Bible Commentaries

2 Kings 6:1-23

1. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell [where we sit before thee] with thee is too strait for us [their numbers had increased (comp. 2 Kings 4:43)].

2. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam [the Jordan valley was well-wooded], and let us make a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

3. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants [to superintend; to help in case of difficulty]. And he answered, I will go.

4. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood [timber].

5. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell 2 Chronicles 20:21] with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp [or, encamping].

9. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass [pass over, across, or through] not such a [this] place: for thither [there] the Syrians are come [coming] down.

10. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned [ Ezekiel 3:19; 2 Chronicles 19:10] him of, and saved himself [was wary; on his guard] there, not once nor twice.

11. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled [literally, storm-tost] for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

12. And one of his servants said, None [Nay], my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel [all] the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber.

13. And he said, Go and spy where he is that I may send and fetch [take] him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

14. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host [of infantry; not an army, but a company]: and they came by night [so as to surprise], and compassed the city about.

15. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early [comp, for the Hebrew construction, Psalm 127:2; Isaiah 5:11; Hosea 6:4], and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16. And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them [comp. Numbers 14:9; Psalm 3:6].

17. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw [just as Elisha's had been opened ( 2 Kings 2:10, 2 Kings 2:12). (Comp. also Numbers 22:31)], and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire [literally, horses and chariots, to wit, fire ( Genesis 15:17; Exodus 3:2, Exodus 13:21, seq, Exodus 19:16, seq.; Isaiah 29:6, Isaiah 30:30, Isaiah 30:33, Isaiah 33:14)] round about Elisha.

18. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed [mentally, as he approached his foes] unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness [a dazing effect, with mental bewilderment]. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

19. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring [lead] you to the man whom ye seek [an irony]. But he led [guided] them to Samaria.

20. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

21. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father [comp. 2 Kings 2:12, 2 Kings 8:9 ("Thy son Benhadad"), 2 Kings 13:14], shall I smite them? shall I smite them [or, May I smite, may I smite, my father? How eager was the king to slay his powerless enemies! He asks the prophet's permission (comp. 2 Kings 4:7)].

22. And he answered, Thou shalt [or, must] not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.

23. And he [the king of Israel] prepared great provision [a great feast] for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

Elisha and the Young Prophets

We see in the opening of this chapter some of the simple and happy relations which existed between the elder and the younger prophets. Is it not possible to revive some of these relations? Look at the case: "And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us" ( 2 Kings 6:1). Put into modern language the statement amounts to this: "Our college is getting too small, we want more room; let us, therefore, consider this practical question, and see what can be done." Elisha did not live with the young men. That, perhaps, was rather a happy than an unhappy circumstance, though a very beautiful picture could be drawn concerning domestic collegiate life. A college or a school with the teachers and students all living together must, one would surely say, be a little heaven upon earth. What can be, ideally, more perfect than the old prophet surrounded by all the younger prophets, eating and living together, having a common room, and a common hostelry, or a common home? What can be, imaginatively, more taking, more pathetic and satisfactory? Without pronouncing a judgment upon that inquiry, it is enough to be so far just to the text as to say that Elisha did not adopt that system of collegiate life. He went round about from place to place; he visited the schools of the prophets in the various localities; and now, when he came to this place, the young men said: "We have not room enough; we must consider our circumstances, and endeavour to enlarge our accommodation."

