CHAPTER 1
[c. 3148 since creation/852 B.C.E.]
1. Then, after the death of Akh’av, Moav began to rebel against Israel,
Moav had been subdued by David (2 Shmu’el 8), but the subjugation would have transferred to the Northern Kingdom, because it was Re’uven’s territory that the Moavites would perceive as encroaching on their own.
2. and Akhazyah fell through the lattice-work that was in his roof-chamber at Shomron, and was injured, so he sent messengers and told them, “Go, enquire of Baal-z’vuv, the elohim of Eqron, whether I will survive this injury!”
Lattice-work: Probably in a window rather than in the roof itself, with a long fall to the ground. If his broken bones were not set properly, fragments would cause internal lacerations and infection. But the term for “lattice-work” can also mean a “snare”, so there is an undercurrent of falling into the trap his father had set. (1 Kings 21:29) Baal-z’vuv: a Filistine deity, “master of the flies”, worshipped because it ostensibly kept the population of flies in check. Some link it to Zeus Apomuios (the “fly-averter” or “flycatcher” of Greek mythology.) It is thought by others to be simply a pejorative play on the name Beel-zevul (“Baal/the owner is exalted”), often associated with haSatan. (16th-century demonologist John Wier considered him of even higher rank than haSatan, but still a part of a “trinity” that included haSatan and Ashtoreth. Y’shua spoke of Beelzebul as the “Prince of Demons” in Mat. 12:24; compare Mat. 10:25; Markus 3:22; Luqa 11:15-19) But there is an intriguing theory that may tie more of the elements of this chapter together. It will be discussed below. Eqron was one of the five major Filistine cities, and one of the two inland ones, the other being Gath. The Filistines were increasing in power at this time because Israel was already beginning to be tied up by incursions from the Assyrians. At this time Eqron consisted of only the upper portion of Tel Miqne—about ten acres. It would become more prominent later when the Assyrians moved permanently into the southern Levant, but prior to that its prominence fluctuated inversely with the prominence of Gath.
3. Then a messenger of YHWH said to Eliyahu of the sojourners, “Get up! Go and meet the messengers of the king of Shomron, and say to them, “Is it because there is no Elohim in Israel [that] you are going to enquire of Baal-z’vuv, the elohim of Eqron?
Of the sojourners: or, the Thishbite (Thishbi). But Thishbi appears to be related to the word “sojourners” (thoshvey), possibly a shortened version of “the sojourners of Gil’ad”, as in the context in which he is first introduced in 1 Kings 17. Without the vowel points, there is no difference in spelling. Gil’ad was not actually part of Israel proper, though it was given to Gad because it was requested as a pastureland. So Eliyahu came to the kings of Israel as somewhat of an outsider—at least from outside the mainstream of the culture by this time, like his antitype Yochanan the Immerser (Mat. 11:14), who came out of the wilderness identifying people as sinners in need of repentance. Shomron: a shorthand for the whole northern kingdom of Israel, as this is where its throne was at the time. Eliyahu intercepted them before they could ever get to their intended goal. Is it because there is no… : literally, Is it from a lack, there not being…? YHWH was insulted! He is saying, in essence, “And what am I? Swiss cheese?!” Yet many are much more influenced than they realize by the Marcionite heresy, which taught that the benevolent “god” Jesus had overpowered and unseated that vengeful Hebrew Elohim, YHWH. And YHWH is offended by that as well. Notice that Eliyahu does not cast his pearls before swine. He appeals only to the widespread notion that a deity is tied to a locality (probably the reason Izevel, who certainly did not have any allegiance to YHWH, superstitiously gave her sons names that included YHWH’s name in them). He did not say anything about the fact that YHWH was the maker of heaven and earth and far superior to Baal-z’vuv. He only asks whether Akhazyah thinks Israel’s Elohim has left the country.
4. “So therefore, this is what YHWH says: ‘You will not come down from the bed onto which you have gone up, because you will definitely die.’” Then Eliyahu departed.
Akhazyah may have thought YHWH always had something bad to say, and wanted to go where he thought he might find a more favorable response. It may be because he realized that listening to YHWH would change his whole life, and would certainly offend his mother, Izevel. But he should not have avoided the judgment he knew YHWH would bring, because it would track him down regardless. Had he submitted to it voluntarily, he might have at least avoided the disgrace and might have received a more compassionate response. But now he is given no hope at all. And why did he need to know in advance? Did he think that could somehow enable him to control the outcome? In Acts 3 we have an account of a blind beggar sitting as at a gate to the Temple whose name, in the Greek translation, means “belonging to the right time or season”. It is a waste of time to seek answers out of season, but because he remained as close as he could to YHWH’s House and His people, he was in the right place when the means of healing came to him. Akhazyah, instead, looks where there are no true answers. His recovery or his death would not be automatic or accidental in any case; the outcome would depend on his own actions, so why did he go seeking a prophet rather than a priest?
5. When the messengers returned to [Akhazyah], he said to them, “What’s this? You’ve come back?!”
6. And they told him, “A man came up to meet us, and told us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Is it because there is no Elohim in Israel [that] you are going to enquire of Baal-z’vuv, the elohim of Eqron? Therefore, you will not come down from the bed onto which you have gone up, because you will definitely die.’”’”
7. So he said to them, “What distinguishing marks did the man have who came up to you and spoke these words to you?”
What distinguishing marks: or, what right? (What “order” did he belong to?) The term is usually used of justice or judgment; thus it means discrimination.
8. And they told him, “A man—a master of hair with a leather belt tied around his waist.” And he said, “That’s Eliyahu of the sojourners!”
David Eid connects Baal-z’vuv to a god called Zibab in Arabic even after Islam was established. But it probably stemmed from the much more ancient Ugaritic Il-zeboba, which was symbolized by a giant, red, thick-haired mouse that could subdue enemies by roping them (possibly with its tail). The Filistines might have being given it credit for capturing the Ark of the Covenant in battle, for YHWH sent a plague of mice on them thereafter (2 Shmu’el 5), since they liked this mouse so well! The Arabic root for Zibab means “hair”, so this is seen as a thick-haired god. Zibab’s consort is Terq, which means a palm tree, but also means “prophecy” in Arabic. (Possibly the reason D’vorah sat under a palm tree, per Judges 4:5.) This is probably why Akhazyah sent to this god in particular for a prophecy. The way these messengers describe Eliyahu is, in Hebrew, ish baal-saar, which could be taken as “a man of [this very] ‘hairy lord’” they were going to seek. So they thought its spokesman knew they were coming and met them on the way! His leather belt might have, to them, represented this “roping” aspect of the mouse. His dress, which was apparently as bizarre to them then as it would be to us today, along with the fact that they could see he was very hairy, suggests that all he wore was a waistcloth tied on with a belt. A brute in a loincloth is not one whom people would expect to have a right to address a king, and would have been an insult to the king, which is the fitting response to his insulting YHWH. Esau was also born with a red, hairy “mantle” already on his body, suggesting that he was meant to be the prophet in his family, but he forsook this calling and preferred to satisfy his belly instead. Eliyahu may also have been a Nazirite, they we are not told this directly.
9. So he sent him a captain of fifty with his fifty [soldiers]. When he went up to him, there he was, sitting on top of the mountain. And he said to him, “O man of the elohim, the king has said, ‘Come down!’”
It is easy to see why this “ape” of a man would not receive any respect from the king.
10. But Eliyahu answered and said to the captain of fifty, “And if I am a man of Elohim, fire will come down from the skies and consume you and your fifty!” And fire came down from the skies and consumed him and his fifty.
Notice his play on the words, “come down”. Eliyahu is toying with him: “You didn’t specify what you want to come down, so fire is what will come down!”
11. But he sent back to him another captain of fifty along with his fifty. When he answered, he said to him, “O man of the elohim, this is what the king says: ‘Come down at once!’”
Joseph Good calls him “the dumbest man in the Bible”, who, seeing 51 grease spots where the first soldiers had stood, does exactly the same thing.
12. But Eliyahu answered and said to them, “If I am a man of Elohim, fire will come down from the skies and consume you and your fifty!” And the fire of Elohim came down from the skies and consumed him and his fifty.
There is another play on words here in Hebrew, possibly as a mnemonic device: “Man of Elohim” is ish-haElohim, and “fire of Elohim” is esh-Elohim. The latter could also mean a fire so disproportionately greater than what is normally seen that it is labeled with this extremely superlative description.
13. But he sent back to him a captain of a third [company of] fifty along with his fifty. But when the third captain of fifty arrived, he bowed down on his knees right in front of Eliyahu and begged him for favor, and said to him, “O man of Elohim, please let my life and the life of your servants, these fifty, be of [some] value in your eyes!
This captain is not so gullible, but also realizes he is at Eliyahu’s mercy, because he has orders to carry out as well.
14. “Indeed, fire came down from the skies and consumed the first two captains of fifty along with their fifties, but now, let my life be of [some] value in your eyes!”
He saw the pattern and knew that the same would take place unless YHWH had mercy on him through Eliyahu.
15. And the messenger of YHWH told Eliyahu, “Go down with him; don’t be afraid of his presence.” So he got up and went down with him to the king,
This messenger may have been Elisha, Eliyahu’s understudy, who was also a prophet. Priests, though, were the ones designated to be YHWH’s messengers. (Mal’akhi 2:7) Don’t be afraid of his presence (or face): It is one thing to insult him from a distance, but another thing to be as brave to his face. But the word for “fear” also means “respect”, and YHWH may be telling him it is safe to continue mocking the king who has flouted His authority. This captain clearly respected Eliyahu’s presence, as he rightly should.
16. and told him, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Since you have sent messengers to enquire of Baal-z’vuv, the elohim of Eqron, is it because there is no Elohim in Israel, whose word you can inquire of? Therefore, you will not come down from the bed onto which you have gone up, because you will definitely die.’”
17. And die he did, in agreement with the word of YHWH that Eliyahu had spoken, and Y’horam became king in his place in the second year of Y’horam the son of Y’hoshafat, the king of Yehudah, because he had no son.
The line of Akh’av had not yet ended with him. Y’horam was another son of Akh’av. (8:16) YHWH had said He would destroy every male heir of Akh’av’s (1 Kings 21:21), but again in His justice He gives Y’horam an occasion to prove for himself that he deserves this judgment, rather than simply destroying him for his father’s or brother’s sins. The parallel passage (8:16), however, says the southern Y’horam became king in the fifth year of the northern Y’horam’s reign, so there was clearly a period of co-regency between Y’hoshafat and Y’horam before Y’hoshafat died. Here we have somewhat of a mirror image—an evil Y’horam and a righteous king with the same name. In Jewish tradition, when a righteous man has the same name as someone evil did, he rescues this name from disgrace (especially pertinent when YHWH’s name is attached to that name, as it is here). There would be one other brief occasion, between 798 and 796 B.C.E. when both the northern and southern kingdoms would have kings with the same name (Y’ho’ash). The El-Amarna letters tell us that Y'hoshafat had made his son co-regent when he had gone to fight alongside Akh'av. (1 Kings 22) Josephus tells us Akh’av’s son was named for his brother-in-law.
18. Now the rest of the things that Akhazyah did, aren’t they recorded in the book of the chronicles belonging to the kings of Israel?
Again this scribe thinks enough has been said about this evil king, and does not want to waste any more ink on him.
