Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 13:21
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band [of men]; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
21. as they were burying a man ] i.e. Some Israelites had brought a dead body to the burial-place. The body was carried on a bier, and was not enclosed in a coffin (cf. Luk 7:12-14), so that when cast into the grave it would touch any other body which had been deposited there before. In the East the graves are usually excavated in the rock, and closed by a stone at the mouth. The bodies were laid there, but there was no covering them with earth as in burials among western nations.
behold they spied a band of men] The R.V. omits the italics. The band was a band of the marauding Moabites, at whose approach the Israelites were terrified, and so made all haste to dispose of the corpse they were carrying.
unto the sepulchre of Elisha ] This must have been nearer at hand than the grave which they intended to use. The distance from which the Moabites were visible allowed the bearers to open the first grave they came to, and there to lay down their burden, but gave time for nothing more. Josephus says that it was the robbers who had killed a man and that they cast him into Elisha’s grave ( Ant. IX. 8. 6).
and when the man was let down and touched ] R.V. and as soon as the man touched. It will be seen from the margin of R.V. that the Hebrew means ‘and when the man went and touched’; a very unusual kind of expression, but which does not warrant the idea conveyed by the A.V. that the body was lowered into the tomb.
the bones of Elisha ] We need not press the literal sense of ‘bones’, as though a long time had elapsed since Elisha died. The lying prophet of Bethel (1Ki 13:31), speaking of his own death and burial, says ‘Lay my bones beside his bones ’.
he revived and stood up on his feet ] The record of this miracle seems intended to set forth that it was nothing in the prophet himself which had given him the great powers he manifested in his lifetime. Through his dead body God could work a miracle also. ‘Israel shall well see that He lives, by whose virtue Elisha was, both in life and death, miraculous. While the prophet was alive, the impetration might seem to be his, though the power were God’s; now that he is dead, the bones can challenge nothing, but send the wandering Israelites to that Almighty agent to whom it is all one to work by the quick or dead.’ (Bp. Hall.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They cast the man – Rather, they thrust the man. The graves of the Jews were not pits dug in the ground, like ours, but caves or cells excavated in the side of a rock, the mouth of the cave being ordinarily shut by a heavy stone.
Stood up on his feet – Coffins were not used by the Jews. The body was simply wrapped or swathed in grave-clothes (compare Luk 7:15; Joh 11:44).
This miracle of Elishas after his death is more surprising than any of those which he performed during his lifetime. The Jews regarded it as his highest glory (compare Ecclesiaticus 48:13, 14). It may be said to belong to a class of Scriptural miracles, cases, i. e. where the miracle was not performed through the agency of a living miracle-worker, but by a material object in which, by Gods will, virtue for the time resided (compare Act 19:12). The primary effect of the miracle was, no doubt, greatly to increase the reverence of the Israelites for the memory of Elisha, to lend force to his teaching, and especially to add weight to his unfulfilled prophecies, as to that concerning the coming triumphs of Israel over Syria. In the extreme state of depression to which the Israelites were now reduced, a very signal miracle may have been needed to encourage and reassure them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. They spied a band] They saw one of these marauding parties; and through fear could not wait to bury their dead, but threw the body into the grave of Elisha, which chanced then to be open; and as soon as it touched the bones of the prophet, the man was restored to life. This shows that the prophet did not perform his miracles by any powers of his own, but by the power of God; and he chose to honour his servant, by making even his bones the instrument of another miracle after his death. This is the first, and I believe the last, account of a true miracle performed by the bones of a dead man; and yet on it and such like the whole system of miraculous working relics has been founded by the popish Church.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As they were burying, or, were about to bury, as that particle is oft used in the Hebrew tongue.
They spied a band of men coming towards them, but at some distance.
They cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; not daring to carry the dead corpse further to the place appointed for his burial, they made use of the next burying-place, where Elisha was buried, and there they removed some stone, or opened some door, and hastily flung down their dead corpse there.
The man, i.e. the mans dead body, or the coffin in which he was put.
Touched the bones of Elisha; which might easily be, the coffin and linen in which Elishas body was put, and the flesh of his body, being now consumed; for this was some considerable time after his death.
