled for their lives, leaving their camp[547] exactly as it had been (2Ki. 6:7).
[546] Gray (OTL, p. 524) suggests it may have been one of Elishas disciples who started a rumor in the Aramean camp.
[547] The horses left behind must have been chariot horses, which they had no time to harness.
Entering the first empty tent, the lepers grabbed and began to devour the food and drink to be found there. Having satisfied the pangs of hunger, the lepers cast a covetous eye about on the gold, silver, and beautiful garments which the enemy had left behind. Their first impulse was to hide these valuables, for they knew the spoils of war belonged to the nation as a whole and to the king in particular. They knew that when their comrades discovered the flight of the enemy and descended upon that empty camp, that there would be no consideration for lepers in the distribution of the spoil. From tent to tent the ecstatic men ran, carrying out whatever delighted their eyes to place in their secret catch (2Ki. 6:8).
During the process of the plundering, the consciences of these lepers began to bother them. Their countrymen and relatives within Samaria were perishing and sufferingmothers eating their childrenwhile they had spent hour after hour enjoying their good fortune. To withhold such good things from their desperate countrymen must surely be a criminal act for which God would punish them. So, belatedly the lepers determined to carry the news to the kings house, i.e., his officers and court, those through whom the king himself might be approached (2Ki. 6:9). They first shouted the news to the guard at the gate of Samaria (2Ki. 6:10), who in turn reported the matter to the royal officials (2Ki. 6:11).
5. THE CAUTIOUS INVESTIGATION BY THE KING (2Ki. 7:12-15)
TRANSLATION
(12) And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, Let me tell you now what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are starving, and they went out from the camp to hide in the field, saying, When they go out from the city, we shall seize them alive; then unto the city we shall go. (13) And one from his servants answered, and said,. Then let five of the remaining horses which remain in the city be taken, I pray you, (behold they are as all the multitude of Israel which are consumed) and let us send, and investigate. (14) So two chariots of horses were taken, and the king sent after the Aramean camp, saying, Go and investigate. (15) And they went after them unto the Jordan and behold all the way was filled with garments and baggage which the Arameans had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
COMMENTS
The king, aroused from his sleep, greeted the news of the Aramean retreat with incredulity. He knew of no reason for such a sudden turn of events, and suspected that the Arameans were employing some devious stratagem to lure the unsuspecting Israelites from the protection of their walls (2Ki. 6:12). One of the royal attendants suggested that a small body of horsemen be sent out to reconnoiter. The majority of the Israelite horses had died of starvation, or else had been slain to furnish meat for the soldiers who remained in the city, for the entire city would shortly be dead from starvation. So by means of these persuasive arguments the royal servants convinced Jehoram that he should at least check out the report of the lepers (2Ki. 6:13).
Two chariots of horses, i.e., two chariots and the accustomed number of horses (normally two horses to a chariot) were dispatched from Samaria (2Ki. 6:14). These charioteers were probably under orders to make contact with the enemy and ascertain their positions if possible. Finding the Aramean camp deserted, the patrol began to follow the main road toward the Jordan. All along the way they saw the garments, weapons, and baggage discarded by the fleeing troops. By the time they reached Jordan, the Israelite patrol was convinced that the Arameans had truly fled, and that the deserted camp was no ruse. They then hastily returned to Samaria and reported what they had found to the king (2Ki. 6:15).
6. THE LITERAL FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECY (2Ki. 7:16-20)
TRANSLATION
(16) And the people went out and spoiled the Aramean camp. And it came to pass that a seah of fine flour was valued at a shekel, and two seahs of barley at a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. (17) Now the king had appointed over the gate the officer upon whose hand he leaned; but the people had trampled him in the gate, and he had died just as the man of God had spoken when the king had come down unto him. (18) And it came to pass just as the man of God had spoken unto the king, saying, Two seahs of barley will be worth a shekel, and a seah of fine flour worth a shekel about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria. (19) And the officer had answered the man of God and said: Behold if the LORD were to make windows in the heavens, would this word come to pass? And he had said, Behold you will see with your eyes, but of it you will not eat. (20) And so did it happen to him; and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.
COMMENTS
By the time the patrol got back to Samaria, morning had arrived. The news of the good fortune spread through Samaria like wild-fire. The whole population en masse descended on the near-by Aramean camp to feast and take spoil (2Ki. 6:16). The officer who on the previous day had scoffed at the predictions of Elisha was trampled by the mob in the gate of the city (2Ki. 6:17). To underscore the fact of Elishas prophetic powers and the dreadful consequences that follow upon scornful rejection of a message from God, the sacred writer repeats in the final three verses of chapter 7 the earlier predictions of Elisha with regard to the abundant supply of grain and the imminent death of the royal officer (2Ki. 6:18-20).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VII.
(1) Then Elisha said.And Elisha said. The division of the chapters is unfortunate, there being no break in the story here. The prophet addresses the king and his attendants (2Ki. 7:18).
A measure.Heb., a seah: the most usual corn measure. (Comp. 1Ki. 18:32; 2Ki. 6:25.) The prophets words are more abrupt in the original: Thus hath Jehovah said, About this time to-morrow a seah (in) fine flour at a shekel, and two seahs (in) barley at a shekel, in the gate of Samaria!
Fine flour.Gen. 18:6.
Barley.Not only as fodder for the horses (Thenius). but also for human consumption, in the shape of barley cakes, &c. (Jdg. 7:13).
The gate.The corn market, therefore, was held in the open space just within the gate.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Hear ye the word of the Lord The king had waited for the Lord, and the Lord now answers by his prophet. The Lord announces that he shall not wait longer than the morrow.
A measure A seah; a vessel containing about two gallons and a half, or a little more than a peck.
For a shekel About fifty-seven cents. A great change this from paying forty-five dollars for an ass’s head, or three dollars for a pint of dove’s dung.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Elisha Miracles (2Ki 2Ki 2:1-25 ; 2Ki 4:1 to 2Ki 6:23 ), His Prophetic Involvement In The Victory Over Moab ( 2Ki 3:1-27 ), And Further Subsequent Events Where YHWH’s Power Through Elisha Is Revealed ( 2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 8:15 ).
We move away in this section from the annals of the kings of Israel and Judah, to the memoirs of the sons of the prophets, although even then possibly intermingled with further extracts from the official annals (e.g. 2Ki 3:1-27). The events that will follow, in which YHWH’s power through his prophet Elisha is remarkably revealed, were crucial to the maintenance of faith in YHWH at a time of gross apostasy. Just as YHWH through Moses had boosted the faith of Israel at the Exodus with specific miracles, and just as Jesus Himself would evidence His Messiahship by even greater miracles (Mat 11:2-6), followed by miracles which accredited His Apostles (Mar 16:17-18; Act 4:29-30; Act 5:12; Heb 2:3-4) so now in these perilous times for Yahwism (the worship of YHWH, the God of Israel), God encouraged the faithful by miracles, some of which were remarkably similar, although lesser in extent, to those of Jesus. To call them pointless, as some have done, is to ignore the privations and dangers facing the ‘sons of the prophets’ and all true Yahwists, dangers under which the very core of the faithful in Israel were living. Under such circumstances they needed their faith boosting in special ways. It is not without note that similar miracles have been experienced through the ages when Christian men and women have been facing up to particular difficulties and persecutions (as with the Corrie Ten Boom miracle described previously at 1Ki 17:16).
It is also interesting to note that in some ways Elisha’s spate of miracles can be seen as having commenced with his seeing a ‘resurrection’, accompanied by a reception of the Spirit, as Elijah was snatched up into Heaven. It may be seen as a pointer to the future.
Note On The Two Contrasting Scholastic Approaches To These Passages.
Scholars are basically divided into two groups when considering these passages. On the one hand are those who believe that God was ready to perform special miracles in certain circumstances, in this case in view of the parlous situation in which most in Israel had mainly lost their faith, and on the other are those who dogmatically assert that such miracles could not have taken place per se, and that they must therefore be seen as legendary a priori (thus they speak of them as ‘saga’). Clearly the sceptical scholar must then find some way of discrediting, at least partially, the material in question, but when they do, it should only in fairness be recognised on their side, that they often do so on the basis of their dogmatic presuppositions, (which they are, of course, perfectly entitled to in a free world), and not on the basis of the text. Indeed had no miracles been involved it is doubtful whether, on the whole, they would have reached the same literary conclusions as the ones they now argue for (and disagree with each other about, like us all).
For the truth is that there are no grounds in the text for rejecting the miracles. Indeed in view of the soberness with which they are presented we can argue that there are actually grounds for accepting that the miracles did occur in front of eyewitness. The case is thus really settled by these scholars on the basis of external presuppositions and philosophical presumptions, which, of course, we all have (or in some cases even through fear of what their fellow scholars might think).
Unfortunately for these scholars their problem is exacerbated by the quantity and diversity of the miracles, and the differing places where they come in the text. Thus their ‘explanations’ have to become many and varied, one might almost say amusing in their complexity, were it not for the seriousness of the issue involved. For the author was not generous enough to limit his account of miracles to one section alone. Thus they even appear in passages almost certainly taken from the official annals of the kings of Israel and Judah. It must be recognised that many of these scholastic interpretations are based simply on the initial dogmatic position that ‘miracles do not happen’ so that they feel it incumbent on them to find another explanation. The literary arguments are then often manoeuvred in order to ‘prove’ their case. because they are convinced that it must be so. As a result they find what they want to find (a danger with us all). That is not the right way in which to approach literary criticism.
While we ourselves are wary of too glib a claim to ‘miracles’ through the ages, and would agree that large numbers of them have been manufactured for convenience, or accepted on insufficient grounds while having natural explanations, we stand firmly on the fact that at certain stages in history, of which this was one, God has used the miraculous in order to deliver His people. And we therefore in each case seek to consider the evidence. There are no genuine grounds for suggesting that prophetic writers enhanced miracles. Indeed it is noteworthy that outside the Exodus and the Conquest, the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the times of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, such miracles in Scripture were comparatively rare events. It will also be noted that Elisha undoubtedly had a reputation in his own time as a wonderworker (2Ki 5:3; 2Ki 6:12; 2Ki 8:4). We thus accept the genuineness of the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, considering that it is the only explanation that fits the soberness of the accounts with which we are presented, just as we similarly accept the similar miracles of Jesus Christ and His Apostles because of Who He proved Himself to be.
And that is the point. We do not just accept such miracles by an act of optional faith, or because we are ‘credulous’. We accept them as a reality because they were a reality to Jesus Christ, and because we know that we have sufficient evidence from His life and teaching to demonstrate that Jesus Christ was Who He claimed to be, the only and unique Son of God. And we remember that He clearly assumed Elijah’s and Elisha’s miracles to have been authentic (Luk 4:26-27; Luk 9:54-56). Our belief in the miracles of Elijah and Elisha is thus finally founded on our belief in Jesus Christ as the true and eternal Son of God.
(This is not to make any judgments about the genuine Christian beliefs among some who disagree with us. Man has an infinite capacity to split his mind into different boxes).
End of note.
This Elisha material from 2Ki 2:1 to 2Ki 8:15 can be divided into two sections, which are clearly indicated:
1). SECTION 7 (2Ki 2:1 to 2Ki 3:27). After the taking of Elijah into Heaven Elisha enters Canaan as Israel had before him, by parting the Jordan, and then advances on Jericho, where he brings restored water to those who believe, after which he advances on Bethel, where he brings judgment on those who are unbelievers. And this is followed by a summary of the commencement of the reign of Jehoram, and an incident in his life where Elisha prophesies the provision of water for the host of Israel, something which is then followed by the sacrificing, by the rebellious and unbelieving king of Moab, of his son (2Ki 2:1 to 2Ki 3:27). In both these incidents the purpose of his ministry is brought out, that is, to bring blessing to true believers, and judgment on those who have turned from YHWH,
2). SECTION 8 (2Ki 4:1 to 2Ki 8:15). In this section the kings of Israel are deliberately anonymous while the emphasis is on YHWH’s wonderworking power active through Elisha which continues to be effectively revealed (2Ki 4:1 to 2Ki 8:15). The kings simply operate as background material to this display of YHWH’s power. In contrast from 2Ki 8:16 the reign of Jehoram is again specifically taken up, signalling the commencement of a new section with the kings once more prominent.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 8. The Wonder-working Ministry Of Elisha ( 2Ki 4:1 to 2Ki 8:15 )
It will be noted that from this point on, until 2Ki 8:15, no king of Israel is mentioned by name, even though, for example, Naaman’s name is given in chapter 5, and Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, is mentioned in 2Ki 6:24; 2Ki 8:7. (The reign of Jehoram then recommences in 2Ki 8:16). It is clear that the prophetic author was concerned at this point that our attention should be taken away from the kings to the wonder-working power of YHWH through His prophet Elisha. The kings (and the chronology) were not considered important. It was the events, and the advancement of God’s kingdom through Elisha that were seen as important in contrast with the failure of the kings.
Overall Analysis.
a
b Elisha raises to life and restores to a Shunammite her only son (2Ki 4:8-37).
c Elisha restores a stew for his followers and feeds a hundred men on twenty small cakes of bread (2Ki 4:38-44).
d The skin of the skin-diseased Naaman of Aram, who comes seeking Elisha in peace, is made pure as a babe’s (2Ki 5:1-27).
e The borrowed axe-head is made to float, a symbol of the need for Israel to have its sharp edge restored by Elisha (2Ki 6:1-7).
d The Aramaeans, who came seeking Elisha in hostility, are blinded (2Ki 6:8-23).
c Elisha restores food to the people at the siege of Samaria, and feeds a large number on Aramaean supplies (2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:20).
b The king restores to the Shunammite her land (2Ki 8:1-6).
a Benhadad of Aram sends to Elisha in his illness and is assured that he will not die of his illness, but Elisha declares that nevertheless he will die, as it turns out, through assassination by Hazael (2Ki 8:7-15).
Note that in ‘a’ Elisha is approached by a prophet’s widow in her need and is provided for, and in the parallel Elisha is approached on behalf of the king of Aram in his need and is reassured, although then being assassinated. Once more we have the contrast between blessing and judgment. In ‘b’ the Shunammite receives her son back to life, and in the parallel she receives her land back. In ‘c’ the stew is restored as edible in the midst of famine and the bread is multiplied to feed the sons of the prophets, and in the parallel food is restored to the besieged in a time of famine, and is multiplied to them. In ‘d’ Naaman an Aramaean comes in peace and is restored to health, and in the parallel Aramaeans come in hostility and are blinded. Centrally in ‘e’ the borrowed axe-head, symbolic of Israel’s cutting edge, is restored to its possessor.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1). The Description Of The Siege And Its Consequences ( 2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:1 ).
Analysis.
a
b And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, there cried a woman to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king.” And he said, “If YHWH does not help you, from where shall I help you? Out of the threshing-floor, or out of the winepress?” And the king said to her, “What is you problem?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, “Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’, and she has hidden her son” (2Ki 6:26-29).
c And it came about, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes. And he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within on his flesh. And he said, “God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day” (2Ki 6:30-31).
d But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him (2Ki 6:32 a)..
c And the king sent a man from before him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” (2Ki 6:32 b).
b And while he was yet talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him, and he said, “Behold, this evil is of YHWH. Why should I wait for YHWH any longer?” (2Ki 6:33).
a And Elisha said, “Hear you the word of YHWH. Thus says YHWH, Tomorrow about this time will a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria” ’(2Ki 7:1).
Note that in ‘a’ they were on a starvation diet and in the parallel things were back to normal. In ‘b’ the dreadful conditions are illustrated, and in the parallel this evil was imputed by the king to YHWH. In ‘c’ the king threatens to kill Elisha, and in the parallel Elisha is aware of and refers to the fact. Centrally in ‘d’ Elisha was conferring with the elders in his house.
2Ki 6:24
‘And it came about after this, that Benhadad king of Aram (Syria) gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.’
The timing reference is very vague. In fact this was many years after the previous passage, and in the reign of a later king, probably Jehoahaz (compare 2Ki 13:3-7). Benhadad was a throne name of the kings of Aram. This was Benhadad III, who succeeded Hazael, who had caused great distress to Israel. By his time Israel had been considerably weakened as a result of the activities of Jehu, and had submitted to Assyria, something which would have angered both Hazael and Benhadad who with their allies had been seeking to fight off Assyria. This therefore was a full scale invasion, and having taken many towns and cities, the Aramaeans had surrounded and besieged Samaria in order to starve it into submission.
2Ki 6:25
‘And there was a great famine in Samaria, and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.’
The result was that as the months passed food began to run out and the stage was reached when the people were starving and would almost eat anything. The eating of an ass’s head was forbidden in the Law (Lev 11:3 ff.), it was the most inedible part of the ass, and the price was clearly exorbitant. Only the wealthy could afford it. The reference to ‘dove’s dung’ may be literal, but it has been suggested that it was a popular description of a certain herb similarly described in terms of ‘dung’ by the Arabs. Either way the fact that it was sold at such a price indicates the extreme shortage of food. (Rats on the menu would have been a luxury).
2Ki 6:26
‘And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, there cried a woman to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king.” ’
One day the king was walking on the wall of the city surveying the defensive position, when a woman called out to him for an audience.
2Ki 6:27
‘And he said, “If YHWH does not help you, from where shall I help you? Out of the threshing-floor, or out of the winepress?” ’
His first bitter response brings out the depths of his feelings. He had no means of helping her. The threshing-floor and winepress were empty. Her only hope was to look to YHWH. And if He failed to answer, what could anyone else do?
2Ki 6:28
‘And the king said to her, “What is you problem?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, “Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’, and she has hidden her son.” ’
The king the asked her what her problem was and was horrified to learn that with another woman she had indulged in cannibalism by eating her son, with the understanding that after that they would eat the other woman’s son. But now the other woman had gone back on her promise and was withholding her son, and the first woman was asking the king for justice by enforcing the agreement. The very fact that she expected him to do so demonstrates that she knew that this was now a fairly common practise under the exigencies of the siege.
For such cannibalism during sieges compare Lev 26:29; Deu 28:56-57; Eze 5:10; Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10. It is also attested in an Assyrian text from Ashurbanipal, and an Egyptian papyrus.
2Ki 6:30
‘And it came about, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes. And he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within on his flesh.’
The king was aghast and tore his clothes in order to express his strong emotion. As king he had of course been shielded from the kind of starvation that these people were experiencing, but now it was being brought home to him with a vengeance. The tearing of his clothes revealed to all that he was wearing the sackcloth of mourning underneath, because of his distress at the situation of his people, making clear his genuine feeling for their sufferings.
2Ki 6:31
‘Then he said, “God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.”
As a result he swore that the head of Elisha would be forfeit that day. This may have been because Elisha had encouraged standing firm in the face of the threat on the grounds that YHWH would at some point intervene, or his reasoning may have been that as the chief prophet of YHWH, Whom he saw as responsible for this situation, Elisha should have been able to do something about it (as reputedly he had done in the past). In his view as the situation continued it was therefore primarily Elisha’s fault. This would bring out how dependent Israel felt at that time on the prophets. They above all were seen as the people who could change situations by their prophecies. In other words the king and people had a superstitious belief that what caused and changed situations was the actual activity of prophets, who could make things happen or not as they would. They did not stop to consider that in Israel these prophets pointed out that these things happened because of YHWH’s anger at the sinfulness of the king and people, and that therefore the situation was the fault of the king and people themselves.
2Ki 6:32
‘But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him, and the king sent a man from before him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” ’
Elisha, meanwhile, equally concerned about the situation of the famine was discussing matters with the elders of the people who had come to his house in view of the seriousness of the national situation. But even while he was talking with them he was made aware by YHWH of the king’s intentions (possibly partly through a message sent by a friend at court), and of the fact that an important messenger was coming from the king, a man who had the authority to arrest him and bring him to the king, with a view to his beheading (or even execute him on the spot). Elisha therefore turned to the elders and pointed out that this was only to be expected of a man whose father had revelled in blood (although ‘son of a murderer’ need only indicate one who was capable of murder), and gave orders that his door should be barred and bolted against the messenger, as the king himself would be following shortly to countermand the execution order.
Some see the reference to the echo of his master’s feet as not necessarily signifying that the king was himself coming after his messenger, (but see 2Ki 7:17). In that case it may have been indicating that the messenger was the king’s genuine representative to such an extent that the king was, as it were, ‘in his shoes’. But 2Ki 7:17 may suggest that the king, having despatched him, did actually follow his messenger. Thus some see it as signifying that the king, having despatched his official to execute Elisha on the spot, then had second thoughts, with the result that he was following him in order to counteract the order. That would explain why he expected the elders to bar the door against the king’s representative, which might otherwise not have been a wise policy. It was one thing to exclude him while clarification was obtained, quite another to exclude him altogether. 2Ki 7:17 may, however, simply signify that the king had, as it were, come down in his messenger, and as the house was Elijah’s, any exclusion would be laid at his door.
2Ki 6:33
‘And while he was yet talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him, and he said, “Behold, this evil is of YHWH. Why should I wait for YHWH any longer?” ’
Meanwhile, while Elisha was yet speaking, the king’s messenger arrived in order to convey the king’s words, and declared, “Behold, this evil is of YHWH. Why should I wait for YHWH any longer?” ’ In other words he was blaming YHWH directly for the evil that had come on them (compare Amo 3:6), which was of course, in one sense, partly true. Indeed that may have been his partly justified interpretation of Elisha’s preaching, which had presumably indicated that deliverance could only follow repentance. But sinners never see themselves as really deserving of God’s chastisement, and he may therefore have felt that wearing sackcloth was a sufficient indication of repentance, and have been wondering why, in view of it, YHWH had not intervened. He did not see that really this evil had sprung from the behaviour of himself and the people. His further words may be a threat to rid himself of Elisha and turn to other gods for help, on the grounds that, having performed such rites as they thought were necessary without receiving a response, perhaps it was time to look to Baal. He had failed to understand that in fact the only ‘rite’ that YHWH really demanded was repentance and submission to His covenant (compare Isa 1:11-18), and that without that all ritualistic efforts to placate God were in vain..
2Ki 7:1
‘And Elisha said, “Hear you the word of YHWH. Thus says YHWH, Tomorrow about this time will a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” ’
Elisha’s reply was basically that it was YHWH’s sure prophetic word, a word that must therefore necessarily come to fruition, that within a day the siege would be relieved, and the shortages would be over. By this time next day, he assured the king, the markets in the space in front of the city gates would be selling flour and barley at normal prices. (With the Aramaean army still encamped around the city, it must have appeared very unlikely).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Relief Of The Siege Of Samaria ( 2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:20 ).
The incident that follows appears here because it is a part of the Elisha narrative, in which the wonders wrought by YHWH for Elisha are described, not because it is in its chronological position. For it probably occurred in the time of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, and thus a considerable time after the previously mentioned incident, and after much of the history that follows in chapter 8-9.
The ministry of Elisha covered a period of over fifty years during the reigns of Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz and Jehoash. During the reign of Jehoram YHWH had, as we have seen, given special protection to Israel. But the continuing sinfulness of the kings of Israel apparently caused the forfeiting of that special protection so that YHWH no longer intervened in the same way. And one of the results of that is described in what follows. It is a reminder that if God is not sought in a time of favour, then judgment and chastening will inevitably follow. So while it might have appeared that with Elisha around Israel had little to fear, that is now being revealed as being untrue. Not only was Samaria besieged, but it had been allowed to reach a point where the people were literally starving and were literally eating anything, and Elisha was sharing in their sufferings. It is a reminder that Elisha was very much subject to YHWH’s will in what he did.
The passage deals with the investment by Benhadad, king of Aram, of the city of Samaria during a full scale invasion. Such an invasion had not occurred in the days of Jehoram, but Israel had been considerably weakened by Jehu, and in the time of his son Jehoahaz it reached its lowest ebb. This then was probably when the siege described took place. It brought Samaria to its knees, as the city suffered under extreme shortage of food, with the result that every form of edible matter was eaten, even sinking down into cannibalism. This kind of thing is also testified to in sieges through the ages. It was nothing unusual in terms of history.
But things had become so bad that the blame inevitably fell on Elisha, who had previously so wonderfully delivered Israel. The king could not understand why, having no doubt encouraged the people to resist, he did not arrange for their deliverance again in the same way as he had previously. He failed to recognise that it was YHWH’s doing, and not Elisha’s, and that Elisha was wholly dependent on YHWH and His will. And he failed to recognise that it may have been due to his own evil living. However, on sending messengers to Elisha he received the assurance that the siege would shortly be lifted so that all would have enough to eat. The final deliverance of Samaria by YHWH’s power is then described in the second subsection.
The passage divides up into two subsections:
1) The description of the siege and its consequences (2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:1).
2) The discovery of YHWH’s amazing deliverance (2Ki 7:2-20).
The first subsection is within the inclusio which opens with details of the cost of food in the period of severe shortage (2Ki 6:24-25), and closes with the details of the cost once plenty is to be restored (2Ki 7:1). 2 Kings 6: 2Ki 7:1 in fact unites the two sections. For the second subsection is within the inclusio which commences with 2 Kings 6: 2Ki 7:1 followed by the captain’s comment about the ‘windows of Heaven’, which is then followed by the warning of his demise (2Ki 7:2), and closes with verses which are parallel with 2Ki 6:1-2 and a description of his actual death (2Ki 7:19-20).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Ki 7:3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
2Ki 7:3
“Now there were four leprous men http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah/sotah_47.html – 47a_17#47a_17 R. Johanan said: This refers to Gehazi and his three sons.” [61]
[61] Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sotah, Folio 47a, trans. I. Epstein [on-line]; accessed 11 August 2009; available from http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah/sotah_47.html; Internet.
“And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. R. Johanan said: They were Gehazi and his three sons.” [62]
[62] Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin, Folio 107b, trans. I. Epstein [on-line]; accessed 11 August 2009; available from http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah/sotah_47.html; Internet.
Elisha had judged him with the curse of leprosy in 2Ki 5:27.
2Ki 5:27, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”
This view is supported by the fact that in the next chapter, Gehazi is standing before the king (2Ki 8:4). We know that no leper would stand serving in the court of the king.
2Ki 8:4, “And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.”
2Ki 7:6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.
2Ki 7:6
2Sa 5:24, “And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.”
2Ki 6:17, “And Elisha prayed, and said, 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.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Reign of Jehoram Over Israel (852-841 B.C.) 2 Kings 2Ki 3:1 to 2Ki 8:15 records the reign of Jehoram over the northern kingdom of Israel. However, much of this material discusses the ministry of the prophet Elisha during his reign as a prophet of God.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Flight of the Syrian Army
v. 1. Then, v. 2. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned, v. 3. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate, v. 4. If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is In the city, v. 5. And they rose up in the twilight, v. 6. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host; v. 7. Wherefore they arose, v. 8. And when these lepers, v. 9. Then they said one to another, v. 10. So they came and called unto the porter, v. 11. And he called the porters,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
2Ki 7:1-20
THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA (continued): THE DELIVERANCE.
2Ki 7:1, 2Ki 7:2
The separation of these verses from the preceding narrative is most unfortunate. They are an integral part of it, and form its climax. In answer to the king’s attempt upon his life, and hasty speech in which he has threatened to renounce Jehovah, Elisha is commissioned to proclaim that the siege is on the point of terminating, the famine about to be within twenty-four hours succeeded by a time of plenty. There is thus no reason for the king’s despair or anger.
2Ki 7:1
Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord. This was a very solemn exordium, well calculated to arrest attention. It must be remembered that the prophet’s life was trembling in the balance. The executioner was present; the king had not revoked his order; the elders would probably have suffered the king to work his will. All depended on Elisha, by half a dozen words, changing the king’s mind. He therefore announces a Divine oracle. Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measureliterally, a seahof fine flour be sold for a shekel. The “seah” was probably about equal to a peck and a half English, the shekel of the time to about half a crown. Thus no extraordinary cheapness is promised, but only an enormous fall in prices from the rate current at the moment (2Ki 7:1-20 :25). Such a fall implied, almost necessarily, the discontinuance of the siege. Jehoram appears to have accepted the prophet’s solemn asseveration, and on the strength of it to have spared his life, at any rate till the result should be seen. And two measuresliterally, seahsof barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. The gates, or rather gateways, of Oriental towns were spacious places, where business of various kinds was transacted. One at Nineveh had an area of above two thousand five hundred square feet. Kings often held their courts of justice in the city gates. On this occasion one of the gates of Samaria seems to have been used as a corn-market.
2Ki 7:2
Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned; rather, the lord, or the captain, as the word is commonly translated (Exo 14:7; Exo 15:4; 2Sa 23:8; 1Ki 9:22; 2Ki 9:25; 2Ki 10:25; 2Ki 15:25; 1Ch 11:11; 1Ch 12:18; 2Ch 8:9). (For the habit of kings to lean on the hand of an attendant, see above, 2Ki 5:18.) Answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? The king makes no reply; he waits for the result. But the officer on whose arm he leans is not so reticent. Utterly incredulous, he expresses his incredulity in a scoffing way: “Could this possibly be, even if God were to ‘make windows in heaven,’ as he did at the time of the Flood (Gen 7:11), and pour through them, instead of rain, as then, a continual shower of fine meal and corn?” Disbelief is expressed, not only in the prophetic veracity of Elisha, but in the power of God. Hence Elisha’s stern reply. And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. At once a threat and a warning. If the thing was to be, and the lord to see it and yet not profit by it, the only reasonable conclusion was that his death was imminent. He was thus warned, and given time to “set his house in order,” and to repent and make his peace with the Almighty. Whether he took advantage of the warning, or even understood it, we are not told.
2Ki 7:3-16
The mode in which Elisha’s prophecy of relief and deliverance was fulfilled is now set forth. Four lepers, excluded from the city, and on the point of perishing of hunger, felt that they could be no worse off, and might better their condition, if they deserted to the Syrians. They therefore drew off from the city at nightfall, and made for the Syrian camp. On arriving, they found it deserted. The entire host, seized with a sudden panic, had fled, about the time that they began their journey. The lepers’ first thought was to enrich themselves by plunder, but after a while it occurred to them that, unless they hastened to carry the good news to Samaria, inquiry would be made, their proceedings would be found out, and they would be severely punished. So they returned to the capital, and reported what they had discovered. Jehoram, on receiving the news, feared that the Syrians had prepared a trap for him, and declined to move. He consented, however, to send out scouts to reconnoiter. The scouts found evident proof that the entire army had actually fled and was gone, whereupon there was a general raid upon the camp and its stores, which were so abundant that Elisha’s prophecy was fulfilled ere the day ended.
2Ki 7:3
And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate; or, at the entrance to the gate-house. Lepers were forbidden by the Law to reside within cities (Le 13:46; Num 5:3). They were thrust out when the disease developed itself, and forced to dwell without the walls. No doubt their friends within the city ordinarily supplied them with food; and hence they congregated about the city gates. And they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? In the extreme scarcity, it is probable that no food was brought to them, the inmates of the city having barely enough wherewith to sustain themselves (2Ki 6:25). Thus they were on the point of perishing.
2Ki 7:4
If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. The lepers were certainly not at liberty to enter the city when they pleased; but perhaps they might have managed, in one way or another, to return within the walls. They ask themselves, however, “Cut bone?” What will he the use of it? The famine is inside the town no less than outside. If they entered the city, by hook or by crook, it would only be to “die there” And if we sit still here, we die also; rather, if we remain here, or, if we dwell here. Lepers, excluded from a city, are in the habit of building themselves huts near the gateways. “The lepers of Jerusalem, at the present day, have their tents by the side of the Zion gate” (Keil, ad loc.). If the leprous men remained where they were, death stared them in the face equally. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. Let us, i.e; fall away from our own side, desert them, and go over to the enemy. If they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die; i.e. we cannot be worse off than we are, even if they kill us; while it may be that they will be more merciful, and let us live.
2Ki 7:5
And they rose up in the twilight. Most certainly in the evening twilight, as soon as the sun was down (see 2Ki 7:9). Had they set off in the daytime, the garrison would have shot at them from the walls. To go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost parti.e. the most advanced part, that which was nearest to Samariaof the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. The camp was empty, deserted. Not a soul was anywhere to be seen.
2Ki 7:6
For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. , voice, is used for noises of any kind (see Exo 20:18; Psa 42:7; Psa 93:4; Jer 47:3; Eze 1:24; Eze 3:13; Joe 2:5; Nah 3:2), though generally for those in which the human voice preponderated. A noise like that of chariots and of horses and of a great host ( ) was borne in upon the ears of the Syrians about nightfall of the day on which Jehoram had determined to put Elisha to death; and, as they expected no reinforcements, they naturally concluded that succor had arrived to help their enemy. How the noise was produced it is impossible to say. Na-rural causes are insufficient; and the writer evidently regards the event as miraculous: “The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise,” etc. Nothing can be more weak and irrelevant than to remark, with Bahr,” There are instances, even nowadays, that people in certain mountainous regions regard a rushing and roaring sound, such as is sometimes heard there, as a sign of coming war.” The Syrians thought they heard the actual arrival of a vast army. And they said one to another, Lo, the King of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites. This supposition has been thought “strange,” almost inexplicable. “No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed,” says Mr. Sumner. But the Assyrian records of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. make it evident, not only that the Hittites still existed at that date, but that they were among the most powerful enemies of the Ninevite kings, being located in Northern Syria, about Carchemish (Jerabus) and the adjacent country. It is also apparent that they did not form a centralized monarchy, but were governed by a number of chiefs, or “kings,” twelve of whom are mentioned in one place. It was no very improbable supposition on the part of the Syrians that Jehoram had called in the aid of the Hittite confederacy, and that they had marched an army to his assistance. And the kings of the Egyptians. “The plural, kings of the Egyptians,” says Keil, “is not to be pressed. It is probably occasioned only by the parallel expression,’ kings of the Hittites.'” But Egyptian history shows us that about this date Egypt was becoming disintegrated, and that two or three distinct dynasties were sometimes ruling at the same time, in different parts of the countryone at Bubastis another at Thebes, a third at Tanis, occasionally a fourth at Memphis. The writer thus shows a knowledge of the internal condition of Egypt which we should not have expected. To come upon us; i.e. to fall upon us from the north and from the south at the same time. In their panic, the Syrians did not stop to weigh probabilities, or to think how unlikely it was that such a simultaneous attack could have been arranged between powers so remote one from the other.
2Ki 7:7
Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight. At the very time when the lepers were drawing off from the gate of Samaria to fall away to them (see 2Ki 7:5). And left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was. Partly, perhaps, in mere panic; partly to induce a belief on the part of the enemy that they had not quitted their camp. So Darius Hystaspis, when he began his retreat from Scythia (Herod; 4.135), left his camp standing, and the camp fires lighted, and the asses tethered (see 2Ki 7:10), that the Scythians, seeing the tents and hearing the noise of the animals, might be fully persuaded that his troops were still in the same place. Asses were the chief baggage-animals in many ancient armies. And fled for their life. Thinking that, if they waited till dawn, the Israelite allies, Hittites and Egyptians, would exterminate them.