CHAPTER 2
1. Now what took place at YHWH’s bringing Eliyahu up [into] the heavens in a tornado was that Eliyahu and Elisha began to walk from Gilgal,
Tornado: or tempest, storm; traditionally a whirlwind, though these are not common in Israel today. Immanuel Velikovsky points out that “in the ninth century, as a result of cosmic events, the electrical charge of this planet was highly affected. The ionosphere above the earth was charged to such an extent that leaps of discharge occurred from a cloudless sky. As I proved in Ages in Chaos, the letters found in the Egyptian State Archive of el-Amarna originated in the ninth century, and a very considerable portion of them was written by Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat king of Jerusalem, and their generals. The corresponding texts of the Scriptures prove a very high grade of trustworthiness, even in transmission of orations and dialogues, ascribed to historical personages. This fact encourages to approach with credence the stories of Elijah and Elisha, interwoven in the same parts of the Book of Kings.”
2. and Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Please stay here, because YHWH has sent me to Beyth-El.” But Elisha said, “[As surely as] YHWH is alive and your soul is alive, if I leave you…” So they went down to Beyth-El.
Gilgal was the place Y’hoshua renewed the covenant by circumcising everyone who had been born since the Exodus, and Israel became one again. Now he is sent to Beyth-El, another place very significant in the nation’s history.
3. Then [some] “sons of the prophets” who were in Beyth-El came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today YHWH is taking your master from [being] over your head?” And he said, “I, too, know; keep [it] quiet!”
Sons of the prophets: an idiom for their students, i.e., prophets-in-training. It may be that he did not want them to attract a crowd, or did not want word to get back to Izevel, lest she celebrate, or just did not want to be reminded that his master was leaving. Or they may have heard Eliyahu, like Y’shua, preparing his followers for the time when he would be gone, and specifically telling their more direct teacher to honor Elisha as “in charge” as they had honored him, to spare Elisha the grief, as Eliyahu was apparently inside while Elisha waited outside for him to finish his business there. He may be telling them to be quiet, because they were not meant to affect the outcome lest YHWH relent from the vision He had given them, since a prophet’s words are like something chiseled in stone; they ought not say too much or play around with words, because their words are especially powerful.
4. And Eliyahu said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, because YHWH has sent me to Y’rikho.” But he said, “[As surely as] YHWH is alive and your soul is alive, if I leave you…” So they came into Y’rikho.
He was going back the same way he had come! Y’rikho is very close to Gilgal. So Elisha could have met him on his way back and then gone on from there with him; he would not technically have had to go up to Beyth-El with him, but he wanted to make sure he did not miss Eliyahu on the way back. Eliyahu had already called his loyalty into question once, and he wanted to be sure to pass whatever test this was. Eliyahu was offering to let him stay at each place, possibly to be the new headmaster of the school, where he could be served, but he chooses to remain and serve his master as long as he is still there to be served.
5. Then [some] “sons of the prophets” who were in Y’rikho approached Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today YHWH is taking your master from [being] over your head?” And he said, “I, too, know; keep [it] quiet!”
Here was his second witness to the veracity of the vision he himself had also apparently seen. Y’rikho was another place YHWH had done a great work, and it was at places like this and Beyth-El—places of major significance in Israel’s common history--that the schools of the prophets were based.
6. Then Eliyahu said to him, “Please stay here, because YHWH has sent me to the Yarden.” But he said, “[As surely as] YHWH is alive and your soul is alive, if I leave you…” So they both walked [on].
7. Then fifty men from among the “sons of the prophets” went and stood opposite them, afar off, while both of them stood above the Yarden.
8. Then Eliyahu took [off] his magnificent garment, rolled it up, and struck the waters, and they were divided, this [part from] that, and both of them crossed over on dry [ground].
Magnificent: splendid, glorious, noble, majestic. Apparently he had not been wearing this when the king’s messengers came for him (1:8), unless this garment was also hairy like that of Yochanan. (See below.) Z’kharyah 13:3-4 shows that at least after this it had become common for prophets to wear robes of coarse hair. This crossing may very well have taken place at Beyth-Abarah, the place Y’hoshua had led the whole nation across on dry ground (Y’hoshua 3), and where Eliyahu’s anti-type, Yochanan (Mat. 17:12; Luqa 1:17), would do his immersing (Yochanan 1:28). It would be an especially potent witness for him to be where his prototype had actually walked. And he had witnesses, like the stones Y’hoshua had set at the spot he crossed over.
9. And what took place as they were crossing [was] that Eliyahu said to Elisha, “Ask what I can do for you before I am taken away from you.” So Elisha said, “Then please let there be a double opening of your spirit to me.”
Double opening: often called a “double portion”, which would be the inheritance of the eldest son in a family. Eliyahu had indeed adopted Elisha as a son (see verse 12) when he had left his own parents behind to follow him (1 Kings 19:19-21) But what if the son is an only child? How can he receive a double portion? Only by receiving twice as much as the father had to leave to him! And Elisha was indeed credited with twice as many miracles as Eliyahu, though the last one did not occur until after he had died, and a man who was being buried was thrown against his bones hurriedly when a marauding band came along, and came back to life!
10. And he said, “You have picked a difficult thing to ask! If you see me taken away from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be.”
Difficult: It was hard enough for Eliyahu to grant this wish, but possibly harder for anyone to receive such a job. He already had this authority, but he had to see for himself the Kingdom where Eliyahu was going in order to understand his job properly and therefore have all the power he needed to carry it out. A glimpse of what was to be would be enough to give him this courage. It is all there waiting, but the hard thing is to see it, and the only thing that can put one in a position to see it is being a servant. It is often the servants in a great household who know the house better than the master, because they are the ones who pay attention to all the details. Serving can give you more privileges than even a leader has, if remaining a leader is his only focus.
11. Then it took place as they continued to walk and were talking: lo and behold, a chariot of fire and fiery horses made a separation between the two of them, and Eliyahu went up to the heavens in a tornado!
It never says Eliyahu climbed aboard the chariot, only that it obscured him from Elisha’s view or at least access, possibly so it would not take both of them. The key to understanding what this was is in Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) 1:4, where we again see a chariot and a whirlwind. The whole scenario it is part of represents the four-sided camp of Israel—the whole nation gathered together again. This is the role of the Eliyahu who is to come (Mal. 4:5)—to turn the hearts of the children back to their fathers and vice versa (note verse 12), lest YHWH strike the earth with a curse—as Eliyahu had already done once before. If we have to see this tornado as something paranormal, we could look at it as a “wormhole” by which Eliyahu was taken directly into the Kingdom, as often takes place when a person has a strong vision of the Kingdom, though usually it is by means of death, unlike Eliyahu, who does not die because he needs to come back, at least in some sense.
12. And Elisha did see [it], and he [started] clamoring, “My father! My father! The chariot of Israel and its war-horses!” When he could not see him anymore, he grabbed his cloak and started tearing it into two pieces.
My father: Eliyahu does not seem to have had a natural heir, at least who followed in his footsteps. War-horses: or horsemen, possibly corresponding with the four human forms in Y’hezq’El 1:5ff. In Israel, chariots were not meant to be so much for military purposes, though many kings disobediently multiplied them. The righteous Israelite we see riding a chariot is Yoseyf (Gen. 41:43) And what they called out in front of him had the word “father” in it. At this time what is known as Israel is the part also known as the House of Yoseyf. When Yoseyf sent for his father, the spirit of Yaaqov revived when he saw the carts Yoseyf sent (Gen. 45:27), for he recognized them as the ones he had seen in his vision of the two camps (Gen. 32:2), one of which was the camp of all of Israel united in the wilderness, where the leaders of the tribes brought carts full of offerings for use in the Tabernacle. (Numbers 7:2) This reminded him of who he was called to be, and he rose to the challenge. Now Israel is riddled by paganism, and Eliyahu steps from that age directly into the age when Israel will again be united. By making his own cloak unusable, Elisha was saying, This is not who I am anymore”--burning his bridges and symbolizing that he was discarding his own identity or role for Eliyahu’s:
13. Then he picked up Eliyahu’s magnificent garment, which had fallen off him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Yarden.
Immanuel Velikovsky writes: “The occurrence of the phenomenon known as ball lightning was denied until very recent time, actually measured in decades. Today, the phenomenon belongs into textbooks. A ball of fire is seen sometimes moving rather slowly and then exploding… The detail about the mantle of Elijah that was left behind, instead of detracting from the verisimilitude of the Biblical episode, tends to support it. It is a well-known phenomenon that a wire may evaporate when an electrical discharge strikes it, yet its envelope of fabric (an insulator) remains intact. Here is what may have [taken place]: Traveling afoot on the east side of the Jordan, Elijah and Elisha were approached by a lightning ball that separated them; next it exploded, consuming Elijah, yet leaving his mantle unscathed, thus making it appear that it was a fiery chariot that approached them and then carried Elijah ‘by a whirlwind into heaven.’ It is not claimed here that this was the end of Elijah, only that such a phenomenon could be natural, though very unusual.”
14. Then he took Eliyah’s magnificent garment, which had fallen off him, and struck the waters, and said, “Where is YHWH, the Elohim of Eliyahu—how much more Himself?” When he struck the waters, they were divided, this [part from] that, and Elisha crossed over.
15. And when the “sons of the prophets” who were at Y’rikho saw him on the other side, they said, “The spirit of Eliyahu has come to rest on Elisha!” And they came to welcome him, and bowed themselves on the earth to him.
Come to rest: settled, found repose, found its home. Welcome: or simply, meet. Bowed: showing their loyalty and willingness to serve under his leadership.
16. And they said to him, “Look! There are with your servants fifty men, capable sons. Please let them go and search for your master, in case the wind of YHWH has picked him up and thrown him onto one of the mountains or into one of the valleys!” But he said, “You don’t have to send [them].”
Capable sons: or, sons of an army.
17. But they kept pressing him until he was embarrassed, so he said, “Let [them] go!” So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days, but did not find him.
Embarrassed: They probably made him to feel that he really did not care whether his master was found because then he could remain in charge, or did not want him to receive a decent burial. He had apparently seen a vision that they had not, and they, who are Eliyahu’s “sons” as well, are like Keyfa who was trying to dissuade Y’shua from going to his death, when he knew it had to take place. (Mat. 16) Even in modern Israel, there is such a sense that there is no closure without a body being found that they are willing to release a hundred terrorists from prison to recover one man whom they know is dead. They would like to honor Eliyahu by building his tomb, but Elisha knew his body would not be found.
18. When they came back to him (while he was remaining at Y’rikho), he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you [that] you did not have to go?”
Verse 11 said they had continued to walk for some distance after crossing the Yarden. Straight ahead from where they crossed over would have been Mt. Nevo, from which Moshe was also carried away into the Kingdom without a trace. (Deut. 34:6)
19. Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please, look here! The location of the city is excellent, as my master [can] see, but the waters are unpleasant, and the ground is causing miscarriage!
The location is excellent: Y’rikho is a huge oasis in an otherwise-barren part of the Aravah, with thousands of palm trees still today. It is far enough from the Yarden to escape flooding, but has a spring, which figures prominently in this account. Causing miscarriage: or simply barrenness, possibly of humans and livestock; possibly only of the crops. This was, after all, a cursed place (Y’hoshua 6:26) despite its excellent situation.
20. So he said, “Bring me a new scooping-bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
Scooping-bowl: from a word that means to prosper or bring success, so just the word he used would automatically make them optimistic about whether this would work.
21. And he went out to the source of the waters, and threw the salt in there, and said, “This is what YHWH says: ‘I have [fully] healed these waters; death and miscarriage will no longer come from there.’”
There was some kind of chemical reaction. But the picture is also important. Y’shua said we are the salt of the earth. (Mat. 5:13) The Torah is called water (Eph. 5:26) If we are not faithful to remain “salty”, the Torah becomes unfruitful because there is no one to carry it out.
22. And the waters have been healed to this day, just like the word that Elisha spoke.
And to our own day, the site of this spring is known and marked.
23. So he went up from there to Beyth-El. And while he was on the way up, some little lads came out from the city and started making fun of him. And they said to him, “Ascend, baldy! Ascend, baldy!”