He revived, and stood up on his feet; which miracle God wrought there, partly, to do honour to that great prophet, and that by this seal he might confirm his doctrine, and thereby confute the false doctrine and worship of the Israelites; partly, to strengthen the faith of Joash, and of the Israelites, in his promise of their success against the Syrians; and partly, in the midst of all their calamities, to comfort such Israelites as were Elishas followers with the hopes of that eternal life whereof this was a manifest pledge, and to awaken the rest of that people to a due care and preparation for it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man,…. That is, as they were going to bury him; for as yet they were not come to the place they designed to bury him at, as appears by what follows:
that, behold, they spied a band of men; one of the bands of the Moabites, which came to rob and plunder, and which was about the place where they intended to bury the man; or they supposed would be there by that time they got to it, or at least before they could bury him, and therefore being frightened stopped:
and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; that being nearest, they opened it, or rather rolled away the stone from it, and threw the body in great haste:
and when the man was let down, and touched the bone’s of Elisha; or “went and touched” r; that is, as Kimchi interprets it, being cast in, he rolled till he came to the body of the prophet, and touched it:
he revived, and stood upon his feet; which might serve to confirm the faith of Joash in the predictions of the prophet concerning his victories; is a proof of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal life, and an emblem of our being quickened through the death of Christ. The Jews say s this man was Shallum the son of Tikvah, and husband of Huldah the prophetess, and was a good man, much given to alms, for which he was rewarded; and they further say, he went to his own house, and lived many years, and begat children, and particularly Hananeel, mentioned in Jer 32:7, which is not likely; though others say t he was a wicked man, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah, 1Ki 22:24 and therefore not suffered to continue in the prophet’s grave; but the former is more probable; and, according to Josephus u, it was the band of robbers that left this man, whom they had murdered, in the grave of Elisha. This grave seems to have been in the field, where the Jews of old, and in later times, buried, as in the field of Hebron, the potter’s field, &c. so the Greeks, as Pausanias relates w, and the Romans also x, buried by the wayside.
r “abit et tetigit”, Pagninus, Montanus. s Pirke Eliezer, c. 33. t T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol, 47. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 2. u Antiqu. l. 9. c. 8. sect. 6. w Corinthiac. sive, l. 2. p. 97. x Vid. Kirchman. Funer. Roman. l. 2. c. 22.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(21) As they were burying.Theyi.e., a party of Israelites. The story is told with vivid definiteness.
A band.Rather, the troop. The particular troop of Moabites which happened to be making an inroad at the time.
They cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha.Comp. Mar. 16:3-4. In this case, we must suppose that the tomb was more easily opened, as the action was obviously done in haste.
And when the man was let down, and touched the bones.Rather, and they departed. And the man touched the bones. The order of words in the original, as well as the sense, supports old Houbigans conjecture. If the meaning were, and the man went and touched, the subject in the Hebrew would have followed the first verb, not the second. Moreover, the verb would hardly have been hlak.
He revived.Literally, and he lived. Thenius thinks that the sacred writer regarded this miracle as a pledge of the fulfilment of Elishas promise to Joash Bhr says: Elisha died and was buried, like all other men, but even in death and in the grave he is avouched to be the prophet and servant of God. Dantes warning may not be out of place here:
O voi che avete gintelletti sani,
Mirate la dottrina, che s asconde
Sotto il velame degli versi strani.
Inf. 9:61, sqq.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. They spied a band of men That is, a band of those marauding Moabites just mentioned. The sight of the invaders caused the haste with which they cast the dead man into the wrong sepulchre.
When the man was let down Literally, The man went and touched against the bones of Elisha. That is, his body was thrust into the tomb, so that it came in contact with the bones of Elisha. “Among the Israelites the dead were neither enclosed in coffins nor covered with earth, but only wrapped in linen cloth and laid in tombs, so that one body might touch another, and, on returning to life, would not be hindered from moving. It was not the dead body of Elisha, but the living God, that gave life again to the dead; and Omnipotence worked by contact with the dead Elisha to show that the Divine efficiency that was in the prophet had not disappeared from Israel with his death. The special object of the miracle was to convince most effectually people and king that the promise of victory over the Syrians was sure, and would come to pass just as the dying Elisha had announced to king Joash by the laying of his hands upon the hands of the king. The historian intimates this object when, immediately after the account of this miracle, he records the historical fulfillment of that promise. 2Ki 13:22-25.” Keil.