2Ki 7:8
And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp. The narrative, begun in 2Ki 7:3, is here taken up from the point where it was broken off in 2Ki 7:5, and the phrase there used is repeated, to mark the connection. They went into one tent, and did eat and drink. The first necessity was to satisfy the cravings of their appetite, as they were well-nigh starving. Then their covetousness was excited by the riches exposed to view in the tent. And carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment. Oriental armies carried with them vast quantities of the precious metals, in the shape of gold and silver vases, goblets, dishes, as well as in collars, chains, furniture, and trappings. Herodotus says (ix. 80) that, when the camp of Mardonius at Plataea fell into the hands of the Greeks, there were found in it “many tents richly adorned with furniture of gold and silver, many couches covered with plates of the same, and many golden bowls, goblets, and other drinking-vessels. On the carriages were bags containing gold and silver kettles; and the bodies of the slain furnished bracelets and chains, and scimitars with golden ornamentsnot to mention era-broidered apparel, of which no one made any account.” The camp of the Syrians would scarcely have been so richly provided; but still it contained, no doubt, a large amount of very valuable plunder. And went and hid it. The lepers had no right to the pick of the spoil. It belonged to the nation, and it was probably the king’s right to apportion it. The lepers had to conceal what they appropriated, lest it should he taken from them. And came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Plundering thus probably, not two tents only, but several. At last, either covetousness was satiated or conscience awoke.
2Ki 7:9
Then they said one to another, We do not well. It was a tardy recognition of what their duty required of them. As Grotius says, “Officium civium est ea indicate, quae ad salutem publicam pertinent.” Their fellow-countrymen in the city of Samaria were perishing of hunger, mothers eating their children, and the like, while they employed hour after hour in collecting and hiding away their booty. They ought, as soon as they had satisfied their hunger, to have hurried back to the city and spread the good news. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace; i.e. we keep silence, and do not proclaim them, as we ought. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us; rather, punishment will fall on us; we shall suffer for what we have donea very reasonable supposition. Now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household. The “king’s household” means the court, the medium through which the king was ordinarily approached.
2Ki 7:10
So they came and called unto the porter of the city; i.e. to the guard of the gate nearest them. The word , “porter,” or “gate-man,” is used collectively. And they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. The horses and asses within a camp were always “tied,” or tethered, as we see from the monumental representations of Egyptian camps, and also learn from historians (Herod; 4:135). It is somewhat surprising that the horses were left behind, as they would have expedited the flight had they been saddled and mounted. But this was, perhaps, overlooked in the panic.
2Ki 7:11
And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within; rather, and the porters (or, gate-keepers) called out and told it, etc. may be a plural before its subject; or the true reading may be , which is found in some manuscripts.
2Ki 7:12
And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field. Jehoram, knowing of no reason for the flight of the Syrians, suspected a not uncommon stratagem. He supposed that the enemy had merely gone a little way from their camp, and placed themselves in ambush, ready to take ad- vantage of any rash movement which the Israelites might make. So Cyrus is said to have entrapped and slaughtered Spargapises, the son of Tomyris, together with a large detachment, in his last war against the Massagetae (Herod; 1.211). His supposition was not unreasonable. Saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. A double advantage might be expected to followthose who quitted the town to plunder the camp would be surrounded and made prisoners, while the town itself, left without defenders, would be captured. Compare the capture of Ai by Joshua (Jos 8:3-19), when the chief part of the garrison had been enticed out of it.
2Ki 7:13
And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain. One of Jehoram’s “servants,” i.e. of the officers attached to his person, suggested that a small body of horse (four or five) should be sent out to reconnoiter. The besieged had still some horses left, though apparently not many. Note the phrase, “five of the horses that remain.” The majority had died of want, or been killed to furnish food to the garrison. (Behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in iti.e. in Samariabehold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed); i.e. they will run no more risk than the other troops who remain in the city, for these, too, “are consumed,” i.e. are on the point of perishing. Supposing that they fall into the enemy’s hands, it will go no harder with them than with the “multitude” which is on the point of starvation. And let us send and see. We can do nothing until we know whether the siege is really raised, or whether the pretended withdrawal is a mere ruse. We must send and have this matter made clear.
2Ki 7:14
They took therefore two chariot horses; literally, two chariots of horses; i.e. two chariots, with the accustomed number of horses, which (with the Israelites) was two, though with the Assyrians and Egyptians it was frequently three. The employment of chariots instead of horsemen is remarkable, and seems to indicate that with the Israelites, as with the Egyptians, the chariot force was regarded as superior to the cavalry for practical purposes. And the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. The advice of the king’s “servant” was taken; a couple of chariots were sent out to reconnoiter.
2Ki 7:15
And they went after them unto Jordan. The charioteers, finding the camp really empty, discovering no ambush, and coming upon abundant signs of a hasty and perturbed flight, followed upon the track of the fugitives until they reached the Jordan, probably in the vicinity of Beth-shah, which lay on the ordinary route between Samaria and Damascus. Convinced by what they saw that the Syrians had really withdrawn into their own country, they pursued no further, but returned to Samaria. And, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. Cloaks, shawls, shields, and even swords and spears, would be cast away as impedimentahindrances to a rapid flight.
These strewed the line of the retreating army’s march. And the messengers returned, and told the king. Gave a full and complete account of what they had seen.
2Ki 7:16
And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. The whole population of Samaria, with one accord, quitted the town, and flung themselves upon the spoilthe rich garments, the gold and silver vessels, the horses and asses, of which mention had been made previously (2Ki 7:8-10). At the same time, no doubt, they feasted on the abundant dainties which they found in the tents. Having satisfied their immediate wants, they proceeded to lay in a store of corn for future use, and crowded tumultuously into the gate, where the corn found in the camp was being sold. So a measure of fine flour; rather, and a measure, etc.was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord (see 2Ki 7:1).
2Ki 7:17
And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate. Anticipating disorder, unless special care were taken, through the probable eagerness of the people to purchase the corn which was offered to them at so moderate a rate, Jehoram appointed the officer on whose arm he had leant when he visited the house of Elisha (see 2Ki 7:2), to have the charge of the gate, and preside over the sale. Probably there was no thought of the post being one of danger. And the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died. It has been questioned whether the death was accidental (Bahr), and suggested that the eager and famished people resisted his authority, and violently bore down his attempts to control them. But there is nothing in the text that is incompatible with an accidental death. Such deaths ate not uncommon in dense crowds of anxious and excited people. As the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. The varieties of reading here do not affect the general sense. The writer’s intention is to lay special stress on the fulfillment of Elisha’s prophecy; and to emphasize the punishment that follows on a lack of faith. The concluding passage of the chapter is, as Bahr says, “a finger of warning to unbelievers.”
2Ki 7:18
And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. The otiose repetition of almost the whole of 2Ki 7:1 can only be explained as a mode of emphasizing, and so impressing upon the reader two main points:
(1) Elisha’s prophetic powers; and
(2) the dreadful consequences that follow on scornful rejection of a message from God (see the comment on 2Ki 7:2).
2Ki 7:19
And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, hut shalt not eat thereof (see the comment on the preceding verse).
2Ki 7:20
And so it fell out unto him; i.e. the prophecy was exactly fulfilled. The lord, being appointed to keep order in the gate where the corn was sold, “saw with his eyes” (2Ki 7:2) the wonderful fall of prices within the short space of twenty-four hours, which Elisha had prophesied; hut “did not eat thereof”did not, in his own person, obtain any benefit from the sudden plenty, since he perished before he could profit by it. For the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died (see the comment on 2Ki 7:17).
HOMILETICS
2Ki 7:1, 2Ki 7:2, and 2Ki 7:17-20
The sin of the scoffer, and its punishment.
Unbelief may be involuntary, and so neither incur guilt nor deserve punishment. St. Paul “obtained mercy” notwithstanding his bitter persecution of the, early Christians, “because he did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1Ti 1:13). Modem skeptics are, no doubt, in many cases unable to believe, their eyes being blinded through their education, through ingrained prejudice or invincible ignorance. But to scoff at religion must be at all times a voluntary act; and it is an act, which Holy Scripture views as in the highest degree blamable. In the instance here recorded, where Elisha, rising up in all the majesty of God’s prophet, and addressing himself to king, nobles, and elders, solemnly required them to “hear the word of Jehovah,” and then proclaimed with a voice of authority the raising of the siege and the speedy conversion of the existing scarcity into abundance, it indicated extreme effrontery and contempt for holy things, to take the word, when the king himself was silent, and utter a scoff, questioning the power as well as the truthfulness of God. The “lord” was clearly puffed up with a high opinion of his own wisdom, enlightenment, and knowledge of the world and its ways, and perceiving no probability of the change prophesied, of which there was indeed at the time no sign, thought himself entitled, not only to disbelieve the announcement, but to pour contempt upon it. “It is too often the case that high-born and apparently well-bred men, at court, take pleasure in mockeries of the Word of God and of its declarations, without reflecting that they thereby bear testimony to their own inner rudeness, vulgarity, and want of breeding” (Bahr). They think it a proof of their own cleverness and superiority to superstitious terrors, to mock and ridicule what they know to be reverenced by others. For the most part God allows them to escape punishment in this world, but now and then he signally vindicates his honor in the sight of all, by a manifest judgment upon the scoffers. An Elymas the sorcerer is struck blind (Act 13:11) suddenly, an Arius perishes in the dead of night, or an Israelite “lord” suffers the penalty due to his rash words by being “trampled underfoot.” God can at any time “arise to judgment,” and “reward the proud after their deserving.” Let men see to it that they provoke him not by “speaking unadvisedly with their lips.” If they cannot receive his Word and hold fast his truth, let them at least “keep still silence,” refrain themselves, and not draw down his vengeance upon them by profane scoffs and idle jesting.
2Ki 7:3-15
The plenitude of God’s power to deliver from the extremist dangers.
It is impossible to conceive a peril greater than that of Samaria at this time. The Syrians were masters of all the open country. They had for months surrounded the town and strictly blockaded it. The store of provisions within the walls was almost wholly exhausted, and there was no possibility of obtaining a supply from without. Jehoram had no ally who could be expected to come to his aid. Human wisdom, as personified in the “lord on whose hand the king leaned,” might well view the end as certain, not seeing from what quarter deliverance could possibly come. But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. With God nothing is impossible. Nothing is even hard. He has a thousand resources. He can send forth his angel into a camp at nightfall, and in the morning they shall be “all dead men” (2Ki 19:35). He can make brothers-in-arms to fall out, and turn their swords one against another (2Ch 20:23). He can send a soundless panic upon the largest and best-appointed host, and cause them to flee away and disappear, “like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.” He can make two men, like Jonathan and his armor-bearer (1Sa 14:6-16), victorious over a multitude. “A thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one,” if God so wills it. Panic he can cause in a hundred ways. “It is only necessary that in the darkness a wind should blow, or that water should splash in free course, or that an echo should resound from the mountains, or that the wind should rustle the dry leaves, to terrify the godless, so that they flee as if pursued by a sword, and fall though no one pursues them” (Le 26:36). In the present case, the Syrians heard a sound, how caused we know not, and instantly imagined that a danger threatened them, which could only be escaped by immediate flight. Israel had hired against them, they thought, two armies, one of Egyptians and the other of Hittites; the armies had arrived, and would fall upon them at dawn of day. So they hastily fled in the darkness, casting away arms and vessels and garments as they went (2Ki 7:15), and leaving behind them their camp standing, with all its stores intact, its flour and barley, its gold and silver, its rich raiment, its war-horses and beasts of burden. The Samaritans were called upon to do nothingthey had but to “stand still, and see the salvation of God” (Exo 15:13). In one day, without any exertion of their own, their deliverance was complete. And so it is with God always.
I. GOD HAS POWER TO DELIVER FROM ALL EARTHLY PERILS. In an hour, in a moment, if he pleases, God has power to deliver:
1. From disease. He can cleanse the leper; give sight to the blind; heal malignant ulcers; infuse strength and vigor into the palsied; make plague, or fever, or any other mortal sickness to pass away.
2. From poverty. He can cause the poorest man to find a treasure, or put it into the heart of a rich man to leave him one, or so bless his little store that it becomes abundance (2Ki 4:1-7), or give him favor in the sight of a monarch (Est 7:6 -11), or put the wealth of thousands at his disposal (Act 4:34-37).
3. From oppression. He can destroy or cast down the oppressor, cut him off suddenly, release his victims, break the chains from off their neck, “lift them up out of the mire, and set them with the princes of his people.”
4. From shame. He can raise from the dungeon to the palace (Gen 41:14; Dan 6:23-28); can make men ready to worship one whom a moment before they denounced as a murderer (Act 28:3-6); can “set on thrones” those who have been treated as “the offscouring of all things” (1Co 4:14).
II. GOD HAS ALSO POWER TO DELIVER FROM SPIRITUAL PERILS.
1. He can preserve from the power of Satan, “deliver from the evil one,” quench all his fiery darts, abate his pride, rescue men from his dominion when they seem on the point of submitting to it.
2. He can deliver from the guilt of sin; can accept atonement; can put away men’s sins from them, so that, “though they were as scarlet, they shall become white as snow; though they were red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:18).
3. And he can deliver from the power of sin. He can “strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees” (Isa 35:3), can take away the evil out of men’s hearts, and put his Holy Spirit within them; can enable them to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; can make of them “new creatures” God, and God alone, can do this; and to him we must look for this deliverance; to him we must pray for this deliverance; to him, when we have obtained it, we must be eternally grateful for this deliverance. “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift!”
2Ki 7:4-11
Afflictions may alienate men from God instead of bringing them dear to him.
This truth is remarkably exemplified in the conduct and reasonings of the lepers. Here are four poor men, severely afflicted by a malady which was reckoned to come, more directly than most others, from God’s hand, whom we should have expected to find humbled and softened by it, more God-fearing, more tender and compassionate towards their fellow-men, than the generality. But the reverse is the case with them. Instead of submitting themselves to God in their wretchedness, and hanging upon him, and looking to him for succor, they are sunk in a dull discontent, well nigh reckless and desperate. It is scarcely possible that they had not heard how Elisha preached a miraculous deliverance, and urged the king not to surrender the city, but “wait for Jehovah” (2Ki 6:33). Yet of deliverance they have not the slightest expectation; they are as unbelieving as the proud “lord“ of the court; if they remain with their countrymen, they hold that they must certainly die. So they resolve not to remain, but to go over to the enemy. No feeling of shame restrains themit does not seem even to occur to them that there is any disgrace in desertion. They are impelled by motives which are purely egoisticwhat is their best chance? Whether their countrymen will be damaged by its becoming known that they have now no food for their lepers, they either do not inquire or they do not care. What weighs with them is that, if they go over, they may possibly save their wretched lives; if they do not, they have, they think, no chance at all. It may be said that “self-preservation is the first law of nature;” but not self-preservation at all costs. Death is preferable to dishonor. The lepers take their departure, and reach the Syrian camp. Hero an extraordinary surprise befalls them; the camp, which they had expected to be full of Syrian soldiery, is emptythere is not a man left in it (2Ki 7:5). All its wealth, all its stores, are open to the first comer. How do the lepers act under these strange circumstances? Again in a purely selfish spirit. That they should fall upon the food, and “eat and drink” (2Ki 7:8), was natural, and no one will blame them so far, though it would have been nobler to have at once hurried back, and proclaimed the glad tidings to the famished city. But, having satiated their appetites, they are not content. Covetousness is stirred up by what meets their gaze, and they must proceed to enrich themselves by carrying off and securing a quantity of objects in silver and gold (2Ki 7:8). When doubt begins to stir in their minds as to the propriety of this proceeding, it is not conscience that awakens, or regard for their fellow-citizens that moves them, but mere consideration for their own interests” If we tarry till the morning light, we shall find punishment” (marginal rendering). Thus, from first to last, the lepers are an example of mean and groveling selfishnesssuch selfishness as poverty too often engenders, as misfortune intensifies, and to which the sense of belonging to a despised class lends a peculiar bitterness. Their calamities have in no way brought the lepers near to God, or induced them to cast their care upon him, but have hardened and brutalized them. We may learn from this
I. THAT, THOUGH AFFLICTIONS ARE SENT FOR OUR GOOD, WE SHALL GET NO GOOD FROM THEM UNLESS WE RECEIVE THEM IN A RIGHT SPIRIT i.e. submissively, resignedly, even gratefully, as intended to benefit us.
II. THAT, IF WE EXTRACT NOT FROM THEM THE SWEET USES FOR WHICH THEY WERE MEANT, WE SHALL BE APT TO GET FROM THEM IRREPARABLE HARMthe irreparable harm of a lowering of our moral tone, and an alienation of our souls from their Creator.
2Ki 7:12-15
Unseasonable distrust.
Humanly speaking, Jehoram’s distrust of the report of the lepers was not unreasonable. Such a stratagem as that which he suspected was often practiced in the wars of the ancient world, with great advantage to one side and great loss to the other. But his distrust, though not unreasonable, was unseasonable from the point of view of faith and belief in God. Elisha having just announced such an inversion of the actual state of things as could only be brought about in an extraordinary way, the occurrence of something extraordinary was to be expected. Jehoram ought to have been on the look out for some strange intelligence; and that which the lepers brought him was in such complete accordance with the tenor of Elisha’s prophecy, that a very moderate degree of faith would have sufficed to make him receive it gladly, joyfully, and without any mistrust. He would then have shortened the sufferings of his people by a day, which must have been lost by the dispatch of the two chariots to reconnoiter; and he might, perhaps, have saved the life of his “lord,” whose dreadful death may have been caused by the impatience of a famished multitude too long restrained from sallying forth. Men are apt to be mistrustful; and it is generally just at the wrong time. They are sanguine and over-confident when it would have been well to suspect, suspicious and over-circumspect when there is no need of doubt or circumspection. God calls them to the kingdom that he has prepared for men, and bids them “come, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1); and they hang back, hesitate, delay, as if they were about to be entrapped. A bold impostor invites them to adopt his shibboleth, and trust in it for salvationthey listen eagerly, hang on his words, are persuaded, and join the Mormons or the Peculiar People. Rash youth boasts as it girds on its armor, and looks for an easy victory over sin and Satan, over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Timid old age faints and is weary, and despairs of winning through and “persevering to the end,” though God has brought it so far upon its way. It is well to mistrust one’s self; it is faithless to mistrust God. He who has borne us up hitherto on eagles’ wings will still bear us up. He “fainteth not, neither is weary.” He “will not leave us, nor forsake us.”
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN
2Ki 7:1, 2Ki 7:2, with 12-20
The unbelieving lord.
Elisha interrupts the king’s evil design by a prediction of plenty in Samaria. His mention of a fixed time doubtless induced the king to wait until he should see if the prophecy was fulfilled. “Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” It was a bold statement to make, for there was no human likelihood of its fulfillment. If the next day had proved Elisha to be a deceiver, no doubt he would have been torn limb from limb by the infuriated and hungry populace. But Elisha makes not the state-inert on his own authority, but uses the words, “Thus saith the Lord.” One of the king’s principal courtiers, on whose arm he leaned, could not conceal his scorn and incredulity. “Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?” Observe, his statement is not “If the Lord would make windows in heaven, this thing might be.” He doesn’t even admit that. It is a question expressing entire impossibility. “Even if the Lord would open windows in heaven, is it at all likely that such a thing as this would happen?” But what seemed impossible to him was possible with God. The prophet warned him that he would suffer for his unbelief. “Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” As it was predicted, so it came to pass. During the night, the Lord caused the Syrian army to hear a great noise, like the noise of horses and chariots and a mighty host, and they fled in terror, leaving their camp with all their possessions and provisions behind them. Four lepers, going out of the city in the evening twilight, discovered the deserted camp. They brought back the news to the beleaguered city. At first, a stratagem was feared; but by-and-by in wild eagerness for food and plunder, the famished citizens rushed forth. The unhappy lord, who had doubted the prophet’s message and the promise of God himself, was trodden upon at the gate and died. From this striking and tragic story we may learn
I. UNBELIEF MAY HAVE REASON, APPARENTLY, ON ITS SIDE. This courtier might have given many plausible reasons for doubting the prophet’s message.
1. He might have disputed the prophet‘s right to speak in the name of God at all. He might have said, “How do I know that this man is speaking the truth?” though even there Elisha had already given pretty tangible proof of his credibility and trustworthiness. The faithful minister of Christ need not mind the sneers of men, provided God has owned his work, and set his heavenly seal upon his ministry.
2. Or he might have said, “The thing is utterly incredible. It is utterly impossible. Where is flour to come from in such plenty as to supply this whole city of Samaria? There has been a besieging army around our walls for many days. They have desolated and plundered the country round about. Where is the food to come from, even if there was any one to bring it to us? And we know of no friendly army that is coming to raise the siege or cut its way through the serried ranks of the Syrians.” All these would have been very natural thoughts to pass through that courtier’s mind. No doubt they were the very reasons, or some of them, which led him to disbelieve Elisha’s message. Probably, if he had stated his reasons to the people, he would have got a hundred to agree with him for every one who believed Elisha. No doubt they all looked upon Elisha as a fanatic and an enthusiast. They, to all appearance, had common sense, had reason on their side. And yet it turned out to be one of those many cases in which “God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty.” Unbelief can be very plausible. Unbelief nearly always appears to have reason on its side. There is not a doctrine of the Bible against which the most plausible arguments might not, and have not, been advanced. Even Scripture itself can be quoted in support of unbelief and sin. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” Good arguments are not necessarily a proof of the truth or justice of a case. This needs to be remembered in an age when many arguments are urged against the truth of Christianity. What plausible reasons have been urged against the main truths of the Christian religion! Take the Deity of Christ, for example. How plausible are the arguments which human reason can bring forward against the doctrine of the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ! And yet of what value are such arguments when placed side by side with our Lord’s statement, “I and my Father are one;” with the statement of the Apostle John, “The Word was with God, and the Word was God;” or with the statement of the Apostle Paul, that “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily?” In the same way the most plausible arguments can be, and are being, brought against the atoning nature of Christ‘s death, although we have the clear statements of God’s Word that “he bore our sins in his own body on the tree,” and Christ’s own statement that he laid down his life for the sheep. Over and over again it has been asserted that the Gospel miracles are incredible. Over and over again the most plausible arguments have been brought against future punishment, although we have the clear and emphatic statements of our Lord Jesus Christ himself on the subject. Unbelief may have reason, apparently, on its side.
II. OUR REASON IS NO TEST OF POSSIBILITY. Our ideas are no test as to what is possible or impossible. Our minds are limited in their range. How often in the march of scientific discovery and invention it has happened that things, which seemed impossible in one century were proved to be possible in the next! It is not yet three hundred years since Galileo was condemned to imprisonment by the Inquisition for asserting that the earth moved round the sun. Even our own Sir Isaac Newton, little more than two hundred years agothe man who discovered the force of gravitation, and invented the first reflecting telescopewas assailed with such abuse on propounding his discoveries, that he actually determined on suppressing the third book of the ‘Principia,’ which contains the theory of comets. And what shall we say of the invention of the steam-engine by James Watt, scarcely a hundred years agoan invention which has revolutionized our manufactures, and made possible a speed of locomotion by land and sea that would have been ridiculed as impossible only a few years ago? Every discovery of science, every invention in the useful arts, has at first been scorned as an impossible dream, then laughed at as impracticable, and finally accepted when it became impossible to deny the truth of the one or the usefulness of the other. The impossibilities of today turn out to be the possibilities of tomorrow. It is well to remember this, that, because we are unable to conceive of something taking place, it does not therefore follow that it is impossible. The fact is, that when we say anything is “impossible,” we just mean that we cannot conceive it. But, as has already been shown, this is no reason why a doctrine or statement may not be true, or why a certain occurrence may not take place. We may have never known anything of the kind to occur before; but that is no proof that a thing is impossible, though in the minds of many people it is the only argument. What has never occurred before may occur yet. There are discoveries in science still undreamed of in our advanced philosophy. There are inventions yet to be conceived which, if today we could hear of them, we might pronounce the wild ravings of a fanatic. There are infinite resources in the hand of him who rules the world. Who are we, that we should limit God? Who are we, that we should set bounds to his power? Who are we, that we should set bounds to his justice on the one hand, or to his mercy on the other? Must we not bow in deep humility before all the problems that affect his dealings with men, and say, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Must we not reverently accept whatever he has been pleased to reveal in his own Word of his Divine purposes and plans, no matter what our reason may say?
III. THE DANGEROUS CHARACTER OF UNBELIEF. We have seen how unreasonable this courtier’s unbelief was. Not only so, but it was injurious. So unbelief in a professing Christian is injurious to himself and to others. It hinders his own usefulness. It hinders the progress of the gospel. It hinders the success of Christian work. It is the Achan in the camp, the canker of Christian life and power, the chilling blight of the Christian Church. What an age of deadness in the Church of Christ in England, Scotland, and Ireland, was the eighteenth century, the age of moderatism, the age of indifference and rationalism! What an absence of missionary enterprise! What an absence of evangelistic effort! As Churches and as individuals, we should pray to be delivered from unbelief, and to be filled with living, working, all-conquering faith. Mr. Spurgeon says, in his remarks on this passage, that if we are hindering God’s work by our unbelief, it may happen to us as it happened to this nobleman, that God may see fit to take us out of the way. He says that he has remarked, “that when any truly good man has stood in God’s way, God has made short work with him. He has taken him home, or he has laid him aside by sickness. If you will not help and will hinder, you will be put aside, and perhaps your own usefulness will be cut short.” If you have not faith enough in the power of the gospel, if you have not faith enough in the promises of God, if you have not faith enough in the power of prayer, then be in earnest in asking for more faithsuch faith as will stand firm in the day of temptation, of trial, of conflict, of opposition. Never say to yourself about any Christian work, “If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might such a thing be?” An affectionate word to the unbeliever, to the sinner. Unbelief is dangerous. Christ speaks of unbelief as a sin. He says of the Holy Spirit that “he will convince the world of sin, because they believed not on me.” Men may call it a hard doctrine, but there it is. “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” Is there anything hard in that? The offer of salvation is made to every one. It is so plain that there can be no mistake about it. If there had been any other way, any other Savior, men might plead uncertainty. But they are plainly told, “neither is there salvation in any other.” Those who believed not the warnings in the days of Noah, perished. Their day of grace was long, but they neglected it. So with the Israelites whose bones lay whitening in the wilderness. “They entered not in because of unbelief.” Oh, how terrible that unbelieving courtier’s doom: “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof!”C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
2Ki 7:1, 2Ki 7:2
A Divine teacher and a haughty skeptic.
“Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow,” etc. Here are two objects not only to be looked at, but to be studied.
I. A DIVINE TEACHER. “Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.” Elisha was inspired and commanded by the Almighty God to make a proclamation to a starving population. The famine was still prevailing. The shadow of death darkened the sky, and his freezing breath was in the air, and men were shivering on the confines of the grave. Thus, when things seemed to be at their worst, Elisha appears as a messenger of mercy from Heaven, declaring that on the next morning there would be an abundance of provision obtainable in the gate of Samaria. Two circumstances connected with this promise will apply to the gospel.
1. It was a communication exactly suited to the condition of those to whom it was addressed. People were starving, and the one great necessity was food, and here it is promised. Mankind are morally lost; what they want is spiritual restoration, and the gospel proclaims it.
2. It was a communication made on the authority of the Eternal. “Thus saith the Lord.” That the gospel is a Divine message is a truth too firmly established even to justify debate. By the gospel, of course, I do not mean all the tracts of which the book we call the Bible is composed, but the Divine biography of Christ as recorded by his four biographers.
II. A HAUGHTY SCEPTIC. “Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?” Here is one of the most contemptible of all classes of mena courtier, a sycophant in relation to his king, a haughty despot in regard to all beneath him. When he heard the prophet’s deliverance, he, forsooth, was too great a man, and thought himself, no doubt, too great a philosopher, to believe it. It was the man’s self-importance that begat his incredulity, and this, perhaps, is the parent of all skepticism and unbelief.D.T.
2Ki 7:3-8
The force of will.
“And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate,” etc. Here we have
I. MEN INVOLVED IN THE MOST WRETCHED CONDITION. “There were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate.” Of all the diseases which afflict mankind none is more painful, loathsome, and disastrous than leprosy. It was the scourge of the Hebrew race. Moses minutely describes the appearance of this malady, and gives clear and forcible rules to govern the medical treatment of it. Fat and blood and other particles of diet, which excite or aggravate constitutional tendencies to diseases of the skin, were strictly forbidden to the Jews. There are many points of analogy between leprosy and sin.
II. Men in the most wretched condition FORMING A RESOLUTION. “They said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.” Emaciated and wretched as might have been their bodily condition, their moral nature had sufficient stamina left to make a resolution. Mind is often more active in physical disease than in physical health. Pain whips all the faculties into action, marshals all the forces of the soul. Truly wonderful is the power of the human will. Let no man justify mental indolence and moral inertia by pleading his bodily troubles. But how often this is done! How often do you hear men say, “We can do nothing because of the circumstances in which we are placed”! The “cannot” of such is their “will not,” and the “will not” is their own choice.
III. MEN ACTING OUT THE RESOLUTION formed in the most wretched condition. These four poor starving leprous men not only formed a resolution, but they worked it out. “And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians.” In giving practical effect to their resolution, two results followed.
1. Difficulties vanished. Their great dread was of the Syrians, but as they approached the Syrian camp, “Behold, there was no man there.” Wherefore had they fled? Here is the answer: “For the Lord hath made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, Lo, the King of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they rose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.” By what force were these Syrians scared away? Not the force of the rough elements of nature, or the force of armies, but the force of terrible ideasideas that made them hear the noise of the rattling chariots and the tramping steeds of war, that had no existence. But these ideas, albeit, were ideas from God. “The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise.” God often frightens wicked men by ideas. “God can,” says Matthew Henry, “when he pleases, dispirit the boldest and most brave, and make the stoutest heart to tremble. Those that will not fear God, he can make to fear at the shaking of a leaf.” Before a strong resolution, apprehended difficulties frequently vanish into air. Where there’s a will there’s a way, even though it be over rugged mountains and surging floods. A man’s “I will” has a power in it mighty as the forces of nature, ay, mightier, for it can subordinate them. “If thou hast faith as a grain of mustard seed, thou shalt say to this mountain, Be thou removed,” etc.
2. The object was realized. What these poor starving leprous men deeply needed and sought was provisions to appease the cravings of hunger and to reinvigorate their waning life. And they got them. “And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it,” etc. Thus they gained even more than they sought; they not only gained food, but wealth.
CONCLUSION. Learn here the wonderful moral force of the human mind. It possesses a power to make resolutions under the most trying external conditions, and the power to work them out successfully. The fiat “I’ll try” has wrought wonders in human history, is working wonders now, and so it ever can. Well does Dr. Tulloch say, “Everything yields before the strong and earnest will. It grows by exercise. It excites confidence in others, while it takes to itself the lead. Difficulties before which mere cleverness fails, and which leave the irresolute prostrate and helpless, vanish before it. They not only do not impede its progress, but it often makes of them step-ping-stones to a higher and more enduring triumph.”D.T.
2Ki 7:9-11
The right and the prudent.
“Then they said one to another, We do not well,” etc. These verses record the conference which these four lepers had with one another after they had succeeded in working out their resolution to go unto the “host of the Syrians;” and in this conference we discover
I. THE RIGHT. “They said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” The silver and the gold which they had discovered they had hidden away; and now, perhaps, conscience told them it was not right. It is not right for us to conceal the good we have discovered, or to appropriate it entirely to our own use; let us communicate it. The distribution of good is right. Every man should be “ready to communicate.” The monopoly of material good is a huge wrong, and the crying sin of the age. Legislation will have to deal with this social abomination sooner or later; it is crushing the millions to the dust. Monopolies must be broken up; the wants of society and the claims of eternal justice demand it. What is truly “glad tidings” to us we should proclaim to others. The rays of joy that fall over our own lives we should not retain, but reflect.
II. THE PRUDENT. Whether these poor men felt it was right to communicate to others the tidings of the good they had received or not, they certainly felt it was prudent. “If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.” Accordingly they acted. “So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called to the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.” Not to do the right thing must cause some “mischief”mischief not only to the body, but to the soul as well, to the entire man. There is no prudence apart from rectitude. What is wrong in moral principle is mischievous in conduct. He who is in the right, however outvoted by his age, is always in the majority, for he has that vote which carries all material universes and spiritual hierarchies with it. Right is infallible utilitarianism.D.T.
2Ki 7:12-16
The help that comes to distressed men from without.
“And the king arose in the night,” etc. These verses suggest a few thoughts concerning the help that sometimes comes to distressed men from without. The best help that a man can get in any case is from withinfrom a right working of his own faculties, independence on his Maker. Still, help from without is often most valuable. There are three kinds of human helpers without.
1. Those that help men by their will. These are men, the chosen of the race, who lay themselves out for philanthropic service.
2. Those that help men against their will. It often turns out, as in the case of Joseph’s brethren, that our enemies really serve us.
3. Those that help men irrespective of their will. We are helped in many ways by those who know and care nothing about us. We come into possession of their knowledge, inventions, property. The property of the men of the last age is ours today. Such is the kind of help which the Syrians now rendered the Israelites, and we offer three remarks concerning this help.
I. IT WAS NEEDED. The men of Samaria were in the utmost distress, and the king arose in the night and sent forth two of his servants (2Ki 7:12) in pursuit of the Syrians to see what had happened. As they approached the spot they found that the Syrians had departed, but had left their property behind. “And the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste.” Thus in the height of their distress they found relief. It is often so in passing through life; often so in individual as well as in social life. In the greatest extremity help appears. When the cloud is darkest a beam of light breaks on it.
II. IT WAS UNDESERVED. Did these Samaritans deserve help? By no means. They were nearly all idolatrous and worthless people. They merited condign punishment, everlasting ruin. This is true of all men as sinners. Whatever help we receive is utterly undeserved. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.”
III. IT WAS UNEXPECTED. They went forth longing for food, but quite uncertain whether they would find any. They found that the enemy had fled, and in their haste had left provisions behind. “So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel.” Are not all men, in the providence of God, constantly receiving unexpected favors? The choicest blessings come when least expected.D.T.
2Ki 7:17-20
God’s promise realized and his truth vindicated.
“And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate,” etc. We have here an instance of two things.
I. GOD‘S PROMISE REALIZED. In the first verse of this chapter Elisha had said, “Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel.” The morrow had come, and here is the fine flour and the barley being sold in the gate of Samaria. Here is the Divine promise fulfilled to the letter. God is ever faithful who hath promised. If a being makes a promise, and it is not fulfilled, it must be for one of three reasonseither because he was insincere when he made the promise, or subsequently changed his mind, or met with unforeseen difficulties which he had not the power to surmount. None of these can be applied to the all-truthful, unchangeable, all-seeing, and almighty God.
II. GOD‘S TRUTH VINDICATED. The haughty courtier said to the prophet yesterday, when he was told that a measure of fine flour would be sold for a shekel, “If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?” As if he had said, “Do not presume to impose on me, a man of my intelligence and importance. The intellectual rabble may believe in you, but I cannot.” Whereupon the prophet replied, “Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” And so it came to pass. Here are the flour and the barley, and there lies dead the haughty skeptic. “And so it fell out unto him: for the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died.” Truth has ever vindicated itself, and will ever do so. Men’s unbelief in facts does not either destroy or weaken facts; the facts remain. Though all the world deny the existence of a God, moral obligation, and future retribution, the facts remain.D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
2Ki 7:1, 2Ki 7:2
The unbelieving lord.