Ascend: possibly an allusion to Eliyahu’s ascent in the whirlwind. I.e., “Let’s see you do it, too!” They were probably even less sincere than Herod, who wanted to see Y’shua do a miracle or two. He may not have normally been bald, but might have been keeping the custom of shaving one’s head when mourning, which was allowed of other Israelites but not priests. After all, his adopted “father” had been taken from him and he would not see him again in this life, at least. Normally an Israelite would not go about with his head uncovered so that they could even see whether he was bald or not, but when mourning it was customary to do so. (Lev. 10:6)
24. So he turned to look behind him, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of YHWH. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore some of the children open—42 of them!
YHWH had told Eliyahu, “[Anyone who] is allowed to escape from the sword of Khaza’El, Yehu will kill, and whoever escapes from the sword of Yehu, Elisha will kill.”(1 Kings 19:17) The first two had not done their killing yet, so apparently Elisha was just bringing instant judgment on a people who had not even taught their children to respect a prophet of YHWH—for though his first two miracles had more positive results, Elisha’s judgment begins literally in the “House of Elohim”. Cursed: literally, made light (of), treated them as insignificant or trifling. Such mockery should not emanate from a place named for Elohim. "Judgment must begin with the house of Elohim!" (1 Kefa/Peter 4:17) Does it seem unfair that children so young should be punished for expressing their natural amusement? Yet “even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure or whether it be right.” (Prov. 20:11) Their parents should have trained them to be more respectful toward one who was clearly mourning. Aside from the fact that he was a prophet (which they might not have known), he was the wrong man to make fun of. Israel is to mourn with those who mourn (Rom. 12:15), not mock them. So Elisha seems to have no regrets about this conscious decision he made to assert his authority—the “double portion” which was already beginning to show up. He does not even say YHWH was offended; Elisha had the power to do this, and the parents of these children received what they deserved for not training them better. The first time a word with the numeric value of 42 appears in Scripture, it is haGadol—the elder (son)—one who should be more respected.
25. And from there he went on to Mount Karmel, and from there he went back to Shomron.
Was he retracing Eliyahu’s steps to try to better fill his place? Though it is not magic, there is a certain power to going back to places where our predecessors stood strong, if only to work that strength more deeply into us. That is one reason there is such benefit to going back to visit the Land of Israel when possible, even while we still dwell in exile.
CHAPTER 3
1. Now Y’horam the son of Akh’av became king over Israel in Shomron in year 18 of Y’hoshafat the king of Yehudah, and he reigned 12 years.
2. And he did what was wrong in YHWH’s eyes, only not like his father or his mother. While he did remove Baal’s standing-stone, which his father had made,
He was not as bad as they had been, so he was allowed to last longer than his brother, but he still had a curse dangling over his head.
3. he nonetheless adhered to the sins of Yarav’am the son of N’vat, who had caused Israel to miss the target; from that he did not turn aside.
Adhered: The first use of this term in Scripture is of Adam clinging to his wife—a very deliberate adherence. The sins of Yarav’am were making molten images of other elohim and casting YHWH behind his back. (1 Kings 14:9) Other kings had taken on the worship of different elohim, but Yarav’am had made two golden calves and probably called them both by the name YHWH, as the people in Aharon’s time had done, while in reality he had turned away from YHWH. While Y’horam was no longer worshipping Baal, he was at best recognizing YHWH in a way foreign to the Torah. This has strong overtones of the Protestant Reformation, which removed idolatry to a certain extent, but did not go far enough, still retaining the idea of a plurality of Elohim, which in some ways is worse.
4. Now Meysha the king of Moav was a breeder of sheep, and he had relinquished to the king of Israel 100,000 plump he-lambs and 100,000 woolly rams.
Meysha is important because a stele found in 1868 near Dibon (Dhiban, Jordan today) on the Kings’ Highway, containing his own accounts of contemporary events, corroborates his existence and adds more details to this story, though his version of the story is biased in his favor, of course. The cuneiform El-Amarna letters found in Egypt (part of the royal archives of pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhen-aton) also mention Meysha often. Breeder of sheep: or one who raised sheep; from a root word meaning “to mark or brand”. This would render the sheep unusable for Temple offerings, but not for domestic consumption. It is interesting that his ancestor, Moav, was conceived very deliberately (Gen. 19) for the purpose of preserving the whole human race, in his mother’s estimation (thinking her family was the only one left alive on earth after the S’dom catastrophe). Now Moav’s chief business was the deliberate conception of animals. “One does what one knows.”
5. But what took place when Akh’av died was that the king of Moav began to rebel against the king of Israel,
6. so Y’horam went out in that day from Shomron and mustered all of Israel.
He must not have gotten very far with his rebellion during Akhazyah’s reign.(1:1)
7. And he went and sent [word] to Y’hoshafat the king of Yehudah, saying, “The king of Moav has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to Moav to make war?” And he said, “I will go up. My people are the same as your people; my horses are the same as your horses.”
He remembered that Israel had once been part of the same nation as Yehudah. He understands that the kingdom is supposed to be united, but it should be under his family, and he keeps following the lead of the northern king. The cooperative approach sometimes works, and it is often appropriate to be at peace with a neighbor who is not encroaching on anything under one’s jurisdiction, but he did not inquire of YHWH as to whether this was the wise thing to do. Y’horam is his brother-in-law, so he seems to have gone along with his ideas without serious questioning.
8. So he said, “Which way shall we go up?” And he said, “[By] way of the wilderness of Edom.”
They would be circling around and attacking from the south instead of the north or west, where Moav would expect them, so the element of surprise would give them the advantage. At this time the main way into Moav would have been either around the northern end of the Dead Sea or from the area of Matsada, because by the dimensions Josephus gives, the Dead Sea had not yet spilled over to begin forming the southern portion, and would have ended around Matsada. This Israelite alliance would instead go further down the Aravah and approach from somewhere in the direction of Sela (Petra).
9. So the king of Israel went with the king of Yehudah and the king of Edom, and they were circling around [for] seven days’ journey. Then there came to be no water for the camp or for the animals that were at their feet.
Since they would be coming through Edom, the wise thing to do was to enlist Edom as an ally. Edom may have even asked to join in once he was asked permission to enter through his land. He made tikkun (repair) for the actions of his ancestor, who refused to let Moshe and the congregation of Israel pass through his land. (Numbers 20:14ff) Yaaqov and Esau were reunited at least temporarily, but for a dubious purpose, for it was against a common cousin. Animals: possibly horses and donkeys used to transport their gear, but possibly also cattle (v. 17) to eat along the way, probably taken as an afterthought because they seem to have made this campaign as a knee-jerk reaction as soon as they found out the expected tribute was not coming (possibly having already made plans for how to use it all). They might not have prepared adequately for the journey or even made a thorough battle plan.
10. So the king of Israel said, “Alas! Because YHWH has summoned these three kings [together] to deliver them into the hand of Moav!”
He saw YHWH as having set a trap for them. He regarded YHWH as a strong but hostile power. He clearly believed in YHWH, but had little love for Him, especially since he probably knew of the curse on the House of Akh’av. Maybe he thought he would at least not have to face death alone, but would at least be permitted to perish among peers.
11. But Y’hoshafat said, Is there no prophet of YHWH here by whom we can enquire of YHWH?” And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shafat, who poured water on the hands of Eliyahu, is here!”
Always his brother’s conscience, Y’hoshafat had a penchant for seeking prophets, as he well should, while the kings of Israel tended to be pessimistic in crises. But he should have sought one before they set out. Poured water on the hands: i.e., “waited on him hand and foot”. This may have been an idiom similar to that English one, and it may have been literal. In any case, he was someone who did not serve from a distance, but was a personal attendant. This does not seem as flattering as calling one a prophet in his own right, but to be associated with Eliyahu was a tremendous compliment. Apparently Elisha had come along with the northern army because he knew Y’hoshafat would be part of it.
12. And Y’hoshafat said, “There is a word [from] YHWH with him.” So the king of Israel, Y’hoshafat, and the king of Edom went down to him.
Y’hoshafat understood that there had to be something to one who had been a servant to someone as awe-inspiring as Eliyahu, which may have given him an even better recommendation than being a prophet himself. In fact, we are not told that he had ever prophesied before this. Why would he need to, if he lived with Eliyahu? It would almost have been disrespectful to prophesy while Eliyahu was still around.
13. But Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do you and I have [in common]? Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” But the king of Israel said, “No, because YHWH has summoned these three kings, to hand them over to the king of Moav!”
He had some chutzpah to dare to be so sarcastic when speaking to a prophet of YHWH! But like his father with Eliyahu, he probably simply did not wish to deal with Elisha.
14. So Elisha said, “[As surely as] YHWH [Commander] of Armies, before whom I stand, is alive, if it were not for the fact that I can bear the presence of Y’hoshafat the king of Yehudah, I would [not even] give you any consideration or even look at you!
Had Y’hoshafat not been along, Y’horam would have had no covering from YHWH. He “stayed dry” only because Y’hoshafat “shared his umbrella”. It worked out this time, but Y’hoshafat had taken on someone else’s problem, though it might have been Y’horam’s time to “get wet”. Who knows whether there might not have been a major turning point in Israel if Y’hoshafat had not held back the judgment that was due Y’horam? Y’hoshafat would have to pay a price for aligning himself with someone who was not righteous (2 Chron. 19), though he had at least set up courts in Yehudah that judged according to Torah even if he himself was not “practicing what he preached”, but had been partial to his own relative here, and this did count for much in YHWH’s estimation.
15. “But now, bring me a musician!” And indeed, when the musician played, the hand of YHWH did come over him,
Musician: specifically someone who plays a stringed instrument—like David had been. Prophets usually sang out their prophecies, and each prophet had his own particular style. The word for “musician” here denotes one who plays a melody that does not necessarily have any words set to it. He probably asked him to play the melody by which Eliyahu typically prophesied, to set him in the right frame of mind to hear from YHWH after his contempt for Y’horam had been so inflamed. It would have seemed like Eliyahu whispering in his ear. YHWH was now “laying His hand” on him to ordain him into this role as well.
16. and he said, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Make this wadi [full of] dug-out ditches!’
Wadi: or arroyo—a dry riverbed through which water would flow seasonally. They might have expected to find at least a little bit of water at this juncture to replenish their supplies, but there might have been an especially-dry year.
17. “Because this is what YHWH says: ‘You will not see wind and you will not see rain, but this wadi will be filled with water, so that you can drink—[both] you and your livestock as well as your [other] animals.’
18. “And this is the easy [part] in the eyes of YHWH; He has also delivered Moav into your hand.
19. “And you must strike every walled city, and every choice city, and fell every beneficial tree, and stop up all the springs of water, and mar every fine parcel [of land] with stones.”
He provided not only a prophecy but a battle plan. YHWH did indeed have plans for them here, but not the ones Y’horam had envisioned—or He may have simply acted on Y’hoshafat’s behalf since he had presumed to put himself in such a position. But why was YHWH so intent on bringing such complete destruction on Moav, after He had told Israel not to distress them (Deut. 2:9)? That was at the time of Moshe, but this was centuries later, after they had not only tempted Israel to sin (Num. 25:1), but for so long offered up their children for pragmatic purposes (Num. 21:29), culminating in the extremism we will see below.
20. Then what took place in the morning when the grain offering was going up was that, lo and behold, waters came from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water!
Since they were in a dry river bed, but did not see rain (v. 17), it appears that it had rained further “upstream” in Edom, and the water rushed down from some distance away. The translator has been in a similar situation where he had to wait for flooding near the Dead Sea to clear up when it had not rained locally, but rather up at Yerushalayim, some 15 or more miles away. This was indeed a simple thing for YHWH (v. 18), though it benefited the men and beasts greatly. The ditches (v. 16) were to retain that water for drinking, since the flow would not be continuous.