On the contrast between Elijah and Elisha, see note at the beginning of chap. 4. “It was Elijah,” says the son of Sirach, “who was covered with a whirlwind; and Elisha was filled with his spirit; whilst he lived he was not moved by any prince, neither could any bring him into subjection. No word could overcome him, and after his death his body prophesied. He did wonders in his life, and at his death were his works marvellous.”
The miracle of Elisha’s bones has been the subject both of criticism and of allegory. The rationalist, of course, admits no miracle. In his view the deceased was a person only apparently dead, fallen into a trance, perhaps, but suddenly brought to his senses again by the shock of being roughly cast into Elisha’s tomb. Others admit a real miracle, but seem to look upon it with suspicion. “This,” says Clarke, “is the first, and, I believe, the last, account of a true miracle performed by the bones of a dead man. And yet on it, and such like, the whole system of miracle-working relics has been founded by the popish Church.” “Elisha’s works,” says Stanley, “stand alone in the Bible in their likeness to the acts of mediaeval saints. There alone, in the sacred history, the gulf between biblical and ecclesiastical miracles almost disappears. In this, as in so much besides, his life and miracles are not Jewish but Christian.” By others the miracle is made a type of Jesus’s power to raise to life by his own death and burial those who are dead in trespasses and sins. “So, too,” says Wordsworth, “the apostles and evangelists being dead yet speak to all the world in the Gospels and Epistles, and by the word of God in them they raise souls to life eternal.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 13:21. And it came to pass, &c. The life of Elisha was one continued train of miracles. The writer of Ecclesiasticus speaks thus concerning him: The spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha; whilst he lived, he was not moved with the presence of any prince, neither could any bring him into subjection: nothing could overcome him, and after his death his body prophesied. He did wonders in his life, and at his death his works were marvellous. There was no innate power in the bones of Elisha to produce so wonderful an effect: it was the immediate work and operation of God himself; who was thus willing to give his people a proof not only of the divine mission of his prophet, and of his own immediate presence among them, but also of that future resurrection from the dead, which is fully revealed to us in the gospel. Calmet remarks, that this is further a symbol and a prophesy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; with this difference, and a mighty one it is, that Elisha raised a dead body without raising himself, while Jesus Christ not only raised himself, but gives life to all those who believe in him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This miracle perhaps, (for I do not presume to decide upon it positively) had a double signification. Probably it might be intended to imply that the doctrine Elisha had delivered, gave life to the souls of the faithful, after the prophet himself was no more. And yet perhaps, more probably, the thing itself was intended to lead the minds of the Old Testament saints to the belief and assurance of the resurrection, in and by the Lord Jesus. Elisha was himself an eminent type of Christ. And as such, was not the revival of this dead man, whose body was hastily put, through fear of the band of the Moabites, into the sepulchre of Elijah, an emblem that from believers being buried with Christ in the likeness of his death, they shall be also in his likeness in the resurrection? Rom 6:5 ; Joh 11:25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 13:21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band [of men]; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
Ver. 21. He revived, and stood upon his feet. ] By as true – though spiritual – a miracle it is that new life is put into a dead soul, “dead in trespasses and sins,” by the touch of God’s prophets, applying thereunto the death and resurrection of the Son of God, who restored life to his own dead body, and thereby not only declared himself with power to be God blessed for ever, Rom 1:4 but also that he quickeneth all true believers, who are united unto him by the ligament of a lively faith, as it were by a corporeal contract.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they: probably those who were evading the Moabite marauders.
he revived = he lived. The sixteenth miracle. See note on 2Ki 2:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
was let down: Heb. went down
touched: 2Ki 4:35, Isa 26:19, Eze 37:1-10, Mat 27:52, Mat 27:53, Joh 5:25, Joh 5:28, Joh 5:29, Joh 11:44, Act 5:15, Act 19:12, Rev 11:11
Reciprocal: 1Ki 17:22 – and he revived 2Ki 24:2 – the Lord Hos 9:8 – with Mat 8:15 – touched Mar 5:27 – touched Mar 6:56 – touch Luk 6:19 – sought Luk 7:15 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE
When the man was let down, and touched the hones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet.