The spirit of despair had taken possession of Jehoram. It was at this point that Elisha interposed with his promise of deliverance.
I. PREDICTED DELIVERANCE. Elisha made what must have seemed an incredible announcement.
1. The city was at that moment suffering the extremest horrors of famine. By the same hour on the morrow food would exist in plenty.
2. Such food as was then obtainable was of the coarsest, most loathsome, and most revolting nature. By tomorrow they would be dieting on fine flour and barley in abundance.
3. Their disgusting food was only to be had at famine prices. Tomorrow a measure of fine flour would be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel.
4. Today they were fast beleaguered. Tomorrow flour and barley would be sold in the open gates of Samaria. After this, is anything too hard for the Lord? (Gen 18:14). If men will not seek him, God leaves them to feel the extremity of their own helplessness before he interposes. Then he shows himself “plenteous” in mercy (Psa 103:8). Who can doubt that, if king and city had sought God earlier with sincere hearts, the deliverance would have come sooner? Thus by his own forwardness does the sinner stand in the way of his own good.
II. RATIONALISTIC DOUBT. The spirit of incredulity, which must have been in many minds when Elisha made this surprising announcement, found expression in the utterance of the captain on whose hand the king leaned, “Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?”
1. The author of this skeptical scoff was a person in high rank. The atmosphere of a court, and the position of a courtier, are not favorable to the development of piety. They are more apt to develop, as here, a worldly, skeptical, cynical spirit, with small faith in God, virtue, and truth. Piety is to be looked for rather in the cottages than in the palaces of a people, though there are notable exceptions. “Not many mighty,” etc. (1Co 1:26).
2. The language is that of scornful incredulity. It is the speech of a rationalist. Judged by the standards of sense and of natural reason, the sudden access of plenty which Elisha predicted was impossible. If the Lord opened windows m heaven, it might be looked for, but not otherwise. And who expected help from that quarter? Thus the worldly wise lord reasoned, sneering at Elisha’s word as the imagination of a heated brain. He is the type of all rationalists. Interpositions from heaven are the last things they are disposed to believe in; and in any case they will not believe God’s Word unless they can see how it is to be fulfilled, and on what natural principles the unusual event is to be explained. As in the present case there was no possibility of help from within the city, and no prospect of the Syrians leaving when the city was just about to fall within their power, and no evidence that food in such abundance could be obtained at a day’s notice even if they did leave, Elisha’s promise could only be assigned to the category of delusion. The spirit of faith is the opposite of this. It takes God at his word, and leaves him to find out the means of accomplishing his own predictions.
III. THE PUNISHMENT OF UNBELIEF. Elisha entered into no argument. He left his word to be proved or disproved by the arbitrament of time. But he told the great lord whoso much wiser than Elishahad scoffed at its fulfillment, what the penalty of his unbelief would be. He would see the promised plenty indeed, but he would not eat of it. Is not this the fate of every unbeliever? God’s word stands sure; it comes to pass in due time; but the intellectualist, the scoffer, the doubter, the man who was too wise to believe, finds himself shut out from participation in the blessing.J.O.
2Ki 7:3-11
The four lepers.
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.”
Speculation might have exhausted itself in vain in conjecturing how Elisha’s prediction was to be accomplished. Nevertheless, the wonder was performed by a series of events as simple as it was unlooked for.
I. A POLICY OF DESPAIR.
1. The lepers at the gate. We are first introduced to four lepers at the entering in of the gate. They were outside, and had hitherto subsisted by food handed out or thrown to them from within. But now the famine in the city made such assistance impossible, and the four men were dying of hunger. Poor, pitiable objects, the last persons to whom any one would have thought of looking for a glimpse of hope on the situation within the walls. Yet these despised lepers were to be, in a sense, the saviors of the city. We cannot but reflect on the humble and seemingly unlikely instruments God often chooses to accomplish his ends. He puts the “treasure in earthen vessels” (2Co 4:7). As if to abase human pride, he purposely selects instrumentalities which the wisdom of man would scorn.
2. Dire alternatives. Brought face to face with death, the poor lepers are forced to the earnest consideration of their position. What could they do? If they stay where they are they must die, and if they enter the city they must die. There remains the alternative, only to be contemplated as a last resource, of going over to the camp of the enemy. This has been put off as long as possible; but it appears now to be the only course which affords them any chance of life. Suppose the Syrians kill them, they are no worse off than before; if the Syrians take pity on them and save them alive, they shall live. The chance of life may be faint, but it is the only one left, and better than none. When men are in earnest, a very slight probability suffices them to act upon. They discover the truth of Butler’s axiom that “probability is the guide of life.” Did these men not act rationally in allowing even a slight probability to turn the balance of their action? How should it be otherwise when we deal with spiritual things? A man is in doubt as to the existence of God, as to the reality of a future life, etc. It may seem to him that the evidence for these truths amounts to no more than probability. He perhaps makes this an excuse for dismissing the consideration of them from his mind. But ought he not to give weight to this probability in action? In another way the doubter may take a leaf from the lepers’ book. If he remains where he is, he perishes, for atheism can hold out to him no other hope. But if, on the ground even of a slight balance of probability, he acts on the lines of Christ’s religion, he can be no worse than he is, while, if that religion is true (we speak only from his standpoint), he obtains eternal advantage. Or is the doubter one who does not question the truth of the gospel, but only questions his own right to appropriate its provisions? Let such a one imitate Esther, who, with the words on her lips, “If I perish, I perish” (Est 4:16), went in to Ahasuerus. Let him cast himself on Christ, and leave himself there. He will find, like Esther, that he does not perish.
3. The Divine will and the human will. In these consultations among themselves, the lepers were moved only by the consideration of their own misery. They neither knew of Elisha’s prediction, nor had any thought of aiding to fulfill it. Yet all the while they were working out God’s secret counsel. They were, while seeking their own ends, the unconscious instruments of a higher will than their own. Thus are we all. Man’s passions, ambitions, wants, follies, sins even, are subordinated in providence to the fulfilling of all-wise, comprehensive purposes, of which the immediate actors have no glimpse. “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever; the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psa 33:11).
II. THE DESERTED CAMP.
1. An astonishing discovery. At nightfall, in pursuance of their purpose, the lepers betook themselves to the camp of the Syrians. It was the evening of the day on which Elisha had made his promise. Of the hope then held out they were ignorant, but they were to be the first to make the discovery that deliverance had been wrought. It would be with fear and trembling that they approached the well-appointed tents, and the very silence that everywhere prevailed would strike them at first with new awe. But now an astonishing state of things revealed itself. The camp was therethat camp so lately astir with military lifebut not a soul was to be seen in it. Absolute stillness reigned throughout the tents; or, if sounds were heard, they were only those of the horses and asses which were left without masters. Thus near may our salvation be to us, and we know it not.
2. The flight of the Syrians. The explanation of the state of things which the lepers discovered is given in verses 6, 7. The Syrians themselves may in later years have told the story, or it may have been got from Elisha, whose prophetic gift gave him the knowledge of what had taken place. The Syrians, it appears, had heard strange noisessounds as of chariots and horses and of a great host; and, smitten with sudden panic, believing that the Hittites or Egyptians had brought help to the Israelites, they at once abandoned everything and fled. The panic was of supernatural intensity, as the sounds were of supernatural origin. The mind of man, no less than external natural conditions, is in the hand of God. He can smite with “madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart” (Deu 28:28); can make men the sport of their own imaginations and delusions. Such penalties are threatened against the wicked.
3. Dividing the spoil. The first impulse of the lepers, when they discovered that the camp was literally empty, was to supply their own wants. We can fancy them rubbing their eyes, and wondering if what they beheld was not all a dream. There around them, as if in some region of enchantment, were food and drink in abundance, with gold, silver, raiment, and valuables of every kind. They were stunned with their good fortune, and wandered about from tent to tent, eating and drinking, and carrying oat the good things they saw, to hide them. We can compare with the surprise of these lepers the joy of the soul on its first discovery of “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8). How infinite, grand, and varied the provision found in him, the riches of salvation, the supply for spiritual wants, the treasures for the enrichment and beautification of the soul! and how wondrously and unexpectedly these burst upon the view when God “reveals his Son” in us (Gal 1:16). At first the absorbing concern is for one’s selfthe engrossing thought is to appropriate what is necessary for our own life. But this stage, as in the case of the lepers, soon passes by, and gives place to another less selfish.
III. THE BRINGERS OF GOOD TIDINGS.
1. Self-rebuke. Four leprous men alone in that great camp, and a city near at hand perishing of hunger: it was a strange situation. The lepers themselves began to feel they were not acting rightly in delaying to carry the news of this astonishing plenty to their famine-stricken brethren. “We do not well,” they said: “this is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” Does not every mind feel that their words were just? Would it not have been selfishness unspeakable had they continued to think only of themselves, and delayed to carry the good tidings to their friends in the city? Acting thus selfishly, might they not justly fear that some “mischief” would come upon them? And did they not at length do right in saying, “Now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household”? The application is obvious to our own duty as those who possess the saving knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ his Son. “We do not well,” if we withhold it from those who are perishing for lack of this knowledge (Hos 4:6). How many are in this condition! The whole heathen world, and ignorant multitudes are around us. “It is a day of good tidings:” shall we not make these good tidings known? “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Mat 10:8). “Shall we whose souls are lighted,” etc.?
2. Bearing good news. The lepers delayed no more, but hastened to the gate of the city, and told their wonderful story to the porter, who told it to others, who carried it to the king’s house. Thus, from one to another, the news spread. It was not reckoned any drawback to it that they were lepers who brought it.J.O.
2Ki 7:12-20
The good news verified.
The tidings brought by the lepers were so astounding that it was natural there should at first be some hesitation in acting on them.
I. THE KING‘S SUSPICIONS. Jehoram was roused in the night-time, but his mood was distrustful and desponding. He was convinced that the Syrians were but playing him a trick. Their apparent retreat was a piece of strategy to get the Israelites out into the plain. Then they would fall on them and destroy them. “I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us,” etc.
1. Distrust of man. The suspicious disposition of the king accords with his general character. It has been noticed that Jehoram presents himself throughout the history as a man of moody, changeful, unreliable nature. “When the prophet leads the enemy into his hands without a blow, he becomes violent, and is eager to slaughter them all; then, however, he allows himself to be soothed, gives them entertainment, and permits them to depart in safety. At the siege of Samaria, the great distress of the city touches his heart. He puts on garments which are significant of grief and repentance, but then allows himself to be so overpowered by anger, that, instead of seeking the cause of the prevailing misery in his own apostasy and that of the nation, he swears to put to death, without delay, the man whom he had once addressed as ‘father.’ Yet this anger also is of short duration. He does not hear the promise of deliverance with scorn, as his officer does, but with hope and confidence. Then, again, when the promised deliverance is announced as actually present, he once more becomes doubtful and mistrustful, and his servants have to encourage him and push him on to a decision” (Bahr). It is shown by the present instance how a suspicious, distrustful disposition often outwits itself. One could not have blamed Jehoram for being cautious; but his habit of mind led him to go beyond caution, and to conclude for certain that the news brought was false, and that the Syrians were attempting a deception. Had he been left to himself, he would have rested in that conclusion, and inquired no further. Yet he was wrong, and the Syrians had actually fled. An excess of skepticism thus frequently leads those who indulge it astray. Jehoram was so accustomed to diplomacy, to intrigue, to strategy, that he thought of no other explanation of the facts related to him. By his moody unbelief he nearly missed the blessing.
2. Distrust of God. There was more than distrust of man in Jehoram’s suspicions; there was likewise distrust of God. Had his attitude to God’s promise, as conveyed through Elisha, been one of faith, he would at once have recognized that this which was told him was its fulfillment. He would have remembered Elisha’s word; he would have perceived how precisely this report fitted into it; he would at least, before dismissing the lepers’ story, have felt it his duty to consult Elisha, and ask him for his guidance. It was his unbelief which gave the dark tinge to his reflections. Are we not often guilty of similar distrust? We offer prayers, and, when the answer comes, we are astonished, and can hardly believe (Act 12:15, Act 12:16). Our unbelief darkens God’s providence to us, and prevents us from seeing his gracious hand.
II. VERIFICATION OF THE FLIGHT.
1. The servants‘ counsel. The servants on this, as on other occasions, showed themselves wiser than their lord (Exo 10:7; 2Ki 5:13). One of them gave him sound advice. The report they had received was, surely, at least worth inquiring into. Let him send some of the chariot-horses that remained (they were very few, and, like the remnant of the people of Israel, wasted with starvation, so that, at the worst, no greater evil could befall them than already existed), and let the charioteers bring word of the true state of the case. How many rash criticisms, hasty condemnations, unwise delays, would be avoided, if men would but act upon the principle “go and see”! The practical instincts are often sounder in the common people than in their lordly superiors.
2. The king‘s messengers. The king did as his servant suggested, and the chariots, two in number, were sent forth. The camp was found deserted, as the lepers had said, but, to make sure, the messengers continued their tour of inspection along the road leading to Jordan. The evidences of hasty flight were indubitable. “All the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste.” There was now no further doubt, so “the messengers returned, and told the king.” They had seen, and believed: how much better had the king trusted the word of the Lord, and believed, though he had not seen (Joh 20:29)! When men are fleeing for their lives, they willingly leave all behind them. It should moderate our sense of the value of earthly treasures when we see how, in an emergency, they are so little recked of. A day will come when the proudest and haughtiest would gladly part with all they have for a single smile from thee face of him who sits upon the great white throne (Rev 6:15, Rev 6:16; Rev 20:11).
3. God‘s word fulfilled. Thus it came about that, in a manner wholly unprecedented and unlooked for, the prediction of Elisha was fulfilled. The starving people found themselves set free from their besiegers, and, crowding out to the deserted tents, regaled themselves on the abundance of provision the Syrians had left. The store of the Syrian host was at their disposal, and a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel. “Wisdom is justified of her children” (Mat 11:19). Those are always found right at last who repose implicit trust in God’s Word. Worldly men may laugh at them; rationalists will mock them; the astute in this world’s affairs will count them hare-brained and foolish; but the event justifies them. The principle of verification holds as true in religion as in science. What we now accept in faith will ultimately be verified by sight. The difference between religion and science is that the latter refuses to act till it has received the verification (though even this is subject to qualification); the former trusts God, acts, and awaits the verification.
III. FATE OF THE MOCKER. There remained to be fulfilled the word which Elisha had spoken, that, though the king’s officer who had scoffed at the promise should see the predicted plenty, he would not eat thereof. This word also was verified in a remarkable, but seemingly accidental, way. This officer was appointed to superintend the sale of provisions in the gateway, but the pressure of the frantic crowd was so great that he was trodden underfoot and died. How simply, yet how accurately, was the prophet’s forecast fulfilled!
1. The incident is another evidence that even seeming “accidents” do not lie outside the providence of God.
2. It teaches men the folly and danger of mocking at God’s Word.
3. It shows the certainty of God’s threatenings being fulfilled.
4. It illustrates the end of the ungodlyseeing the fulfillment of God’s promises of mercy, but not permitted to enjoy.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2Ki 7:1. A measure The word saah which we render a measure, implies a quantity equal to six cabs, and contained, according to some, six quarts; according to others, a peck, or a peck and two quarts of our measure. The shekel was much about our three shillings, and though to have a peck of fine flour for three shillings at other times would not have been so cheap; yet, according to the present situation of things, it was wonderfully so. See Le Clerc.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
C.Elishas conduct during the Syrian invasion and the siege of Samaria
2Ki 6:8 to 2Ki 7:20
8Then the king of Syria warred against [was at war with1] Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.2 10And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God [had] told him and warned him of, and saved [protected3] himself there, not once nor twice [i.e., a great manytimes]. 11Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us4 is for the king of Israel? 12And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
13And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 14Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. 15And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? 16And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17And Elisha prayed, and said, 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. 18And when they came down to him, [i.e., the Syrian, for, the Syrian armyBhr] Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19And 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 [And] he led them to Samaria. 20And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? 22And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite [if thou shouldst do that, wouldst thou be smiting] those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the [marauding] bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
24And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an asss head was sold for [worth] fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of doves dung 26[was worthomit for] for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 27And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 28And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. 29So we boiled my son and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.
30And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 31Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. (32But Elisha sat [was sitting] in his house, and the elders sat [were sitting] with him; [.]) And the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he [Elisha] said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at [hold him back by means of] the door: is not the sound of his masters feet behind him? 33And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer [what hope shall I still place in the Lord]?
Chap. 7. 1Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for [be worth] a shekel, and two measures of barley for [be worth] a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2Then a lord [an officer, or adjutant] on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven might this thing be? [Verily! Jehovah is going to make windows in heaven! even then could this come to pass?] And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall [away] unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part [outskirts, viz., those nearest the city] of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. 6For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. 9Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief [penalty] will come [fall] upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the kings household. 10So they came and called unto the porter [guard] of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice [sound] of man [a human being], but horses tied, and asses tied, 11and the tents as they were. And he [one] called the porters [guards]; and they told it to the kings house within [reported it inside of the kings house].
12And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field,5 saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. 13And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed [dead6];) and let us send and see. 14They took therefore two chariot horses [two chariot-equipages]; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians [towards the Syrian camp], saying, Go and see. 15And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels [utensils], which the Syrians had cast away in their haste 16[hasty flight7]. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for [became worth] a shekel, and two measures of barley for [omit for] a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake [as he said] when the king came down to him. 18And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: 19And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 20And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Ki 6:8. Then the king of Syria, &c. According to Ewald, the story (2Ki 6:8-23) belongs to the time of Jehoahaz (chap 13:19). However, the passage immediately following begins, 2Ki 6:24, with the words, And it came to pass after this, so that it also would fall in a later time; but, by the words in 2Ki 6:26, king of Israel, and by Elishas epithet son of a murderer, 2Ki 6:32, as Ewald himself admits, we must understand Jehoram, and not either Jehoahaz or any other king of the house of Jehu. is used as in 2Ch 20:21 : He brought to them the deliberation [i.e., made them parties to it]. as in Rth 4:1; 1Sa 21:3. My encamping, i.e., the encampment of my army. The word , occurs only here. It is a derivative from , to sit down, to encamp (Gen 26:17; Exo 13:20; Exo 17:1). Ewald proposes to read , and to translate: shall ye form an ambuscade, because 2Ki 6:9 says: for there the Syrians are ; but nowhere has the meaning to lay an ambuscade, or to lie in wait, but: to go down or sink down (see Gesen. s. v.), so that it coincides very well with the meaning of . The conjecture is therefore unnecessary. The proposal of Thenius to change into , and to translate: Ye shall conceal yourselves at such and such a place, is still less admissible. The Vulgate has in 2Ki 6:8 : ponamus insidias, and in 2Ki 6:9, quia ibi Syri in insidiis sunt. The Sept. have in 2Ki 6:8 : ; 2Ki 6:9 : . This is correct, however, rather according to the sense than the words, inasmuch as the army, which had encamped behind the mountains, might certainly be said to be lying in ambush. In 2Ki 6:9, Clericus, De Wette, and Keil translate the words of Elisha: Beware lest thou neglect this place, i.e., leave it unoccupied, for there it is the wish of the Syrians to make an incursion; but , which means to pass over, never has the meaning to neglect; certainly not that of: to leave unoccupied. Moreover, this signification does not fit well with 2Ki 6:10, to which Keil incorrectly denies the meaning: to warn (cf. Eze 33:3; Eze 4:5; Ecc 4:13). At a time when the Syrians were intending to encamp at a particular spot, and to attack the Israelites when they should pass by, the prophet gave warning to the king: the latter anticipated them, stationed troops in the threatened position, and so frustrated their plan.
2Ki 6:11. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled, &c. means more than: to lose courage (Luther). It is used of the tossing, stormy sea (Jon 1:11). Clericus wants to read (Cf. Pro 30:10) instead of , because the Vulg. translates: quis proditor mei sit apud regem Israel, and the Sept.: . It may be, however, that both only translated according to the sense. At any rate it is not necessary to alter the text. From 2Ki 6:12 we see that Elishas reputation at that time extended even to Syria. The old expositors thought indeed that the servant who answered the king was Naaman, or one of his companions. The king learned the dwelling of Elisha by spies. Dothan (Gen 37:17) lay five or six hours journey north of Samaria, upon a hill (2Ki 6:17), at a narrow pass in the mountains (Jdg 4:5; Jdg 7:3; Jdg 8:3), in the district of the present Jinin (Van de Velde, Reise, i. s. 273).The king of Syria wished to get Elisha into his power, not that he might hold him, and find out through him what the king of Israel and other princes were plotting against him in their secret councils (Cassel), but in order that, for the future, his military plans against Israel might not become known to the king of Israel through Elisha. The phrase , 2Ki 6:14, cannot here be translated: a great army (De Wette, and others), as is clear from 2Ki 6:22-23, but it is used exactly as in 1Ki 10:2. The horses and chariots were accompanied by a large body of infantry.
2Ki 6:15. The servant of the man of God, &c. Not Gehazi, who would be mentioned by name, as in all other places (2Ki 4:12; 2Ki 4:25; 2Ki 5:20; 2Ki 8:4); moreover, the expression is never used of him. Perhaps it was one of the prophet-disciples who had accompanied Elisha to Dothan. That which Elisha says in 2Ki 6:16 is essentially the same as is read Num 14:9; 2Ch 32:7; Psa 3:6; Psa 27:3. He saw already the divine, protecting power, and begged God to allow his attendant also to see it, that he might undertake the journey back to Samaria with him, through the hostile army, fearless and consoled. The opening of the eyes signifies elevation into an ecstatic state in which the soul sees things which the bodily eye never can see (Keil, ed. of 1845), Num 22:31; The horses and chariots which Elisha and the servant see (2Ki 6:17), stand over-against the horses and chariots of the Syrians (2Ki 6:15), and they are designated by , the form of appearance of Jehovah (see above, p. 14), as from God, so that they are symbols of the might of Jehovah, which surpasses all human, earthly might, and is unconquerable. We have not to think of literal chariots and horses of fire here, any more than in 2Ki 2:11. Usually, Gen 32:2 is compared, but there express mention is made of angels, who are not to be identified directly with the horses and chariots of a vision.The Syrians are usually understood as subject of in 2Ki 6:18, but in that case we must suppose that they were on a hill from which they descended when they saw Elisha and his companion go out from the city. Keil adopts this supposition, for he says: Dothan stands upon a hill, which stands by itself on the plain, but it is surrounded or shut in on the east side by a ridge which runs out into the plain (cf. Van de Velde, l. c., s. 273). The Syrians who had been sent out against Elisha had taken up a position on this ridge, and from there they marched down against the city of Dothan, which lay upon the hill, while Elisha, by going out of the city, escaped from them. This idea is contradicted, however, by the assertion, in 2Ki 6:14, that the Syrians surrounded the city in the night. They enclosed it, therefore, and did not simply take up a position on the east side upon a hill, which was, besides, separated from it by the plain. Furthermore, according to 2Ki 6:17, it was not the ridge upon which the Syrians are said to have stood, but the hill upon which Dothan was, which was full of horses and chariots of fire, round about Elisha, under whose mighty protection he and his servant went out of the city and down the hill. The Syrian army surrounded the hill at its base, so that escape seemed impossible; the heavenly army, however, surrounded the city at the top of the hill, and so stood opposed to the Syrian. This is clearly the meaning of the passage. In the immediately following words (2Ki 6:18): and they went down, the reference can only be to Elisha and his companion, who are the subjects of the words immediately preceding. If the words are not taken as referring to them, then there is no statement that they left the city, and there is a gap in the narrative. Accordingly must be taken as referring to the Syrian army. The Syriac version and Josephus take it so ( ). There is no need of assuming that stood in the text originally in the place of , as Thenius does, for is often used in the singular for the Syrian army (2Ki 6:9; 1Ki 22:35), and is construed with the verb in the singular (1Sa 10:14-15; Isa 7:2).And he smote them with blindness, i.e., they were put into a state in which, although they had their sight, yet they did not see him (Elisha), i.e., did not recognize him. Jarchi: They saw, but did not know () what they saw. Cf. Gen 19:11 (Luk 24:16; Isa 6:10).On 2Ki 6:19 Keil says: Elishas untrue declaration: This is not the way, must be judged like every other military stratagem, by means of which the enemy are deceived; but, as Thenius well replies: There is no untruth in the words of Elisha; for his home was not in Dothan, where he was only residing temporarily, but in Samaria; and the words to the man may well mean: to his house. Josephus understood the passage correctly; he says: Elisha asked them whom they had come to seek. When they answered: The prophet Elisha, , , (i.e., where he is to be found), . He certainly used a form of speech which the Syrians might understand otherwise than as he meant it, but he did not pretend in the least to be anything else than what he was. That they did not know him was a divine dispensation, not the result of an untruth uttered by him. How could the man of God, after repeated prayers to Jehovah, straightway permit himself a falsehood, and try, by this means, to save himself from danger? If he saw, as his companion did, horses and chariots of fire round about him, and if he was thus assured of the divine protection, then he needed for his deliverance neither a falsehood nor a stratagem. The Syrians wanted to take him captive; instead of that he, by the help of God, captured them all; not, however, as is usually the case in such a ruse, to their harm or ruin, but, after he has shown them that they could not capture him, the prophet in Israel (2Ki 6:12), he takes them under his protection, repays evil with good (2Ki 6:22), and shows them by this very means the man whom they are seeking.
2Ki 6:21. And the king of Israel. when he saw them, &c. The address: My father, does not presuppose any filial relationship, but is rather a mere title (Clericus: sic honoris causa dicitur). Even Benhadad is called thy (Elishas) son, by Hazael (2Ki 8:9). The prophet-disciples called their master father, and this because it was the ordinary title of the chief of the prophets, somewhat as the same word is occasionally used now-a-days. The repetition of expresses the eager desire to smite them. Elishas words (2Ki 6:22): &c., are taken by many expositors as a question [as in the E. V.], the idea being: if thou dost not even put to death those whom thou hast captured with bow and spear, how canst thou slay these? (Thenius, Keil). Such a question, however, would be very extraordinary; for if Jehoram was not accustomed to put to death even those who had been made captive in battle, why should he ask whether he should kill these, who had fallen into his hands without a combat? It seems more probable, on the contrary, that he was accustomed to put captives to death, in accordance with the prevalent war-usage of the time (Deu 20:13), and he raises the question, in the present extraordinary case, only out of consideration for the prophet, and because he does not trust his own judgment in the unprecedented circumstances. The Vulgate gives the sense correctly: non percuties; neque enim cepisti eos gladio et arcu tuo, ut percutias. The objection that , the article, could not have patach before cannot be held to be decisive against this interpretation; the Massoretes themselves took as the article (Gesen. Lex. s. v. ; De Wette). [I take to be the interrogative (Ewald, 104, b), but agree with the above interpretation. If thou shouldst put these to death, would it be a case of slaying prisoners of war? i.e., couldst thou justify it by Deu 20:13?W. G. S.] No one doubts that , in 2Ki 6:23, signifies the preparation of a meal. The only disagreement is as to the connection of this signification with the fundamental meaning of the root. According to Thenius the root is , which, with its derivatives, always refers to something round; hence, the circle of guests. According to Keil, , to dig, gradually acquired the meaning: to prepare, make ready, so that it ought here to be rendered: paravit apparatum magnum. According to Dietrich (in Gesen. Lex. s. v.), the cognate dialects lead to the idea of bringing together or uniting, which, he thinks, is the fundamental idea in a banquet. Cf. cna from .The result of Elishas act was that, from this time on, the raids of the Syrians ceased, not indeed because the magnanimity of the Israelites shamed them, but because they had found out that they could not accomplish anything by these expeditions, but rather brought themselves into circumstances of great peril.
2Ki 6:24. And it came to pass after this, &c. Josephus correctly states the connection between the passage which begins with 2Ki 6:24, and what precedes, as follows: , , . Nevertheless, an interval of some years must be supposed to have elapsed between the two incidents. Ben-Hadad is not an appellative, like Pharaoh; it is the same king who is mentioned in 1Ki 20:1. In order to show the depth of the distress from the famine, the writer states the price of things which are not ordinarily articles of food. The worst part of an animal, which, at best, was unclean, the head of an ass, sold for 80 shekels, according to Bertheau and Keil, 35 thalers ($25.20), according to Thenius 53 thalers, 20 sgr. ($38.64). In like manner, in a famine among the Cadusians, Plutarch (Artaxerxes, 24.) tells that the head of an ass was scarcely to be bought for 60 drachm, whereas, ordinarily, the entire animal only cost 25 or 30 drachm). The price of a mouse rose to 200 denarii in Casalinum, when it was besieged by Hannibal (Pliny, Hist. Nat. viii. 57; Valer. Max., vii. 6).There is no doubt that , i.e., , means doves dung, and not doves food (Berleb. and Calw. Bibel); the only question is, whether this is to be taken literally, or whether it is a designation of a very insignificant species of pease. Bochart maintains the latter (Hieroz. ii. 44), and he appeals to the fact that is really a measure of grain: so also Clericus, Dathe, Michaelis, and others. The Arabs call the herba alcali sparrows dung. Celsius (Hierobot. ii. p. 30), on the contrary, maintains the literal meaning, which is supported by the keri , fluxus, profluvium columbarum ( from the Chald. , to flow), a euphemism for the chetib. So also Ewald and Thenius; the latter says: If snipes dung is eaten as a luxury, necessity may well make doves dung (2Ki 18:27; Joseph. Bella. Jud. v. 13, 7) acceptable. Gesenius and Keil do not decide. We incline to the interpretation which makes it a kind of vegetable. Supposing even that dung was collected for food, as was the case, according to Josephus, at the destruction of Jerusalem, why should doves dung be especially used? There is, moreover, no instance of doves dung having been used as food, and sold at so high a price. The meanest form of vegetable seems to be here put in contrast with the meanest form of flesh. The vegetable probably took its name from the similarity of color (white) and form, as in the case of the German Teufelsdreck (assaftida). Cab is the smallest Hebrew dry-measure; according to Bertheau, it is equivalent to 27.58 cubic inches (Paris), and, according to Bunsen, to 56.355. Five shekels are equal to 2 thlr. 2 sgr. ($1.49, Keil), or 3 thlr. 10 sgr. ($2.40, Thenius).
2Ki 6:26. And as the King of Israel was passing by, &c. The wall of the city was very thick; the garrison of the city stood upon it; the king went thither in order to visit the posts, or to observe the movements of the enemy.If the Lord do not help thee, whence, &c. is taken here, by many, in its ordinary signification, ne: May the Lord not help thee! i.e., perdat te Jehovah (Clericus). If this is correct, the king invokes a curse upon her (Josephus: ). The following words, however, Whence, &c., do not coincide with this interpretation. The same is the case if we translate, with Maurer, vereor, ut Deus te servet. Keils translation: No! let Jehovah help thee! (i.e., do not ask me, let, &c.) is still more inadmissible, for must not be separated from , with which it is connected by a makkeph. It evidently stands here for (Ew. 355, b), and the meaning is: On the general supposition that there is no help for her: If God does not help thee, how can I? (Thenius). Cassels interpretation of the words as a rebellious invocation of God, is entirely mistaken: Let God help thee: why does not the Eternal, whom ye have in Israel, and who has always revealed himself here, help thee? Where is He, then, that he may help us? They are rather words of despair.Out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press? as much as to say: with corn or with wine? (Gen 27:28; Gen 27:37); not, corn and oil, for is wine-press (Pro 3:10). [The distress has reached a point where Gods interposition alone can provide food. If He does not interpose, how can I satisfy thy hunger? from the threshing-floor or the wine-pressthe only human resources in case of hunger? Thou knowest that these are exhausted, and that the limits of my power of relief have been passed. Address thyself, therefore, to God. If He does not help thee, much less can I. The difficulty of the passage is one that is common enough. There is an unexpressed promise, viz., the circumstances of the case, which are vividly present to the mind of both hearer and speaker, and an unexpressed conclusion, viz., the proper inference to be drawn, or the proper conduct to be pursued, in the promises. The first speaker has drawn a false inference from the facts, and the question aims to lead him to a correct judgment. Hence is used, very nearly in the sense of .W. G. S.] When the woman had, probably, replied to the king that she did not demand food of him, but appealed to him as judge, he asked her: What aileth thee? Thereupon she relates the horrible incident, in which the existing misery had attained its height. The other woman had hidden her child, not in order to consume it alone, but in order to save it. Her act reminds us of 1Ki 3:26.
2Ki 6:30. He rent his clothes, &c., as a sign of horror and of grief. As he stood upon the wall, and therefore could be seen by all, the people observed that he had sackcloth next his body, like Ahab, 1Ki 21:27, under the royal garment, which he tore open. Sackcloth was usually worn next the skin (Isa 20:2-3), only the prophets and preachers of repentance appear to have worn it over the under-garment, because in their case it was an official dress, and so needed to be seen (Winer, R.-W.-B. ii. s. 352). The sentence: He passed by upon the wall, is not, according to Thenius, to be connected with what follows, but, as the athnach shows, with what goes before. Jehoram did not wear sackcloth in order to make a show before the people, for they could not see it before he tore the cloak which was above it; neither did he wear it out of genuine penitent feeling, for, in that case, he could not have sworn, with sackcloth upon his body, to put to death the prophet, whom he had called Father, and to whom he was under such deep obligations. He wished, by means of this external action, to turn aside the wrath of God; He thought that he had done enough, by this external self-chastisement, to satisfy God, and he wished now, in a genuine heathen disposition, to be revenged upon Elisha, since he learned from this story that the famine had not ceased (Von Gerlach). It is not necessary to understand that Elisha had distinctly demanded that he should put on the garment of penitence (Ewald); perhaps the prophet had only exhorted generally to penitence, and the king, in order to put an end to the distress, had put on sackcloth. He become enraged at the prophet, partly because he believed himself deceived by him, if he, as we may suppose, had given the advice not to surrender the city [If it had not been for him (Elisha), he (the king) would long before have surrendered the city on conditions, Ewald], but to rely upon the help of Jehovah, and partly because he thought that the prophet might have put an end to the distress if he had chosen, and thereby might have prevented the horrible crime of the women. The oath reminds one of that of Jezebel against Elijah (1Ki 19:2).
2Ki 6:32. But Elisha sat in his house, &c. The narrative in 2Ki 6:30-33 seems to be somewhat condensed, and to require to be supplemented. This, however, can be done with tolerable certainty from the context. The sentence: Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him, is a parenthesis; the following, and he, namely, the king (not Elisha, as Kster and Cassel suppose), sent, &c., joins directly on to 2Ki 6:31. can only refer to the magistrates of the city, not to the prophets or prophet-disciples (Josephus). They had not been sent in order to report to Elisha how far matters had come in the city (Cassel), but had betaken themselves to the prophet, since no one any longer could give counsel, in the great distress, in order to take his advice, and to beg for his assistance. While they were thus assembled the king sent a man, , not, before him (Luther and others), but, from his presence, i.e., one of those men who stood before him, and, as servants, waited for his commands (1Ki 10:8; Dan 1:4-5), just as we see in Gen 41:46. This man was to behead Elisha, in fulfilment of the oath which the king had sworn in his excitement. Perceiving in spirit what was being done (as in 2Ki 5:26), the prophet says to the elders: See ye, i.e., do ye know, &c. He applies to Jehoram the significant epithet: son of a murderer; as by descent, so also in disposition, is he a son of Ahab, the murderer of the prophets, and of the innocent Naboth, (1Ki 21:19); filius patrizat. With the words: Is not the sound, &c, Elisha straightway announces that the king will follow upon the heels of the messenger (cf. 1Ki 14:6), and he calls upon the elders not to let in the messenger until the king himself comes.