What did they propose? It is well now and again to hear what young men have to suggest. It is useful to listen to young politicians in national crises, that we may hear how they would treat the patient. It is desirable that young voices should mingle with old voices in the common council. Now it is the turn of the young men to speak. What will they propose to Elisha? The answer is given in the second verse: "Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place there where we may dwell." The city was not situated exactly upon the Jordan, but upon a stream a little way from it, which flowed directly into that great river; and now the young men proposed to get a little nearer to the main stream, for the district of it was called The Valley of Palms. Palestine was notably destitute of trees, but in this particular locality timber was to be got. So the young men made the proposition to Elisha. What does the proposition amount to? It amounts to something which in this day might horrify a good many of the successors of Elisha. The young men said: "Let us go and cut down our own timber, and enlarge our college with our own hands." Did they propose that the question should be "reported upon"—that it should be brought under the attention first of the general committee, then be referred to a sub-committee being bound to report to the general committee, and the general committee being unable to attend, or to constitute a quorum, and so go on to forget the whole business? The young men said: "We want room: let us make it; we want a larger college: let us build it." Why not adopt the same principle today? There is nothing so easy as to send round an appeal for a contribution and never get any reply to it. We, wanting to be missionaries, should go by the next boat; wanting to preach the gospel to the heathen, we should say: "When does the ship start?" and being unable to pay the fare, we should work our passage. And when people ask us what we are doing, and whether we have lost our senses, we should say: "Yes; if we be beside ourselves, it is unto God." Then an impression might be made upon those who look on. They would say; "Surely these men are in earnest; be they right, or be they wrong: be they fanatical or sober-minded, their earnestness burns in them like a fire, and such men can neither be put back nor kept down." Without wishing, however, to modernise the details of this incident, which, owing to our civilisation, would be impossible, it is enough to remember that, in the early days of collegiate and school life, the scholars were prepared to do something towards helping themselves. They did not send for builders from Jerusalem, or even from the city of Jericho; they undertook the work at their own impulse and at their own charges. There is a line of beauty even in the proposition of the young men. They desired Elisha's permission. They said in effect, "Father, may we go?" They were enthusiastic, but they were under discipline; they had fire enough, but they responded to the touch of the master; they were ready, not only to go, but to run, and yet they would not stir a foot until Elisha said, "Go ye." What then did they do? "And one said [to Elisha], Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants" ( 2 Kings 6:3). They were stronger when the elder man was with them. Sometimes the eye is the best master. It often happens that the man who is standing in the harvest field resting upon his rake, a picture of dignity and ease, is doing more than if he were sweltering himself by cutting down corn with his own sickle: his eye is doing the work, his presence is exerting an immeasurable and happy influence upon the whole field. Elisha was not asked to go and fell the timber, but to be with the young men whilst they did the hard work; and, becoming young again himself, as old men do become young when associated with young life, he instantly said: "I will go: the work is a common work; it belongs to me as well as to you; it belongs to all Israel, in so far as all Israel is true to the living God; come, let us go in one band: union is strength." Now they went, the old and the young together. Why would they not go alone? Perhaps they were reminded of what happened when once they did go alone. Elisha ordered that food should be prepared, and when the seething pot was on, one of the young men went out and gathered something and threw it into the pot, and nearly poisoned the whole college. What wonder if some of them, remembering this, said: "No more going out alone, if you please; we once took the case into our own hands, and do you not remember how many of us fell sick, and how we cried to Elisha, "Master, father, there is death in the pot!" and how he kindly took a handful of meal, sprinkled it into the vessel, and restored its healthfulness? The pot was relieved of all the disease which it contained, and the meal happily proceeded." We should remember our blunders, and learn from them. We are always safer in the company of the old and wise than when we are in our own society. Happy is the man who takes counsel with his elder neighbours, and who can sometimes renounce himself and say to wise men: "Such and such are my circumstances; now, what would you advise me to do?"

Elisha and the young men have now gone down to the Jordan. Elisha felled no tree; but he did his own particular kind of work. What that particular kind of work was will further appear as the narrative proceeds.