21. Now when all of Moav had heard that the kings had come up to fight them, they cried to one another for help—from every one [able to] put on armor and upward, and they took their stand on the border.
22. When they rose up early in the morning and the sun shone on the water, the Moavites saw the water [as] red like blood from the opposite side,
The red soil washed down from Edom tinted the water itself red.
23. and they said, “That is blood! The kings must have been attacked to [the point of] being laid waste, with each one striking down his fellow. So now, to the plunder, Moav!”
They were tricked by YHWH’s own “smoke and mirrors”, and they took the bait. They made a hasty assumption.
24. When they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked Moav, and they started taking flight before them. So they came into it to strike Moav down.
Rose up: Israel might have even seen the lure YHWH had set up, and played along with by feigning death. Or they may have simply been asleep, as it was dawn, though for the sun to rise over the high mountains in Moav, it must already be fairly high in the sky. Into it: that is, the border of Moav (v. 21).
25. And they destroyed the cities, and on every piece of fine land [each] man flung his stone and filled it up. And they stopped up every spring of water, and felled every beneficial tree, until its stones were left [only] Qir-Kharoseth—but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.
They were doing exactly as YHWH said—and apparently having a lot of fun doing it! Qir-Kharoseth means “wall of broken pieces of pottery”. It was common for slingers to be a major part of an attack on the city wall, as depicted in Assyrian reliefs of the siege of Lakhish. The ballistic slingstones found in abundance at Lakhish were three to four inches in diameter, and thousands of them slung at the same part of the wall could weaken it enough to breach it, and one breach was all that was needed to conquer a city.
26. Now when the king of Moav saw that the battle was stronger than he was, he took with him 700 men who draw the sword to break through to the king of Edom, but they were not able.
27. So he took his own son—the firstborn who was to replace him as king—and offered him up as a [burnt] offering on the wall. And great splintering anger came over Israel, so they broke camp from above him and returned to the Land.
Undoubtedly they were sacrificing to Khemosh, their national deity, whose name means “the subduer”. Either they thought they had to appease their deity because they had lost the battle and angered him, or were trying to give it the best things they had to offer, and so “shot themselves in the foot” by taking their own crown prince off the face of the earth. The illogic of those outside Torah contrasts starkly with these who were such close cousins but were so much wiser because they remained with the covenant to a greater and lesser extent. (Compare Deut. 4:6.) And of course the latter were disgusted to the point of outrage, so they could not stand to even be around such people anymore. An alternate reading is “great wrath came against Israel”, though this would be the less common way to take the phraseology. The Moavites might have been incensed that their king had been driven to such a desperate act that they felt they had to blame Israel, though they themselves were the cause of their own troubles. The Meysha Stele states that Meysha built an altar to Khemosh at Qerihoh (probably this Qir-Kharaseth, right beside Dibon where the stele was found), saying, “Omri was king of Israel and oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son succeeded him and he also said I will oppress Moab. In my days he said this, but I got the upper hand of him and his house: and Israel perished for ever... I had the ditches of Qerihoh dug by Israelite prisoners.” This may refer to the end of the line of Akh’av, though chapter 9 credits this to Yehu instead. In Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History, Immanuel Velikovsky took this to be the reason Meysha made an attack on Israel’s capital. If Moav indeed occupied Israel in his day, this may be the background for YHWH’s rebuke on Moav in Tzefanyah 2:8-9 for enlarging its borders against Israel.
CHAPTER 4
1. And a [certain] woman from among the wives of the “sons of the prophets” cried out to Eliyahu for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband, has died, and you know that your servant feared YHWH. But the creditor has come to take both of my boys as slaves for himself!”
Josephus, the Chaldean translation, and rabbinic tradition say she was the widow of none other than Ovadyah, the man who had hidden 100 prophets from Izevel in caves (1 Kings 18:4), and had used up all of his resources to support them, which is why he was now in debt. If this were the case, it would be clear how Elisha, a relative newcomer there, would be familiar with this man’s righteousness. The Torah allows a man to sell himself into slavery or sell his daughter to someone as a wife to pay a debt, but no provision is made for a creditor to come and forcibly take any fellow Israelite’s children as slaves. (Lev. 25:39-55)
2. So Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a [small] jug of oil!”
Elisha did not rail against those who were not keeping Torah, since it would have been futile in a climate where very few were; instead he focused on finding a solution. If she pays off the creditor, he will not oppress the family any longer. He worked with the resource that had already been provided, giving her a way to maintain dignity by earning the money on her own, and possibly because he simply could not pay the debt. This jug is particularly the type sometimes used for anointing kings, so while she had no food left in the house, she had not sold this one reminder of her late husband’s calling. In the Northern Kingdom, which was now divorced from the Temple and the Levitical priesthood, prophets sometimes filled the role of priests by necessity. (See also verse 42.) Kings had a very poor relationship with prophets at this time, but apparently some oil was set aside in hope of a better day when there would be a righteous king again.
3. So he said, “Go, request for yourself containers from the outside, from all of your neighbors—empty containers, [and] not a few!
4. “Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and behind your sons, and pour out [oil] into all these containers, and set aside [the ones that are] full.”
The door may have been shut to avoid the creditor seeing what they were doing, but it may have also been for a testimony to her sons that no oil was being introduced from outside, so that they could see that the provision was clearly from YHWH.
5. So she went out from [being] with him and shut the door behind her and behind her sons. They brought [the containers] over to her, and she poured [oil] out [into them].
6. And it turned out that upon filling the containers, she said to her son, “Bring me another container!” But he told her, “There isn’t another container!” Then the oil stopped [flowing].
The oil would not have flowed beyond what she originally had if she had not done what she could with the resources she had access to, yet it did not go beyond what would fill what was available. A little anointing (teaching) increases dramatically when we start pouring it out for others.
7. So she came and told the man of Elohim, and he said, “Go and sell the oil and repay the debt, and you and your sons can live off the rest.”
She did not presume to do anything with the results until she consulted with him, because it was a gift from him, and out of respect for both the gift and the giver, it should be used in the way the giver intends; it is not an entitlement. Being the wife of a prophet, she had learned to listen to words--which are all a prophet often has--and do what she was told, without coloring the message with her own assumptions or experience. (Compare Deut. 17:12.) If we cannot follow instructions, we cannot keep Torah, for, after all, torah means "instruction”. She now had enough for her immediate needs. This was not to be a security that would prevent her from having to ask of YHWH again later, because there were other provisions set in place in the Torah for the maintenance of widows and fatherless children--if they were carried out. But at least her sons could work for her now, and not for another, and bring income to their home, and the leftover oil could provide her with "seed money" to plant crops or start another business.
8. Now the day came when Elisha passed through by [way of] Shunem, and there was a wealthy woman there, and she prevailed on him to eat bread, so it turned out that whenever he passed through, he turned aside there to eat bread.
Shunem means “their resting place”, and it was located in the Yizre’el Valley between the city of Yizre’el (where Navoth’s vineyard had been) and Mt. Tavor. The Filistines had camped here against King Sha’ul, as it is in a wide valley that would easily accommodate an army camp (1 Shmu’el 28:4), and Avishag, who had kept David warm in his final days, was from here. (1 Kings 1:3ff) Shunem belonged to the tribe of Yisaskhar, and Yaaqov himself had prophesied about Yisaskhar in regard to a resting place and servanthood. (Gen. 49:14-15) This woman lived up to both callings. Wealthy: or important; literally, great or large.
9. And she told her husband, “Please look here! I am convinced that the one who regularly passes by us is a holy man of Elohim.
Convinced: While he was known to some degree (ch. 3), he did not advertise his services, as, while the current king of Israel was better than his father, he still was not fully righteous and might turn on him at any time. He was probably running a circuit between several schools, the jurisdiction over which he had inherited from Eliyahu, checking on the welfare of his students, and he may have frequented Mount Karmel (2:25; 4:25) because there was another school of the prophets there.
10. “Please, let’s make a little walled rooftop chamber and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him, so that whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
Walled: or, of chalk limestone. Rabbinic writers have seen here a parallel to the ark of the covenant, the table of the Bread of the Faces, the incense altar, and the menorah in YHWH’s sanctuary. Whether or not it was what she was trying to re-create, it met all of the needs of a traveling prophet in need of rest.
11. And the day came when he arrived there, and he turned in to the rooftop chamber and lay down there.
12. And he said to Gehazi, his young [servant], “Call for this Shunemite [woman].” So he called for her, and she presented herself before him.
13. So he told him, “Please say to her, ‘Look! You have gone to all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Should I speak to the king for you, or to the commander of the army?” But she said, “I am dwelling among my own people.”
Gone to all this trouble: literally, trembled with all this concern. She had not asked for anything, but neither had he asked for this wonderful lodging place, and he knew she deserved a reward. It is always best when both parties expect things only from themselves and anticipate the needs of others before they ask, though it is very rare today. He may have even been offering to help her emigrate to Y’hudah, which had a more righteous king, and where she would fit in better as a worshipper of YHWH. He may have also been offering to have the army kill someone who was troubling her family. But she was committed to being a light to her own people for the “long haul”. This is who she was and this was where she should serve.
14. And he said, “So what should be done for her?” And Gehazi said, “Regretfully, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
The age-old question was already being asked: “What do you give someone who has everything?” Like Avraham, she was well-provided for, but had no continuance.
15. So he said, “Call for her.” So he called for her, and she presented herself at the entryway.
16. And he said, “For this appointed season, according to the time of life, you [will be] cradling a son!” But she said, “Don’t, my master, O man of Elohim! Don’t disappoint your maid-servant!”
Appointed season: Possibly one of the prescribed festivals. There are some possible clues throughout the rest of the chapter as to which it might have been. This echoes the message brought to Avraham and Sarah. (Gen. 18) Time of life: This is the same terminology used when Sarah was told she would have a son. (Gen. 18:10) Disappoint: or deceive. I.e., get her hopes up too high. She may have thought he was only expressing a wishful thought, but doubted that anyone really had the power or authority to make such a promise.
17. But the woman did become pregnant and bear a son for this [same] appointed season, according to the time of life, just as Elisha had told her.
18. When the boy had grown up, the day came when he went out [with] his father to the harvesters.
If his birthday fell during the harvest, the appointed season mentioned above might have been Sukkoth.
19. But he said to his father, “My head! My head!” So he told the young [servant], “Carry him to his mother.”
Did he have a brain embolism? An aneurism? Heat stroke? Verse 35 offers another possible explanation.
20. So he picked him up and brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees until noon, then died.
21. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of Elohim, shut [the door] behind him, and went out
22. and called for her husband and said, “Please send me one of the young [servants] and one of the female donkeys, so that I can go quickly to the man of Elohim, then I will come back.”
Why a female donkey? Possibly because the Hebrew term for a female donkey, unlike that for the male, means “reliable”, and she certainly needed reliability on this occasion!
23. But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It’s not a new [moon] and it’s not a Sabbath.” But she said, “Shalom!”
This shows that it was common to visit the man of Elohim on these days, and it would be easy to find him on those days, when many people would gather for him to make the offerings that the priests were supposed to make, but were not doing in the North. Shmu’el often had done so as well. “Shalom” can be a greeting of either arrival or departure, but it really means “completeness”; i.e., “everything is all right”. (v. 26.) She had apparently not even told her husband that their son was dead, so great was her faith that YHWH could still restore him to them even when it was too late. But she had to go through the proper channels—the ones YHWH had used to bring this blessing into her life in the first place.
24. When she had begun saddling the donkey, she said to her young [servant], “Drive [hard] and keep moving; don’t hold back your riding for me, unless I tell you!”