2Ki 6:33. And while he yet talked with them, &c. The first question is, what is the subject of ? If we take to be the subject, then we must suppose, as Thenius, Cassel, and others do, that the messenger speaks the words: This evil is of the Lord, &c, as the mouthpiece of the king, since they certainly are the words of the latter. This, however, is, in the first place, very forced, because he must have expressed it by saying: The king commands me to say to you, &c, but it is imperatively excluded by the consideration that the king, according to 2Ki 7:17, was present, and so the messenger could not speak in his name, in his presence. Ewald, taking account of 7:17, wishes to read for , but then the affirmation that the messenger, whom the elders were to restrain until the arrival of the king, really came, would be wanting from the text. The simplest course seems to be to supply as the subject of (there is an athnach after ) and to supplement the text here by what is stated in 7:17. The sense would then be: And the king, who had followed close upon his messenger, said, &c. Why did the king follow his servant? Certainly not in order to see what was the result of his command (Ewald); nor, in order to be assured that his commands had been executed (Eisenlohr); but, on the contrary, in order to restrain the execution of a command which he had giver, in an excess of rage (Keil). Even Josephus says: Jehoram repented of the wrath against the prophet, which had overcome him, and, as he feared lest the messenger might have already executed his commands, he hastened to prevent it, if possible.Behold, this evil is of the Lord, &c, i.e., Jehovah has brought it to this pass that mothers slay and eat their own children; what further shall I then hope for or expect from Him? By these words, he means to show the prophet that he no longer refuses to recognize the chastising hand of God in the prevailing distress, and then he desires to learn from him whether the divine wrath will not be turned aside, and whether the distressed city may not hope for aid (Krummacher). To these verba hominis pene desperantis (Vatablus), Elisha replies in 2Ki 7:1, with a promise of immediate and extraordinary deliverance. The interpretation: The distress is so great that no help can any longer be hoped for, so that nothing remains but to surrender the city; thou, however, who hast prophesied falsely, and hast vainly promised help, and therefore art to blame for the calamity, thou shouldst justly suffer death (Seb. Smith, and similarly Thenius), is entirely mistaken. If this were the sense, Elishas solemn promise would seem to have been forced from him by the threat of death, whereas it rather serves to shame the king, who had doubted of Jehovah, and is, therefore, an answer fully worthy of the prophet. Jehoram had already given up his plan of murder when he followed his messenger. [His despair is, to a certain extent, intended as an excuse for his murderous project. It is as if he had said: God sends me only calamity upon calamity. Is it strange that my faith deserts me, and that I can no longer hope or believe that God will ultimately help? This despair produced the blind and senseless rage against thee. I have recovered from that madness, but how can I hope longer? This hope seems only to delay the catastrophe, and to make it worse the longer it is deferred. The prophet answers the despair by a new, definite, and confident prediction.W. G. S.]
Chap. 7. 2Ki 7:1. Hear ye the word of the Lord, &c. The solemnity and distinctness with which the prophet addresses the king, the elders, and the others who are present, must not be overlooked.On see note on 1Ki 18:32.In the gate of Samaria, i.e., the place where the market was usually held (Winer, R.-W.-B. ii. s. 616). On and the following form of speech see note on 1Ki 9:22, and 2Ki 5:18. Instead of , all the versions read , which, according to 2Ki 7:17 and 2Ki 5:18, is the correct reading; the dative gives no sense.The words of the lord in 2Ki 7:2 are the scoff and jest of unbelief; Jehovah will indeed open windows in heaven, and cause it to rain barley and meal! will that come to pass? Thenius connects the two sentences thus: Supposing even that the Lord should make windows in heaven, will this (viz., the promised cheapness and plenty) even then come to pass? This interpretation finds in the words only doubt, and not bitter scorn, but, from the threat with which Elisha answers, it seems that the latter must be included. Windows in heaven may be an allusion to Gen 7:11.
2Ki 7:3. Four leprous men, cf. Lev 13:46; Num 5:2 sq. No one any longer brought them food from the city, and they were not permitted to enter it. In order to escape death from hunger, they proposed to go over to the camp of the enemy at dusk, when they would not be seen from the city. That (2Ki 7:5) does not mean early in the morning (Luther), is clear from 2Ki 7:9; 2Ki 7:12., in 2Ki 7:6, can only be understood of a continuous and increasing rushing and roaring in the air, by which the Syrians were deceived. There are instances, even now-a-days, that people in certain mountainous regions regard a rushing and roaring sound, such as is sometimes heard there, as a sign of a coming war.On the kings of the Hittites, see note on 1Ki 10:29. The slight remains of the nations of the Hittites having been subjugated by Solomon (1Ki 9:20), we have to understand that reference is made here not, as Thenius thinks, to an independent remnant of this people, living near their ancient home (Gen 15:20; Num 13:29), towards the river of Egypt, but, to an independent Canaanitish tribe, which had withdrawn into the northern part of Palestine. The kings of the Egyptians must not be understood too literally; they are only involuntarily mentioned for the sake of the balance of the phrases (Thenius). Both expressions are only meant to convey, in general terms, the idea that people from the north and from the south are on the march to the assistance of the Israelites, so that danger threatens the Syrians upon all sides. [It is worth while to notice also the graphic force which is given to the story by quoting what purport to be the exact speeches of all the parties. We are told just what Elisha said, and what the officer said, and what the lepers said, and finally what the Syrians said, as if the speeches had been recorded at the time they were uttered. But how could any one tell what the Syrians said in their encampment at night? Evidently the writer puts himself in the place of the Syrians, and imagines what their interpretation of any sudden alarm would be. Instead of stating this in the flat and colorless form in which a modern historian would state it: The Syrians thought that some one was coming to help the Israeliteshe gives the speech in what purport to be the exact words. The mention of the king of the Hittites is very strange. No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed, and the kings of Egypt did not interfere in Asiatic affairs throughout this entire period. Yet we should expect that the Hebrew writer would ascribe to the Syrians such fears as they would be likely to have under the circumstances.W. G. S.] On see note on 1Ki 19:3.
2Ki 7:9. Then they said one to another, &c. After they had satisfied their hunger and loaded themselves with booty, it occurred to them that officium civium est, ea indicare, quae ad salutem publicam pertinent (Grotius). They were justly anxious lest they might be punished if they should longer conceal the joyful intelligence from the king and the city.In 2Ki 7:10, Thenius wishes to read, with all the oriental versions, , watchmen, instead of , because follows. Maurer and Keil take the singular collectively for the body of persons who were charged with the guard of the city.The subject of , 2Ki 7:11, is not the speaker among the lepers, but the soldier on guard. He could not leave his post, so he called to the other soldiers who were within the gate, and they then gave news of the occurrence to the guards in the palace. The attendants of the mistrustful king (2Ki 7:12) give him very sensible advice, the sum of which is, However it may turn out, nothing worse can happen to the troops we send out than has already happened to many others, or than will yet happen to the rest (Berleb. Bibel). Five is here as it is in Isa 30:17; 1Co 14:19; Lev 26:8, a general designation of a small number. The origin of this use of language is probably that five, as the half of ten, is opposed to this number, which expresses perfection and completeness, to denote the imperfect and incomplete: so that it means a few horses. According to 2Ki 7:14 (two chariots) there were not five, but four. Two chariots, or equipages, were sent, in order, we may suppose, that if one were captured, the other might quickly bring the news.
2Ki 7:16 sq. And the people went out, &c. We may well imagine with what eagerness. The king had given to his adjutant (2Ki 7:2) command to maintain order, but the people trod him down in the gate. He was not crushed in the crowd, as Ewald states, but trodden under foot ( Isa 41:25). This can hardly have taken place unintentionally, for why should it have happened just to him? Probably the eager and famished people would not listen to his commands, and bore down his attempts to control them. The repetition of the prophets prediction (2Ki 7:1-2) in 2Ki 7:18-19, shows what weight the narrative lays upon its fulfilment. It is meant to be, as it were, a finger of warning to unbelief (Calwer Bibel), and designates this fulfilment as the object and the main point of the entire narrative.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. With the story of these two incidents now, we pass, in this rsum of the prophetical acts of Elisha (see above, Historical on chap. 4), to those which bear upon the political circumstances and fortunes of the nation and of its king. First come those which are connected with its foreign affairs. The especial danger from without was from the Syrians. Benhadad was the chief and bitterest enemy, who was evidently determined to subjugate Israel. He did not succeed in this; he only served as a rod of chastisement to bring back the king and the people from their apostasy to their God. Jehovah rescued them again and again from his hand; not by the hand of the king, nor by mighty armies, nor by great generals, but by the man of God, the prophet, in order that all might perceive that salvation from the might of the sworn foe was not a work of human strength or wisdom, but was due to Him alone, the God of Israel, to testify of whom was Elishas calling. The two incidents belong together, for one of them shows how his secret plans and cunning plots, and the other, how his open assaults, with the employment of the entire force at his disposal, were brought to naught by the intervention of the prophet. If anything could have done it, these extraordinary proofs of the might, the faithfulness, and the long-suffering of Jehovah, ought to have brought Jehoram to a recognition of his fault, and to reformation (2Ki 3:3). This is the point of view from which both narratives must be considered.
2. In the first incident, Elisha appears in the distinct character of a seer, , which was the older name for a (1Sa 9:9). He sees the place where the Syrians have determined to encamp, not once, only, but as often as they formed a plan, and, when they came to take him captive, he saw the heavenly protecting powers, and, at his prayer, the eyes of his attendant were opened, so that he, too, saw them, whereas the enemy were struck with blindness. This gift of secret sight, while one is in clear possession of all the faculties of consciousness, is similar to that of prophecy. Both are effects of the spirit of Jehovah, which non semper tangit corda prophetarum, nee de omnibus (Syra), nec datur illis per modum habitus, sic ut est in artifice (Sanctius). The prophet only sees what others do not see when Jehovah grants it to him, and his sight does not apply to all things whatsoever, nor to all events, as its legitimate objects, but only to those things which pertain directly or indirectly to the relation to Jehovah and to the guidance of the people of Israel as a nation, or as individuals. [Moreover, it is not in the power of the prophet, by any physical and ever-available means, to bring about this state of the soul at will]. This sight is therefore something entirely different from so-called clairvoyance, which has nothing in common with divine revelation. It may be asked why Elisha, who saw the places where the Syrians would encamp, and would attack Israel, did not also foresee their coming to Dothan, and the danger which threatened him of being captured by them. Cassel (Elisa, s. 116) is of the opinion that he must have known it; yet he remained at Dothan and awaited the hostile emissaries: he knew that there were more with him than all the enemies together could muster. This opinion, however, has no foundation in the text. On the contrary, it is clearly declared that the arrival of the Syrians was not observed until the morning, and that it was totally unexpected. If Elisha had known beforehand, by a divine revelation, that they were coming, he would have regarded it as a direction to escape from the threatening danger, and not to remain any longer in Dothan, as Elijah once fled from Jezreel (1Ki 19:3), and Joseph from Bethlehem (Mat 2:14). The great danger which suddenly came upon him, without his knowledge or fault, was a trial of faith for him and for his attendant. While the latter fell into anxiety and terror on account of it, Elisha showed himself a true man of God in that he trusted firmly in his Lord and God, and spoke courageously to his companion: Fear not. In this firm faith he experienced the truth of what is written in Psa 34:1; Psa 91:11.
3. The conduct of Elisha towards the band of Syrians, which had been sent out against him, is not, as might at first appear, a mere pendant to the similar incident in Elijahs history (2Ki 1:9-16). It cannot even be compared with it, for the persons and the circumstances are of an entirely different character. The emissaries, who were sent to take Elijah captive, were sent out by a king of Israel, who despised the God of Israel, and sought succor from the Fly-god of the Philistines. They were also themselves Israelites who, being of a like disposition with their king, mocked the prophet of Jehovah. Under these circumstances an act of kindness and forgiveness on the part of the prophet, whose high calling it was to pronounce, by word and deed, the judgment of God upon all apostasy, would have been a renunciation of his calling (see above, p. 6). Benhadad, on the other hand, was a heathen, who did not know the living God of Israel. His troops were blind instruments of his will, who did not know what they were doing, and did not scoff at the God of Israel, or at his prophet. Besides, Elishas act was not merely a piece of good-nature and magnanimity, it was rather a prophetical act, in the strict sense of the words, which had no other aim than to glorify the God of Israel. Not for his own sake did Elisha pray Jehovah to smite the Syrians with blindness, but in order that he might lead them to Samaria. The thanks for their surrender into the hands of the king were due, not to him, but to Jehovah. Jehoram was to learn once more to recognize the faithfulness and might of Jehovah, and to be convinced that there was a prophet in Israel (2Ki 5:8), from the fact that these dangerous enemies were delivered into his hands without a blow. On the other hand, Benhadad and the Syrians were to learn that they could not accomplish anything, with all their cunning plots, against the prophet that is in Israel (2Ki 6:12), and much less, against Him whose servant and witness this prophet was. From this time on, therefore, they ceased their raids, as is expressly stated in 2Ki 6:23. The release, entertainment, and dismissal of the troops was a deep mortification to them. The slaughter of the captives, on the contrary, would have frustrated the purpose of the prophets act.
4. The miraculous features of this story some have attempted to explain, that is, to do away with, in various ways. Knobel (Der Proph. der Hebr., ii. ss. 93, 98 sq.) remarks upon the incident as follows: Inasmuch as Elisha had extended his journeys as far as Syria (2Ki 8:7), he had gained information of the plans of the Syrians against Israel. This information, as a good patriot, he did not fail to make known to his king. He led the Syrians, who do not appear to have known either him or the locality, to Samaria. The inability to recognize the person as Elisha, or the place as Dothan, was, inasmuch as the safety of a man of God was at stake, caused by God; all the more, seeing that it appeared to be extraordinary and miraculous that they should not see that which was directly before their eyes. The cessation of this inability was then an opening of their eyes by God. Sudden insight into things which have long been before the eyes and yet have not been perceived, the Hebrews regarded as being directly given by God. The horses and chariots of fire in the narrative are a purely mythical feature. This explanation is almost more difficult to explain than the narrative itself. Nothing is said anywhere about frequent journeys of Elisha to Syria. Only one such journey is mentioned, and that later (2Ki 8:7). He could only have gained knowledge of Benhadads plans from his immediate and most familiar circle of attendants. These attendants, however, reject any hypothesis of treachery, and cannot explain Elishas knowledge in any way except on the ground that he is a prophet, i.e., himself sees the things which are plotted in the kings bed-chamber. So far from conspiring with Elisha, these servants of Benhadad find out his place of abode, and so bring about the attempt to capture him. Then, when a company is sent to Dothan, and really arrives there, they must have known where the place was, and that they were there and not elsewhere. Furthermore, how could, not a single individual, but a whole company, allow themselves to be deceived by a man who was unknown to them, and to be led away five hours journey without getting insight into that which was directly before their eyes? The fiery horses and chariots, finally, are a symbolic but not a mythical feature (see above, p. 14). Ewalds explanation is much more probable than this rationalistic interpretation. According to him, Elisha proved himself the most faithful counsellor, and the most reliable defence of the king and people, by pursuing the plans of the Arameans with the sharpest eye, and by frustrating them often single-handed, by means of his sure foresight and tireless watchfulness. The memory of this activity is preserved in 2Ki 6:8 sq., where we have a vigorous sketch of it, as it had taken form in the popular imagination. If, however, the prophets second-sight, which is the central point of the entire story, is a product only of the popular imagination which, at a later time, wrought upon the story, then we no longer have history before us, and the man of God, who is especially presented to us as seer and prophet, sinks down into a wise and prudent statesman. It would then be an enigma how he could have sure forebodings of the presence of the enemy at this or that place, and could give them out as certain facts. According to Kster, the gift of sight, which was imparted to the companion of Elisha, at the prayer of the latter, is only a beautiful representation of the idea that the eye of faith sees the sure protection of God where, to the vulgar eye, all is dark. In like manner Thenius says: It is a glorious thought, that the veil of earthly nature is here lifted for a moment, for a child of earth, that he may cast a look upon the workings of the divine Providence. But here we have not an idea, be it ever so beautiful, clothed in history, but an historical fact. The prayer of Elisha does not mean: Give him faith in the sovereignty of divine Providence; or: Strengthen this faith in him; but: Give him power to see that which, in the ordinary course of things, it is not permitted to a man to see. His companion then sees, not the thought-image of his own brain, but that which Jehovah allows him to see in symbolic form. In like manner it was a dispensation of Providence that the Syrians did not see, in spite of their open eyes. [The author vindicates the literal historical accuracy of the record, but his opponents bring out its practical importance. Let us suppose that, as a matter of historical fact, on a certain day, a certain man, under certain, circumstances, looked up and saw in the air chariots and horses of fire, or something else, for which chariots and horses of fire is a symbolic expression. The practical religious importance of the incident lies in the fact that he was thereby convinced that God protects His own. The prophets object in his prayer could be none other than that he might be thus confirmed in the faith, and the edification of the story depends upon these two deductions: God protects His servants; and, to the eye of faith, this protection is evident, when earthly eyes see it not.W. G. S.]
5. The narrative of the second incident gives us information of the great famine in Samaria during the siege by the Syrians. It is impossible not to perceive the intention of showing, in the description of this siege, how the threats in Lev 26:26-29, and Deu 28:51-53, against transgressions of the covenant, were here fulfilled; for the separate incidents, which are here referred to, correspond literally to those threats. The famine, such as had hardly ever before been experienced, and especially the abominable crimes which it occasioned, referred back to those threats, so that they forced the people to observe the violation of the covenant, and the great guilt of king and people, and, in so far, were the strongest possible warning to return to the God whom they had abandoned. As for the abomination wrought by the two women, nothing like it occurs anywhere but in the history of Israel; at least, no one has yet been able to cite any incident of the kind from profane history. According to Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10 (cf. Jer 19:9; Ezech. 5:10), something similar seems to have occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 39); and Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 34) relates that, at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a noble lady slew her child and ate a part of it, an action which filled even the Romans with horror, and caused Titus to declare that he would not permit that the sun should shine upon a city on earth in which mothers nourished themselves with such food. That such abominations were perpetrated precisely among that people which had been thought worthy to be the bearer of the revelation and knowledge of the one living God, only proves that if such a people once falls away from its God, it sinks deeper than another which does not know Him, but adores dumb idols.
6. The deliverance of Samaria, like that of the three kings in the war with the Moabites, did not take place by a miracle, in the accurate sense of the word, but it belongs, nevertheless, as that does, in the rank of the events which bear witness to the special divine governance of Israel (see above, p. 36). Josephus opinion that God raised a great tumult in the ears of the Syrians ( ) does not agree with the text, which distinctly mentions a real and strong roaring. Still less is to be rendered by rumor (Knobel: The Syrians raised the siege suddenly, because they heard a rumor that the Egyptians and Hittites were on the march against them). The threefold repetition of the word, which, moreover, never means rumor, is against this interpretation. As for the prediction of deliverance, by Elisha, that can never be explained on naturalistic grounds. Knobel leaves it undecided whether Elisha, who probably had intrigues with the Syrians, succeeded in starting such a report among them, or whether, in reality, an hostile army was advancing upon the Syrians, of which fact Elisha had information. The first hypothesis falls to the ground when we consider that it was no rumor at all, but a rushing and roaring noise, which the Syrians heard. The alternative is just as unfounded, for all the external communications of the city were cut off, and the approaching army, of which, however, history makes no mention, must have been so near already that the noise of its march would be heard, not only in the Syrian camp, but also in Samaria; or, can we conceive that Elisha might have ordered up an Egyptian and Hittite army, over night, and that this might have marched at once? Ewalds notion that the prophets promise of deliverance only shows the lofty confidence with which he met the despairing complaints of the king, is equally unsatisfactory. It would have been more than foolhardy in the prophet to proclaim, as the word of Jehovah, before the king, his attendants, and the elders, something which he, after all, only guessed, and which was contrary to all probability. If his guess had not been realized, what would have become of him, and how would he have been disgraced in his character of prophet? What is more, he not only promised deliverance, but also foretold to him who scoffed at his promise: Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof, and the threat was fulfilled. The promise and the threat of the prophet form together the central point of the story; they are not mere incidental details, as is clear from the express repetition at the close. The truth of the occurrence, which no one doubts, stands or falls with both together. The object of the story is, to show that there is a prophet in Israel (2Ki 5:8), so that it appears, to say the least, very insipid to hold, with Kster, that the moral of the story is: God can save by the most unexpected means, but the unbeliever has no share in such salvation. [2Ki 5:8 cannot, with any justice, be cited as bearing upon the significance of this story. Its lesson is one much more nearly touching the historical development of the plan of redemption than chap. 5. It was important that all should know that there were prophets of God in Israel, only to the end that they might believe what follows from this fact, viz., that God has a plan for the redemption of the world in which the Israelitish nation plays a prominent part: that He, therefore, is especially present among them by His prophets, and that their history and fortunes, their calamities and chastisements, their mercies and deliverances, are interpositions of God for the furtherance of His plan. The point of the incident before us is, that God would interpose to arrest a national calamity at the very crisis of its fulfilment, for the instruction, warning, and conversion of His people.W. G. S.]
7. King Jehoram presents himself, in both narratives, just as he was described above (p. 34). He does not persecute the prophet; he rather listens to his counsel, and addresses him as father (2Ki 6:9; 2Ki 6:21); but he never places himself decidedly on his side. He stands an example of those who often permit themselves to be led, in their worldly affairs, by holy men, who admire them from a distance, who suspect the presence of a higher strength in them, but still hold them aloof and persist in their own ways (Von Gerlach). When the prophet leads the enemy into his hands without a blow, he becomes violent, and is eager to slaughter them all; then, however, he allows himself to be soothed, gives them entertainment, and permits them to depart in safety. At the siege of Samaria, the great distress of the city touches his heart. He puts on garments which are significant of grief and repentance, but then allows himself to be so overpowered by anger that, instead of seeking the cause of the prevailing misery in his own apostasy and that of the nation, he swears to put to death, without delay, the man [who had endeavored to fix his attention upon the true cause of the calamity, and] whom he had once addressed as father. Yet this anger is also of short duration. He repents of his oath, and hastens to prevent the murder, and asks Elisha, trembling and despairing, if there is no further hope. He does not hear the promise of deliverance with scorn, as his officer does, but with hope and confidence. Then again, when the promised deliverance is announced as actually present, he once more becomes doubtful and mistrustful, and his servants have to encourage him, and push him on to a decision. Thus, at one moment elated, at another depressed, now good-natured and now hard and cruel, now angry and again despairing, now trustful and again distrustful, he never rises above a character of indecision, changeableness, and contrasted dispositions. He was indeed better than his father Ahab, but he was still a true son of this father (see 1 Kings 18, Hist. 6). In one thing only he was firm: He cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom (2Ki 3:3). Since, not to mention so many other proofs of the divine power, patience, and faithfulness, even the deliverance of Samaria from the greatest peril did not avail to bring him into other courses, judgment now came upon him and his dynasty, and the threat of the Law was fulfilled: I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation (Exo 20:5). He was the fourth member of the dynasty of Omri, or, as it is commonly called, from the principal sovereign of the family, the house of Ahab. With him, that dynasty ended (2Ki 9:10).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki 6:8-23. The Lord is Hiding-place and Shield (Psa 119:114). (a) He brings to nought the plots of the crafty, so that they cannot accomplish them (Job 5:12), 2Ki 6:8-14. (b) The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them (Psa 34:7), 2Ki 6:15-19. (c) The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken (Psa 9:15; Psa 35:7), 2Ki 6:20-23.
2Ki 6:8-17. Krummacher: Hints of the Course of Things in Zion. (a) The revealed plot; (b) the military expedition against one man; (c) the peaceful abode; (d) the cry of alarm; (e) the unveiled protection from above.
2Ki 6:8. Cramer: The heart of man plots its courses, but the Lord alone permits them to prosper. A mans heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps (Pro 16:9). There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord (Pro 21:30).Let them undertake the enterprise as cunningly as they can, God leads to another end than that they seek (Isa 8:10).In such and such a place shall be my camp (Pro 27:1; Jam 4:13-16).
2Ki 6:9. Osiander: It is no treason to bring crafty and malicious plots to the light. It is a sacred duty (Act 23:16). Beware of going into places where thou wilt be in jeopardy of soul and body. Be on thy guard when the enemy advances, and put on the whole armor of God (Ephes. 6:13 sq.).
2Ki 6:10. No one has ever regretted that he followed the advice of a man of God; on the contrary, many have thus been saved from ruin.
2Ki 6:11. Starke: When God brings to naught the plots of the crafty, they become enraged, and, instead of recognizing the hand of God and humbling themselves, they lay the blame upon other men, and become more malicious and obstinate.He who does not understand the ways of God, thinks that he sees human treason in what is really Gods dispensation. Woe to the ruler who cannot trust his nearest attendants (Psa 101:6-7).
2Ki 6:12. A heathen, in a foreign land, confesses, in regard to Elisha, something which no one in Israel had yet admitted to be true. The same thing also happened when the greatest of all prophets appeared (Mat 8:10; Mat 13:57).Krummacher: Tremble with fear, ye obstinate sinners, because all is bare and discovered before His eyes, and shudder at the thought that the veil, behind which ye carry on your works, does not exist for Him! All which ye plot in your secret corners to-day, ye will find to-morrow inscribed upon His book, and however secretly and cunningly ye spin your web, not a single thread of it shall escape His eye!
2Ki 6:13. How mad it is to fight against, or to attempt to crush, a cause in which the agency of a higher power is visible (Isa 14:27; Act 5:38-39).
2Ki 6:14. Benhadad sends out an entire army against one, out finds but the truth of the words in Psa 33:18 sq.
2Ki 6:14-23. Elisha during Distress and Danger, (a) (Although enclosed by an entire army, he does not fear or tremble, like his companion, but speaks to him words of encouragement and confidence. This is the effect of a firm faith, which is the substance, &c., Heb 11:1. Faith takes away all fear, and gives true and joyful courage, Psa 23:4; Psa 91:1-4; 2Co 4:8. David speaks with this faith, Psa 3:5-6; Psa 27:1-3; and Hezekiah, 2Ch 32:7; and Luther: Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wr, und wollt, &c.) (b) His prayer, 2Ki 6:17-18. (Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes! So should every true servant of God pray for every soul that is entrusted to him. We all need to use this prayer daily: Lord, open my eyes! for it is the greatest misfortune if one cannot see the fight, even by day (Eph 1:18). Elisha, however, also prays: Lord, smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness, for his own protection, and for their salvation, for they were to learn that He is a God who can save marvellously from the greatest distress, and that no craft or skill avails against Him. It is not permitted us to pray for harm to our enemies; but we may pray that God will make them powerless, and show them His might.) (c) His victory, 2Ki 6:19-23. (Those who wish to capture him, he captures; but his victory is no victory of revenge. He causes the captives to be entertained kindly, and allowed to depart in safety, that they may learn that the God, whose prophet Elisha is, is not only a mighty, but also a merciful and gracious God. God is not so much glorified by anything else as by returning good for evil. For so is the will of God, &c, Peter 2:15; cf. Rom 12:20. He won the highest victory who said upon the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.)
2Ki 6:15. Our fortune also may change over night; then, how shall we bear it?Starke: Our feeble flesh cannot do otherwise than despair, when distress comes suddenly upon us, especially if we are young and inexperienced; for experience brings hope (Rom 5:4).
2Ki 6:16-17. Cramer: If we had spiritual eyes, so that we could see the protecting forces of loving, holy angels, it would be impossible for us to fear devils or wicked men (Psa 104:4; Heb 1:14).
2Ki 6:17-18. Berleb. Bibel: In the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is hidden from the world, blind men every day receive their sight, and men who see are smitten with blindness.
2Ki 6:18. The Lord smites with blindness those who light against Him, not in order that they may remain blind, but in order that they may truly see, after they shall have observed how far they have strayed, and shall have recognized the error of their way (Act 9:8 sq.; Joh 9:39).
2Ki 6:19. It is not a sin to withhold the truth from any one until the proper time for making it known, but, in many cases, it is even the duty of wisdom and love (Joh 13:7; Mat 10:16). Follow me! is the call of the only one who can lead us where we shall find that which we are, consciously or unconsciously, seeking, for He is the light of the world, &c. (Joh 8:12).
2Ki 6:20. A time will come for all who are spiritually blind, when their eyes will be opened, and they will learn that they have been walking in the paths of error.Krummacher: Ye dream of some unknown kind of an Elysium, and ye shall awake at last among those of whom it shall be said: Bind them hand and foot, and cast them into outer darkness.
2Ki 6:21-23. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God (Jam 1:20). God does not give our enemies into our hands in order that we may revenge ourselves upon them, but in order that we may show ourselves to be children of Him who dealeth not with us according to our sins, neither rewardeth us according to our iniquities. He who receives forgiveness from God, must also show forgiveness to others; that is the gratitude which God requires of us, and which we owe to Him.
2Ki 6:23. Starke: True love to ones enemies is never fruitless (1Sa 24:7; 1Sa 24:17-18).
2Ki 6:24-31. Samaria during the Siege, (a) The great scarcity; (b) the two women; (c) the king.
2Ki 6:24. Evil men wax worse and worse (2Ti 3:13). As Benhadad accomplished nothing by his raids, he made an attack with his entire force. A perverse and stubborn man cannot endure to be frustrated, and when he is, instead of leading him to submissiveness as it ought, it only hurts his pride, and makes him more irritated.
2Ki 6:25. General public calamities are not mere natural events, but visitations of God on account of public guilt. Cf. Jer 2:19; Jer 3:12-13.Krummacher: Of all the judgments of God in this world, none is more terrible than famine. It is a scourge which draws blood. It often happens that God takes this scourge in hand when, in spite of manifold warnings, His name is forgotten in the land, and apostasy, rebellion, and unbelief are prevalent.
2Ki 6:26-29. Necessity leads to prayer, wherever there is a spark of the fear of God remaining; but where that fear is wanting, necessity knows no law becomes the watchword. The crime of the two women is a proof that, where men fall away from God, they may sink down among the ravenous beasts. Separate sores, which form upon the body, are signs that the body is diseased, and the blood poisoned. Shocking crimes of individuals are proofs that the community is morally rotten.
2Ki 6:26. Starke: Earthly might can help and protect us against the injustice of men, but not against the judgments of God.
2Ki 6:27. How many a one speaks thus who might help if he only earnestly tried. When the prayer: Help me! is addressed to thee, do not refer the suppliant to God for consolation while any means of help, which are in thine own hands, remain untried (1Jn 3:17; Jam 2:15-16).
2Ki 6:30-31. Calw. Bibel: See here a faithful picture of the wrongheadedness of man in misfortune. In the first place, we halfway make up our minds to repent, in the hope of deliverance; but if this is not obtained at once, and in the wished-for way, we burst out in rage either against our fellow men, or against God himself. Observe, moreover, the great ingratitude of men. Jehoram had already, several times, experienced the marvellous interference of God; once it fails, however, and he is enraged. The garment of penitence upon the body is of no avail, if an impenitent heart beats beneath it. Anger and rage and plots of murder cannot spring from the heart which is truly penitent. It is the most dangerous superstition to imagine that we can make satisfaction for our sins, can become reconciled to God, and turn aside His wrath, by external performances, the wearing of sackcloth, fasting, self-chastisement, the repetition of prayers, &c. (Psa 51:16-17). The world is horrified, indeed, at the results of sin; but not at sin itself. Instead of confessing: We have sinned (Dan 9:5), Jehoram swears that the man of God shall die (2Co 7:10).Starke: Whenever Gods judgments fall upon a people, the teachers and preachers must bear the blame (1Ki 18:17; Amo 7:10).
2Ki 6:32 to 2Ki 7:2. Elishas Declarations in his own House. (a) To the assembled elders; (b) to the despairing king; (c) to the scoffing officer.
2Ki 6:32. The Lord preserves the souls of His saints; he will save them from the hands of the godless (Psa 97:10). He sends friends at the right moment, who serve us as a defence against wickedness and unrighteous persecution.Krummacher: It is pleasant to be with brethren in a time of calamity. One feels in union a power against all calamities which threaten him.. Moreover, especial promises attach to such a union. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there is He in the midst of them.Cramer: Although the saints of God are unterrified at the possibility of martyrdom, yet they are not permitted to cast themselves into the flames, but may properly make use of all ordinary and just means to preserve themselves for the good of the church of God (Php 1:22).
2Ki 6:33, cf. Pro 21:1. The wrath of the king changes to timidity and hesitation. The heart of the natural man is a rebellious, but, at the same time, wavering thing. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord (Jer 17:7; Jer 17:9; Psa 37:17).2Ki 7:1. We must still answer Hear the word of the Lord to those who, in littleness of faith and in despair, cry out, what more shall I wait for from the Lord? A bruised reed shall he not break, &c. (Mat 12:20). To-morrow, at this time. When the need is greatest, God is nearest. If God often unexpectedly helps even apostates out of great need, how much more will He do this for His own, who call to Him day and night. He has roads for every journey; He does not lack for means.
2Ki 7:2. The Sin of Unbelief and its Punishment. The children of this world consider their unbelief to be wisdom and enlightenment, and they seek to put that which is a consolation and an object of reverence to others, in a ridiculous light. The Lord will not leave such wickedness unpunished. It is only too often the case that high-born, and apparently well-bred men, at court, take pleasure in mockeries of the word of God and of its declarations, without reflecting that they thereby bear testimony to their own inner rudeness, vulgarity, and want of breeding. It is a bad sign of the character of a prince, where scoffers form the most intimate circle of his retinue (Psa 1:1-4). Unbelief is folly, because it robs itself of the blessing which is the portion of faith.
2Ki 7:3-16. The Miraculous Deliverance of Samaria. It declares loudly (a) what is written in Dan 2:20 : Wisdom and might are His. (He knows how, without chariots or horses, without arms or army, merely by His terror, to put an enemy to flight, Exo 23:27; to feed the hungry, and set the captives at liberty, Psa 147:7, in order that all may confess: Who is so great a God, &c., Psa 77:13-14; and: Let not the wise man glory, &c., Jer 9:23-24); (b) cf. Psa 103:8 : If ever a deliverance was undeserved, then this was, that all might admit: It is of the Lords mercies, &c. (Lam 3:22; Rom 2:4-5).
2Ki 7:3-10. The Lepers outside the City. (a) Their conversation (2Ki 7:3-4); (b) their visit to the Syrian camp (2Ki 7:5; 2Ki 7:8); (c) their message to the king (2Ki 7:9-10).
2Ki 7:3-4. Krummacher: How often the same disposition meets us in the dwellings of the poor; instead of a joyful and believing looking up to heaven, a faithless looking for help from human hands; instead of submission to God, a dull discontenta despair which quarrels with the eternal. Thence comes the frequent neglect of the household, and decay of the family. And then what language is this: If they kill us, we shall only die, as if the grave was the end of men, and the great Beyond were only a dream; or as if it were a matter of course that the pain of death atones for the sins of a wasted life, and must rightfully purchase their pardon, and a reception into heavenly blessedness. Our life lies in the hand of God, who sets its limit, which we may not anticipate. Circumstances may, indeed, arise in which a man wishes for death; it makes a great difference, however, whether this wish comes from weariness of life, or whether we say, with St. Paul: I long to depart and be with Christ. Only when Christ has become our life, is death a gain.