The Syrian king could not rest. In his heart he hated or feared the king and the hosts of Israel. There was chronic war between Israel and Syria. The king of Syria said: "I will fix my camp in such and such a place;" and the ninth verse thus reads: "And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down." There is a ministry of warning. Men may not go themselves to battle, and yet they may be controlling the fortunes of war. We need statesmen, spiritual interpreters, religious teachers, men of thought and men of prayer; and they may be doing more practical work than is being done by those who are engaged in the physical work of leading armies and commanding military hosts. This is what Elisha did. He felled no tree; he wielded no sword; and yet, alike in the building of the college and in the direction of the war, his was the supreme mind. The prophet saved the king. This must always be the case. The great man of the nation is the man who can think most profoundly and most comprehensively. The architect is a greater man than the builder. The prophet is a greater man than the king. He reads more; he sees further; he grasps a larger field. He is master of metaphysical principles: and metaphysical principles alone endure: they wear the clothes of the present time; they adopt the form of the passing generation, but they go on from age to age, themselves always the same, their adaptations being addressed to the immediate necessities of the people. We have been told that "justice is not an intermittent apparition." That is perfectly true in one sense; but justice is often a deferred creditor, and sometimes that may be done tomorrow which cannot be justly done today. The prophet sees all this; he looks ahead; he has a larger horizon than is accessible to the vision of other men. So let it stand, an eternal lesson, that the greatest men in any nation are the men who can think most, pray best, feel most deeply, and penetrate the metaphysics and the inmost reality of politics and of civilisation.

Spiritual power is not only useful in one direction; it is alarming in another. When the king of Syria felt himself baffled, all his plans thrown into uncontrollable bewilderment, his heart was sore troubled. It is the Immeasurable that frightens men. It is the Unknown Quantity that troubles all their calculations, and gives them to feel that after they have completed their arithmetic their conclusion is a lie. What was in the air? Whose was this ghostly presence that was upsetting Benhadad's well-laid schemes? What was it, or who, that always went before him, and that made his proposals abortive, and turned all his policies into mocking nothings? Had there been any man who was visible and measurable, that man could have been dealt with. There is always a quantity equal to any quantity that is known. What is wanting in one way can be made up in another; as, for example, what is wanting in number may be made up in quality. As one great leader said in ancient history, when his soldiers were saying they were too few for the battle, "How many do you count me for?" That touched the fire of the army, and inspired the soldiers with confidence. But when the element that troubles the heart is not visible, not measurable, when it is here, there, round about, above, below, spectral, something in the wind, then even Benhadad, with his footmen and horsemen and chariots, cannot come at the awful thing. It is a presence without a shape, an influence without a magnitude. Now, this spectral ministry has never been wanting in human history. There is always something which even statesmen cannot calculate upon. There is not only a spirit in 2 Kings 6:24-33

24. And it came to pass after [afterwards] this, that Benhadad [Ben-hahad11 , who had besieged Samaria in the reign of Ahab ( 1 Kings 20:1.)], king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

25. And there was [there arose: in consequence of the siege] a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they beseiged [were besieging] it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces [eighty shekels = about 10. Ass's flesh would not be ordinarily eaten, and the head would be the cheapest part. When Hannibal besieged Casalinum, Pliny states that a mouse was sold for200 denarii (65s.)], of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung [probably denotes some kind of common vegetable produce] for five pieces of silver [five shekels in silver = about12s6d.].

26. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

27. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor [Jehovah alone is the giver of corn and wine (comp. Hosea 9:2; Hosea 2:8-9)] or out of the winepress?

28. And the king said [compare these facts with Deuteronomy 28:56, seq.; 1 Samuel 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10] unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy 1 Kings 3:26)].

30. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes: and he passed [now he was passing] by upon the wall, and the people looked [saw], and, behold, he had sackcloth [the sackcloth was. "The sackcloth," i.e, the garb of penitence and woe ( 1 Kings 21:27)], within upon his flesh [comp. Isaiah 20:2-3].

31. Then he [the king] said, God do so and more also to me [literally, so may God do to me, and so may he add (comp. Ruth 1:17; 1 Samuel 3:17; 1 Kings 2:23)], if the head of Elisha [the king's horror is succeeded by indignation (comp. with the oath, 1 Kings 19:2)] the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

32. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man [to behead the prophet] from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders [Elisha foreknew what was about to happen (comp. chap. 2 Kings 5:26)], See ye how this son of a murderer [referring to Ahab's murder of Naboth ( 1 Kings 21:19)] hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door [literally, press him back with the door]; is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

33. And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came [was coming] down unto him: and he [the king] said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?