25. And so she kept going and came to the man of Elohim at Mount Karmel. And what took place is that when the man of Elohim saw her, he said to Gehazi, his young [servant], “There’s that Shunemite [woman]!
This would have been somewhere between 8 and 20 miles, depending on what part of Mount Karmel Elisha was on. This had become a place of great prominence for the “sons of the prophets” since Eliyahu had defeated the pagan priests here. It was probably at the same place the 102 soldiers had been reduced to ashes (1:9ff), and it was where the drought had been dealt with. So it is a place where YHWH’s power has been exhibited and His favor extended to Israel in unusually-strong ways, so they drew great strength from it as well as they connected with these victories.
26. “Please run to meet here right away, and say to her, “Is [everything] well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the boy?” And she said, “Shalom!”
She did not tell him anything, not expecting him to be able to do anything about the situation.
27. But when she got to the man of Elohim on the mountain, she took hold of his feet, and Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of Elohim said, “Relax! [Leave] her [alone], because her emotion is bitter for her, but YHWH has kept it concealed from me and has not told me [about it].”
28. And she said, “Did I [ever] ask my master for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t disappoint me’?”
This allusion told him immediately what the problem was.
29. So he said to Gehazi, “Tie the belt around your waist, take my walking-stick in your hand, and go! Though you may encounter a man, do not bend the knee to him, and though a man may bend the knee to you, don’t answer him. Then lay my walking-stick on the lad’s face.”
Tie the belt: He would need to pull his long, flowing robe up so he could have his legs free to run, and would have to secure it with a rope, belt, or sash. Bend the knee to him: a formal salute or greeting showing deference. He could allow nothing to detain him, as if any delay would make the staff lose its “delegated authority”. Elisha must have known that Gehazi would tend to be distracted from his assignments. It is hard enough to focus on someone else’s will when one is clearly his servant; today it is nearly unheard of, but Elisha had been this to Eliyahu. It is an honor to be even a representative of such a great man, and he was expected to act as Elisha would. Though YHWH had not told Elisha anything, he would rather not make the mistake of doing nothing, but acted as immediately as possible, sending a faster runner on ahead since he himself could not travel as quickly. He may not have even intended to go himself, as the next verse suggests:
30. Then the lad’s mother said, “[As surely as] YHWH is alive and your soul is alive, if I depart from you…!” So he got up and walked after her.
She seems not to have trusted the results to Gehazi alone, as she had not even considered him worthy to pass a message on to Elisha (v. 26), yet she did not wish to leave the holy man, and he knew she needed to be with her son, so he consented to go along with her.
31. And Gehazi did go on ahead of them and laid the walking-stick on the lad’s face, but there was neither a sound nor a response, so he went back to meet him and reported to him, saying, “The lad showed no sign of waking up.”
Waking up: connotes being aroused abruptly. This teaches us that one cannot send his staff to do what he needs to do for himself! What should have been a reasonable expectation—that he would do what he was told—is rarely realistic, and especially when we see in the next chapter what kind of character Gehazi had. He obeyed, but if wrongly motivated, authority to act was not enough. He may have only taken this job because it seemed advantageous to serve someone so influential. (See v. 13.) He did not have the same favor with YHWH that Elisha had, especially when death was what needed to be overcome. (Compare Mat. 17:19-21) Aharon’s rod could not have had the same effect in anyone else’s hand, as only he was authorized to go behind the veil. Y’shua, in contrast, was amazed at the faith of a Gentile who believed he could heal even from a distance. (Luk. 7:6-9)
32. When Elisha arrived at the house, the boy was indeed dead, laid out on his bed.
33. So he went in and shut the door behind both of them, and prayed to YHWH.
What else could one do at such a time?
34. Then he went up and lay on top of the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and [the] palms of his [hands] on [the] palms of his [hands]. As he stretched himself over him, the child’s flesh began to warm up.
Stretched himself: or crouched, apparently giving him a form of artificial respiration.
35. Then he came back and walked back and forth through the house, then went up and stretched out over him, and the lad sneezed as many as seven times, then the lad opened his eyes!
Back and forth: literally, one here and one here. Sneezed: Could he have had a severe allergic or asthmatic reaction to being out in the field at harvest-time with all its chaff blowing around, giving him severe headaches and blocking his airway until it was now cleared? “Seven” suggests finality, so he may have been given permanent relief from this illness.
36. So he called to Gehazi and said, “Call for this Shunemite!” So he called her and she came to him, and he said, “Carry your son away!”
I.e., “Get him off my bed!” He was adding some humor to break the tension and bring relief.
37. When she came in, she fell down on his feet and bowed herself on the ground, then picked up her son and went out.
38. When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land, and the “sons of the prophets” were sitting in his presence. So he said to his young [servant], “Use the big caldron and boil [some] soup for the ‘sons of the prophets’!”
Sitting: or, dwelling, staying; if he was teaching them, they would be more likely to be standing while he sat. It may be that the famine left them with no other place to go or no work to do in the fields.
39. And one [of them] went out to the countryside to pick some herbs, and he found a wild vine and from it he picked some wild gourds, filling his outer garment [with them], and came and started slicing them into the caldron of soup, because they did not know [what they were].
Filling his outer garment: i.e., making a “lap” out of his robe so he could carry them as if in a bag. But not everything we find that appears to be food is actually nourishing to us:
40. Then they poured [it] out for the men to eat, but as they started eating the soup, they cried out and said, “[There’s] death in the caldron, O man of Elohim!” And they were not able to eat [it].
41. But he said, “Then bring [some] flour!” When he had thrown it into the caldron, he said, “Pour [it] out for the people, and they can eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Like Moshe with the bitter water (Ex. 15:23-25), there was some kind of chemical reaction that neutralized the poison. But the first scriptural use of this word for “caldron”, which sets the stage for later interpretation, was the “flesh pots of Egypt” (Ex. 16:3)—the land which put so much emphasis on death. YHWH gave Yirmeyahu a vision of a caldron boiling over in the north (1:13) as a symbol of pending judgment. But the term is also used of one of the containers used to collect ashes from off the brazen altar at the Tabernacle. (Ex. 27:3) One was used to cook food for many people at a huge Passover celebration. (2 Chron. 35:13) Thus it can symbolize a variety of situations. In Lev. 10 we see a poison entering even into the Temple context. The “wild” vines were literally those from the “field”. Y’shua said the field represents the world (Mat. 13:38), and Esau, who sold his birthright for what was in the pot, was called a man of the field. (Gen. 25:27) So something foreign was mixed in with what represents our birthright. This could potentially be a very dangerous situation, and would seem like all our work was wasted. Finely-ground flour is the major theme of the Counting of the Omer between Passover and Shavuoth. There it represents maturity, refinement, and readiness to be formed into community, for birds can no longer steal away a kernel from what is now ready to make into one single loaf of bread. (1 Cor. 10:17) In chapter 2 we were reminded how immaturity is a dangerous thing. But in any context, maturity and selflessness will overcome many potentially-harmful things that may have been of foreign origin but are not directly opposed to the Torah. Community makes the price of the birthright not only palatable but nourishing again.
42. Then a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of Elohim bread [of the] firstfruits—20 loaves of barley and full ears of grain in its [own] husk, and he said, “Give [it] to the people, so they can eat."
Baal-shalishah means “master of the three”—possibly an early manifestation of the pagan trinity. Elisha was a true master whose first concern, even before he ate, was feeding the people who were learning from him. The firstfruits are brought to him, in lieu of taking it to the priests, which they could not really do in the Northern Kingdom at this time.
43. And his servant said, “What? Can I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give [it] to the people, and they will eat, because this is what YHWH says: ‘Eat and have some left over!”
A hundred: apparently this is how many were in this school—and quite possibly the same hundred whom Ovadyah spared from Izevel. (1 Kings 18:4) When we are feeding YHWH’s people, even if it appears our cupboards will end up bare, there is always some left over.
44. And he set it in front of them and they ate, and had some left over, according to what YHWH had said.
Like the raising of the boy back to life and the woman who provided for his material needs, this is another precedent in Elisha’s life for Y’shua’s miracles of multiplying the loaves and fishes in a similar but much larger context, where physical food ran out while people were focusing on spiritual food. (Mat. 14:20; Mark 6:43) Y’shua’s miracles were not, therefore, “original”, but were following a pattern YHWH had set in place for how to recognize that someone was truly from Him. Of course, more miracles converged in Y’shua than in any other one man, but their purpose was to identify him as YHWH’s anointed because they had indeed been known by Israel beforehand. (Deut. 13:2)
CHAPTER 5
1. Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, had become a great man and lifted up of face before his master, because through him YHWH had brought deliverance to Aram, and the man was a war hero, [but was] a leper.
Aram: or Syria. Lifted up of face: an idiom for being highly honored and respected. Josephus cites a tradition that Naaman was the one who had killed King Akh’av! Verse 2 would seem to support this possibility. Leper: suffered from tzara’ath, the disease for which instructions are given in Lev. 13 and 14.
2. When the Arameans had gone out [in] marauding bands, they had taken captive from the Land of Israel a little girl, and she had come into the presence of Naaman’s wife.
Come into the presence: i.e., been chosen to be her slave. She seems to have come to like her captors, probably being treated well by them, because she wanted to help Naaman recover:
3. And she said to her mistress, “If only my master [could be] in the presence of the prophet who is in Shomron! Then he could remove him from his [condition of] tzaraath!”
She does not say “remove it from him”, as we would today. The perspective is different. His true self could leave behind this picture of selfishness.
4. So [one of them] went in and reported to his master, saying, “The little girl who is from the Land of Israel said thus and so.”
His master: that is, Naaman’s, i.e., the king. (v. 5) Chapter 6 reveals that this is still Ben-Hadad.
5. So the king of Aram said, “Go ahead! Come, and I will send documentation to the king of Israel.” So he went and took in his hand ten kikkars of silver, 6,000 [sheqels] of gold, and ten changes of clothes,
Documentation: of his worthiness for this favor, i.e., a letter of recommendation. The kings of Aram and Syria would not have been on the best of terms at this time, with the Arameans making raids into the Land, but this was a favor for an individual that they were asking, and he did not want politics affecting that. A kikkar is 3,000 sheqels, and a sheqel is the equivalent of about 10 grams. So this would have been 300 kg., or 625 lbs., of silver. At today’s prices, this would be almost $165,000. The measurement unit of gold is uncertain, but a kikkar would undoubtedly be too high. If it is indeed measured in sheqels, this would be worth about $1.8 million USD. The total value of all of these gifts would be about $2 million! This healing was worth a lot to Naaman!
6. and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, [which] said, “Now then, as this letter comes to you, [as you can] see, I have sent my servant Naaman to you so that you will get him out of his tzara’ath!”
He does not mention the prophet, probably assuming that any king would be in close contact with any prophet of the nation’s deity, but only in Israel was this not the case. Because of the king’s arrogance, there was a hostile relationship between him and the prophet. He does not want to appear underhanded by contacting the prophet directly, without going through the proper channels, which could start a war between the two nations, between whom there was clearly already tension.
7. And upon reading the letter, what the king of Israel did was that he tore his garments and said, “Am I Elohim, to allow to die or to keep alive, that this [one] is sending to me to remove a man from his tzara’ath? Because just consider, please, and see how he is seeking an occasion [for himself] against me!”
This king would have been Y’horam. There is a play on words here: “reading” is qara', and “tore” is qara. Seeking an occasion: or, coiling himself, like a snake ready to squeeze the life out of its prey. As Y’horam saw it, if he failed, Aram would use this as an excuse to attack Israel.
8. But when Elisha, the man of Elohim, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, what he did was send [word] to the king to say, “Why have you torn your garments? Please let him come to me, so he can know [firsthand] that there is a prophet in Israel!”