2Ki 7:5-7. Starke: The Almighty laughs at the planning of the proud, and brings their schemes to a disgraceful end (Psa 2:1 sq.; Dan 4:33-34).Wrtemb. Summ.: It is only necessary that in the darkness a wind should blow, or that water should splash in free course, or that an echo should resound from the mountains, or that the wind should rustle the dry leaves, to terrify the godless, so that they flee as if pursued by a sword, and fall, though no one pursues them (Lev 26:36). Therefore, we should cling fast to God in the persecution of our enemies, should trust Him, and earnestly cry to Him for help; He has a thousand ways to help us.
2Ki 7:6. Krummacher: It happens to the unconverted man, as it did here to the Syrians. God causes him to hear the rumbling of His anger, the roaring of the death-floods, the thunder of His law, and the trumpet-sounds of the judgmentday. Then he flees from the doomed camp, in which he has dwelt hitherto, and hurls away the dead-weight of his own wisdom, justice, and strength.
2Ki 7:8-9. Wrt. Summ.: Many a one gets chances to acquire property dishonestly, to enjoy luxury and debauchery, to gratify fleshly lusts, and to commit other sins, and, if he is secure from human eye, he does not trouble himself about the all-seeing eye of God; but his crime is discovered at last in his own conscience, and, by Gods judgment, it is revealed and punished. Conscience can, indeed, be benumbed for a time; but it will not rest forever; it awakes at last, and stings all the more the longer it has been still. He who conceals what he has found, is not better than a thief.Pfaffsche Bibel: It is a good action to warn others of wickedness, and to hold them back from sin, still more to encourage them to virtue (Heb 10:24).
2Ki 7:10. Lepers, i.e., outcast and despised men, were destined, according to Gods Providence, to announce to the threatened city, in the crisis of its danger, the great and wonderful act of God. God is wont to use slight and contemptible instruments for his great works, that He may, by the foolish things of the world, confound the wise (1Co 1:27). Fishermen and publicans brought to a lost world the best Good News, the gospel, which is a power to make all blessed who believe in it.
2Ki 7:12-15. Doubt and distrust of Gods promises are deeply inrooted in the human heart. Where it is most necessary to be prudent, there the heart of man is sure and free from care (Psa 53:5), and where there is nothing to fear, there it is anxious. Instead of confessing with joy: Lord, I am unworthy of the least of all thy mercies, when the promised help is offered, it does not trust even yet, until it can see with the eyes and grasp with the hands.
2Ki 7:16. Calw. Bibel: Learn from this that He can lead us, as in a dream, through the gates of death, and, in an instant, set us free.Wrt. Summ.: It is easy for our Lord and God to bring days of plenty close upon days of famine and want. Therefore, we should not despair, but trust in God, and await His blessing in hope and patience, until He open the windows of heaven (Mal 3:10).Starke: Gods word fails not; not a word of His ever fell upon the earth in vain; every one is fulfilled to the uttermost, both promise and threat.
2Ki 7:17-20. The judgment upon the kings officer proclaims aloud: Be not deceived: God is not mocked (Gal 6:7; Pro 13:13).Krummacher: His corpse became a bloody seal upon the words of Jehovah, and of His prophet.Berleb. Bibel: In the last days also, when the abundance of the divine grace shall be poured out, like a stream, in the midst of the greatest misery, many despisers of the glorious promises of God will see the beginning thereof, but will not attain to the enjoyment of it; they will be thrust aside by marvellous judgments.
Footnotes:
[2]2Ki 6:9.[On Ges. Thes. s. v. says: Whoever gave this word its punctuation seems to have derived it from the root (cf. Job 21:13), but the force of descent, going down, is necessary and indubitable. Sept. ; Vulg. in insidiis sunt. The H.- W.-B. makes it an adj. from , but Ew. casts doubt upon the form, and says it could as well be a part. niphal from , 187, 6.
[3]2Ki 6:10.[He protected himself, i.e., he occupied the threatened point, and so frustrated the attack. Every time that the Syrians came they found that the Israelites had anticipated them at the point where they proposed to attack.
[4]Ver 11.[Ewald, Lehrb. 181, b, and note 2, rejects the form as an incorrect reading. He takes (as in 2Ki 9:5) to be the true reading. It is clear, however, that in 9:5 Jehu includes himself among those, one of whom the answer is to designate, while the king of Syria asks, Who of those who belong to us? naturally enough excluding himself from the number of those who fall under suspicion of treachery. The meaning of the two forms is quite distinct, and each belongs to the place in which it is used. Ewalds theory of the use of the abbreviated form of must bend to this instance; the instance cannot be thus done away with, in the interest of the theory.
[5]2Ki 7:12.[The in the chetib is that of the article, which, in the later books, is sometimes found even after a preposition. Ew. 244, a.
[6]2Ki 7:13.[That is to say: They go to the fate which has already befallen all the people who are gone, and which sooner or later, awaits all who remain.W. G. S.] We agree with Thenius that the keri is to be preferred, because the word occurs immediately afterward without the article.Bhr. [Ew. explains the article in the chetib as retained in the later or less accurate usage, especially where the article has emphatic force. 290, d.W. G. S.]
[7]2Ki 7:15.Keil: The chetib is the only possible correct form, for has the meaning, to flee with haste, only in the niphal. Cf. 1Sa 23:26; Psa 48:5.Bhr.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The ministry of Elisha is continued through this chapter. The prophet, in the midst of dearth, foretelleth an immediate, and incredible plenty. An unbelieving lord treating the prophet’s prediction with contempt, Elisha foretells his death, which accordingly takes place.
2Ki 7:1
I think it is more than probable, that as Elisha had been at prayer for this mercy, he now acted faith upon God’s promise of kind answers to prayer, and in the strength of it thus predicted. But observe how he speaks of this great and unexpected mercy in the Lord’s name. Reader! it is very precious when, from the lively actings of faith in God’s promises in Christ, we can take confidence in a faithful covenant God during dark seasons. It was this that rendered the patriarch’s faith so memorable. Rom 4:18-22 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 7
1. Then [And] Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour [ Gen 18:6 ] be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley [ Jdg 7:13 ] for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
2. Then a lord [adjutant or aide-de-camp (comp. 2Sa 23:8 ; 1Ki 9:22 ; 1Ch 11:11 )] on whose hand [comp. chap. Jdg 5:18 ] the king leaned [was leaning], answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold [thou art about (destined) to see], thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3. And there were four leprous men [literally, and four men were lepers] at the entering in of the gate [and so outside of the city (comp. Lev 13:46 ; Num 5:2-3 )]: and they said one to another, Why sit we [Why are we abiding] here until we die?
4. If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto [ i.e., desert, go over to] the host of the Syrians; if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
5. And they arose up in the twilight [at nightfall, see Jdg 5:9 , Jdg 5:12 )], to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part [outskirts or verge] of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.
6. For [Now] the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites [comp. 1Ki 9:20 , 1Ki 10:29 ], and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.
7. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life [ 1Ki 19:3 ].
8. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat, and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
9. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us [Heb., we shall find punishment]: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.
10. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold there was no man there, neither voice of man, but [the] horses tied, and [the] asses tied [ i.e., tethered and feeding], and the tents as they were.
11. And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.
12. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.
13. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five [an indefinite small number (comp. Lev 26:8 ; Isa 30:17 )] of the horses that remain, which are left in the city (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:), and let us send and see.
14. They took therefore two chariot [chariots of] horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.
15. And they went after them unto [in the direction of the] Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. [Comp. 1Sa 13:6 ; Psa 48:6 , Psa 104:7 .] And the messengers returned, and told the king.
16. And the people went out, and spoiled the tents [camp] of the Syrians. So [And it came to pass] a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17. And [Now] the king [had] appointed the lord [the adjutant] on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him [trampled him down] in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said [spake], who spake when the king came down to him.
18. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:
19. And that lord [the adjutant] answered the man of God, and said, Now [And], behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be [literally, might it happen according to this word]? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
20. And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate and he died.
The Famine In Samaria
To understand the greatness of the miracle which is here recorded we must make ourselves familiar with the awful circumstances in which Samaria was placed during what is termed in the twenty-fifth verse of the sixth chapter, “a great famine.” Benhadad had come up against Samaria with all his host, and Samaria presently was the scene of the most lamentable destitution. The ass was accounted unclean in the ritual, and would not therefore be eaten except as a last resort. Nor does the humiliation end there, for, according to the best authorities, the head of the ass would be its worst and cheapest part. The fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung reminds us that, according to the rabbinical writers, the cab was the smallest of all the dry measures in use amongst the Jews. According to Josephus, the cab was about equal to two quarts, and therefore the fourth part of it would be about a pint. The circumstances were more lamentable still. Two women said to one another that they would on successive days each boil a son, that the child might be eaten to stay the pangs of hunger. This tragedy, and all the experience which belongs to it, was not overlooked in the earlier books of Scripture, and it is looked back upon from some of the later books. In Lev 26:29 : “Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.” In Deu 28:53 , Deu 28:56-57 we read: “And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:… The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” Then proceeding to the Book of Lamentations ( Lam 4:10 ) we read, “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.” In Ezekiel the picture is, if possible, still blacker: “The fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers” ( Eze 5:10 ). Keeping all these circumstances steadfastly in view, we may see to what an extremity the power of the prophet was brought. Would it be possible even for heaven itself to intervene in conditions so tremendous and humanly unmanageable? Was it possible for one cloud to be added to the infinite darkness which settled over the doomed city?
Here we see the true value of bread. We are so familiar with the food which is necessary to sustain our daily life that we simply expect it morning by morning, and because of our familiarity with it we cease to account it at its proper value. As we have already seen, God has only to withdraw some most common mercies in order to visit us with the most painful judgments. He need not strike a stroke, nor utter one word of anger; he has simply to stay his hand, that is, to forbear from opening it, and all living things will perish out of his sight. Whilst it would be legitimate to found upon this circumstance an exhortation to thrift and economy, and the desirableness of forming just estimates of the blessings which make up our daily experience, we may leave this aspect of the question to call attention to the possibility of our undervaluing those spiritual and intellectual benefactions by which our best life is sustained. It is nothing to the people of Christian countries to have Bibles, teachers, Sabbaths, churches, and what is termed the machinery of ecclesiastical being; but let these be withdrawn, then we shall know in their absence what estimate to put upon them. Let it be impossible for sorrow to find its way to a single psalm; let affliction be left destitute in the hour of its keenest agony, not having one word of biblical direction or sympathy; let the Sabbath day be divested of its sacred traditions and become one of the common days of the week, so that men shall not know it from any other day because of the labour and toil with which it is charged; and as the result of this deprivation many men would doubtless come to form another estimate of the value of religious privileges than that which they have already formed. It is a sad reflection that men can become so familiar with the light as hardly to set any value upon it. How few care to observe the rising of the sun, or the going down of the same! Why? because these are daily occurrences. If these phenomena transpired but once a year the populations of the earth would be all alive with expectation; but, because they occur so regularly, what man cares for them more than they are cared for by the beasts of the field? We need preachers and teachers who will constantly call our attention to what are known as the common-places of life. All this craving for new sensations, high intellectual excitements, and fascinations and entrancements of every kind, is to be deprecated; there is no abiding life in them; when we come to know the reality of things we shall be less displeased with men who insist upon the necessity of bread and water and the common and familiar blessings of life. Jesus Christ set less store by his miracles than any man who observed them. He knew that miracles could not constitute a great and lasting life; they had their uses, illustrative and instructive, but the thing toward which they pointed, the simple duty, the eternal law, the sequential blessing arising out of the course of obedience, this was the thing on which Jesus himself set the greatest value. So it ought to be when we read the Bible. As children, we are fascinated by its stories, by its wonderful colouring, its continual action, its astounding tragedies; as we advance in life we change our point of observation and our standard of values, and at the end we ask for the profound doctrine, the calm benediction, the tranquillising thought, the holy encouragement towards trust in God and higher uses of life’s fleeting privileges.
In the twenty-eighth verse we see how a greater law may include and override a lesser law. The words are: “This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.” This was a violation of everything that we know under the name of natural law. Every instinct recoiled, every affection of the heart shrank back in dismay and horror. Affection, trust, love, sympathy, care, these words would seem to mark the course of natural law as between parent and child: but here we have a condition of life in which this law is overridden by a greater law namely, the law of self-preservation. We are to infer that the children were infants of the youngest years. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget.” In this case, however, there was no mere forgetfulness, certainly there was no want of maternal feeling: the women were under the pressure of the tyranny of hunger, and it was not as if their abstinence from the act of sacrifice would have saved the young ones alive, for death was staring the whole city in the face, and young and old must go down under its ghastly progress. There have been heroic instances in which the law of self-preservation has given way before the law of natural love. The superiority of the one law over the other is often determined by circumstances. Where the children must of necessity have died, and where there was nothing but death before the parents, it would seem as if the law of self-preservation overcame the law of natural affection in one instance at least. This system of the relative value of laws is one deserving of close study, because it affects all human life social, political, and spiritual. The instance with which we are most familiar is that of the law astronomical as related to the law geographical and agricultural. The earth itself is full of laws, it is a network of operations constituting themselves into a continual demonstration of high forces and subtle ministries of every kind; yet the great astronomical law takes up the whole earth in its course and causes it to revolve, and to keep in its place, and to receive blessings from other stars, and not one single law that is in operation in the earth itself touches for a moment in any arrestive or destructive sense the great astronomical government. The law of righteousness overrides in many instances the laws of prudence. The law which may be described by the term “an eternal life” sets aside all the considerations of the lower laws of social usage and social obedience. It is right that men should obey the magistrate and the judge, and should generally accept the law of the land, but circumstances may arise in which men will be compelled to say, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to obey men rather than God, judge ye.” When we, therefore, speak about law we must be careful to take it in its largest acceptation and relationships, and not to bind it down to one local or partial standard. It is perfectly right to obey the king, and yet in a larger sense it may be perfectly right to disobey him. Things must be kept in their proper spheres, and estimated according to the law of special consequences and responsibilities. In this way the Christian apostles were always guided in their self-sacrificing and dangerous course. The servant was to obey his master, but it was to be “in the Lord;” the child was to obey the parent, but it was with the same condition; and so throughout the whole system of Christian discipline there would seem to be a series of graded laws, one rising above another until the sovereign law of all was reached, and the voice of God expressed through an enlightened conscience was to direct the life mind in all the intricate and contending claims of social and political requirements.
From this incident we see the utter worthlessness of money under special circumstances. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall of Samaria, “there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?” ( 2Ki 6:26-27 ). The king meant that both the barnfloor and the winepress were empty, and that therefore it was impossible for him, even though king of Israel, to help the woman in the bitterness of her hunger. The king of Israel might have money enough, jewels and precious stones of every kind in abundance: the palace was still standing, the crown still remained, furniture of the most sumptuous kind made the palace rich, but what of all this when there was no bread? This brings us back to what we may call again the law of commonplace. Money in itself is of no value. The whole value of money is in what it can buy, and all that can be bought is utterly useless if bread be not at the very foundation of the purchase. Let us consider this well, for it has an important bearing upon our spiritual life. There are men who have not failed to tell us that without health all other possessions are but so many burdens. Why do they stop at health? Health is impossible without bread. Jesus Christ, therefore, described himself as the bread of life and the water of life: he took his stand upon that which is initial and essential. Civilisation creates its luxuries and refinements and decorations of every sort, and seeks to tempt the appetite by many a condiment or stimulant, but under all lies the sweet and healthful word “bread.” Hence the beauty of the image that Jesus Christ is the bread of life; he is not a mere luxury: he is not something that the rich alone can purchase; his ministry belongs to the very essence of life, and is a ministry without which life is impossible. Of what avail is it that a man shall have a million of gold in his possession, if there is no corn to buy, if there is no water to be purchased? The bread and water are the things which the world cannot do without. The world can well dispense with every luxury of food and wine, but the great world itself with all its wealth would perish in a month but for the presence of bread and water. A consideration of this kind leads us to estimate anew, as we have already said, the value of things that are apparently simple and with which we have become so familiar as almost to be unaware of their presence. Think of a king placed in an utter extremity simply for want of bread! think of a whole city dying in the midst of gold and silver because there is nothing to be eaten! Is all this possible with regard to the body, and is there no analogy between such circumstances and the possible destitution of the soul? Is it to be thought credible that some things are absolutely essential to the maintenance of the body, and that the soul is absolutely independent of all elements and substances? Holy Scripture maintains a totally different attitude; its declaration is that only by the word of the Lord can the soul be sustained and can life enjoy all that is meant by upward and continual progress. Not by dogmas of a learned kind, not by impenetrable metaphysics, not by intellectual luxuries, not by subtle poetisings and transcendentalisms, but by the simple living word of the Lord Jesus Christ is the soul sustained and kept in soundness of health. When we set up a similar contention on behalf of bread and water men instantly concede that the argument is cogent, but when the argument is transferred to spiritual life and all its necessities there may be some reluctance in accepting the conclusion that only by the word of the Lord can the soul be maintained. It is possible for a similar picture to that which is in the text to be drawn respecting the relations and conditions of the soul. Imagine a soul placed in the midst of a large and invaluable library: let it be the Alexandrian or the Bodleian: let it be filled with works of science, philosophy, history; let it represent the very highest intellectual efforts ever made by the mind of man; yet if there be not found in that library that which is of the nature of a divine revelation something which immediately and vitally connects the soul with the living God the soul cannot live even in the centre of such surroundings, but will gradually droop, and decay, and finally die. Men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Let us be careful, then, whilst we are crying out for the highest thinking, applauding the sublimest endeavours of the human mind, that we estimate at their right value those truths, doctrines, and facts which, according to their own quality, partake of the nature of bread and water.
Another point relates to the blind vengeance which was taken by the king of Israel. When the king heard the words of the woman “he rent his clothes,” and he exclaimed, “God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day” ( 2Ki 6:30-31 ). It would appear that Jehoram had secretly clothed himself with sackcloth, and some have supposed that this action was a superstitious deference to the God of Israel: his hope being that God, seeing him clothed with sackcloth, would turn away his anger. In Jehoram we see how possible it is for a man to be clothed with sackcloth, and yet to be destitute of the spirit of humiliation and contrition. He was dressed as a saint, but in his heart there burned the spirit of selfishness. “Rend your heart and not your garments” is the great and vital cry of Truth. When Jehoram said, “God do so and more also to me,” he quoted almost the very words of Jezebel when she sought the life of Elijah. Beheading was not an ordinary Jewish punishment. Commentators tell us that the law did not sanction it, but they add that in Assyria, Babylonia, and generally through the East it was the most common form of capital punishment. It has been thought that Jezebel probably introduced it into Samaria, together with other foreign customs. But why should Elisha be punished on account of the sufferings caused by the siege of Samaria? Simply because of the blindness of human vengeance. How truly blind that vengeance is! Jehoram thought that if he killed the prophet he would destroy the prophecy! How mad is man! Here we find the king of Israel acting the most puerile and ridiculous part. Men are driven under the blindness of their vengeance to do things upon which they do not consult their reason, for Reason would instantly pronounce them to be absurd. There are men in all Christian countries who, when they see afflictions of various kinds, are not indisposed to charge them upon the Christian sanctuary, and who imagine that if all Christian institutions were destroyed all human suffering would be ended. What is the fact of the case? It is that Christian institutions do but represent, they do not create the law of providence and judgment. They recognise the existence of that law; they show how human life is to be related to it; they point out its highest disciplinary uses; they insist that resistance amounts to nothing but disappointment and ruin; and they call for that intelligent, simple, loving obedience, which turns the very sternness of law into its own security, and makes righteousness less a law than a beatitude. We see in this instance how the spirit of Jehoram was not to be trusted, when in this very chapter he addressed Elisha under the words “my father,” saying, “My father, shall I smite them shall I smite them?” ( 2Ki 6:21 ). We supposed when Jehoram recognised a father in Elisha, he was about to forsake his idolatrous thought and practice; but now that we see him when he is left to himself he returns to his old nature: truly he was still son of Ahab and Jezebel. The calmness of Elisha under the circumstances was becoming his dignity and his prophetical function. Elisha was sitting in his house; there was no sign of panic or foolish excitement in the prophet. The elders of the city sat with him, having probably addressed him for the purpose of securing his advice or assistance. Many men, as we have often seen, have been driven by imminent peril to acknowledge the power of Jehovah and to beg favour of his prophets. Elisha described Jehoram as the “son of a murderer,” namely, of Ahab, the murderer of Naboth and of the prophets of the Lord, for though Jezebel literally and technically slew them, yet Ahab was the king, and was responsible for the deeds of his infatuated and vengeful wife. It is supposed that Elisha said: Lean against the door, a door that opened inwards, and push against this messenger of the king if he tries to enter. The man who was attempting to come into the presence of the prophet was no doubt the executioner sent by Jehoram. When the king rushed into the presence of the prophet he is supposed to have spoken thus: Behold this evil! this siege, with all its horrors, is from Jehovah, from Jehovah whose prophet thou art: why should I wait for Jehovah, temporise with him, keep, as it were, on terms with him by suffering thee to live, any longer? What hast thou to say in arrest of judgment? For the moment it would appear as if Jehoram had the upper hand of the prophet. But to the king’s amazement Elisha answered, “Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria” ( 2Ki 7:1 ). [The seventh chapter should be regarded as part of the sixth chapter; chapter six should have ended with verse twenty-three, then the seventh chapter would have commenced with what is now verse twenty-four of chapter six.] This is Elisha’s reply to the king’s challenge in verse thirty-three of chapter six. The king said, Why should I wait any longer for the Lord? and the answer was that tomorrow by the same time in the day the famine would cease and food would be even cheaper than usual. A measure of fine flour was probably equal to about a peck and a half, English measure, and this was to be sold for something like two shillings and eightpence halfpenny of our money, and about three pecks of barley was to be sold for the same amount. The gates of Eastern towns were the favourite places for the despatch of various kinds of business. Elisha prophesied that the corn market at the gate of Samaria would present a busy scene on the following day. This was the view which the prophet took of the circumstances, and it is made the more remarkable by the contrast which is set up by the speech of the lord or captain on whose hand the king leaned. The captain said, “Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?” The word “windows” might be rendered “sluices.” The meaning of the speech is that if Jehovah were to open sluices in heaven, and to pour down corn as he poured down rain in the time of the deluge, even then it would be impossible that there could be such an abundance as the prophet had predicted. This was the view of the unspiritual mind. To him that believeth all things are possible. There must be a point at which it is made evident even to the senses that what is impossible with men is possible with God. God indeed often waits until we have come to the point we mark “impossible,” and at that point he takes up our case, and shows the riches of his power as well as the tenderness of his grace. Deliverance is always near when human help has been reduced to its extremity. There is a proverb to the effect that it is always darkest before the dawn. What if it be God’s delight to train us in this way to faith and patience and hope? What if he stand by, saying, They still think they have resources in their own hands: let the very last drop out of their possession, and when they lift up empty hands to heaven and cry, saying, Our resources are utterly exhausted, then I will open the windows of heaven, and save them in the bitterness of their despair. It would sometimes seem as if God would have no connection with us in the way of co-operation and help so long as we supposed we could do anything for ourselves. Whilst this has its bodily and limited meanings, it has its spiritual and boundless signification in relation to the salvation of the soul. Throughout the New Testament we are taught that so long as a man supposes he can do anything for his own redemption, he is not permitted to see the cross of Christ in its true significance and power; when man renounces himself, saying with a broken heart that he can no longer do anything towards his own redemption: when he cries in orphan-like helplessness for the pity and mercy of God, then great revelations of love are made to him, and the true meaning of the cross is disclosed to his self-distrustful heart.
The circumstances of life are often rendered the more critical and trying because of the lessons with which history furnishes us to the effect that deliverance is always really near. God is never absent from his universe. Wherever God is, he is known as the hearer and the answerer of prayer, the Father of his children, and the Ruler of all forces. At the same time as a mere matter of fact he does allow his children to be stripped, smitten, impoverished, overthrown, and we are entitled to infer that all this disastrous visitation is absolutely necessary for the thorough expurgation, training, and final purifying of the spirit of man. It is by a study of such depleting, and as they appear to us ruinous circumstances, that we come to see really what was meant by human apostasy. We do not know how far man has gone from God until we measure the line of his return from his father. The outgoing seemed to be but a step, but the coming back to God’s sanctuary and smile would seem to require the days of a lifetime, and to be only fully completed when man draws his last breath on earth. It seemed but a little thing that man should disobey once, and that for what may be termed a first offence he should be expelled from all the security and joy of paradise. But what if the supposed smallness of the offence be attributable to our narrowness of judgment, and what if the real offence is to be measured by the infinite difficulty which is found by every soul in returning to the forgiveness and peace of God?
Coming to the sixth verse of the seventh chapter, we may see the divine use of delusions. God was now about to work out the deliverance of Samaria. Instead of striking the Syrian camp with a sword, or thundering upon it from the clouds, he “made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us.” God had sent them strong delusions that they should believe a lie. We are reminded of the words in Job “A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him” ( 2Ki 15:21 ). It was only a “noise” which the Syrian hosts heard. To what great uses can God turn little things! The spirit of fear is always accessible to the spirit of judgment. God is continually operating upon the spirit of fear with a view to showing man how frail he is and how dependent he is upon the sovereign power. Even anxiety may have its spiritual uses in the training of the soul. We fear tomorrow; we fear the effect of the coming sentence; we fear the result of certain conflicts which are impending; we fear the severity of men whose goodwill it is important to secure: thus the spirit of fear is continually at work within us; when that spirit leads us to larger and completer prayer it is serving a high purpose, but when it drives us in the direction of distrust and atheism it is perverted, and men must accept the responsibility of its corruption. In itself it was meant to serve a high spiritual end, but as abused by man it is made to destroy the integrity and peace of the soul. What a pitiable picture is seen by those who occupy the spiritual stand-point when all the host of Syria is driven away before this immeasurable noise! “Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life” ( 2Ki 7:7 ). Yet it was only a noise! We have called the noise immeasurable, and that is the very point of its energy. If the Syrians had known how the noise was made, or had known that it was only a noise, not a man would have stirred from the camp; but a noise is intangible, ubiquitous in some instances, wholly immeasurable; it may be the approach of an army, it may be the beginning of a judgment, it may indicate that the clouds of heaven are coming down in judgment. No man can tell what the noise means, and simply because it is an unknown quantity it is a quantity that is feared most. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth” “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends” “Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.” Let any man look back upon his life, and see in how many instances he has been moved by fear, how he has been driven before the spirit of apprehension, and been pursued by the spectre of anxiety; and how, when he has had full time to consider the matter, he has discovered that he had been mistaking shadows for substances, and spiritual voices for determined physical opposition. A wonderful life is this of ours, so sensitive, so easily moved, so proud of its intellectual energy, and yet so humiliated by its intellectual blindness! “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God;” but those who have looked at life in its length and breadth, and have seen it in its ever-changing colour, and have heard it in its ever-varying tone, know that it does not begin and end in itself, but is like a little earth over which there rises an infinite and ruling firmament.
The case of the lepers shows us what use God often makes of what are termed the accidents of life. Four leprous men were at the entering in of the gate, and they reasoned with one another, “Why sit we here until we die?” They then put the alternative before their minds, and they determined to go into the camp of the Syrians: “and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.” Then arose the incident which led to the deliverance of Samaria and the realisation of the prophet’s word. There are no accidents in life. The little things of life are the hinges upon which great doors swing: the very hairs of your head are all numbered. We wonder why we walked down this side of the street, and not the other; why we went upon a certain day to a certain place: and behold all these apparently petty circumstances are worked up into the great ministry and issue of life. There are no trifles in the divine economy: not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father. Let us rest in this great and solemn doctrine, and not be driven about by every wind, not having standing-ground, or root, or place of growth in all the earth. The Lord besets us behind and before, and lays his hand upon us; the God of heaven knows our downsitting and our uprising, our going out and our coming in, and there is not a word upon our tongue, there is not a thought in our heart, but the Lord knoweth it altogether. This is the distinct teaching of Jesus Christ, and this is the blessed message of his comforting gospel. We have before us two policies: we can either suppose that life is the sport of every wind, a chapter of unconnected accidents, a number of unrelated and incomplete incidents; or, on the other hand, we can look upon life as a plan, an economy, with a divine and beneficent purpose underlying the whole of it; and under this latter conception we shall be led to prayer, to religious trust, and to religious expectation; we shall expect to meet the Lord at every turn in life, and expectation will often become its own fulfilment. Where two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there is Christ himself: and where the thoughts of man within him concur in expecting the living God, God himself will draw near, and satisfy the expectation of the trustful and the holy.
The prophecy of Elisha was fulfilled: “A measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord” ( 2Ki 7:16 ); and the man on whom the king leaned was appointed to have charge of the gate, and the people trode upon him, and he died, as the man of God said, who spake when the king came down to him ( 2Ki 7:16-17 ). In this comparatively trifling event we see the end of the whole economy of nature as we know it. Tragical facts have overpowered us, have indeed almost blinded us as to the possibility of spiritual presences being in the universe, and we have said deliverance is impossible, and out of all this chaos God himself could scarcely bring order. Looking upon the nations of the earth with their moral darkness, their barbarities, idolatries, cruelties, superstitions; observing how men hate one another, and delight in the shedding of blood; studying the whole map and plan of wickedness all but infinite, we have again and again said, though the Lord should open the windows of heaven though the Lord should come in all his great might, yet surely this chaos could not be brought into order and peace even by the voice of Omnipotence. Looking upon the cross of Jesus Christ as the medium of the salvation of the world, we have not wondered that men should account it foolishness. There seems to be no proportion between the cause and the effect, the means and the end. To the last, men passing by the cross shall wag their heads, and say to him who expires upon it, If thou be the king or Saviour of the world, save thyself, and come down. We are quite aware that the scoffer has an ample ground for mockery, if attention be limited by visible boundaries. It is not surprising that gibers should taunt believers, and that the prophets of Baal should turn round upon the Elijahs of the world, and in their turn enjoy the use of ironical appeal, saying, Cry aloud to your Christ, for he is king of the Jews; cry mightily to his God in heaven, for he has espoused him as his father; pray on still, perhaps if you are not answered in the morning, you may be answered at night; cry lustily with growing energy to the supposed God of the heavens, and let him come out in reply if he can! We must submit to the taunt for the present. In our impatience we desire a manifest and decisive answer, yet all things proceed calmly as they were from the beginning. But our faith has been sustained by a doctrine corresponding to the prophecy, namely, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness: for a thousand years are in his sight as one day, and one day as a thousand years. We are the victims of miscalculated time. We do not know the meaning of today or tomorrow: my soul, wait thou upon God; yea, wait patiently for him, and comfort thyself with the truth that things are not what they seem: that immediately after human extremity there arises a light in heaven, and that in the mid-day of despair angels are sent with special messages from God. The promise to which God is committed is a promise that the whole earth shall see his glory, that all men shall be called to a feast of fat things and of wine on the lees well refined; and though lords and captains and mighty men are declaring the impossibility of such a festival, yet it may be that even tomorrow about this time the world shall find itself sitting at the table of the Lord, eating and drinking abundantly at the Lord’s invitation. The Lord will suddenly come to his temple: a nation shall be born in a day. In this faith we live in this great trust we toil.
Prayer
Almighty God, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. If we feared thee more we should know more of the mysteries of thy wisdom and of thy love. The revelation is with God, but the sight is not with us: we have not the prepared heart, the obedient will, the pureness of spirit needful to receive all the light we might enjoy. Our sins have kept good things from us; our iniquities have been as a cloud darkening the sun, so that we who might have sat in the rays of the morning and enjoyed the immediate presence of God are often left in dreariness and loneliness, not knowing the right hand from the left, persecuted by our own perplexities, vexed and exasperated by all the occurrences of time. We might have sat with Christ upon his throne, judging tribes and nations; we might have had eyes that wander through eternity: but our sins have befooled us, and impoverished us, and left us on the earth when we might have been enjoying our citizenship in heaven. Oh, this weary sin, this constant visitor of darkness, this misleader of the soul! It promises liberty, and yet leads us into bondage; it says the morning draweth nigh even at the time when the darkness is deepening; it holds out its prize, and whispers its flatteries, and flaunts before us its coloured seductions, and we yield and go astray, and play the fool, and lose our souls. Yet we have heard of thy goodness to sinful men; this word has been sounded in our ears: Herein is love: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We are amazed. Our hearts are first struck with unbelief. May that unbelief not deepen into disbelief, but rise gradually like a dawning day into the zenith of perfect and triumphant faith. Marvellous are thy works, passing all knowledge; far away they stretch in their meaning and blessing, baffling imagination. Thou art able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Thou knowest what we need pardon, release from the grasp of the enemy, liberty such as is enjoyed by the sons of God; we need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may withstand the enemy when he is strong, and forbid the seducer when his appeal is most eloquent. The Lord help us in these things. Spare us yet a while that we may recover our spirits which have been led captive by the devil at his will, and may we at last, after a long calm eventide, mingle with those who are above, pure with thy purity, and strong because of thine eternity. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
IX
ELISHA, THE SUCCESSOR OF ELIJAH
2Ki 2:13-13:21
For the sake of unity, this chapter, like the one on Elijah, will be confined to a single person, Elisha, who was the minister, the disciple, and the successor of the prophet Elijah. “Minister” means an attendant who serves another generally a younger man accompanying and helping an older man. A passage illustrating this service 2Ki 3:11 : “Elisha, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” We may here recall a situation when no wash basin was convenient, and the water was poured on our hands for our morning ablutions. A corresponding New Testament passage is Act 13:5 : “Paul and Barnabas had John Mark to their minister,” that is, the young man, John Mark, attended the two older preachers, and rendered what service he could. Elisha was also a disciple of Elijah. A disciple is a student studying under a teacher. In the Latin we call the teacher magister. Elijah was Elisha’s teacher in holy things. Then Elisha was a successor to Elijah. Elijah held the great office of prophet to Israel, and in view of his speedy departure, God told him to anoint Elisha to be his successor, that is, successor as prophet to the ten tribes.
About four years before the death of Ahab, 800 B.C., Elijah, acting under a commission from God, found Elisha plowing, and the record says, “with twelve yoke of oxen.” I heard a cowman once say that it was sufficient evidence of a man’s fitness to preach when he could plow twelve yoke of oxen and not swear. But the text may mean that Elisha himself plowed with one yoke, and superintended eleven other plowmen. Anyhow, Elijah approached him and dropped his mantle around him. That was a symbolic action, signifying, “When I pass away you must take my mantle and be my successor.” Elisha asked permission to attend to a few household affairs. He called together all the family, and announced that God had called him to a work so life-filling he must give up the farm life and devote himself to the higher business. To symbolize the great change in vocation he killed his own yoke of oxen and roasted them with his implements of husbandry; and had a feast of the family to celebrate his going into the ministry. It is a great thing when the preacher knows how to burn the bridges behind him, and when the family of the preacher recognizes the fulness and completeness of the call to the service of God.