2Ki 13:21
The miracle described in these versesa man being revived by contact with anothers dry bonesis one that is being continually repeated. It takes place every day before our eyes.
I. Shakespeare says that the evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.I am glad that the last part of the sentence is not true. A great and good man is a volcano that never becomes extinct. I shall never die, said Horace, more than eighteen hundred years ago; and even at the present day he sends forth streams of quickening and vitalising energy. Although John Browns bones lay mouldering in the dust, his influence was as real, vital, and inspiring to the people of North America as if he had been alive. How many a man has become a painter through contact with Raphael, a musician through contact with Handel, a poet through contact with Shakespeare, a sailor through contact with Nelson, or a missionary through contact with David Livingstone?
II. We live in a soft and enervating age, and are too ready to sacrifice conscience for comfort and principle for patronage.Contact with such men as John Robinson and John Bunyan should do much to strengthen and rouse the young people of this generation. But it is only by touching the Christ upon the Cross that souls live. It is at the Cross our chains are broken; it is at the Cross our sins are forgiven; it is at the Cross our stubborn hearts are melted.
Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
Illustrations
(1) Whatever authority there may have been for this strange incident, the historian has put it down as a testimony to the veneration in which the prophet was still held years after he had passed away. It is unlike any other Bible miracle, and of itself it has little moral or spiritual significance, but it witnesses that the memory of the just is blessed. The saints true relics are not their bones, but the memories of their faith and godliness.
(2) There is a legend which says that when the Empress Helena was searching for the true Cross three crosses were found. Which of these was the Cross of Jesus could not be told. Then they brought sick people and laid them in turn upon the different crosses, and when they touched the Cross on which Jesus had died they were restored. They brought a dead body and laid it in turn upon the crosses. When it rested upon the true Cross, it became alive. This is only a legend, but it illustrates the truth that the power of Christ always gives life and healing.
(3) A good mans influence lives after him. Those who live a good and useful life never die. For years and years the memory of their name remains among those who knew them, and the things they did remain as blessings in the world. There is a story of an old monk who was shipwrecked and cast upon a desert island. He had with him a package of seeds which he scattered upon the bare island. Soon after he died there, but twenty years later, some persons coming to the island found it covered from side to side with waving harvests and luxuriant fruit trees, the result of the scattering of the seeds from the monks hand twenty years ago. So it is with those who live wellwherever they go they drop seeds which spring up into beauty.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Ki 13:21. As they were burying a man Carrying him to his grave; they spied a band of men A party of Moabites coming toward them, but at some distance; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha This sepulchre being near the place where they then were, they removed some stone, or opened some door, and hastily flung down the dead corpse into it; fearing lest, if they proceeded to the place where a grave was prepared, they should fall into the hands of the Moabites. And when the man was let down His body, or the coffin in which it was put; and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet Which great miracle, wrought, not by the bones of Elisha, in which there could be no innate power to produce any such effect, but by the almighty power of God, was doubtless intended for divers important purposes; as, 1st, To do honour to that great and holy prophet; and a singular honour it was, not much inferior to that conferred on Elijah when he was translated. Elijah was honoured in his departure; Elisha after his departure. Thus God dispenses honours as he pleases. 2d, To seal and confirm his doctrine and prophecies, and thereby confute the false doctrine and worship of the Israelites. 3d, To strengthen the faith of Joash and the Israelites in the promises which he had given them of success against the Syrians. And, 4th, In the midst of all their calamities to comfort such Israelites as were Elishas followers, with the hopes of that eternal life, whereof the reviving of this dead man was a manifest pledge, and to awaken the people to a due care about, and preparation for it. According to Calmet, this was further a symbol and prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with this difference, and a mighty one it is, that Elisha raised a dead body without raising himself, while the Lord Jesus not only raised himself, but gives life to all those that believe in him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band [of men]; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he {l} revived, and stood up on his feet.
(l) By this miracle God confirmed the authority of Elisha, whose doctrine in his life they contemned, that at this sight they might return and embrace the same doctrine.