He was very confident that YHWH would let Israel live up to its reputation as a light to the nations, despite Israel’s condition in general, because there were a few who were still obeying Him. The king clearly did not put much stock in a prophet’s ability to effect this cure, or it might not have even occurred to him that this might be his way out of the dilemma. So Elisha was probably trying to give the king an indirect message that he, too, needed to recognize that there was a prophet in Israel.
9. So Naaman came with his horses and his mounted [attendant]s, and stopped at the entrance to Elisha’s house.
10. So Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go. When you have washed seven times in the Yarden, your flesh will return to you, and you will be pure.”
Ritual impurity, not illness as such, is the real issue with tzara’ath. By his seeming show of disrespect for such a wealthy man by sending only a servant and nearly ignoring him, Elisha hints at what his underlying problem—what occasioned his tzara’ath—probably is. His next actions will bring it out even more clearly:
11. But Naaman was [very] displeased, and left, saying, “Look here! I said to myself, ‘He will certainly come out and stand and call on the Name of YHWH his Elohim, and wave his hand toward the spot, and gather away the m’tzora’.
M’tzora’: literally, “the leprosied one”, almost as if there was another person living in his body who needed to be “cast out”, though he does not speak in terms of demons. Being used to entertainment and pomp, he did not understand that a prophet is set apart and would not even need to acknowledge a Gentile, no matter how prominent, nor is he out for showmanship.
12. “Aren’t the Avanah and Farpar, the rivers of Damaseq, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be pure?” And he turned away and left in a rage.
Henry Kissinger, though not enraged, echoed a similar sentiment when he saw the Yarden River for the first time, commenting, “What public relations can do for a river!” But it is a treasure of Israel’s heritage, marking a transition to a higher level of holiness. It seems the river was muddier than those near his home as well. Naaman’s rage reveals that he has let his fame and position go to his head. While it was fitting and proper for others to regard him as a hero, he should look at himself as a servant. Instead, this high-ranking man who is from the nation of Aram, whose name already means “exalted”, is insulted by the very name of the river, for Yarden means “descender”. He is being told to lower himself completely (seven times, v. 10)—to get down off his “high horse”.
13. But his servants approached and spoke intensely to him, and said, “My father, [if] the prophet had told you [to do] a grand thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So then, since he has [only] told you, ‘Wash and be clean’… [why not try]?”
So then: The Hebrew term suggests a quick sigh of exasperation, disbelief at the ludicrousness of his pride, and a sense of the obvious point that he has run out of other options but has had the simple answer handed to him. I.e., what in the world do you have to lose?! Taking the prophet’s word without even seeing him was part of the test. Yeshua did something very similar in both Yochanan 4:46-50 and Mat. 8:5-13, to men of very high status in both cases as well.
14. So he did go down and immersed in the Yarden seven times, just as the man of Elohim had said, and his flesh came back [to being] like the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed.
Since a different remedy than that prescribed in Lev. 14 is ordered, we might surmise that what Naaman had was not true “leprosy” of the kind described there, but only the common disease that most closely resembles it, psoriasis. It is very similar to many of the symptoms of tzara’ath found in Leviticus 13, even down to the point of there being three common manifestations: H.D. Tacio writes, “In its typical form, psoriasis results in patches of thick red skin covered with silvery scales.” It can also take the form of small, drop-shaped lesions or blisters of noninfectious pus. Symptoms can often be diminished by exposing the skin to bright sunlight. At 1,300 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth's surface. This creates a very unique climate that allows people to sunbathe for long periods of time without burning. Many people go there to treat psoriasis, and there are clinics there today expressly for its formalized treatment. Its water is said to have a therapeutic effect on the skin due to its high salt and mineral content. It has an extraordinarily high salt content of 33 percent. In comparison, the Great Salt Lake in Utah has 22 percent, and the oceans have 3 percent. (National Psoriasis Foundation) We might assume that the Yarden, which carries all these salts to the Dead Sea, is also high in these natural healing elements. Indeed, Immanuel Velikovsky notes that “the Jordan is rich with sulfur, magnesium, and brom salts, which enter the river at the Sea of Tiberias.” Being a non-Israelite, was this all he needed to be cured of? Had he not come to Israel, possibly, but because he did come where more truth was available, he became responsible for more. And when YHWH heals, He does it all the way; his skin was not merely restored to that of an older man, but as fresh as skin could ever become!
15. Then he went back to the man of Elohim—he and his whole entourage—and approached and stood in front of him and said, “Please look here! I have come to realize that there is no Elohim anywhere in the world except in Israel! So now, please receive a blessing from [what is] with your servant.”
Entourage: literally, camp. Look here: Elisha was still apparently not paying him much attention. But he wanted to bear testimony that the ease by which YHWH could heal him had made it clear to him that YHWH was incomparable.
16. But he said, “[As surely as] YHWH, before whom I stand, is alive, if I should receive…” Though he was urging him to take it, he kept refusing.
If I should receive: This is the literary form that denotes an oath to not receive it. He acted on Avraham’s precedent when offered wealth by the King of S’dom for doing something any kinsman should be willing to do for his relative, even if it was extraordinary in comparison to how most people would respond. (Compare Luke 17:10.)
17. So Naaman said, “Please, won’t you let your servant be given two mules’ load of earth, because your servant will no longer make an ascending [offering] or slaughter to [any] elohim other than YHWH.
He wanted to take some of the ground of Israel with him to make an altar to YHWH, and possibly to spread around it to bow down on, presuming YHWH might be more disposed to listen to a prayer that was coming from His own Land, wherever it might have been carried! But can someone just take a bit of Israel home with him for his own use? If something holy touches something unclean, it does not make the common thing holy; the holy thing becomes unclean instead. (Haggai 2:11-14) It may just become part of Aram.
18. “For this thing may YHWH forgive your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow himself there, while leaning on my hand [for support] I will have bowed myself [in the] temple of Rimmon. Bowing myself [in the] temple of Rimmon—please let YHWH pardon your servant in this matter!”
Rimmon: the pomegranate-god of Aram, apparently associated with fertility because of the pomegranate’s hundreds of seeds. But as soon as he is out of danger, he is already asking for a relaxing of the rules so that he can stick to his old loyalties. Maybe he should have instead asked Elisha, “What is my next step?” He does not appear to want to get closer to YHWH, but only to enjoy His benefits and revel in the most basic facts about Him—from a distance. (R. Webster)
19. But he said to him, “Go on to completeness.” When he had traveled a considerable stretch of land away from him,
Go on to completeness: Many translate it, “Go in peace”, as if he was letting him off the hook. Rather, the Hebrew wording suggests that, like Yeshua who cleansed ten lepers without any fanfare (Luke 17:11ff), he was encouraging him to go beyond mere healing to a full cleansing, as detailed in Lev. 14 (that is, go to the priest, the only one who can declare when he is clean), for though he feels he has a debt to YHWH that he must pay somehow, he does not even consider asking how YHWH would want it done. Though he has lowered himself somewhat, he still does not consider becoming part of Israel. Since he has come into the context of Israel, his disease has taken on the deeper meaning it has for Israel, and needed more than a simple cure. But if he only wants to take a little of Israel home for his own use, it is better to go ahead and leave, because in this state Elisha cannot do any more for him. A considerable stretch of land: the same phrase used of how far there was left to go before Yaaqov was to arrive in Efrath, when Rakhel began to give birth to Binyamin. (Gen. 35:16) While he had gone some distance, he was not yet very far away:
20. Gehazi, the young [servant] of Elisha, the man of Elohim, said, “Look! My master has spared this Aramean, Naaman [by refraining] from receiving from his hand that which he brought. YHWH is [certainly] alive, because if I [just] run after him, I can get something from him!”
He was crediting YHWH with motivating his greed for illegitimate gain, or at least saw YHWH as someone at his disposal to serve his selfish motives, rather than his being at YHWH’s disposal. He thinks that since Naaman is a foreigner, he really should have paid something for such a blessing, and he wants to make sure some of that wealth is left in Israel.
21. So Gehazi chased after Naaman. When Naaman saw [someone] running after him, he fell from the chariot [in order] to meet him, and said, “Is [everything] all right?”
Fell: Apparently he stopped too quickly. (See verse 26.) Alt., dismounted. (Compare Gen. 24:64, where the same phrase is used.)
22. And he said, “[All] is well. My master sent me to say, ‘Lo and behold, just now two young [servants] have come from the sons of the prophets in the mountains of Efrayim! Please provide a kikkar of silver and two changes of clothes for them!”
23. And Naaman said, “Be pleased to accept two kikkars!” And he compelled him, and secured two kikkars of silver in two hollowed-out [containers] along with two changes of clothes, and he gave it to two of his young [servants], and they carried it ahead of him.
Though he did not ask for all that Naaman offered, this was still worth $33,000—no small sum. But even if all he planned to keep for himself was the extra kikkar Naaman offered, and was not lying about some guests who needed hospitality (though verse 20 renders this doubtful), the longer he held onto it, human nature would make it likely that he would find excuses to hold onto even more—“tithe deductions”, so to speak!
24. When he arrived at the Ofel, he took them out of their hands and deposited [them] in the house, then he dismissed the men and they left.
Ofel: probably a hill, based on a word for “swelling up” and it can also mean “acting arrogantly or presumptuously”, and that is exactly what Gehazi was doing. The name suggests an identification with the modern town of Afula at the western end of the Hill of Moreh in the middle of the Yizre’el Valley, which is quite close to where Elisha lived, but far enough away that he could do things without Elisha seeing all he was doing. Did he go behind the hill to hide what he had taken, just like Akhan in Y’hoshua 7? Deposited: The word can also mean “entrusted (to someone) for care”, as if depositing them in a bank for safe-keeping or entrusting them to an accountant. He may have had servants of his own, who guarded them.
25. Then he went and presented himself to his master. And Elisha said to him, “Where [are you coming] from, Gehazi?” But he said, “Your servant didn’t go anywhere!”
Elisha uses the tactic YHWH employed with Adam, to make him think about where he really had been. But he not only usurps Elisha’s authority by speaking in his name without truly representing him; he lies on top of it. Anywhere: literally, either here or there. Elisha works for YHWH, so Gehazi is really misrepresenting Him as well.
26. But he said to him, “My heart did not go [along with it] when the man [was] overturned from upon his chariot [in order] to meet you! Is it a time to receive silver or to receive clothes—or [for that matter] olive trees or vineyards or flocks or herds or male or female servants?
This may have been what Gehazi planned to buy with the silver. He may have intended to invest it in all of these things so that it would not be sitting in his house, obvious to Elisha if he came to visit, or so he would not have to explain how he suddenly became so wealthy. Gehazi liked to talk a lot, so Elisha knew well what he was likely to do with such wealth. More than that, he knew Gehazi was likely to do something like this, and when he looked for him, sure enough, he was gone. But to be a wealthy man was not his calling, and it made Naaman think he had paid Elisha after all, when this was not the message Elisha wanted to give him, since Israel is a generous Land, freely giving of the bounty YHWH has given it to any who will acknowledge Him. Y’shua said to give as freely as we receive, in the specific context of cleansing lepers. (Mat. 10:8)
27. “So Naaman’s tzara’ath will overtake you [and stick to] your descendants forever!” And he went out from his presence as leprous as snow.