The lesson of this and other calls is that no man can anticipate whom God will call to be his preacher. He called this man from the plow handles. He called Amos from the gathering of sycomore fruit; he called Matthew from the receipt of custom; he called the fishermen from their nets; he called a doctor in the person of Luke. We cannot foretell; the whole matter must be left to God and to God alone, for he alone may put a man into the ministry. I heard Dr. Broadus preach a great sermon on that once: “I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, for that he hath enabled me and counted me faithful, putting me into this ministry, who was before a blasphemer.”
Elijah served as a prophet fifty-five years. That is a long ministry. There were six kings of Israel before he passed away, as follows: Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash. There were five sovereigns of Judah, to wit: Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah (this one a woman) and Joash. Athaliah was queen by usurpation.
God said to Elijah, “Anoint Elisha to be thy successor; anoint Jehu to be king of Israel, and anoint Hazael to be king of Syria.” Now here were two men God-appointed to the position of king, as this man was to the position of prophet, and we distinguish them in this way: It does not follow that because the providence of God makes a man to be king, that the man is conscious of his divine call, like the one who is called to be a preacher. For instance, he says, “I called Cyrus to do what I wanted done: I know him, though he does not know me.” The lesson is that God’s rule is supreme over all offices. Even the most wicked are overruled to serve his general purposes in the government of the world.
The biblical material for a sketch of Elisha’s life 1Ki 19:16 to 2Ki 13:21 . Elisha means, “God the Saviour.” The Greek form is Elisaios; we find it in the Greek text of Luk 4:27 , where our Lord says, “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elisaios. ” “Elijah” is Hebrew, and “Elias” is the corresponding Greek word; “Elisha” is Hebrew, and “Elisaios” is the corresponding Greek form.
We will now distinguish between the work of Elijah and Elisha, giving some likenesses and some unlikenesses. In the chapter on Elijah attention has already been called to the one great unlikeness, viz: that Elijah did not live in public sight; he appeared only occasionally for a very short time. Elisha’s whole life was in the sight of the public; he had a residence in the city of Samaria, and a residence at Gilgal; he was continually passing from one theological seminary to another; he was in the palaces of the kings, and they always knew where to find him. He had a great deal to do with the home life of the people, with the public life of the people and with the governmental life of the people. There were some points of likeness in their work, so obvious I need not now stop to enumerate them. Elijah’s life was more ascetic, and his ministry was mainly a ministry of judgment, while Elisha’s was one of mercy.
The New Testament likenesses of these two prophets are as follows: Elijah corresponds to John the Baptist, and Elisha’s ministry is very much like the ministry of Jesus in many respects.
There were many schools of the prophets in the days of Elijah and Elisha. Commencing with Jericho we have one; the next was at Bethel; the third at Gilgal not the Gilgal near Jericho but the one in the hill country of Ephraim and there was one at Mount Carmel. These stretched across the whole width of the country four theological seminaries. The history shows us that Elijah, just before his translation, visited every one of them in order, and that Elisha, as soon as Elijah was translated, visited the same ones in reverse order, and there is one passage in the text that tells us that he was continually doing this.
I think the greatest work of Elisha’s life was this instruction work; it was the most far-reaching; it provided a great number of men to take up the work after he passed away. Indeed the schools of the prophets were the great bulwarks of the kingdom of God for 500 years during the Hebrew monarchy. We cannot put the finger on a reformation, except one, in that five hundred years that the prophets did not start. One priest carried on a reformation we will come to it later. But the historians, the poets, the orators, the reformers, and the revivalists, all came from the prophets. Every book in the Bible is written by a man that had the prophetic spirit. Elisha was the voice of God to the conscience of the kings and the people, and when we study the details of his life we will see that as the government heard and obeyed Elisha it prospered, and as it went against his counsel it met disaster.
We have two beautiful stories that show his work in the homes. One of them is the greatest lesson on hospitality that I know of in the Bible. A wealthy family lived right on the path between the Gilgal seminary and the Mount Carmel seminary. The woman of the house called her husband’s attention to the fact that the man of God, Elisha, was continually passing to and fro by their house; that he was a good man, and that they should build a little chamber on the wall to be the prophet’s chamber. “We will put a little table in it, and a chair, and a bed, and we will say to him, Let this be your home when you are passing through.” Elisha was very much impressed with this woman’s thoughtfulness, and the reason for it. He asked her what he could do for her. But she lived among her own people, wanted no favor from the king nor the general of the army. Elisha’s servant suggested that she was childless, so he prophesied to her that within a year she would be the mother of a son. The son was born and grew up to be a bright boy, and, like other boys, followed his father to the field. One hot day when they were reaping and it was very hot in reaping time over there he had a sunstroke and said, “My head! My head!” The father told his servant to take him to his mother as usual, let a child get sick and the daddy is sure to say, “Take him to his mother.” I don’t know what would become of the children if the mothers did not take care of them when they are sick. But the boy died. The woman had a beast saddled and went to the seminary at Mount Carmel. She knew Elisha was there for he had not passed back. It was a very touching story. Anyhow, Elisha restored the boy to life, and to show how it lingered in his mind, years afterward he sent word to her that there would be a famine of seven years, and she had better migrate until the famine was over. She went away for seven years, and when she came back a land-grabber had captured her home and her inheritance. She appealed the case to Elisha, and Elisha appealed the case to the king, and then the kin said, “Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.” When he had heard the full story of this man’s work he said, “Let this woman have her home back again, and interest for all the time it has been used by another.” This is a very sweet story of family life.
There is another story. One of the “theologs ” I do not know how young he was, for he had married and had children the famine pressed so debt was incurred, and they had a law then we find it in the Mosaic code that they might make a bondman of the one who would not pay his debts. The wife of this “theolog” came to Elisha and said, “My husband is one of the prophets; the famine has brought very hard times, and my boys are about to be enslaved because we cannot pay the debt.” Then he wrought the miracle that we will consider a little later, and provided for the payment of the debt of that wife of the prophet and for the sustenance of them until the famine passed away.
These two stories show how this man in going through the country affected the family life of the people; there may have been hundreds of others. I want to say that I have traveled around a good deal in my days, over every county in this state. It may be God’s particular providence, but I have never been anywhere that I did not find good people. In the retrospect of every trip of my life there is a precious memory of godly men that I met on the trip. I found one in the brush in Parker County, where it looked like a “razor-back” hog could not make a living, and they were very poor. I was on my way to an association, and must needs pass through this jungle, and stopped about noon at a small house in the brush, where I received the kindest hospitality in my life. They were God’s children. They fixed the best they had to eat, and it was good, too the best sausage I ever did eat. So this work of Elisha among the families pleases me. I have been over such ground, and I do know that the preacher who is unable to find good, homes and good people, and who is unable to leave a blessing behind him in the homes, is a very poor preacher. I have been entertained by the great governors of the state and the generals of armies, but I have never enjoyed any hospitality anywhere more precious than in that log cabin in the jungle.
The next great work of Elisha was the miracles wrought by him. There were two miracles of judgment. One was when he cursed the lads of Bethel that place of idolatry and turned two she-bears loose that tore up about forty of them. That is one judgment) and I will discuss that in the next chapter. Just now I am simply outlining the man’s whole life for the sake of unity.
The second miracle of judgment was the inflicting on Gehazi the leprosy of Naaman. The rest of his miracles were miracles of patriotism or of mercy. The following is a list (not of every one, for every time he prophesied it was a miracle): 2Ki 2:14 tells us that he divided the Jordan with the mantle of Elijah; 2Ki 2:19 , that he healed the bad springs of Jericho, the water that made the people sick and made the land barren, which was evidently a miracle of mercy. The third miracle recorded is in 2Ki 2:23 , his sending of the she-bears (referred to above) ; the fourth is recorded in 2Ki 3:16 , the miracle of the waters. Three armies led by three kings were in the mountains of Edom, on their way to attack Moab. There was no water, and they were about to perish, and they appealed to Elisha. He told them to go out to the dry torrent bed and dig trenches saying, “To-morrow all of those trenches will be full of water, and you won’t see a cloud nor hear it thunder.” It was a miracle in the sense that he foresaw how that water would come from rain in the mountains. I have seen that very thing happen. Away off in the mountains there may be rain one can’t see it nor hear it from where he is in the valley. The river bed is as dry as a powder horn, and it looks as if there never will be any rain. I was standing in a river bed in West Texas once, heard a roaring, looked up and saw a wave coming down that looked to me to be about ten feet high the first wave and it was carrying rocks before it that seemed as big as a house, and rolling them just as one would roll a marble.. So his miracle consisted in his knowledge of that storm which they could not see nor hear. If they had not dug the trenches they would have still had no water for a mountain torrent is very swift to fall. In that place where I was, in fifteen minutes there was a river, and in two or three hours it had all passed away. But the trenches of Elisha were filled from the passing flood.
The fifth miracle is recorded in 2Ki 4:2-7 , the multiplying of the widow’s oil, that prophet’s wife that I have already referred to. The sixth miracle is recorded in 2Ki 4:8-37 , first the giving and then the restoring to life of the son of the Shunamite. The seventh is given in 2Ki 4:38 , the healing of the poisonous porridge: “Ah, man of God! there is death in the pot,” or “theological seminaries and wild gourds.” The eighth miracle is found in 2Ki 5:1-4 , the multiplying of the twenty loaves so as to feed 100 men. The ninth, 2Ki 5:1-4 , the healing of Naaman’s leprosy, and the tenth, 2Ki 5:26-27 , the inflicting on Gehazi the leprosy of which Naaman was healed.
The eleventh miracle is found in 2Ki 6:1-7 , his making the ax to swim. One of the prophets borrowed an ax to increase the quarters; the seminary was growing and the place was too straight for them, and they had to enlarge it. They did not have axes enough, and one of them borrowed an ax. In going down to the stream to cut the wood, the head of the ax slipped off and fell into the water and there is a text: “Alas, my master, for it was borrowed.” The miracle in this case was his suspension of the law of gravity, and making that ax head to swim, so that the man who lost it could just reach out and get it.
Twelfth, 2Ki 6:8-12 , the revealing of the secret thought of the Syrian king, even the thoughts of his bedchamber. No matter what, at night, the Syrian king thought out for the next day, Elisha knew it by the time he thought it, and would safeguard the attack at that point.
Thirteenth, 2Ki 6:15 , his giving vision to his doubtful servant when the great host came to capture them. The servant was scared. Elisha said, “Open this young man’s eyes, and let him see that they who are for us are more than those who are against us.” What a text! His eyes were opened, and he saw that hilltop guarded with the chariots of God and his angels. We need these eye openers when we get scared.
Fourteenth, the blinding of that Syrian host that came to take him. He took them and prayed to the Lord to open their eyes again. An Irishman reported at the first battle of Manasseh, thus: “I surrounded six Yankees and captured them.” Well, Elisha surrounded a little army and led them into captivity.
Fifteenth, 2Ki 7:6 , a mighty host of Syrians was besieging Samaria, until the women were eating their own children, the famine was so great. Elisha took the case to God, and that night, right over the Syrian camp was heard the sound of bugles and shouting, and the racing of chariots, and it scared them nearly to death. They thought a great army had been brought up, and a panic seized them, as a stampede seizes a herd of cattle, and they fled. They left their tents and their baggage: their provisions, their jewels, and the further they went the more things they dropped, all the way to the Jordan River, until they left a trail behind them of the cast-off incumbrances. The word “panic” comes from the heathen god, “Pan,” and the conception is that these sudden demoralizations must come from deity. I once saw sixteen steers put an army of 4,000 to flight, and I was one of the men. We were in a lane with a high fence on one side and a bayou on the other side, and suddenly, up the lane we heard the most awful clatter, and saw the biggest cloud of dust, and one of the men shouted, “The cavalry is on us! The cavalry is on us!” and without thinking everybody got scared. A lot of the men were found standing in the bayou up to their necks, others had gone over the fence and clear across the field without stopping. I did not get that far, but I got over the fence.
Sixteenth, 2Ki 8:2-6 , the foreseeing and foretelling of the seven years of famine.
Seventeenth, 2Ki 8:11 , the revelation of the very heart of Hazael to himself. He did not believe himself to be so bad a man. Elisha just looked at him and commenced weeping. Hazael could not understand. Elisha says, “I see how you are going to sweep over my country with fire and sword; I see the children that you will slay; I see the bloody trail behind you.” Hazael says, “Am I a dog, that I should do these things?” But Elisha under inspiration read the real man) and saw what there was in the man. One of the best sermons that I ever heard was by a distinguished English clergyman on this subject.
Eighteenth, 2Ki 13:14 , his dying prophecy.
Nineteenth, the miracle from his bones after he was buried. We will discuss that more particularly later.
We have thus seen his great teaching work, his relation to the government, and his miracles.
Now, let us consider some of his miracles more particularly. The Romanists misuse the miracle of the bones of Elisha, and that passage in Act 19:11-12 , where Paul sent out handkerchiefs and aprons, and miracles were wrought by them. On these two passages they found all their teachings of the relics of the saints, attributing miraculous power to a bit of the cross, and they have splinters enough of that “true cross” now scattered about to make a forest of crosses. In New Orleans an’ auctioneer said, “Today I have sold to seventeen men the cannon ball that killed Sir Edward Packenham.” The greatest superstition and fraud of the ages is the Romanist theory of the miracle working power of the reputed relics of the saints. Some of Elisha’s miracles were like some of our Lord’s. The enlargement of the twenty loaves to suffice for 100 men reminds us of two miracles of our Lord, and his curing a case of leprosy reminds us of many miracles of our Lord like that. In the Bible, miracles are always numerous in the great religious crises, where credentials are needed for God’s people, such as the great series of miracles in Egypt by Moses, the series of miracles in the days of Elisha and the miracles in the days of our Lord.
The greatest of Elisha’s work is his teaching work, greater than his work in relation to the government, his work in the families, or his miracles. I think the more far-reaching power of his work was in his teaching. There were spoken similar words at the exodus of Elijah and Elisha. When Elijah went up, Elisha said, “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” The same words are used when Elisha died. What does it mean? It pays the greatest compliment to the departed: that they alone were worth more to Israel than all its chariots, and its cavalry; that they were the real defenders of the nation.
At one point his work touched the Southern Kingdom, viz: When Moab was invaded, and he wrought that miracle of the waters, filled the trenches and supplied the thirsty armies. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah was along, and for his sake Elisha saved them.
There are many great pulpit themes in connection with Elisha’s history. I suggest merely a few: First, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me” that was his prayer when Elijah was leaving him; second, “The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof”; third, when he came to the Jordan he did not say, “Where is Elijah?” but he smote the Jordan and said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” for it made no difference if Elijah was gone, God was there yet; fourth, “The oil stayed” not as long as the woman has a vessel to put it in; fifth, the little chamber on the wall; sixth, “Ah, man of God! There is death in the pot” or “theological seminaries and wild gourds” radical criticism, for instance there is death in the pot whenever preachers are fed on that sort of food; seventh, “Is it well with thy husband?” “Is it well?” and I will have frequently commenced a meeting with that text; eighth, Elisha’s staff in the hands of Gehazi, who was an unworthy man and the unworthy cannot wield the staff of the prophets; ninth, “Alas, my master, it was borrowed!”; tenth, the Growing Seminary “The place is too straight for us”; eleventh, “Make this valley full of trenches,” that is, the Lord will send the water, but there is something for us to do; let us have a place for it when it comes; twelfth, the secret thoughts of the bedchamber are known to God; thirteenth, “They that be with us are more than those that be against us”; fourteenth, “Tell me, I pray thee, all the great works done by Elisha.”
These are just a few in the great mine of Elijah or Elisha where we may dig down for sermons. The sermons ought to be full of meat; that is why we preach to feed the hungry. We should let our buckets down often into the well of salvation, for we cannot lower the well, and we may draw up a fresh sermon every Sunday. We should not keep on preaching the same sermon; it is first a dinner roast, then we give it cold for supper, then hash its fragments for breakfast, and make soup out of the bones for the next dinner, and next time we hold it over the pot and boil the shadow, and so the diet gets thinner and thinner. Let’s get a fresh one every time.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Elisha?
2. What is the meaning of “minister to Elijah”? Illustrate and give corresponding passage in the New Testament.
3. What is the meaning of “Elisha, a disciple of Elijah”?
4. What is the meaning of “Elisha, a successor to Elijah”?
5. Give the date, author, manner, and nature of Elisha’s call, his response and how he celebrated the event.
6. What is the lesson of this and other calls? Illustrate.
7. How long his prophetic term of office and what kings of Israel and Judah were his contemporaries?
8. What secular calls accompanied his, how do you distinguish between his and the call of the others and what is the lesson therefrom?
9. What is the biblical material for a sketch of Elisha’s life?
10. What is the meaning of his name?
11. What is the Greek and Hebrew forms of his name? Give other examples.
12. What likenesses and unlikenesses of the work of Elijah and Elisha?
13. What New Testament likenesses of these two prophets?
14. How many schools of the prophets in the days of Elijah and Elisha, and where were they located?
15. What was Elisha’s great teaching work in the seminaries? Discuss.
16. What was Elisha’s part in governmental affairs?
17. What of his work in the families? Illustrate.
18. What two classes of his miracles and what miracles of each class?
19. What is the Romanist misuse of the miracle of Elisha’s bones and Act 19:11-12 ?
20. What miracles were like some of our Lord’s?
21. When and why were Bible miracles numerous?
22. Which of Elisha’s works was the greatest?
23. What words spoken at the exodus of Elijah and Elisha and what their meaning?
24. At what point did Elisha’s work touch the Southern Kingdom?
25. What New Testament lesson from the life of Elisha?
26. Give several pulpit themes from this section not given by the
27. What is the author’s exhortation relative to preaching growing out of this discussion of Elisha?
X
GATHERING UP THE FRAGMENTS THAT NOTHING BE LOST
The title of this chapter is a New Testament text for an Old Testament discussion. For the sake of unity the last two chapters were devoted exclusively to Elijah and Elisha. It is the purpose of this discussion to call attention to some matters worthy of note that could not very well be incorporated in those personal matters, and yet should not be omitted altogether.
It is true, however, that the heart of the history is in the lives of these two great prophets of the Northern Kingdom. In bringing up the record we will follow the chronological order of the scriptures calling for exposition.
Jehoshaphat’s Shipping Alliance with Ahaziah. We have two accounts of this: first, in 1Ki 22:47-49 , and second, in 2Ch 20:35-37 . I wish to explain, first of all, the locality of certain places named in these accounts. Tarshish, as a place, is in Spain. About that there can be no question. About Ophir, no man can be so confident. There was an Ophir in the southern part of Arabia; a man named Ophir settled there, but I do not think that to be the Ophir of this section. The Ophir referred to here is distinguished for the abundance and fine quality of its gold. Several books in the Bible refer to the excellency of “the gold of Ophir,” and to the abundance of it. Quite a number of distinguished scholars would locate it in the eastern part of Africa. Some others would locate it in India, and still others as the Arabian Ophir. My own opinion is, and I give it as more than probable, that the southeastern coast of Africa is the right place for Ophir. Many traditions put it there, the romance of Rider Haggard, “King Solomon’s Mines,” follows the traditions. The now well-known conditions of the Transvaal would meet the case in some respects.
Ezion-geber is a seaport at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, which is a projection of the Red Sea. What is here attempted by these men is to re-establish the famous commerce of Solomon. I cite the passages in the history of Solomon that tell about this commerce. In 1Ki 9:26 we have this record: “And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram (king of Tyre) sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.” Now, 1Ki 10:11 reads: “And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of Almug trees and precious stones.” This “almug-trees” is supposed to be the famous sweet-scented sandalwood. The precious stones would agree particularly with the diamond mines at Kimberly in the Transvaal.
Then1Ki_10:22 reads: “For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: Once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.” The ivory and apes would fit very well with the African coast, but we would have to go to India to get the spices, which are mentioned elsewhere, and the peacocks. A three years’ voyage for this traffic seems to forbid the near-by Arabian Ophir, and does make it reasonable that the merchant fleet touched many points Arabia, Africa, and the East Indies. It is, therefore, not necessary to find one place notable for all these products gold, jewels, sandalwood, ivory, apes, spices, and peacocks. Solomon, then, established as his only seaport on the south Eziongeber, a navy, manned partly by experienced seamen of Tyre, and these ships would make a voyage every three years. That is a long voyage and they might well go to Africa and to India to get these varied products, some at one point and some at another.
Now Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah (king of Israel) made an alliance to re-establish that commerce. The first difficulty, however, is that the Chronicles account says that these ships were to go to Tarshish, and the Kings account says that they were ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir. My explanation of that difficulty is this: It is quite evident that no navy established at Eziongeber would try to reach Spain by circumnavigating Africa, when it would be so much easier to go from Joppa, Tyre, or Sidon over the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. “Tarshish ships” refers, not to the destination of the ships, but to the kind of ships, that is, the trade of the Mediterranean had given that name to a kind of merchant vessel, called “Ships of Tarshish.” And the ships built for the Tarshish trade, as the name “lndianman” was rather loosely applied to certain great English and Dutch merchant vessels. It is an error in the text of Chronicles that these ships were to go to Tarshish. They were Tarshish ships, that is, built after the model of Tarshish ships, but these ships were built at Eziongeber for trade with Ophir, Africa, and India.
1Ki 22:47 of the Kings account needs explanation: “And there was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.” The relevancy of that verse is very pointed. If Edom had been free and had its own king, inasmuch as Eziongeber was in Edom, Judah never could have gone there to build a navy. But Edom at this time was subject to Judah, and a Judean deputy ruled over it. That explains why they could come to Eziongeber.
One other matter needs explanation. The account in Kings says, “Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.” Ahaziah attributed the shipwreck of that fleet to the incompetency of the Judean seamen. He did not believe that there would have been a shipwreck if he had been allowed to furnish experienced mariners, as Hiram did. So Kings gives us what seems to be the human account of that shipwreck, viz: the incompetency of the mariners; but Chronicles gives us the divine account, thus: “Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath destroyed thy works. And the ships were broken.” How often do we see these two things: the human explanation of the thing, and the divine explanation of the same thing. Ahaziah had no true conception of God, and he would at once attribute that shipwreck to human incompetency, but Jehoshaphat knew better; he knew that shipwreck came because he had done wickedly in keeping up this alliance with the idolatrous kings of the ten tribes.
THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH Let us consider several important matters in connection with the translation of Elijah, 2Ki 2:1-18 . First, why the course followed by Elijah? Why does he go from Carmel to Gilgal and try to leave Elisha there, and from Gilgal to Bethel and try to leave Elisha there, and from Bethel to Jericho and try to leave Elisha there? The explanation is that the old prophet, having been warned of God that his ministry was ended and that the time of his exodus was at hand, wished to revisit in succession all of these seminaries. These were his stopping places, and he goes from one seminary to another. It must have been a very solemn thing for each of these schools of the prophets, when Elisha and Elijah came up to them, for by the inspiration of God as we see from the record, each school of the prophets knew what was going to happen. At two different places they say to Elisha, “Do you know that your master will be taken away to-day?” Now, the same Spirit of God that notified Elijah that his time of departure was at hand, also notified Elisha, also notified each school of the prophets; they knew.
But why keep saying to Elisha, “You stay here at Gilgal; the Lord hath sent me to Bethel,” and, “You stay here at Bethel; the Lord hath sent me to Jericho,” and “You stay here at Jericho; the Lord hath sent me to the Jordan”? It was a test of the faith of Elisha. Ruth said to Naomi, “Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to forsake thee; for where thou goest, I will go; and God do so to me, if thy God be my God, and thy people my people, and where thou diest there will I die also.” With such spirit as that, Elisha, as the minister to Elijah, and as the disciple of Elijah, and wishing to qualify himself to be the successor of Elijah, steadfastly replied: “As the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth, I will not forsake thee.” “I am going with you just as far as I can go; we may come to a point of separation, but I will go with you to that point.” All of us, when we leave this world, find a place where the departing soul must be without human companionship. Friends may attend us to that border line but they cannot pass over with us.
We have already discussed the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan. Elijah smote the Jordan with his mantle and it divided; that was doubtless his lesson to Elisha, and we will see that he learned the lesson. I heard a Methodist preacher once, taking that as a text, say, “We oftentimes complain that our cross is too heavy for us, and groan under it, and wish to be relieved from it.” “But,” says he, “brethren, when we come to the Jordan of death, with that cross that we groaned under we will smite that river, and we will pass over dry-shod, and leave the cross behind forever, and go home to a crown to wear.”
The next notable thing in this account is Elijah’s question to Elisha: “Have you anything to ask from me?” “Now, this is the last time; what do you want me to do for you?” And he says, “I pray thee leave a double portion of thy spirit on me.” We see that he is seeking qualification to be the successor. “Double” here does not mean twice as much as Elijah had, but the reference is probably to the first-born share of an inheritance. The first-born always gets a double share, and Elisha means by asking a double portion of his spirit that it may accredit him as successor. Or possibly “double” may be rendered “duplicate,” for the same purpose of attenuation. The other prophets would get one share, but Elisha asks for the first-born portion. Elijah suggests a difficulty, not in himself, but in Elisha ; he said, “You ask a hard thing of me, yet if you see me when I go away, you will get the double portion of my spirit,” that is, it was a matter depending on the faith of the petitioner, his power of personal perception. “When I go up, if your eyes are open enough to see my transit from this world to a higher, that will show that you are qualified to have this double portion of my spirit.” We have something similar in the life of our Lord. The father of the demoniac boy says to our Lord, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus replied, “If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.” It was not a question of Christ’s ability, but of the supplicant’s faith.
The next thing is the translation itself. What is meant by it? In the Old Testament history two men never died; they passed into the other world, soul and body without death: Enoch and Elijah. And at the second coming of Christ every Christian living at that time will do the same thing. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they shall be changed.” Now, what is that change of the body by virtue of which without death, it may ascend into heaven? It is a spiritualization of the body eliminating its mortality, equivalent to what takes place in the resurrection and glorification of the dead bodies. I preached a sermon once on “How Death [personified] Was Twice Startled.” In the account of Adam it is said, “And he died” and so of every other man, “and he died.” Methuselah lived 969 years, but he died. And death pursuing all the members of the race, strikes them down, whether king or pauper, whether prophet or priest. But when he comes to Enoch his dart missed the mark and he did not get him. And when he came to Elijah he missed again. Now the translations of Enoch and Elijah are an absolute demonstration of two things: First, the immortality of the soul, the continuance of life; that death makes no break in the continuity of being. Second, that God intended from the beginning to save the body. The tree of life was put in the garden of Eden, that by eating of it the mortality of the body might be eliminated. Sin separated man from that tree of life, but it is the purpose of God that the normal man, soul and body, shall be saved. The tradition of the Jews is very rich on the spiritual significance of the translation of Enoch and Elijah. In Enoch’s case it is said, “He was not found because God took him,” and in this case fifty of the sons of the prophets went out to see if when Elijah went to heaven his body was not left behind, and they looked all over the country to find his body. Elisha knew; he saw the body go up.
Now, in Revelation we have the Cherubim as the chariot of God. This chariot that met Elijah at the death station was the chariot of God, the Cherubim. Just as the angels met Lazarus and took his soul up to heaven, and it is to this wonderful passage that the Negro hymn belongs: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Elisha cried as the great prophet ascended, “My Father! My rather I The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” the meaning of which is that thus had gone up to heaven he who in his life had been the defense of Israel, worth more than all of its chariots and all of its cavalry. Now these very words “were used when Elisha died. “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” signifying that he had been the bulwark of the nation as Elijah had been before him.
ELISHA’S MINISTRY, 2Ki 2:19-25 As Elijah went up something dropped not his body, but just his mantle his mantle fell, and it fell on Elisha, symbolic of the transfer of prophetic leadership from one to the other. Now, he wants to test it, a test that will accredit him; so he goes back to the same Jordan, folds that same mantle up just as Elijah had done, and smites the Jordan. But, mark you, he did not say, “Where is Elijah” the man, Elijah, was gone, but, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” and the waters divided and he came over. There he stood accredited with a repetition of the miracle just a little before performed by Elijah, which demonstrated that he was to be to the people what Elijah had been. And this was so evident that the sons of the prophets recognized it and remarked on it: “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” It is a touching thing to me, this account of more than fifty of these prophets, as the president of their seminary is about to disappear, came down the last hill that overlooks the Jordan, watching to see what became of him. And they witness the passage of the Jordan they may have seen the illumination of the descent of the chariot of fire. They wanted to go and get the body the idea of his body going up they had not taken in, and they could not be content until Elisha, grieved at their persistence) finally let them go and find out for themselves that the body had gone to heaven.
I have just two things to say on the healing of the noxious waters at Jericho. The first is that neither the new cruse nor the salt put in it healed the water. It was a symbolic act to indicate that the healing would be by the power of God. Just as when Moses cast a branch into the bitter waters of Marah, as a symbolic act. The healing power comes from God. The other re-mark is on that expression, “unto this day,” which we so frequently meet in these books. Its frequent recurrence is positive proof that the compiler of Kings and the compiler of Chronicles are quoting from the original documents. “Unto this day” means the day of the original writer. It does not mean unto the day of Ezra wherever it appears in Chronicles, but it means unto the day of the writer of the part of history that he is quoting from. More than one great conservative scholar has called attention to this as proof that whoever compiled these histories is quoting the inspired documents of the prophets.
THE CHILDREN OF BETHEL AND THE SHE-BEARS Perhaps a thousand infidels have referred Elisha’s curse to vindictiveness and inhumanity. The word rendered “little children” is precisely the word Solomon uses in his prayer at Gibeon when he says, “I am a little child” he was then a grown man. Childhood with the Hebrews extended over a much greater period of time than it does with us. The word may signify “young men” in our modern use of the term. And notice the place was Bethel, the place of calf worship, where the spirit of the city was against the schools of the prophets, and these young fellows call them “street Arabs,” “toughs,” whom it suited to follow this man and mock him: “Go up, thou bald bead; go up, thou bald head.” Elisha did not resent an indignity against himself, but here is the point: these hostile idolaters at Bethel, through their children are challenging the act of God in making Elisha the head of the prophetic line. He turned and looked at them and he saw the spirit that animated them saw that it was an issue between Bethel calf worship and Bethel, the school of the prophets, and that the parents of these children doubtless sympathized in the mockery, and saw it to be necessary that they should learn that sacrilege and blasphemy against God should not go unpunished. So, in the name of the Lord he pronounces a curse on them had it been his curse, no result would have followed. One man asks, “What were these she-bears doing so close to Bethel?” The answer is that in several places in the history is noted the prevalence of wild animals in Israel. We have seen how the old prophet who went to this very Bethel to rebuke Jeroboam and turned back to visit the other prophet, was killed by a lion close to the city.
Another infidel question is, “How could God make a she bear obey him?” Well, let the infidel answer how God’s Spirit could influence a single pair of all the animals to go into the ark. Over and over again in the Bible the dominance of the Spirit of God over inanimate things and over the brute creation is repeatedly affirmed. The bears could not understand, but they would follow an impulse of their own anger without attempting to account for it.
THE INCREASE IN THE WIDOW’S OIL, 2Ki 4:1-7
We have already considered this miracle somewhat in the chapter on Elisha, and now note particularly:
1. It often happens that the widow of a man of God, whether prophet or preacher, is left in destitution. Sometimes the fault lies in the imprudence of the preacher or in the extravagance of his family, but more frequently, perhaps, in the inadequate provision for ministerial support. This destitution is greatly aggravated if there be debt. The influence of a preacher is handicapped to a painful degree, when, from any cause, he fails to meet his financial obligations promptly. In a commercial age this handicap becomes much more serious.
2. The Mosaic Law (Lev 25:39-41 ; see allusion, Mat 18:25 ) permitted a creditor to make bond-servant of a debtor and his children. For a long time the English law permitted imprisonment for debt. This widow of a prophet appeals to Elisha, the head of the prophetic school, for relief, affirming that her husband did fear God. In other words, he was faultless in the matter of debt. The enforcement of the law by the creditor under such circumstances indicates a merciless heart.
3. The one great lesson of the miracle is that the flow of the increased oil never stayed as long as there was a vessel to receive it. God wastes not his grace if we have no place to put it: according to our faith in preparation is his blessing. He will fill all the vessels we set before him.
DEATH IN THE POT, 2Ki 4:38-41 We recall this miracle to deepen a lesson barely alluded to in the chapter on Elisha. The seminaries at that time lived a much more simple life than the seminaries of the present time; it did not take such a large fund to keep them up. Elisha said, “Set on the great pot,” and one of the sons of the prophets went out to gather vegetables. He got some wild vegetables he knew nothing about here called wild gourd and shred them into the pot, not knowing they were poisonous. Hence the text: “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” I once took that as the text for a sermon on “Theological Seminaries and Wild Gourds,” showing that the power of seminaries depends much on the kind of food the teachers give them. If they teach them that the story of Adam and Eve is an allegory, then they might just as well make the second Adam an allegory, for his mission is dependent on the failure of the first. If they teach them the radical criticism; if they teach anything that takes away from inspiration and infallibility of the divine Word of God or from any of its great doctrines then, “O man of God, there is death in the pot” that will be a sick seminary.
In a conversation once with a radical critic I submitted for his criticism, without naming the author, the exact words of Tom Paine in his “Age of Reason,” denying that the story of Adam and Eve was history. He accepted it as eminently correct. Then I gave the author, and inquired if it would be well for preachers and commentators to revert to such authorities on biblical interpretation. He made no reply. We find Paine’s words not only in the first part of the “Age of Reason,” written in a French prison without a Bible before him, but repeated in the second part after he was free and had access to Bibles. I gave this man a practical illustration, saying, “You may take the three thousand published sermons of Spurgeon, two sets of them, and arrange them, one set according to the books from which the texts are taken Gen 1:2 , Gen 1:3 , etc., and make a commentary on the Bible. By arranging the other set of them in topical order, you have a body of systematic theology.” Now this man Spurgeon believed in the historical integrity and infallibility of the Bible, in its inspiration of God, and he preached that, just that. As the old saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the chewing of the bag.” He preached just that, and what was the result? Thousands and thousands of converts wherever he preached, no matter what part of the Bible he was preaching from; preachers felt called to enter the ministry, orphan homes rose up, almshouses for aged widows, colportage systems established, missionaries sent out, and all over the wide world his missionaries die in the cause. One man was found in the Alps, frozen to death, with a sermon of Spurgeon in his hand. One man was found shot through the heart by bush rangers of Australia, and the bullet passed through Spurgeon’s sermon on “The Blood of Jesus.” Now, I said to this man, “Get all your radical critics together, and let them preach three thousand sermons on your line of teaching. How many will be converted? How many backsliders will be reclaimed? How many almshouses and orphanages will be opened? How many colportage systems established? Ah! the proof of the pudding is in the chewing of the bag. If what you say is the best thing to teach about the Bible is true, then when you preach, it will have the best results. But does it?”
We have considered Elisha’s miracle for providing water for the allied armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom, when invading Moab (2Ki 3:10-19 ). We revert to it to note partakelarly this passage: “And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword, to break through unto the king of Edom: but they could not. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land” (2Ki 3:26-27 ). On this passage I submit two observations:
1. Not long after this time the prophet Micah indignantly inquires, “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” The context is a strong denunciation of the offering of human sacrifices to appease an angry deity. The Mosaic law strongly condemned the heathen custom of causing their children to pass through the fire of Molech. Both this book of Kings and Jeremiah denounce judgment on those guilty of this horrible practice. The Greek and Roman classics, and the histories of Egypt and Phoenicia, show how widespread was this awful custom.
2. But our chief difficulty is to expound the words, “There was great wrath against Israel.” But what was its connection with the impious sacrifice of the king of Moab? Whose the wrath? The questions are not easy to answer. It is probable that the armies of Edom and Judah were angry at Israel for pressing the king of Moab to such dire extremity, and so horrified at the sacrifice that they refused longer to co-operate in the campaign. This explanation, while not altogether satisfactory, is preferred to others more improbable. It cannot mean the wrath of God, nor the wrath of the Moabites against Israel. It must mean, therefore, the wrath of the men of Judah and Edom against Israel for pressing Mesha to such an extent that he would offer his own son as a sacrifice.
QUESTIONS
I. On the two accounts of Jehoshaphat’s shipping alliance with Ahaziah, 2Ki 22 ; 2Ch 20 , answer:
1. Where is Tarshish?
2. Where is Ophir?
3. Where is Ezion-geber?
4. What is the relevance of 1Ki 22:47 ?
5. Explain “ships of Tarshish” in Kings, and “to go to Tarshish” in Chronicles.
6. What commerce were they seeking to revive, and what passage from 1 Kings bearing thereon?
7. How does the book of Kings seem to account for the wreck of the fleet, and how does Chronicles give a better reason?
II. On the account of Elijah’s translation (2Ki 2:1-18 ) answer:
1. Why the course taken by Elijah by way of Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho?
2. How did both Elisha and the schools of the prophets know about the impending event?
3. What was the object of Elijah in telling Elisha to tarry at each stopping place while he went on?
4. What was the meaning of Elisha’s request for “a double portion” of Elijah’s spirit and why was this a hard thing to ask, i.e., wherein the difficulty? Illustrate by a New Testament lesson.
5. What was the meaning of Elijah’s translation, and what other cases, past or prospective?
6. What was the meaning of Elisha’s expression, “My Father! My Father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” and who and when applied the same language to Elisha?
7. How does Elisha seek a test of his succession to Elijah and how do others recognize the credentials?
III. How do you explain the seeming inhumanity of Elisha’s cursing the children of Bethel?
IV. On the widow’s oil (2Ki 4:1-7 ), answer:
1. What often happens to the widow of a prophet or preacher, and what circumstance greatly aggravates the trouble?
2. What is the Mosaic law relative to debtors and creditors?
3. What one great lesson of the miracle?
V. On “Death in the Pot” answer:
1. What the incident of the wild gourds?
2. What application does the author make of this?
3. What comparison does the author make between Spurgeon and the Radical Critics?
VI. On Elisha’s miracle, the water supply, answer:
1. What is the allusion in Micah’s words, “Shall I give my first-born,” etc.?
2. What the meaning of “There was great wrath against Israel”?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XI
THE STORY OF NAAMAN, THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA,
AND THE DEATH OF JEHORAM (OF JUDAH)
2Ki 5:1-8:24
We commence this chapter with the story of Naaman, recorded in 2Ki 5:1-24 , which is a continuation of the record of Elisha’s miracles. In this passage we have a very graphic and complete account of two miracles which are especially remarkable in their relation to each other. One was the cure of leprosy and the other was the infliction of leprosy. One was wrought on a foreigner and a man of prominence; the other, on a Hebrew and a servant. The second was consequential on the first and the two together must have given Elisha a great reputation at home and abroad, and at the same time extolled Jehovah as the great God in the surrounding nations.
This Naaman was by nationality a Syrian, by position a captain, a great and honorable man. “He was also a mighty man of valor,” one who had rendered valuable services to his country in giving deliverance (Hebrew salvation) from an oppressor. Here arises the question, “What was this deliverance of Naaman?” To this question we find no reply in the Scriptures but there is evidence enough from the Assyrian monuments. Prior to this time an Assyrian monarch had pushed his conquests as far west as Syria bringing this country into subjection, but Syria revolted after a few years and once more gained her independence. It was this deliverance that was wrought by Naaman in which he distinguished himself and won the special favor of the Syrian king.
But Naaman had one serious defect. He was a leper. The way this fact is introduced is most natural, viz.: by the adversative conjunction but. It is true that the conjunction is in italics, showing that the word does not occur in the original, yet the adversative idea is there. It is suggestive of the fact that too often people spoil a splendid recommendation of other people with the introduction of some defect; as, Byron was a great poet but was clubfooted. Or that man is an excellent gentleman but he has one failing, etc. So we go on describing people, saying all the good things we know about them, and then marring their fine reputation by pointing out some fault, altogether unlike the spirit of the inspired historian here in the case of Naaman. This thought is further illustrated in the case of David. Nathan said to him, “Jehovah hath put away thy sin, howbeit,” and then follows with a long list of consequences of the sin which would come upon David. We find the adversative conjunction used to introduce good qualities also, as in 2Ch 19:3 . After Jehu the prophet had rebuked Jehoshaphat for his sin, he said, “Nevertheless there are good things found in thee,” etc. Other examples might be given but these are enough. To sum up what I have said: But may be used adversely to introduce the bad when the good is mentioned first, and to introduce the good when the bad is mentioned first. A fact generally admitted by all, is that both qualities are found in varying ratios in all of us. Therefore we should remember the saying, “There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it scarcely behooves any of us to say anything about the rest of us.”
As has already been stated, this defect of Naaman was leprosy, which comes from the Hebrew word meaning a stroke, because the ancients regarded this disease as a stroke from God. Of course it carried with it the idea of penalty for sin committed, just as the three friends of Job reasoned with respect to his case. They said, “This stroke is from God because of your sins.” They thus attributed all afflictions to sin as the cause and to God as inflicting the penalty. The Greek word from which we get our word leprosy means “a scale” and thus indicates a certain characteristic of the disease, viz: that in certain stages of the disease the skin becomes scaly.
There is a most impressive lesson here for us in the instrumentality of this miracle. On some one of their marauding expeditions into northern Israel they had captured a little Jewish maiden who was made servant to Naaman’s wife. The beauty and radiance of her life are seen in the few words here said about her. She expressed a most ardent desire that her master might be healed and pointed out the source of such healing as her God, who would effect such a cure through his servant, Elisha, the prophet in Samaria. All this is an expression of affection, the affection of a servant for her master. How sublime such affection under such conditions! A captive maiden, with the loyalty of a child for a parent, reveals to her master the true source of healing. May we not think of this little Jewish maid in her love for and her loyalty to her oppressors, as a kind of type of Christians in their relation to the world? Surely the human instrumentality in this great divine transaction should not be underestimated. Neither can we fail to recognize the human in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. This little maid played her part and played it well. Are we doing our part in the great plan of God as well as she?
The transactions from this point in the story are rapid and interesting. Naaman appeals to the Syrian king who in turn sends a letter to Jehoram the king of Israel asking for the recovery of Naaman of his leprosy. This royal courtesy of the Syrian king was misunderstood by the king of Israel, who thought that the king of Syria was seeking a quarrel with him. Just here Elisha intervenes to save the day, by offering to do what Jeroboam in his royalty could not do, viz: to heal Naaman of his loathsome disease. But how simple the prescription! Dip in the Jordan seven times. Why seven? Seven was a symbol of perfection and here symbolized the perfect obedience required upon the part of Naaman. But Naaman was wroth and went away saying, “Behold, I thought, he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not . . . the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?” This reply shows what was in Naaman’s mind. He expected Elisha to make a great display, and he seems also to have expected an incantation by which the cure would be effected, but the prophet understood human nature too well to be engulfed into violating the law of his God. The captain’s anger was most natural; it was the result of a keen disappointment, but it prepared the way for a hearing from his servants, which resulted in his cure.
There are several lessons here for us: (1) Human nature calls for display. This is true often in the most vital matters, such as the salvation of the soul; (2) May we not find in this incident an illustration of the simplicity of the plan of salvation? Upon this point many stumble. They say, “What shall I do to be saved?” or “What shall I give?” (3) Healing is obtained by taking the remedy: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Joh 3:18 ).
It is noteworthy in this connection that the servants of Naaman interceded with him as children begging a father and this influenced him to try the offered remedy. Their reasoning with him was simple and effective: “If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean”? This was sufficient. He went down, dipped himself and was healed. Here arises the question of the virtue of his cure. It was not in the Jordan, nor in the seven dips, but in the power of God. Of course, it came in response to conditions met, just as in the case of all other blessings.
May we not find here a parallel case to the New Testament teaching on baptismal regeneration? Hardly; here the dipping was made a condition of Naaman’s healing, but in the New Testament we do not find baptism a condition of salvation, but the conditions of salvation are repentance and faith. However there is this parallel: that God’s own prescribed conditions must be met before there is any blessing. In this connection it is well to note also that the word for “dip” here, in the Septuagint, is bapto from which comes the New Testament word “baptize,” and that this word means the same as the original Hebrew word, viz: to dip, to immerse. This Old Testament incident is an illustration of the meaning of bapto and baptize and thus confirms the New Testament teaching of baptism by immersion.
Naaman’s gratitude for his healing is very beautifully and impressively expressed: (1) He returned from the Jordan to Elisha, a journey of forty or fifty miles out of his way; (2) he offered the prophet the presents which he had brought from Damascus; (3) he embraced the Jehovah religion and made a vow to renounce all other gods but Jehovah; (4) he honored the request of Elisha (as he thought) by his servant, Gehazi. In all this one is reminded of the incident in the New Testament where the one leper returned to thank our Lord for his healing, evidencing the additional blessing of salvation, yet this act of Naaman involved far more trouble and inconvenience than that of the Samaritan leper..
It should also be noted here that Elisha refused his presents, not because he was not worthy to receive them, but to show this heathen man that not all of God’s prophets were mercenary, as was the case with the priests of other religions. It sets forth Elisha in a beautiful light. We see here the spirit of self-denial which reminds us of Paul’s life and teaching. One could wish that he might always be able to find just such a spirit in the prophets of Jehovah in this twentieth century. Alas, too often the spirit of Gehazi possesses them rather than the spirit of Elisha. But we thank God that the majority are walking in the steps of Elisha.
But what did Naaman mean by wanting “Two mules’ burden of earth”? It cannot be definitely known just what was in his mind, but of all the theories proposed, the context seems to have a great bearing on the one which says that he wanted this earth from the land of Israel to erect an altar to Jehovah in the land of Syria or, perchance, to sprinkle it upon a certain area of his own land, thereby making it “holy ground” and suitable for the worship of Jehovah. History tells us that some of the Jews carried earth from their own land when they were carried into captivity to Babylon. This seems to have been the prevailing idea among the Orientals. Yet another matter should be considered here, viz: If Naaman here embraced the Jehovah religion, why should he bow himself down in the house of Rimmon? This seems to be a reference to his work, as an attendant upon the king of Syria, to perform certain duties relative to his master in the house of Rimmon. He seemed to realize that Jehovah was a jealous God, but he was not strong enough to become a martyr to the Jehovah religion. In this we may not judge Naaman too severely, especially in view of the fact that Naaman was a heathen, reared in a heathen religion, and going back to a heathen environment, and may we not confidently expect to meet Naaman in the “Sweet By and By” as one of God’s jewels gathered out of a foreign land? One could wish that he might greet this Syrian general and this little Jewish maid along with Elijah’s widow of Zarephath, Elisha’s Shunammite woman and our Lord’s Syro-Phoenician woman on the bright shores of everlasting deliverance.
Over against this cheering picture of Elisha and Naaman hangs the blighting picture of Gehazi, a renegade Jew. With the spirit of avarice he seized his opportunity to get the presents offered his master. His sin was manifold. He was guilty of lying, covetousness, and sacrilege. He lied to Naaman outright in the matter of the presents; he was prompted in it all by the spirit of covetousness; and he committed sacrilege in the ill use he made of the name of his master and in his profane oath. But the eye of the seer was there and he was completely caught. May we not rejoice that justice found her own, or shall we revolt at the severity of the penalty inflicted? If the latter, then must we pass by the case of Ananias and Sapphira and a multitude of others like unto them? We will rejoice rather in the prophetic and apostolic judgments since they are strokes of God through his own appointed executioners. But what of the descendants of Gehazi involved in this penalty? Here comes in the law of heredity which he could escape only by denying himself of the privilege of marriage which he may have done; we do not know. One could wish that he might lift the curtain and see further into the course of Naaman and Gehazi, but we must be content with whatever revelation has disclosed, and dare not to intrude into the precincts of the Most Holy uninvited. Here they pass from our view never to reappear.
Turning to the Scriptures we meet again Benhadad II, king of Syria, who was under treaty with Israel twelve years during which time Ahab furnished troops in a league against Assyria, but now he breaks the treaty and invades Israel according to the prophecy given Ahab when he let Ben-hadad go (1Ki 20:35-43 ). What a pity Ahab did not obey the Lord and put an end to him. But we should not have had this great lesson of national sin and its penalty.
This Benhadad comes now, besieges Samaria and causes sufferings in Israel unparalleled in their history. The head of an ass, the most undesirable part of the most undesirable animal, sold for 80 shekels, about $50.00; a kab of doves’ dung sold for 5 shekels, about $3.00; and the women killed their own sons and ate them. Such indicates the horrors of this terrible siege. But this is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Deu 28:56-57 , which has three literal fulfilments in the history of the Jewish people, viz: (1) in this instance, the siege of Samaria by Benhadad; (2) in the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and (3) in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70. The story here of the two women and the appeal of one of them to the king is very pathetic. Who can censure the mother for hiding her son? The mystery is that the other one ever gave up hers. All this shows the dire straights into which they had become because of this siege.
For all this the king of Israel proposes a remedy, viz: that the head of Elisha be taken from his shoulders. But we note the fact that this was contrary to law. An Oriental monarch might do such a thing consistently. Beheading was practiced in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, but it was positively forbidden by the Jewish law. Why should he strike for Elisha when such a calamity came? He evidently thought that Elisha was to blame for their condition. He may have associated this instance with the drought which came at the word of Elijah, or he may have thought that Elisha could work miracles at will and that he purposely refused to relieve the people. However the case may be, it is the common plea of the enemies of God’s cause against his agents and ministers. So with an oath he vows to take the head of God’s prophet.
But Elisha was not to be so ill-treated. He was a seer and the Spirit of God in him was sufficient for every emergency. He saw the plan before the messenger of vengeance arrived and made counterplans to defeat the whole purpose of the king. The story of this incident is beautifully told in the record: how Elisha stopped the messenger and even his master, and with keen insight into the future made a most interesting prediction, viz: that on the morrow they would be amply supplied at reasonable prices. The messenger was doubtful but this prediction allowed for Elisha a probation and a respite from the wrath of the king.
The fulfilment of this prediction is found in the incident of the lepers, the story of which is given in the record. The lesson of this incident is illustrative of the condition of the sinner: “Why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter the city, when the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit here, we shall die also . . . if the Syrians kill us, we shall but die.” This pictures the state of the sinner and his reasoning when he faces the question of decision: “I can but die; therefore, will I trust him.” This text has been used by hundreds of preachers to illustrate the point of decision. There is also another fine text in this connection, viz: “We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.” What a good missionary text! They told it and so should we. The world, like Samaria, is perishing for the necessaries of life, and we know where there is plenty. Let us tell it, lest when the blessed light of God’s eternal morning bursts forth upon us our sin of omission will overtake us.
They did tell it, but as is often the case when we preach, they did not believe it. It was received with distrust; they thought the Syrians had set a trap for them and so they sent messengers and chariots after them to ascertain the facts in the case. The report of these messengers was convincing. They pursued the Syrians as far as the Jordan and found garments and vessels scattered all along the way. Evidently the Syrians had gotten a good “scare” but this is easily explained when we take into consideration that it was the Lord’s “scare.” He made them to hear a great noise of chariots, of horsemen and of a great host. It is no wonder that they ran for their lives. In this connection we find the fulfilment of the prophecy of Elisha to the messenger of vengeance in two important aspects, viz: (1) the price of flour and barley became reasonable; (2) the messenger of vengeance was made gatekeeper by the king and was trodden to death, thus fulfilling Elisha’s statement that he should see it with his eyes but should not eat thereof. This must have been a horrible death, to be trampled to death while starving and yet in sight of plenty. We may think of this as illustrating another class of sinners, those who die in sight of plenty and yet because of their previous course in sin are altogether unable to get to the table of God’s kingdom. This man died because of his unbelief, 2Ki 7:2 ; 2Ki 7:19 f.
The next event according to our study of this section is the death of Jehoram king of Judah and his sad funeral. He had a complication of dreadful diseases, which are mentioned in any good commentary. The sad feature of his funeral is the fact that he was not buried in the usual way in which they buried their kings. He had no burning for him, and was not interred in the sepulchers of the kings. It is sad to have such distinction in one’s death. But such must be the lot of those who sin against Jehovah. We may be sure our sins will find us out.
It is well to note that the book of Obadiah falls in this period, and will be studied in the light of this history when we take up the prophets of the Assyrian period.
QUESTIONS
1. Tell the story of Naaman, the leper.
2. Who was Naaman and what was his standing?
3. What was Naaman’s victory for God?
4. What word introduces the defect in Naaman, what play on it and what the lesson?
5. What this defect and why was it considered such a misfortune?
6. What was the instrumentality of his healing and what the lessons?
7. What was Elisha’s prescription, what was Naaman’s reply, and what the lesson?
8. How was he finally induced to take the remedy and in what was the virtue of his healing?
9. What was the word here in the Septuagint translated “dipped,” and what was the bearing on the New Testament usage of the word?
10. What was the effect of this healing on Naaman and how did he show his gratitude?
11. Explain Naaman’s request for “two mules’ burden of earth” and his bowing himself in the house of Rimmon.
12. How did Gehazi get the reward, what was his sin and what was his punishment?
13. Who was Benhadad and what was his relation to Israel at this time?
14. What indicates the great suffering in the siege of Samaria?
15. What was the king’s proposed remedy and what the meaning of it?
16. Give the story of the king’s messenger of vengeance and Elisha’s promise of plenty.
17. Give the story of the four lepers at the gate. What was the lesson?
18. What missionary text in this connection?
19. How was the message of the lepers received, how was it verified, and how were Elisha’s promise and prophecy fulfilled?
20. Describe the awful sickness and death of Jehoram, and his sad funeral.
21. What prophetic book has its setting here?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ki 7:1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time [shall] a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
Ver. 1. Tomorrow about this time. ] Man’s perverseness stoppeth not the current of God’s infinite goodness. “What should I wait for the Lord any longer?” said wicked Joram. “Tomorrow shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel,” &c., saith the Lord, as if he would condescend, where he might judge; and would please them who deserved nothing but punishment.
Shall a measure of fine flour.
a Mr Clark’s Martyrol.
b Speed in Suffolk.
2 Kings
‘IMPOSSIBLE,-ONLY I SAW IT’
2Ki 7:1 – 2Ki 7:16 The keynote of this incident lies in the promise in the first verse. The whole story illustrates man’s too frequent rejection of God’s promise, and God’s wonderful way of fulfilling it.
I. We note first the promise which common-sense finds incredible. It came from Elisha when all seemed desperate. The wonderfully vivid narrative in the previous chapter tells a pitiful tale of women boiling their children, of unclean food worth more than its weight in silver, of a king worked up to a pitch of frenzy and murderous designs, and renouncing his allegiance to Jehovah. Such faith as he had was strained to the breaking point, and his messenger was sent to tell the prophet that the king would not ‘wait for the Lord any longer.’ That was the moment chosen to speak the promise. It came, as God’s helps, both of promise and act, so often come, at the very nick of time, when faith is ready to fail and human aid is vain. Before we had learned our hopeless state, they would come too soon for our good; after faith had wholly parted from its moorings, they would come too late.
Note the precision and confidence of the promise. The hour of the fulfilment, and the price of flour and the cheaper barley are stated. Man’s promises are vague; God’s are specific. Mark, too, the entire silence of the promise as to the mode of its fulfilment. Probably Elisha knew as little as any one, how it was going to be accomplished. The particularity and vagueness combined are remarkable. A hint as to how the thing was to be done would have made the belief in the fact so much easier. Yes, and just because it would have smoothed the road for worthless belief, it was not given, but the apparently impossible promise was left in nakedness, for any one who needed sense to animate his faith, to scoff at. Is not that emphatic assertion of the fact, and emphatic silence as to the ‘how,’ a frequent characteristic of God’s promises? If ever we are kept in the dark as to the latter, it is for our good, and for the encouragement of our growth in utter dependence and perfect trust. It is not well for the trusting soul to ask too curiously about methods intervening between the promise in the present and its accomplishment in the future. It is better for peace and the simplicity of our trust, that we should be content to cling to the faithful word, and to ‘believe. . . that it shall be even as it was told’ us, without troubling ourselves about His way of effecting His purposes. Passengers are not admitted to the engine-room, nor allowed on the bridge. Let them leave all the working of the ship to the captain.
II. The noble who blurted out his incredulity had a great deal to say for himself from the common-sense and worldly point of view. But he need not have sneered, in the same breath, at old miracles and new. His sarcasm about ‘windows in heaven’ refers to the story of the flood; and perhaps there is a hint of allusion to the manna. He neither believed these ancient deeds, nor the promise for to-morrow. Why not? Simply because he-wise as he thought himself-could not see any way of bringing it about. There are many of us yet who have the same modest opinion of our own acuteness, and go on the supposition that what we do not see is invisible, and what we cannot do, or imagine done, is impossible. Why should not the Lord ‘make windows in heaven’ if He please? Or, how does the pert objector know that that is the only way of fulfilling the promise? He will be taught that he has not quite exhausted all the possibilities open to Omnipotence, and that something much simpler than windows in heaven can do what is wanted. Unbelief which rejects God’s plain promises because it does not see how they can be fulfilled is common enough still, and is as unreasonable as it is impertinent. Elisha was as ignorant as this nobleman was, of the means, but his faith fixed its eyes on the faithful word, and trusted, while sense, self-conceit, and worldliness, a mole pretending to have an eagle’s eye, declared that to be impossible which it could not see the way to bring about, and thereby exposed only its own blind arrogance.
III. Elisha’s answer 2Ki 7:2 sounds like Elijah. The utmost gentleness is stirred to pronounce condemnation on self-confident unbelief, and a gentler gentleness than Elisha’s, even Christ’s, shrinks not from executing the sentence. Is not the sentence on this scoffing lord the very sentence pronounced ever on unbelief? In his case, it was fulfilled by the crowd that pressed, in their ravenous hunger, through the gate, and trod him down; but in ordinary cases, in our days, the natural operation of unbelief is to shut men out from the fruition, of which faith is the necessary and only condition. It is no avenging and arbitrarily imposed exclusion, but the necessary result of self-made disqualification, which brings on the unbeliever the doom, ‘Thou shalt not eat thereof.’ The blessings of the religious life on earth, and the glories of its perfection in heaven, are only enjoyable through faith. These are not so plainly visible to the unbelieving heart as the scene at the gate was to the nobleman; but, in some measure, even those who do not possess them do, in some lucid moments, see their worth. It is one sad part of the sad lives of godless men that they have their seasons of calm weather, when, in the clearer atmosphere, they catch glimpses of their true good, but that they yet do not behold it long and close enough to be smitten with the desire to possess it; and so the sight remains inoperative, or adds to their condemnation. Not to taste is the sadder fate, because there has been sight. To have eyes opened at last to our own folly, and to see the rich provision of God’s table, when it is too late, will be a chief pang of future retribution,-as it sometimes is of present god-lessness.
IV. Passing over for the present the account of the discovery by the four lepers, we may next note God’s way of fulfilling His promise. A panic would spread fast in an undisciplined army, and history supplies examples of the swift change into a mob under the influence of groundless terror. There is nothing wonderful in the helter-skelter rush for the Jordan, or in the road being littered with abandoned baggage. The divine intervention produced the impression which naturally brought the flight about, and the coincidence of the prophecy and the panic which fulfilled it stamp both as divinely originated. But if we looked on events as devoutly, and saw into their true character as deeply as the author of the Books of Kings does, we should see that many a similar coincidence, which we trace no farther than to men or circumstances, was due to the same divine cause which made the Syrians to hear ‘the noise of a great host.’ Track the river of life to its source, and you come to God.
‘The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth.’ Imaginary terrors are apt to beset those who have no trust in God. If we fear Him, we need have no other fear; but if we have not Him for our anchorage, we shall be driven by gusts of passion and terror. The unseen possibilities of attack and defeat may well terrify a man who has not the unseen God to keep him calm.
Windows in heaven, then, were not needed, and the arrogance which said ‘Impossible!’ had not measured all the resources of God. A very wise scientist here in England proved that the Atlantic could not be crossed by a steamer, and the first steamer that did cross took out copies of his book. How foolish men’s demonstrations of impossibility look beside God’s deliverances! We have not gone through all the chambers of His storehouse, and ‘His ways are far above, out of our sight.’ Let us hold fast by the faith that His arm is strong to do whatever His lips are gracious to engage, nor let our inability to see where the river gets through the mountains ever make us doubt that it will reach the sunlit ocean.
V. We may throw together the remaining parts of the incident, as showing how the fulfilled promise was received. These four lepers had heard nothing of it, when despair made them venturesome. How reckless they were, and how they harp on the one gloomy word ‘die’! The thought was familiar to them, and yet, lepers though they were, life was sweet, and a chance of prolonging it, even as slaves, was worth trying. They chose twilight, that they might be unobserved. We can see them creeping cautiously, with beating hearts, towards the camp, expecting every moment to be challenged, and possibly slain. How their caution would diminish and their wonder grow, as they passed from end to end, and found no one! There stood the horses and asses, left behind lest their footfalls should betray the flight, and every tent empty of men and full of spoil. The lepers seem to have gone right through the camp before they ventured to begin plundering; for the ‘uttermost part’ in 2Ki 7:5 and that in 2Ki 7:8 are naturally understood of its opposite extremities. Then, secure against surprise, they eat and drink as ravenously as men who had been starving so long would do. Twilight had deepened into darkness before hunger and greed were satisfied. Not till then did they awake to their duty; and even when they bethink themselves, it is fear of punishment, not care for a city full of hungry men, that moves them. But their tardy awaking to duty is couched in words which carry a great truth, especially to all who have tasted the Bread of Life. It is ‘not well’ to ‘hold our peace’ in ‘a day of good tidings.’ If we have good news, especially the good news, its possession obliges us to impart it. If we have tasted the graciousness of the Lord, we are bound to tell of the stores we have found. ‘He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.’ ‘Of how much sorer punishment. . .shall he be thought worthy,’ who keeps to himself the food of the world?
Lepers were strange messengers of good, but the message graces the bringer, and they who tell good tidings are sure of a welcome. God does not choose great men for the heralds of His mercy, but the qualification is personal experience. These four could only say, ‘We have seen and tasted,’ but that was enough. The king’s caution was very natural, and would have been quite blameless, if God’s promise had not been spoken the day before. But that made the slowness to believe a sin. Feeling one’s way over untried ice is prudent; but if we have previously been told that it will bear, it proves our distrust of him who told us. The despatch of the chariots to make a reconnaissance was needless trouble. But men are always apt to think that faith is but a shaky ground of certitude unless it be backed up by sense. When God gives us His word to trust to, we are wisest if we trust to it alone, and we may save ourselves the trouble of sending out scouts to see if it is really beginning to be fulfilled. Elisha had no need to wait the report of the charioteers before he believed in the fulfilment of the promise, which others had found incredible when spoken, and too good to be true even when fulfilled. Let us trust God, whether sense can attest the incipient accomplishment of His words or no.
Then Elisha. The Structure (see 2Kings book comments) shows that verses 2Ki 7:1-2 should be read with 2Ki 6:33.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4. measures = seahs. See App-51.
Chapter 7
And Elisha said, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, Tomorrow about this time they will be selling a bushel of fine flour for sixty-five cents, and two bushels of fine of barley for sixty-five cents, right in the gate of Samaria. Now [the prime minister,] the guy upon whom the king leaned, said to the prophet of God, if God would open up windows in heaven, could such a thing be? ( 2Ki 7:1-2 )
Now it is interesting that so often we try to figure out how God can do His work. God gives us a glorious promise but I want to know how’s He going to do it. I’ve got to be able to somehow figure it out in my mind. Now, the Bible says, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus our Lord” ( Php 4:19 ). Oh, that’s great. But how is He going to supply? I’ve got the bills coming; how’s He going to meet the bills this week? How’s He going to do it? As though I need to know the methods. Now, I’m always trying to figure out how God can meet my needs. I’m always trying to figure out a way by which God might answer my prayers. And when I figure out a way by which God might answer them, then my prayers are usually direction prayers rather than direct prayers. My prayer turns into my solution. “O Lord, I’ve got it worked out. If You’ll just do this and this and this, Lord, then it’s going to come. It will happen.”
But God doesn’t always follow my directions. And that’s where we have problems. Because if He isn’t following my directions, then I get upset with Him. I don’t think He wants to help me. I don’t think He wants to answer my prayer. Why? Because He’s not following my directions. I got it all worked out the way God’s going to do it. Rather than just direct prayers, I’m telling God how to do His business.
And so this guy tried to figure out, rationalize how that, how in the world, when they’re selling a donkey’s skull for eighty pieces of silver. How in the world they going to be selling fine flour for sixty-five cents tomorrow. God can go around and open up windows of heaven and dump flour all over the place. And so mocking the promise of God. Now this is through unbelief. He mocked the promise of God because of his unbelief. Because he could not figure out in his mind a way by which God might do what God said He was going to do.
Now I often cannot figure out how God is going to do things, and that’s when I really panic. As long as I can figure out a way by which God might do it, I’m usually in good shape. But when they’ve made the Reader’s Digest drawing and my number wasn’t drawn in the Grand Sweepstakes, now how God going to do it? He’s failed me. I had it all worked out. All He had to do is pull my number out of the box. He couldn’t see. Now, I want you to know that God has resources that you know nothing about, and God has ways of working of which you not have not even thought. God says, “My ways are not your ways. My ways are beyond your finding out. My thoughts are not your thoughts” ( Isa 55:8-9 ). “My ways are beyond your finding out” ( Rom 11:33 ).
It isn’t up to me to discover or to know or to figure out how God is going to do His work. It’s only to believe that God is going to work because He said He would. And if God says He’s going to do it, He’s going to do it. But this fellow through unbelief mocked the promise of God.
And the prophet said unto him, [Fellow, let me tell you something,] you’ll see it but you won’t eat it ( 2Ki 7:2 ).
God’s going to work in spite of your unbelief, but you’re not going to partake. And that’s one tragic thing about unbelief, so often it keeps you from partaking even after God has done His work. Now, God has done a glorious work of salvation for you. But many people have not partaken of that glorious work of God through unbelief. Unbelief keeps you from God’s work in your life. And you can see the work of God, but not partake of it. You can see what God has done. He did what He promised He’d do. But you yourself cannot partake because of unbelief. Oh, how unbelief can rob you of the things of God and the blessings of God. You’re going to see it but you won’t eat it.
Now that night, outside of the gate of, or outside of the wall of Samaria,
There were four leprous men [living at the garbage dump] ( 2Ki 7:3 ).
In those days leprosy was such a loathsome disease that the people were ostracized from the community, and they were forced to live apart from the community. When people approach them, they had to start crying out, “Unclean, unclean,” so people wouldn’t get too near. Now, these people usually lived outside of the city wall, outside of the area of the wall where the people would dump their garbage. And they would survive off of the garbage that was dumped over the wall. But the famine was so bad in Samaria they weren’t dumping garbage. They were selling it. Nothing coming over the wall and these guys are really getting hungry. Of course, you can imagine what it is if they’re eating babies in the city what it would be trying to survive off of what’s thrown over the wall.
[These four guys sitting there starving to death], one of them looked with at the others and he said, [Fellows,] why just sit here ’til we die? ( 2Ki 7:3 )
That’s a good question. Why just sit here till we die? In other words, if I don’t do anything, I’m going to die. Just sitting here, I’m going to die. Why just sit until I die?
Now there’s no sense going into Samaria, for they’re starving in Samaria. So they can’t give us any food in there anyhow. Let’s go over to the camp of the Syrians. And if they kill us, we haven’t lost a thing because we’re going to die anyhow. But it’s possible that they’ll have mercy on us and get us a crust of bread. So these four fellows were taking a venture, sort of, in faith. But it’s on that philosophy “You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.” I mean, if they kill us what have we lost? We’re going to die here anyhow. We’re starving to death. So if they kill us, we haven’t lost a thing. But they might feed us. We don’t know. And so they headed toward the camp of the Syrians, four leprous men.
Now God worked a miracle. As these four leprous men were clanging down the road toward the camp of the Syrians, in that evening darkness the Syrians thought they heard the sound of chariots and horses and a multitude of men. And they said, “Oh, the king of Samaria has hired the Egyptians and they’re coming up against us. Let’s get out of here.” And they started running. And the guy said, “Hey, where you going?” “Egyptians are coming!” Oh, you know, and they started off. And pandemonium broke out in the camp of Syria as the guys all took off running back towards the Jordan River, and across up into the Golan into Syria.
So by the time these four leprous men got to the first tent, there was nobody around. So one guy opened up the tent flap, he says, “Wow, look at that.” Tables set with food. Man, these guys pounced on it, began to scarf it up. And some of the treasures that were lying around in the tent, the guys dug a hole, began to bury it. Someone ran to another tent. “Come on over here, another tent.” And they ran over there and started grabbing things and burying them. One of the fellows suddenly stopped and said, “Wait a minute. We’re doing wrong. We keep this up, mischief is going to come on us. For just right over close by in the city of Samaria people are starving to death tonight. And if we are out here and we just keep this to ourselves, and we just gorge ourselves but don’t let them know, then mischief is going to happen to us. We better go back and tell them that there’s plenty of food for everybody.”
So they came back to the wall of Samaria and the guard was up there pacing back and forth looking for the Syrians, pulling his belt tight, feeling the hunger pang. These guys called up and they said, “Hey man, the Syrian camp is empty and there’s plenty of food for everybody. Enough to feed the whole city.” And so the guard ran to the king and he said, “I’ve just received a report. The Syrian camp is empty and there’s plenty of food for everybody.”
The king said, “It’s a trap. Don’t let anybody go out. Lock the gates. Those Syrians they’re sly people. They know how hungry we are, so they’ve just pulled back into the bushes and are hiding back in the bushes and they’re waiting for us to open the gate of the city and come flooding out. And as soon as we open the gate, then they’ll come pouring in and they’re going to wipe us out. Don’t let anybody go.”
Look again at the tragedy of unbelief. Here God has provided, just like He promised He would, but unbelief keeps them from even partaking of God’s glorious provision. One fellow said, “King, there are five horses left in town that hadn’t been eaten. Why don’t you let five of us guys go out and we will scout around, see if we can find any of the Syrians.” And the king said, “Alright, go.” And so these guys got on the five remaining horses in town, and they went riding down towards the Jordan River, and they came back in the morning and said, “It’s true, king, there’s not a Syrian around on this side of the Jordan River. All the way to the Jordan River we found sandals and coats and stuff that they threw off so they could run faster. They’re gone.”