Since this is called “the tzara’ath of Naaman, maybe all he had was the same type of skin irritation Naaman had had. H.D. Tacio writes, “Psoriasis occurs when skins cells quickly rise from their origin below the surface of the skin [note the similarity to the description in Lev. 13:3] and pile up on the surface before they have a chance (sic) to mature.” Faulty signals in the immune system cause skin cells to regenerate too quickly, which can be triggered by emotional stress—something Gehazi certainly would have experienced when Elisha called his bluff! Like the skin cells that rise too quickly for the body to deal with, Gehazi, who is called a “young man”, wanted wealth that he did not yet have the maturity to handle, and this imbalance manifested itself in his body. There is no known cure. Swedish research even suggests a genetic link between psoriasis and heart disease (Medical News Today), but it is not contagious, so it still was supernaturally “transferred”. And true to the curse placed on Gehazi here, the tendency to psoriasis can indeed be inherited. (HealthDay News) Unlike Naaman who might have only had a stigma attached to him for suffering from a disease which might have caused unsightly blemishes but was not deadly, Gehazi, being part of Israel, would be subject to the rules that apply to Israel, and would be a complete societal outcast. Worst of all, unlike most “lepers” in Israel, he was given no opening to repent.
CHAPTER 6
1. Then the “sons of the prophets” said to Elisha, “Please take notice; the place where we are staying in your presence is too cramped for us.
Even after Gehazi left, they felt too crowded! After he was cut loose from them, they should have been able to ascend, but instead they see the fact that Elisha proved he had real authority over Gehazi as an indication that he is watching them too closely. He is stricter than they want; he expects too much from a servant. But they cannot say this to his face, since they do not want to get leprosy as well, so instead they blame the size of their building. The word for “staying” here literally means sitting. The term for “place” is rooted in the word for “stand”, yet they were sitting. No wonder they did not have enough room!
2. “Please let us go as far as the Yarden, and each of us take one log, and make ourselves a place to live there.” And he said, “Go.”
The Yarden may have had the biggest trees available for building, being a well-watered forest at that time, but if they wanted to Yarden means “descender”; they want to descend because they cannot live at a place with such a high standard, so they ask to build a different house—one in which they all have equal input. Each can point to the beam he placed into the house and say to the others, “What right do you have to tell me what to do?” They no longer want to be part of Elisha’s house. It would be less responsibility for him, but a great loss to them.
3. And one [of them] said, “Please agree to go with your servants.” So he said, “I will go.”
5. But what took place when one [of them] was felling a log, the iron [axe-head] fell into the water, and he began to cry aloud and said, “Alas, my master! It was even borrowed!”
Borrowed: He expected to be unable to pay the owner back. (Ex. 22:14) Iron tools were extremely valuable at this time, not having been a widespread phenomenon for very long.
6. So the man of Elohim said, “Where did it fall [in]?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick and threw it there, and made the iron [axe-head] float,
Did he simply dislodge it? Yet iron would not float to the surface on its own. The term for float is related to a term meaning “to cause waves”, so it may have caused a wake that carried it close to the shore. Still this is unlikely. Elisha is the “warm-up” for Y’shua, who affected many more people, but did essentially the same miracles. But this time Elisha had the greater miracle. Y’shua walked on water, but people are made to float; iron is not. Elisha means “Elohim is salvation”; Y’shua means “YHWH is salvation”, so they are parallel prophets in many ways. Since we are Y’shua’s Body today, we are supposed to be the ones feeding the hungry and bringing the dead back to life.
7. and he said, “Raise it up for yourself.” So he put out his hand and took it.
There is a picture behind this story. At this time in history (the late iron age), iron was usually associated with weapons, chariots, or the yoke of an enemy. The single stick is a picture of a united Israel. (Zkh.11:14; Y’hezq’el 37:16-19) A rod is also a picture of authority, and water symbolizes the Torah. The authority that comes from a united Israel can displace mighty things, and put the victory over Israel’s enemies within our grasp. (Ovadyah 15-21; Yeshayahu 11:14) Below there is a parallel story, for the king of Israel was “building his own house”, and armies came against him because of it, and again Elisha’s servant asks, “What shall we do?” If the king had been joined to Yehudah instead of to other armies where the power seemed to be, he might have had more success.
8. Then the king of Aram started fighting against Israel. When he was making plans with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place will be my encampment,”
This king is still Ben-Hadad. Such and such: Heb., ploni almoni, which is what Ruth’s “nearer kinsman” was called. It has the sense of “going to and fro” as well as being an esteemed personage. There he was a picture of haSatan, who, like Ben-Hadad, had once been on friendly terms with the one who was now his enemy (when he sent Naaman for healing).
9. the man of Elohim sent [word] to the king of Israel, saying, “Be on [your] guard when passing through this place, because the Arameans are pressing down [and penetrating] there!”
Though these two “brothers” were on bad terms with each other, they united against a common enemy. And in His incredible patience, YHWH is again giving this king an open door to repent.
10. So the king of Israel sent [word] to the place of which the man of Elohim had told him and warned him, and [they were] protected there—and not one or two!
Or, not once or twice. I.e., this was a repeated action on Elisha’s part. Warned: the term means to shine a bright light on, much like a lighthouse does.
11. And the heart of the king of Aram was tossed about as by a storm over this matter, so he summoned his servants and said to them, “Won’t you inform me who from [those] belonging to us is for the king of Israel?!”
Predictably, he assumed he had a “mole” from the enemy among his privy council, for he told his strategies to no one else.
12. But one of his servants said, “No, my master the king, because Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom!”
This servant may have been Naaman himself, and after he came back and put the piles of earth from Israel in his yard, he may have been under suspicion of being a traitor to Aram.
13. So he said, “Go and find out where he is, so I can send and seize him.” And it was reported to him, “There [he is] in Dothan!”
Dothan is where Yoseyf was told his brothers were when he, too, was searching for them. (Gen. 37:17) That is the only other place Dothan is mentioned in Scripture. So is this suggesting that Elisha is the Aramean king’s brother in some way? Lavan, Yaaqov’s uncle, was from Aram; could he have been a descendant of this kinsman of Israel’s? In any case, Dothan was located in Menashe’s territory west of the Yarden, on the western slopes of the great mountain range of Israel, near where it bends westward into Mt. Gilboa, and as it makes the transition into foothills. It is 18 miles from the Yarden River, showing that Elisha did not, after all, accept the invitation from his one student to come live there among them. We only have evidence below of his having had one servant; it may have been the same one who invited him, then, seeing his companions were nothing in comparison to Elisha, stayed with him instead.
14. So he sent horses, chariots, and a weighty army there, and they arrived by night and encircled the city, [cutting it off].
They were not there to kill him, but to capture him so they could have such a seer at their own disposal. Since Elisha was YHWH’s representative, much as the Church has tried to do with YHWH’s covenant with Israel, so it could be in the favored position.
15. When the man of Elohim’s attendant got up early and went outside, lo and behold, there was an army around the city [on every side], with horses and chariots! And his young [servant] said to him, “Alas, my master! What can we do?”
16. But he said, “Don’t be afraid, because [those] who are with us are more numerous than [those] who are with them!
17. And Elisha prayed and said, “O YHWH, please open his eyes so he can see!” So YHWH opened the eyes of the young [man] and when he looked, lo and behold, the mountain range was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha!
In computer terminology, Chuck Missler describes this as Elisha pressing the “reveal codes” or “reveal formatting” key so that what was behind the scenes but not usually needing to be seen now showed up! Of course, this gave him more confidence. But the same holds true for us if we are where YHWH wants us to be. Even the stars in the sky turned out to be Y’hoshua’s and Baraq’s allies when they needed help. (Y’hoshua 10:12ff; Judges 5:20)
18. And they came down to him, and Elisha prayed to YHWH and said, “Please strike this people with [instant] blindness!” So He struck them with blindness, in agreement with Elisha’s word.
This is precisely the opposite of the advantage He gave to Elisha’s servant. Like David, he prays that his enemies’ eyes be darkened. (Psalm 69) The Christian game plan has been to convert enough enemies into friends so that there will eventually be a critical mass behind Y’shua so he can finally rule the world. But if YHWH instead makes those who are unrepentant completely blind, their judgment can come more swiftly than if they still have some faint connection to Him. Get them all the way into the darkness that they already prefer, and we can surround them easily and inform them of the only terms of peace.
19. Then Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; walk behind me and I will bring you to the man for whom you are searching!” And he walked them to Shomron!
Over and over Elisha evidences a strong sense of humor.
20. And what took place when they arrived [at] Shomron [was that] Elisha said, “O YHWH, open these [people]’s eyes, so that they can see!” So YHWH opened their eyes, and when they looked, lo and behold, [they were] inside Shomron!
21. And when he saw them, the king of Israel said to Elisha, “Should I attack? Should I attack, my father?”
Y’horam is beginning to show more respect for Elisha, since he has proven so clearly that he has been looking out for this king’s welfare. He is clearly awed by him, yet how fickle he turns out to be…
22. But he said, “No, you shouldn’t attack! Would you attack those whom you had taken captive with your sword or with your bow? Set bread and water before them so they may eat and drink and return to their master!”
Israel is expected to be hospitable to its prisoners of war. It is a generous Land. This was “heaping burning coals” on the heads of their enemies. HE showed that he was in control and unafraid.
23. So he prepared a big feast for them, and they ate and drank. Then he sent them away, and they went to their master, and never again did marauding bands from Aram enter the Land of Israel!
He shamed them by his mercy, showing that having great power did not mean one had to be cruel to one’s inferiors, as had been their attitude when they thought Israel was their inferior.
24. Yet it turned out that after the same, Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, assembled his whole army, and went up and began to besiege Shomron.
Did he learn nothing? Like the Arabs today, he considered Israel’s kindness to his army a sign of weakness, thinking he could use it to his advantage.
25. And there came to be great hunger in Shomron, and indeed, they besieged it until the head of a donkey came to [be sold] at 80 [sheqels of] silver and a quarter of a qav of dove droppings at five [sheqels of] silver.
They could cook with the dove droppings—or were they eating them, as they were apparently doing with the donkey’s head, kosher though it was not? If they resorted to worse things than this (verse 29), they have reached the point of eating anything that could conceivably be food. Donkeys had carried some merchandise into the city, and some merchants were probably trapped there by the siege, so they ate whatever they could find. Other animals would have still been in the field outside the city and inaccessible to the inhabitants. The besiegers would plunder them and consume their crops. Even if they had adequate stores of grain in the city, the population would swell to many times its normal size when the inhabitants of the countryside fled to the city for refuge when an enemy was coming, leaving behind their possessions because of the urgency of just surviving. Josephus says they used the dove droppings in place of salt.
26. And what took place is that when the king of Israel was passing by atop the wall, a woman cried out to him for help, saying, “Rescue [us], my master the king!”
What was the king doing on top of the wall? Wouldn’t he be an easy target for archers from the besieging army? Josephus says he was reviewing his troops to make sure none of them was betraying the city to the enemy due to the desperation of hunger.
27. But he said, “[If] YHWH doesn’t rescue, from where can I rescue? From the threshing floor or the [excavated] wine press?”
Most threshing floors and wine presses were outside the cities, but even if they were inside this city, there was nothing available to process on them.
28. But the king said to her, “What do you have?” And she said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give me your son, so we can eat him today, and tomorrow we will eat my son!’
29. “So we cooked my son and ate him, and on the other day I said to her, ‘Yield up your son, so we can eat him!’ But she has hidden her son!”
Hidden: or withdrawn. The nation has sunk to the depths predicted in Deut. 28:53 due to rejecting YHWH’s word.
30. And what took place when the king heard the woman’s words was that he tore his garments, and as he was passing by atop the wall, the people looked, and lo and behold, inside [the clothes] there was burlap on his flesh.
Tore his garments: a sign of mourning at the state of affairs things had descended to. Burlap: a symbol of deep repentance. He had been trying to buy YHWH’s favor, but unlike he king of Ninveh under Yonah, he did not repent publicly. This was not enough, so he decided that YHWH was simply not listening to his pleas:
31. And he said, “May Elohim do the same to me, and add more of the same, if the head of Elisha the son of Shafat will remain on him today!”
He knew Elisha had spared many who probably became this same army. He could have prevented this whole fiasco if he had let the king kill them. The Aramean general he had healed might even have been the one leading this siege! But Israel had brought this “famine” upon themselves. This king is walking in the ways of Izevel, and was undoubtedly hungry enough to eat Elisha after he was dead.
32. Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him when [the king] sent a man from his presence. [It was] before the messenger got to him when he said to the elders, “Do you see that this son of a murderer has sent [someone] to take away my head? Watch! As the messenger arrives, shut the door and hold onto him at the door; isn’t the sound of his master’s feet [close] behind him?”
33. While he was still speaking with them, indeed the messenger came down to him. And he said, “Indeed, this is the trouble from with YHWH; why should I expect anything more from YHWH?”
He was speaking the king’s mind. YHWH did not give him what he wanted, but the way he now puts his foot down to insist that he is the king and wants YHWH to accommodate him without any reciprocation on his part shows that he never really expected anything from YHWH after all. But he gave up too soon…
CHAPTER 7
1. So Elisha said, “Listen to the word of YHWH! This is what YHWH says: ‘About this time tomorrow, a seah of wheat will [be sold] at a sheqel, and two seahs of barley at a sheqel in the gate of Shomron!”
Compare and contrast Revelation 6:6. A seah is a third of an eyfah, a dry measure equivalent to 3 gallons or 14 liters. This is an extremely low price. In the gate: There would usually be a large open square just inside the gate complex that served as a marketplace for traveling merchants as well as those from within the city. There may have even been stalls set into the gate complex itself which served as shops.
2. But the third [officer], on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of Elohim and said, “[Even if] YHWH [were] making lattices in the sky, could this thing come about?” And he said, “Watch! You will see [it] with your eyes, but you will not eat from there!”
This third officer was probably the one sent to kill Elisha. (6:33) At least the officer agrees with his master's assessment of the situation! It did seem unbelievable, but once YHWH spoke, the king did not put it past YHWH like the officer did. Elisha replies in cryptic language to one who clearly does not have ears to hear. As soon as he gave the prophecy, the fulfillment was set in motion.
3. Now there were four men—lepers—at the entrance to the gate, and [each] man said to his fellow, “What are we sitting here until we die [for]?
The gate of a city was not just a simple set of doors, but a complex of passageways and side-rooms which included customs-houses, judgment halls, and additional defenses to repel an attack. During a siege, the lepers would not be cared for in any way, and they were not permitted back into the city without clearance from a priest. (Lev. 14) And no one was coming out from the city to feed them now, as they normally would. With no priests to declare them unclean and authorize their quarantine, it might have been Elisha who had filled that role as he had often done in recent accounts.
4. “If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city’, the famine is in the city, and we will die there, and if we sit here, we will die. So now, let’s go and fall into the camp of the Arameans; if they let us live, we will survive, and if they kill us, we would have died [anyway].”
Either way, they would be no worse off, and an execution would be an easier death than starvation. Could these lepers have been Gehazi and his sons, thinking they might find Naaman himself again and hope he remembered him? Until Elisha spoke, the whole northern Kingdom had been experiencing a “famine of the word of YHWH.” (Amos 8:11)
5. So they rose up at twilight to come into the Aramean camp, and, lo and behold, there was not a man [there]!
6. (Now YHWH had caused the Aramean army to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horses—the sound of a huge army, and they said to one another, “Look! The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to come against us!”)
YHWH might have caused “sound effects” with the wind or the noise from another battle in the region might have been echoing through the deep valleys nearby. Or did they hear, but not see, the same armies Elisha asked YHWH to show to his servant? (6:17) It was a case of a bully being frightened off by a still bigger bully. The Hittites were based in what is now Turkey, and they were known for little else than their small but extremely sturdy warriors. J.G. Macqueen writes that they were feared by most of their contemporaries “because of the mayhem wrought by their ferocious charioteers during the mid-second millennium iron age.” They were among the first to use iron. Each chariot held three men: a driver and two warriors. The chariots had quivers mounted right on them for the archers, but Hittites fought from chariots with short curved swords and battleaxes as well. The terror from their initial showers of arrows was often enough to bring them victory at their first charge. They would concentrate their force on one point on the enemy’s line and rush it, and this was often all the battle they needed to wage. The height of their empire had already passed, as with the Egyptians, but since the Assyrians had not yet risen to prominence, these two armies still remained the strongest in the region.
7. So they got up and fled in the twilight, and abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys, [leaving] the camp as it [was], and ran for their lives.
Why did they not take their horses, which would have given them a faster escape? This would make a lot more noise, and expose their location more easily. These were chariot horses, too, and might not have been used to riders. It would have taken too long to hitch up their chariots, and they also did not have headlights for traveling at night! The presence of the horses remaining in the camp also made it less obvious that the soldiers had left. And Shomron needed some donkeys replaced anyway! (6:25)
8. When these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they entered one tent, and started eating and drinking, and took from there silver and gold and [outer] garments, and went and [secretly] hid them. Then they went back and entered another tent and took [more things] from there and went and hid them.
How ironic that these people who could not come into the city to spend money should “hit the jackpot”! The best they could do was send it back to their children in the city, or sell to passing caravans, but they themselves did not even have the occasion to wear these garments in public!
9. But then each [of them] said to his fellow, “We’re not doing the right thing today! It’s a day of glad news, and we’re keeping quiet. If we wait for the morning light, then [the consequences for our] crookedness will find us. So let’s go now and go in and report [it to] the king’s household!”
Glad news: based on the word for fresh meat—i.e., a source of food, which in this context is very fitting. People who are starving are naturally selfish, but now that they had eaten their fill, their heads began to clear and they realized that there would be trouble if they kept this to themselves. Some people in the city might be so close to starvation that they would die before the morning if the lepers delayed, and they would at least hold themselves responsible for these deaths. Or some of the professional soldiers who had fled might straggle back after realizing the Hittites had not come after all, and find their camp being pillaged by a mere four men, and would not be inclined to treat them kindly. Expediency is the key to defusing guilt. If we do not deal with it right away, it tells the one we wronged that our heart is not really in the repentance, and it becomes less and less important to us; we tend to hope it will blow over and the recipient of the snub will forget about it. But in fact, if we let it fester, anger and distrust will ensue.
10. So they came and called to the keeper of the city gate, and reported [it] to them, saying, “We entered the Aramean camp, and, lo and behold, there is not a man there—not [even] a human voice, but [only] horses tied and donkeys tied, and tents [left] as they [were]!”
Lest we assume they were outside the city as a punishment, in a time when Torah-keeping had fallen somewhat out of fashion, these men had willingly submitted to the proper order; they were only outside the gate because they had agreed to be. One who suspects himself of having leprosy is responsible to present himself to the priest; there is no evidence that he would experience much more than a skin irritation if he hid it. If these men did not like the rules, they could have left long ago, so they are people who are at least concerned about being in the right position. The fact that they checked themselves before having to be rebuked by someone else was a first step to their being cleansed, for they were beginning to think less selfishly. They might well have been tempted to load up this loot on the horses, go off to some country that had no such laws, and start a new, wealthy life somewhere where they would not be outcasts. They could have just said, “Everyone in the city is probably dead anyway; why bother?” But they overcame that, and became the real heroes in this story. After all, deliverance could not have come to the city if there had not been people outside it who were keeping Torah. Even if they had just tried to sell the food inside the city, had they not gone through the proper authorities, it would have become a free-for-all and many people would have probably met the end designated only for the skeptical officer of the king.
11. Then he called to the [other] gatekeepers, and they reported [it] to the household of the king inside.
12. So the king got up at night, and said to his servants, “Just let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are famished, so they have gone out from the camp to [stay] hidden in the field, saying, ‘When they come out from the city, we will seize them alive, and into the city we will come!’”
When: literally, because. It is generally wise for someone in his position to be skeptical and expect such tricks from an enemy. It was his job as king to anticipate such a tactic. But this was not the only way to interpret the data, and his servants saw at least the possibility of ending the famine:
13. But one of his servants responded by saying, “But please let [some men] take five of the remaining horses that have been spared in her. Look, they are just like the whole [noisy, confused] crowd of Israelites who remain in her. Indeed, they are just like the whole crowd of Israelites who have been finished off! So let us send [someone] and have a look!”
What did they have to lose? It appeared they were going to die anyway, but if this story was indeed true, there might be hope of saving some who were on the brink of starvation.
14. So they brought two chariot-team horses, and the king sent [them] behind the Aramean camp, saying, “Go and see.”
Behind the camp: i.e., after the army. There were not necessarily chariots with them at this time, just horses strong enough to pull chariots.
15. So they went after them as far as the Yarden, and indeed [their] whole path was full of garments and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their [alarmed] rush. So the messengers came back and told the king,
The Yarden is about 20 miles away from Shomron, on the other side of the mountainous region. Even their weapons were considered too much of an impediment to a quick escape.
16. and the people went out and started plundering the Aramean camp, and it did turn out to be “a seah of wheat [sold] at a sheqel, and two seahs of barley at a sheqel”, just as YHWH had said.
What Elisha said was counted as what YHWH said. Men valued wheat at twice as highly as barley, as it can be ground more finely and make softer bread. But barley is more nutritious, and YHWH bases His festival calendar on the readiness of the barley harvest. Israel itself is symbolized by or associated with barley on several occasions. (Judges 7:13; Ruth 3:17; Hoshea 3:2; Yochanan 6:9)
17. And the king stationed the third [officer] on whose hand he leaned over the gate, and the people trampled him down in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of Elohim, who made a pronouncement when the king had come down to him, had said.
Stationed: or, appointed-- to control the flood of people who would be rushing out all at the same time. The fact that the grain was sold rather than shared with their fellow citizens could mean that the king had taken authority over all that was plundered from the camp, essentially confiscating it all so he could have revenue, or that despite the restricted flow, there are always inevitably some who get to the spoils more quickly than the rest or know where to look for the better quality and larger quantity, and as entrepreneurs, find whatever market there might be. People were selling even the most unlikely items as food (6:25) even in the midst of the siege, so at least those who sold it had money to spend now.
18. Thus it was, that, according to the word of the man of Elohim to the king, which said, “Two seahs of barley will be [sold] at a sheqel and a seah of wheat at a sheqel [by] about this time tomorrow at the gate of Shomron.”
19. And the third officer had responded to the man of Elohim by saying, ““Even [if] YHWH [were] making lattices in the sky, could a thing like this come about?” And he said, “Watch! You will see [it] with your eyes, but you will not eat from there!”
YHWH had mercy on the common people despite the king’s inconsistency, since even the king had felt the weight of the fact that someone had become so desperate as to eat her own son. But He remembered this particular man’s response, and rewarded him accordingly. This man could not even wait to see if Elisha was wrong before harassing him. If he had simply kept silent about his doubts, and waited to see whether such an unbelievable thing could come to pass, Elisha would not have cursed him, and he would have shared in the spoils. But Elisha was not a person with which one could be “smart-mouthed”. This officer’s own mouth is what killed him.
20. And it turned out just that way for him when the people trampled him down in the gate and he died.
This particular scribe normally preferred brevity. That he repeated this point several times emphasizes the fact that he does not want us to miss it.
INTRODUCTION:
This book begins in the mid-9th century B.C.E. at the end of the northern King Akhazyah's life, where the first book of Kings left off, and continues all the way until the southern kingdom of Yehudah was carried away into captivity in Babylon in 586 B.C.E.
THE SECOND BOOK
OF THE
Kings
7:3-20 is a haftarah (companion passage) to Torah portion M'tzora'.
4:42-5:19 is a haftarah (companion passage) to Torah portion Thazria.
4:1-37 is a haftarah (companion passage) to Torah portion VaYera'.