And so the king said to this guy that leaned, that he leaned upon, sort of his prime minister, who the day before said to the prophet of God, “If God would open the windows in heaven, could such thing be?” The king said, “You go down and you watch the gate as the people go in and out.” So this guy went down to watch the gate and the people in their hurry and in their desire to get out trampled him to death. So the word of the prophet came to pass. He saw it, but he didn’t eat it. The tragic price of unbelief. “
2Ki 7:1-2
Introduction
GOD’S MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE OF BESIEGED SAMARIA
God continued to love all Israel in spite of their shameful division into two kingdoms and the apostasy in both of them. At first, the apostasy was worse in Northern Israel, but it would eventually destroy both nations (Israel and Judah). And yet God loved them both, showing no partiality whatever to either one. For example, there were two great deliverances of the national capitals, both Samaria and Jerusalem being rescued from threatened destruction by the most astounding miracles. Jerusalem would in time be delivered from the threat of Sennacherib; and in this chapter, Samaria was delivered from Benhadad by an equally astounding wonder.
2Ki 7:1-2
ELISHA’S PROPHECY OF IMMEDIATE VICTORY FOR SAMARIA
“And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if Jehovah should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof.”
If there was ever a prophecy that appeared to be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE of fulfillment, this was it! What the captain meant by his remark to Elisha was: “Your God Jehovah could not make that happen if he opened windows in heaven and rained down food on our city.” The unbelief of the king of Israel and his evil court are evident in the conversation here. It is a marvel that the king did not proceed with his intention of executing Elisha, but God restrained him. Elisha promptly added another prophecy that likewise appeared to be IMPOSSIBLE of fulfillment, namely, that the captain would see the fulfillment of the promise of plenty of food within twenty-four hours, but that he would not eat any of it!
E.M. Zerr:
2Ki 7:1. In the preceding chapter, the king of Israel realized the Lord had brought about the condition of distress then upon the capital city, or at least that he had suffered it to be so. He concluded also that it would be of no avail to ask God for help. In the present paragraph he will be promised a change. The prices named for necessities of life are so small that only by great plenty could such a thing be.
2Ki 7:2. The king made no comment on Elisha’s prediction, that is recorded, but the personal attendant doubted it. He is called a lord, and Strong defines it as a general of the third rank. In response to the expression of doubt, Elisha made another prediction: that the great plenty would come and the lord would see it; but he would not get to eat of it. The fulfillment of this strange prediction will come soon.
Under these circumstances of famine and the anger of the king the calmness and strength of the prophet were again manifest. It is another revelation of how quiet and strong a man becomes who is in secret fellowship with God. Elisha knew that deliverance was coming, and foretold the end of the siege and the provision of ample food for the needy. All he said was intended to emphasize the importance of faith in God, and in this case we see how in loyalty to this desire he foretold mercy and yet the judgment which was to come on the men who mocked at the possibility of the things he announced.
The incident of the leprous men in this chapter is full of suggestiveness. Their wise decision to take what appeared to be but half a chance of life rather than perish, and their immediate decision to tell the good news and share the benefit which their venture of faith had introduced them to, were wholly excellent.
Windows in Heaven
2Ki 7:1-11
There is a sore famine just now over the whole world-a famine of Gods Word. For some years the Church has felt its growing severity, but there are two classes within her borders: they who believe that God can open the windows of heaven, and pour down such a blessing that there will not be room to receive it, Mal 3:10; and those who, like the unbelieving courtier, jeer at the hope of the saints. Let us answer the skeptics Can God? by the positive achievements of faith.
When God sends blessings to His people, He rarely takes methods that we might expect. Rather, He chooses the weak and foolish things, yea, those that are not, to confound those that are, so as to prevent flesh from glorying in His presence. Whenever, in the first glint of the morning light, you discover the divine answer to your prayers, in all its plenteous abundance, do not keep the good news to yourself lest punishment overtake you, but be sure to bear the glad tidings to others. When it is a day of good tidings, be sure to act upon them, in faith and patience, counting it a sin to hold your peace.
2Ki 7:9
I. Where shall we work? In this aspect the will, acting often under the spur of vanity, plays strange tricks, encouraging persons to seek showy work, such as will bring them before the world’s eyes, rather than keeping on the path that Scripture and natural duty mark out. In these days of committees, meetings, and platform addresses, when earnest people are distracted by appeals to them to take part in all manner of well-meant movements, we need to be reminded that our first duty as workers for God is towards those with whom we live in a family or in daily business relations. Looking first at home, a man will have family worship; he will see that his children are taught to pray and instructed in the Bible.
II. In our work we must beware lest energy become self-importance and fussiness, lest hope become over-confidence. Above all, we must not forget that we at present are of the earth, earthy, and that we are all learners. It is “God that giveth the increase.”
III. But we pass from humility to hope, for in this work, as St. Paul says, “we are labourers together with God.” It is God that worketh with us. Consider the dignity of such a partnership of toil. It makes success certain and failure impossible, even where appearances are disappointing.
IV. Let the worker be cheerful and not easily cast down Noble is our call to work; gracious is our service. To serve our Master is freedom; to obey Him is to round our being and complete ourselves. Let the world take knowledge of us that “we have been with Jesus.”
F. Case, Short Practical Sermons, p. 21.
References: 2Ki 7:9.-F. Tucker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 508; S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 34. 2Ki 7:10-20.-A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 253. 2Ki 7:19.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 3. 2Ki 7.-T. Guthrie, Sunday Magazine, 1873, p. 577. 2Ki 8:1-5.-Parker; vol. viii., p. 186. 2Ki 8:1-6.-A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 264. 2Ki 8:5.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 14.
6. Elishas Prediction and Its Fulfilment
CHAPTER 7
1. Elishas prediction (2Ki 7:1)
2. The unbelieving lord (2Ki 7:2)
3. The four lepers and their discovery (2Ki 7:3-8)
4. The day of good tidings (2Ki 7:9-15)
5. The prediction fulfilled (2Ki 7:16-18)
6. The death of the unbelieving lord (2Ki 7:19-20)
When the worst had come, Samaria starving to death, the king in despondency, Elishas life threatened, then the mercy and kindness of God is revealed once more. The prophet announces the good news of salvation and deliverance. All is typical of the gospel of grace. The unbelieving lord who rejected the good news and refused to believe it represents those who reject the gospel. All in this chapter is intensely interesting and suggestive.
The great victory was accomplished by the Lord alone. His chariots had frightened the Syrian camp and put them to flight. The bread and the water, the silver and gold and raiment, all was His provision for a starving, dying people, and the four lepers in despair, facing certain death, were the first to discover Gods victory for them and the people. Their great need led them to find the needed salvation. Well may all this be applied to our Lords work for us and to the provision of the gospel. He alone worked out the great salvation and provided all, that sinners dying and lost (represented by the lepers) may come to eat and drink, without money and without price. It was a day of good tidings. Such is the still lasting day of salvation, the day of grace. The lepers who had their fill first and had tasted Gods great salvation, could not hold their peace. Through them the whole city hears of the provision made. And the people went out to see how wonderfully the prediction of Elisha had been accomplished. All enjoyed it. But the unbelieving lord perished, a warning that he that believeth not must die in his sins. The repetition at the close of this chapter of the words of the unbeliever recorded in the beginning of this story, is of solemn meaning. God is true to His Word, the Word which promises life to all who believe and which threatens eternal punishment to all who believe not. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
2Ki 8:1-29
7. The Famine Predicted and Further Events
CHAPTER 8
1. The famine predicted (2Ki 8:1-2)
2. The Shunammites land restored (2Ki 8:3-6)
3. Elisha with Ben-hadad and Hazael (2Ki 8:7-15)
4. Jehoram King of Judah (2Ki 8:16-19; 2Ch 21:5)
5. The Revolt of Edom (2Ki 8:20-21; 2Ch 21:8-10)
6. The Revolt of Libnah (2Ki 8:22-23; 2Ch 21:10)
7. Death of Jehoram (2Ki 8:24; 2Ch 21:19-20)
8. Ahaziah and Jehoram (2Ki 8:25-29; 2 Chronicles 22)
The threatened judgment upon the house of Ahab is now rapidly approaching. Elisha, knowing the secrets of the Lord, predicts the seven years famine. Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets (Amo 3:7). The Shunammite, that godly woman, is here introduced once more. As her husband is not mentioned she may have been a widow. Elisha warns her of the coming famine, and she heeded the warning and sojourned for seven years in the land of the Philistines. After her return all was restored unto her by the King. The introduction here of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, has drawn the fire of the critics. As it is unlikely that the king would converse long with a leper, and as Gehazi is still called the servant of the man of God, the incident may here be narrated out of order (Expositors Bible). But not so. It is fully in order. Gehazi was known as the servant of Elisha and is mentioned by his former position so that all doubt about his personality might be removed. That the deposed servant was with the apostate king is of much interest and has its lessons.
It seems to me that Gehazi stands here in a grievous position. Smitten by the hand of God, because his heart clung to earth, even in the presence of Jehovahs mighty and long-suffering testimony, he is now a parasite in the kings court, relating the wonderful things in which he no longer took part. This poor world grows weary enough of itself to lead it to take some pleasure in hearing anything spoken of that has reality and power. Provided that it does not reach the conscience, they will listen to it for their amusement, taking credit to themselves perhaps for an enlarged and a liberal mind, which is not enslaved by that which can yet recognize philosophically in its place. But that is a sad position, which makes it evident that formerly we were connected with a testimony, whilst now we only relate its marvels at court. Nevertheless God makes use of it; and it does not follow that there was no truth in Gehazi. But to rise in the world, and entertain the world with the mighty works of God, is to fall very deep (Synopsis of the Bible).
Elisha after this went outside of Israels land to Damascus. Guided by the Lord, whom he served so faithfully, he paid a visit to the sick King of Syria. By referring to 1Ki 19:15 we find that the commission to anoint Hazael, King over Syria, had been given to Elijah. There is no record from which we learn that Elijah had done so. And now Elisha meets Hazael, who came to him as the messenger of the sick King Ben-hadad, bringing costly presents. And the king asked the question, Shall I recover of this disease? The prophets answer was brief. The sickness itself was not fatal, he would certainly recover and yet the Lord had shown to him that the king should surely die. This meant while the sickness in itself would not result in Ben-hadads death, he should nevertheless die by other means.
Then Elishas countenance fell and the man of God wept. Then Elisha told Hazael he wept on account of the horrible atrocities which he would commit against the children of Israel. The fulfillment of Elishas prediction is found in 2Ki 10:32; 2Ki 12:17; 2Ki 13:3. Weeping Elisha foreshadows our Lord weeping over Jerusalem when He saw what was to come upon the city He loved so well. And Hazael, with a mock humility, expressed surprise. But the prophet revealed the innermost thoughts of his wicked heart by telling him he would be king over Syria; this was his aim. And so he returned to Ben-hadad, bringing a mutilated message and murdered the king immediately after.
The record of the kings of Judah and Israel is now briefly given. All is fast ripening for the long threatened judgment. After the death of Jehoshaphat, his son Jehoram became sole ruler over Judah. He walked in the evil ways of the kings of Israel and the record tells the reason, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. After him came his son Ahaziah. Again wicked Athaliah, his mother, is mentioned. (The marginal reading grand-daughter is correct. She was Ahabs daughter and Omris grand-daughter.) His connection with Ahab is made prominent. He did evil also in the sight of the Lord and made an alliance with the son of Ahab, Joram (or Jehoram), who was still king in Israel. Joram was wounded by the Syrians and Ahaziah, King of Judah, visited him in Jezreel. Alas! the unholy alliance of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, with the wicked murderer, Ahab, King of Israel (1 Kings 22) had resulted in the marriage of his son with Athaliah, the wicked daughter of a wicked father. And Jehoram, Jehoshaphats son, was dragged down by her and she became the ruination of her son Ahaziah. A dreadful harvest!
Elisha said: See note on 2Ki 6:33, and see note on 2Ki 20:16. 1Ki 22:19, Isa 1:10, Eze 37:4
To morrow: 2Ki 7:18, 2Ki 7:19, Exo 8:23, Exo 9:5, Exo 9:6, Exo 14:13, Exo 16:12, Jos 3:5, 1Sa 11:9, Psa 46:5
a measure of fine flour: A seah of flour: the seah was about two gallons and a half; the shekel 2s. 4d. at the lowest computation: awide difference between this and the price of the ass’s head. 2Ki 6:25, Rev 6:6
of barley: 2Ki 4:42, Joh 6:9
in the gate of Samaria: From this it appears that the gates were not only used as courts of judicature, but as market-places. So Mr. Morier observes: “In our rides we usually went out of the town at the Derwazeh Shah Abdul Azeem, or the gate leading to the village of Shah Abdul Azeem, where a market was held every morning, particularly of horses, mules, asses, and camels. At about sun-rise, the owners of the animals assemble and exhibit them for sale. But besides, here were sellers of all sorts of goods, in temporary shops and tents, and this, perhaps, will explain the custom alluded to in 2Ki 7:18.
Reciprocal: Gen 12:10 – was a Gen 18:14 – Is Exo 9:18 – to morrow 1Ki 17:14 – thus saith 1Ki 20:13 – Hast thou 2Ki 7:16 – according to 2Ki 8:4 – all the great Ecc 9:14 – There was Mat 4:4 – but Mat 6:34 – for
2Ki 7:1. Then When things were at the worst; when all help and relief were despaired of, and the king was impatient of waiting any longer; said Elisha To the king, who was now come to him, (2Ki 7:18,) and to his courtiers, who were come with him, 2Ki 7:2. Hear ye the word of the Lord Hear what he saith; hear it, and believe it. Thus saith the Lord He whom you have so highly offended, and at present despise and refuse to wait upon, or wait for, any longer; He, I say, of his own mere grace and bounty, hath sent you glad tidings of your deliverance. To-morrow shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel The Hebrew , seah, which is rendered a measure here, implies a quantity equal to six cabs, or a peck, or, according to some, a peck and two quarts, of our measure. The shekel was about three shillings; and though to have a peck of fine flour for three shillings at other times would not have been extraordinary, yet in the present situation of affairs it was wonderful. Thus, as has often been observed, mans extremity is Gods opportunity of magnifying his power; and his time of appearing for his people is when their strength is gone, Deu 32:36.
2Ki 7:3. Four leprous men. This is frequently called by the rabbins the Egyptian disease, and the law required that they should dwell alone.
2Ki 7:6. The kings of the Hittites. Those of Philistia, Tyre, and the Isles, as well as the Egyptians. The greatest victories which God has accorded to his church, have been effected without carnal weapons. Prayer in extremities is more efficacious than the sword. The Lord showed his righteousness in the sight of the heathen.
2Ki 7:19. Windows in heaven. The LXX, cataracts in heaven, pouring down corn as a cataract, a broken falling stream, pours down water from the superior river. Scoffing at revelation, clear in its characters, and hallowed in its operations, has often proved a sin unto death. When the Lord opened the windows of heaven in the days of Noah, the scoffers at the ark were presently washed from all the adjacent hills.
REFLECTIONS.
This chapter opens with a bright morning on Samaria, after a dark night, which seemed to portend destruction. It realizes the ancient proverb, that mans extremity is sometimes Gods opportunity. The people were dying for want of food; and now the good prophet comforts them with a promise of plenty, and in one day. The courtly infidel mocked, and God in return mocked at his cries, when the people trode upon him in the gate, as Elisha had foretold. Now the good man prayed; and the moment it was dark, the Lord caused the Syrians to hear a most terrific rumbling of chariots and horses driving furiously, and just entering their camp for carnage. Terror fell upon them, and so precipitate was their retreat that they left their immense stores of provisions, spoil, and cattle behind. This host came rather with plenty to relieve, than to besiege the capital of Israel. But of all the extraordinary circumstances in this siege, the case of the four lepers is the most remarkable. Sorely pinched with hunger, and feeling the approach of death, they wisely agreed to trust the remains of an expiring life in the enemys hands. Let the leprous sinner reason in like manner with his own heart. If I remain in my sins, shut out from God and his people, and sentenced by the law, I shall die. But why do I fear to come to the Saviour? Surely he will show me more kindness than these lepers could possibly expect from the Syrian host. In the days of his flesh he was the lepers best friend; he touched and cleansed them. Surely it is more honourable, if I must perish, to die at his feet, than to perish clinging to my money, my pleasures, and the fond hopes of life, embittered by many afflictions. I will therefore, and without delay, cast my soul on his mercy. If he save me alive, I shall live with him in glory: if he spurn me, I can but die.
The unexpected and great deliverances which the Lord granted to his church and people, may at all times encourage us to expect help and salvation in one way or other from his arm; and he is still the God of the whole earth. An affecting instance of the divine care over the protestants of Ireland occurred at the time when the French attempted to land in Bantry Bay, which had it been effected, would in all probability have rendered the whole country a scene of blood, the invaders having twenty two sail of the line full of troops; but by a northern tempest they were driven out to sea. Yea, the Lord did more for Ireland by the prayer of faith, than by the force of arms. Let Zion rejoice, even in the worst of times, for the Lord God omnipotent is her sure defence.
2Ki 6:24 to 2Ki 7:20. The Siege of Samaria.The date and source of this episode need discussion. The name of the king of Syria, as in 1 Kings 20, was Ben-hadad; the king of Israel is not named at all. Two Benhadads are possible, the king in 1 Kings 20 who was defeated by Ahab, and the son and successor of Hazael (2Ki 13:24). If the first is meant, then Jehoram was king of Israel; if not, Jehoash, the grandson of Jehu. Elisha was called in the days of Ahab, and lived under Ahab and his two sons Ahaziah and Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash, dying under the last-named king. It is true that Elisha called the king this son of a murderer, which may be applicable to a son of Ahab; but son of may be used as the common periphrasis, and the phrase simply mean murderer. On the other hand, the scene seems better suited to the later stages of the Syrian war, and the king, despite his threat to kill Elisha, when distraught with misery at the tale of the two women, does not seem to have been on bad terms with the prophet. The event may therefore be placed late in Elishas life (p. 69). The source is also uncertain. Elisha plays a conspicuous part, and therefore it may well belong to his biography. On the other hand, it bears some affinity to 1 Kings 20, 22, and may be from the same sourceviz. a history or chronicle of the northern kingdom. The famine may have been in part caused by the scarcity mentioned in 2Ki 8:1.
The famine was so severe that an asss head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab (i.e. less than a pint) of doves dung for five (2Ki 6:25). A yet more terrible example was shown in the case of the two women (2Ki 6:28 f.). The head of an ass, which would not be eaten in ordinary circumstances (Jdg 6:4*), fetched an immense sum. What doves dung means it is impossible to say; it may be some common vegetable. Josephus (Wars, vi. 3) relates that in the last siege of Jerusalem a woman devoured her own child. The king stood (not passed by) on the wall, and when he rent his clothes in horror, the people saw that he was secretly wearing, as Thomas Becket did, a garb of penitence (2Ki 6:30). He attributed all the calamity to Elisha (2Ki 6:31), probably for not having delivered him as on previous occasions (see 2Ki 6:9). The words in Heb. for messenger and king are very similar, and perhaps it is not necessary to suppose that anyone came but the king, 2Ki 6:32 having been amplified. Instead of fulfilling his oath to kill Elisha, the king gave way to despair (2Ki 6:33). Elisha, however, foretold that provisions would soon be cheap, and four lepers at the city gate went into the Syrian camp, and found that the enemy had fled in a panic, believing that the king of Israel had hired Hittites and Egyptians to attack them (2Ki 7:6). It seems unlikely that the Egyptians would at this time have combined with the Northern Hittites, whose home was in Asia Minor, and it is suggested that not Egyptians (Mizrim) but Muzrites should be read (see 1Ki 10:28). The Muzrites (from Cappadocia, see Cent.B) were among the allies of Israel and Syria against Assyria in 854 B.C.
GOD INTERVENES
(vv.1-20).
The prophet whom Jehoram wanted to kill then gave a wonderful message of grace from God. What a response to the callous folly of the king of Israel! Elisha tells them, “Hear the word of the Lord: Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria” (v.1). This was the word of the Lord, yet an officer of the king answered derisively, “If the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” (v.2). He was like many today who mock at the message of God’s grace. But Elisha told him solemnly that he would see with his eyes the food being sold so cheaply, but he would not eat of it. How sad for one to see others greatly blessed by the grace of God, and he himself having no share in it!
Now we are told of four lepers at the gate of Samaria. They were outside the city, where lepers were always put to isolate them from others. Being also without food, they reasoned that they might as well surrender to the Syrians, who might give them food. If not, the worst they could do was kill them, which was preferable to dying by starvation (vv.3-4).
They went to the camp of the Syrians and were astonished to find no one there (v.5). The Lord had intervened, to cause the Syrians to hear a great noise as of a huge army, so that they thought Israel must have hired the Hittites and the Egyptians to fight against Syria. As well as the great noise, no doubt it was God’s work to put such fear in the minds of the Syrians that they decided to flee, leaving all their equipment and provisions behind (vv.6-7).
The lepers immediately found food and drink to satisfy their hunger and thirst, and also carried from the tents silver and gold and clothing, taking this away to hide it (v.8).
However, they were soon awakened in heart to realise they were not right in concealing from Samaria the fact chat food was available for them right now. If they waited even till morning, they feared the Lord might punish them (v.9). So they called the gatekeepers of the city to tell them of the surprising flight of the Syrians, leaving such great provisions behind them (v.10). We who are believers in the Lord Jesus might well take a serious lesson from this. We have been infinitely blessed by the gospel of God’s salvation. Are we doing right if we conceal it from others?
When the King of Israel heard this he was suspicious that the Syrians had gone only a short distance away to trick Israel into coming out of the city so as to catch them with the gate open (v.12). But one of his servants made a sensible suggestion that several men go with horses to find out what the situation really was (v.13).
Taking two chariots with horses, the messengers found the evidence that the Syrian army had indeed fled, for the road was full of garments and weapons that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste to escape. The messengers then returned with this surprising yet welcome news (vv.14-15). The people then went gladly out to plunder the tents of the Syrians. The amount of plunder they took was so great that Samaria was well supplied with food. As Elisha had foretold, a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel (v.6).
The officer who had mocked Elisha saw this, for he was appointed by the king to take charge of the gate. But the excited people trampled him in the gate so that he died (v.17). Probably he was trying to restrain the crush of the people and they swarmed over him. The words of Elisha and of the officer are recalled in verses 18 and 19, to impress on us the truth of the prophecy of God and the sad defeat of the unbeliever, for his words against the Lord were proven vain.
This history has shown the folly and pride of King Jehoram, but the contrasting grace of God in relieving the condition of the people in spite of Jehoram’s opposition to God and to Elisha. God did not at this time repay Jehoram for his evil in attempting to murder Elisha, though He did quickly recompense the officer just for his haughty words in reply to Elisha. We do not hear at all of how King Jehoram responded to the way in which Elisha’s prophecy was fulfilled, though he partook of the blessing that resulted. But such men are not changed by the great goodness of the Lord.
7:1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, {a} To morrow about this time [shall] a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
(a) The godly are always assured of God’s help in their necessity, but the times and hours are only revealed by God’s Spirit.
3
THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE
2Ki 6:24-33; 2Ki 7:1-20
“Tis truly no flood plan when princes play
The vulture among carrion; but when
They play the carrion among vultures-that
Is ten times worse.”
-LESSING, “Nathan the Wise, ” Act I, Sc. 3
IF the Benhadad, King of Syria, who reduced Samaria to the horrible straits recorded in this chapter, {2Ki 6:1-33} was the same Benhadad whom Ahab had treated with such impolitic confidence, his hatred against Israel must indeed have burned hotly. Besides the affair at Dothan, he had already been twice routed with enormous slaughter, and against those disasters he could only set the death of Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead. It is obvious from the preceding narrative that he could advance at any time at his will and pleasure into the heart of his enemys country, and shut him up in his capital almost without resistance. The siege-trains of ancient days were very inefficient, and any strong fortress could hold out for years, if only it was well provisioned. Such was not the case with Samaria, and it was reduced to a condition of sore famine. Food so loathsome as an asss head, which at other times the poorest would have spurned, was now sold for eighty shekels weight of silver (about 8); and the fourth part of a xestes or kab- which was itself the smallest dry-measure, the sixth part of a seah- of the coarse, common pulse or roasted chick-peas, vulgarly known as “doves dung,” fetched five shekels (about 12S. 6d.).
While things were at this awful pass, “the King of Israel,” as he is vaguely called throughout this story, went his rounds upon the wall to visit the sentries and encourage the soldiers in their defense. As he passed, a woman cried, “Help, my lord, O king!” In Eastern monarchies the king is a judge of the humblest; a suppliant, however mean, may cry to him. Jehoram thought that this was but one of the appeals which sprang from the clamorous mendacity of famine with which he had grown so painfully familiar. “The Lord curse you!” he exclaimed impatiently. “How can I help you? Every barn-floor is bare, every wine-press drained.” And he passed on.
But the woman continued her wild clamor, and turning round at her importunity, he asked, “What aileth thee?”
He heard in reply a narrative as appalling as ever smote the ear of a king in a besieged city. Among the curses denounced upon apostate Israel in the Pentateuch, we read, “Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat”; {Lev 26:29} or, as it is expressed more fully in the Book of Deuteronomy, “He, shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave; so that he shall not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege. The tender and delicate woman, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her children: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and the straitness, if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of the law that thou mayest fear the glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God.” {Deu 28:52-58} We find almost the same words in the prophet Jeremiah; {Jer 19:9} and in Lamentations we read: “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat: in the destruction of the daughter of My people.”
Isaiah asks, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion: on the son of her womb?” Alas! it has always been so in those awful scenes of famine, whether after shipwreck or in beleaguered cities, when man becomes degraded to an animal, with all an animals primitive instincts, and when the wild beast appears under the thin veneer of civilization. So it was at the siege of Jerusalem, and at the siege of Magdeburg, and at the wreck of the Medusa, and on many another occasion when the pangs of hunger have corroded away every vestige of the tender affections and of the moral sense.
And this had occurred at Samaria: her women had become cannibals and devoured their own little ones.
“This woman,” screamed the suppliant, pointing her lean finger at a wretch like herself-“this woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will afterwards eat my son. I yielded to her suggestion. We killed my little son, and ate his flesh when we had sodden it. Next day I said to her, Now give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son!”
How could the king answer such a horrible appeal? Injustice had been done; but was he to order and to sanction by way of redress fresh cannibalism, and the murder by its mother of another babe? In that foul obliteration of every natural instinct, what could he do, what could any man do? Can there be equity among raging wild beasts, when they roar for their prey and are unfed?
All that the miserable king could do was to rend his clothes in horror and to pass on; and as his starving subjects passed by him on the wall they saw that he wore sackcloth beneath his purple, in sign, if not of repentance, yet of anguish, if not of prayer, yet of uttermost humiliation. {Isa 20:2-3}
But if indeed he had, in his misery, donned that sackcloth in order that at least the semblance of self-mortification might move Jehovah to pity, as it had done in the case of his father Ahab, the external sign of his humility had done nothing to change his heart. The gruesome appeal to which he had just been forced to listen only kindled him to a burst of fury. The man who had warned, who had prophesied, who so far during this siege had not raised his finger to help-the man who was believed to be able to wield the powers of heaven, and had wrought no deliverance for his people, but suffered them to sink unaided into these depths of abjectness – should he be permitted to live? If Jehovah would not help, of what use was Elisha? “God do so to me, and more also,” exclaimed Jehoram-using his mothers oath to Elijah (1Ki 19:2)-“if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day.”
Was this the king who had come to Elisha with such humble entreaty, when three armies were perishing of thirst before the eyes of Moab? Was this the king who had called Elisha “my father,” when the prophet had led the deluded host of Syrians into Samaria, and bidden Jehoram to set large provision before them? It was the same king, but now transported with fury and reduced to despair. His threat against Gods prophet was in reality a defiance of God, as when our unhappy Plantagenet, Henry II, maddened by the loss of Le Mans, exclaimed that, since God had robbed him of the town he loved, he would pay God out by robbing Him of that which He most loved in him-his soul.
Jehorams threat was meant in grim earnest, and he sent an executioner to carry it out. Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of the city, who had come to him for counsel at this hour of supreme need. He knew what was intended for him, and it had also been revealed to him that the king would follow his messenger to cancel his sanguinary threat. “See ye,” he said to the elders, “how this son of a murderer” for again he indicates his contempt and indignation for the son of Ahab and Jezebel-“hath sent to behead me! When he comes, shut the door, and hold it fast against him. His master is following hard at his heels.”
The messenger came, and was refused admittance. The king followed him, and entering the room where the prophet and elders sat, he gave up his wicked design of slaying Elisha with the sword, but he overwhelmed him with reproaches, and in despair renounced all further trust in Jehovah. Elisha, as the kings words imply, must have refused all permission to capitulate: he must have held out from the first a promise that God would send deliverance. But no deliverance had come. The people were starving. Women were devouring their babes. Nothing worse could happen if they flung open their gates to the Syrian host. “Behold,” the king said, “this evil is Jehovahs doing. You have deceived us. Jehovah does not intend to deliver us. Why should I wait for Him any longer?” Perhaps the king meant to imply that his mothers Baal was better worth serving, and would never have left his votaries to sink into these straits.
And now mans extremity had come, and it was Gods opportunity. Elisha at last was permitted to announce that the worst was over, that the next day plenty should smile on the besieged city. “Thus saith the Lord,” he exclaimed to the exhausted and despondent king, “Tomorrow about this time, instead of an asss head being sold for eighty shekels, and a thimbleful of pulse for five shekels, a peck of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.”
The king was leaning on the hand of his chief officer, and to this soldier the promise seemed not only incredible, but silly: for at the best he could only suppose that the Syrian host would raise the siege; and though to hope for that looked an absurdity, yet even that would not in the least fulfill the immense prediction. He answered, therefore, in utter scorn: “Yes! Jehovah is making windows in heaven! But even thus could this be?” It is much as if he should have answered some solemn pledge with a derisive proverb such as, “Yes! if the sky should fall, we should catch larks!”
Such contemptuous repudiation of a Divine promise was a blasphemy; and answering scorn with scorn, and riddle with riddling, Elisha answers the mockery, “Yes! and you shall see this, but shall not enjoy it.”
The word of the Lord was the word of a true prophet, and the miracle was wrought. Not only was the siege raised, but the wholly unforeseen spoil of the entire Syrian camp, with all its accumulated rapine, brought about the predicted plenty.
There were four lepers outside the gate of Samaria, like the leprous mendicants who gather there to this day. They were cut off from all human society, except their own. Leprosy was treated as contagious, and if “houses of the unfortunate” (Biut-el-Masakin) were provided for them, as seems to have been the case at Jerusalem, they were built outside the city. {Lev 13:46; Num 5:2-3} They could only live by beggary, and this was an aggravation of their miserable condition. And how could any one fling food to these beggars over the walls, when food of any kind was barely to be had within them?
So taking counsel of their despair, they decided that they would desert to the Syrians: among them they would at least find food, if their lives were spared; and if not, death would be a happy release from their present misery.
So in the evening twilight, when they could not be seen or shot at from the city wall as deserters, they stole down to the Syrian camp.
When they reached its outermost circle, to their amazement all was silence. They crept into one of the tents in fear and astonishment. There were food and drink there, and they satisfied the cravings of their hunger. It was also stored with booty from the plundered cities and villages of Israel. To this they helped themselves, and took it away and hid it. Having spoiled this tent, they entered a second. It was likewise deserted, and they carried a fresh store of treasures to their hiding-place. And then they began to feel uneasy at not divulging to their starving fellow-citizens the strange and golden tidings of a deserted camp. The night was wearing on; day would reveal the secret. If they carried the good news, they would doubtless earn a rich guerdon. If they waited till morning, they might be put to death for their selfish reticence and theft. It was safest to return to the city, and rouse the warder, and send a message to the palace. So the lepers hurried back through the night, and shouted to the sentinel at the gate, “We went to the Syrian camp, and it was deserted! Not a man was there, not a sound was to be heard. The horses were tethered there, and the asses, and the tents were left just as they were.”
The sentinel called the other watchman to hear the wonderful news, and instantly ran with it to the palace. The slumbering house was roused; and though it was still night, the king himself arose. But he could not shake off his despondency, and made no reference to Elishas prediction. News sometimes sounds too good to be true. “It is only a decoy,” he said. “They can only have left their camp to lure us into an ambuscade, that they may return, and slaughter us, and capture our city.”
“Send to see,” answered one of his courtiers. “Send five horsemen to test the truth, and to look out. If they perish, their late is but the fate of us all.”
So two chariots with horses were dispatched, with instructions not only to visit the camp, but track the movements of the host.
They went, and found that it was as the lepers had said. The camp was deserted, and lay there as an immense booty; and for some reason the Syrians had fled towards the Jordan to make good their escape to Damascus by the eastern bank. The whole road was strewn with the traces of their headlong flight; it was full of scattered garments and vessels.
Probably, too, the messengers came across some disabled fugitive, and learnt the secret of this amazing stampede. It was the result of one of those sudden unaccountable panics to which the huge, unwieldy, heterogeneous. Eastern armies, which have no organized system of sentries, and no trained discipline, are constantly liable. We have already met with several instances in the history of Israel. Such was the panic which seized the Midianites when Gideons three hundred blew their trumpets; and the panic of the Syrians before Ahabs pages of the provinces; and of the combined armies in the Valley of Salt; and of the Moabites at Wady-el-Ahsy; and afterwards of the Assyrians before the walls of Jerusalem. Fear is physically contagious, and, when once it has set in, it swells with such unaccountable violence, that the Greeks called these terrors “panic,” because they believed them to be directly inspired by the god Pan. Well-disciplined as was the army of the Ten Thousand Greeks in their famous retreat, they nearly fell victims to a sudden panic, had not Clearchus, with prompt resource, published by the herald the proclamation of a reward for the arrest of the man who had let the ass loose. Such an unaccountable terror-caused by a noise as of chariots and of horses which reverberated among the hills-had seized the Syrian host. They thought that Jehoram had secretly hired an army of the princes of the Khetas and of the Egyptians to march suddenly upon them. In wild confusion, not stopping to reason or to inquire, they took to flight, increasing their panic by the noise and rush of their own precipitance.
No sooner had the messengers delivered their glad tidings, than the people of Samaria began to pour tumultuously out of the gates, to fling themselves on the food and on the spoil. It was like the rush of the dirty, starving, emaciated wretches which horrified the keepers of the reserved stores at Smolensk in Napoleons retreat from Moscow, and forced them to shut the gates, and fling food and grain to the struggling soldiers out of the windows of the granaries. To secure order and prevent disaster, the king appointed his attendant lord to keep the gate. But the torrent of people flung him down, and they trampled on his body in their eagerness for relief. He died after having seen that the promise of Elisha was fulfilled, and that the cheapness and abundance had been granted, the prophecy of which he thought only fit for his skeptical derision.
“The sudden panic which delivered the city,” says Dean Stanley, “is the one marked” intervention on behalf of the northern capital. No other incident could be found in the sacred annals so appropriately to express, in the Church of Gouda, the pious gratitude of the citizens of Leyden, for their deliverance from the Spanish army, as the miraculous raising of the siege of Samaria.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary