Bible Commentaries

Elisha's Influence Helps the Shunammite to the Possession of her Houseand Field. - 2 Kings 8:1, 2 Kings 8:2. By the advice of Elisha, the woman whose son theprophet had restored to life (2 Kings 4:33) had gone with her family intothe land of the Philistines during a seven years' famine, and had remainedthere seven years. The two verses are rendered by most commentators inthe pluperfect, and that with perfect correctness, for they arecircumstantial clauses, and ותּקם is merely a continuation of דּבּר, the two together preparing the way for, and introducing the following event. The object is not to relate a prophecy of Elisha of the seven years' famine, but what afterwards occurred, namely, how king Joram was induced by the account of Elisha's miraculous works to have the property of the Shunammite restored to her upon her application. The seven years' famine occurred in the middle of Joram's reign, and the event related here took place before the curing of Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5), as is evident from the fact that Gehazi talked with the king (2 Kings 8:4), and therefore had not yet been punished with leprosy. But it cannot have originally stood between 2 Kings 4:37 and 2 Kings 4:38, as Thenius supposes, because the incidents related in 2 Kings 4:38-44 belong to the time of this famine (cf. 2 Kings 4:38), and therefore precede the occurrence mentioned here. By the words, “the Lord called the famine, and it came seven years” (sc., lasting that time), the famine is described as a divine judgment for the idolatry of the nation.

When the woman returned to her home at the end of the seven years, shewent to the king to cry, i.e., to invoke his help, with regard to her houseand her field, of which, as is evident from the context, another had takenpossession during her absence.

And just at that time the king was asking Gehazi to relate to him the greatthings that Elisha had done; and among these he was giving an account ofthe restoration of the Shunammite's son to life.

While he was relating this, the woman herself came into invoke the help ofthe king to recover her property, and was pointed out to the king byGehazi as the very woman of whom he was speaking, which caused theking to be so interested in her favour, that after hearing her complaint hesent a chamberlain with her (saris as in 1 Kings 22:9), with instructions toprocure for her not only the whole of her property, but the produce of theland during her absence. - For עזבה without mappiq, see Ewald,§247, d.

Elisha Predicts to Hazael at Damascus the Possession of the Throne. - 2 Kings 8:7. Elisha then came to Damascus at the instigation of the Spirit of God,to carry out the commission which Elijah had received at Horeb withregard to Hazael (1 Kings 19:15). Benhadad king of Syria was sick at thattime, and when Elisha's arrival was announced to him, sent Hazael with aconsiderable present to the man of God, to inquire of Jehovah through himconcerning his illness. The form of the name חזהאל (here and2 Kings 8:15) is etymologically correct; but afterwards it is always writtenwithout.ה דם וכל־טוּב (“and that all kinds of good of Damascus”)follows with a more precise description of the minchah- “a burden of fortycamels.” The present consisted of produce or wares of the rich commercialcity of Damascus, and was no doubt very considerable; at the same time, itwas not so large that forty camels were required to carry it. The affairmust be judged according to the Oriental custom, of making a granddisplay with the sending of presents, and employing as many men orbeasts of burden as possible to carry them, every one carrying only asingle article (cf. Harmar, Beobb. ii. p. 29, iii. p. 43, and Rosenmüller, A. u. N. Morgenl. iii. p. 17).

According to the Chethîbחיה לא, Elisha's answer was,“Thou wilt not live, and (for) Jehovah has shown me that he will die;”according to the Keriחיה לו, “tell him: Thou wilt live,but Jehovah,” etc. Most of the commentators follow the ancient versions,and the Masoretes, who reckon our לא among the fifteen passagesof the O.T. in which it stands for the pronoun לו (vid., HilleriArcan. Keri, p. 62f.), and some of the codices, and decide in favour of theKeri. (1) because the conjecture that לו was altered into לא in order that Elisha might not be made to utter an untruth, is a very naturalone; and (2) on account of the extreme rarity with which a negative standsbefore the inf. abs. with the finite verb following. But there is not muchforce in either argument. The rarity of the position of לא before the inf. abs. followed by afinite verb, in connection with the omission of the pronoun לו after אמר, might be the very reason why לא was taken as apronoun; and the confirmation of this opinion might be found in the factthat Hazael brought back this answer to the king: “Thou wilt live” (2 Kings 8:14). The reading in the text לא (non) is favoured by the circumstancethat it is the more difficult of the two, partly because of the unusualposition of the negative, and partly because of the contradiction to 2 Kings 8:14. But the לא is found in the same position in other passages (Genesis 3:4; Psalm 49:8, and Amos 9:8), where the emphasis lies upon the negation; andthe contradiction to 2 Kings 8:14 may be explained very simply, from the fact thatHazael did not tell his king the truth, because he wanted to put him todeath and usurp the throne. We therefore prefer the reading in the text,since it is not in harmony with the character of the prophets to utter anuntruth; and the explanation, “thou wilt not die of thine illness, but cometo a violent death,” puts into the words a meaning which they do notpossess. For even if Benhadad did not die of his illness, he did not recover from it.

Elisha then fixed Hazael for a long time with his eye, and wept. וגו ויּעמד literally, he made his face stand fast, and directed it(upon Hazael) to shaming. עד־בּשׁ as in Judges 3:25; not in a shamelessmanner (Thenius), but till Hazael was embarrassed by it.

When Hazael asked him the cause of his weeping, Elisha replied: “I knowthe evil which thou wilt do to the sons of Israel: their fortresses wilt thouset on fire (בּאשׁ שׁלּח, see at Judges 1:8), their youthswilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children to pieces, andcut asunder their women with child” (בּקּע, split, cut open thewomb). This cruel conduct towards Israel which is here predicted ofHazael, was only a special elaboration of the brief statement made by theLord to Elijah concerning Hazael (1 Kings 19:17). The fulfilment of thisprediction is indicated generally in 2 Kings 10:32-33, and 2 Kings 13:3.; and wemay infer with certainty from Hosea 10:14 and Hosea 14:1, that Hazael reallypractised the cruelties mentioned.

But when Hazael replied in feigned humility, What is thy servant, the dog (i.e., so base a fellow: for כּלב see at 1 Samuel 24:15), that he should do such great things? Elisha said to him, “Jehovah has shown thee to me as king over Aram;” whereupon Hazael returned to his lord, brought him the pretended answer of Elisha that he would live (recover), and the next day suffocated him with a cloth dipped in water. מכבּר, from כּבר, to plait or twist, literally, anything twisted; not, however, a net for gnats or flies (Joseph., J. D. Mich., etc.), but a twisted thick cloth, which when dipped in water became so thick, that when it was spread over the face of the sick man it was sufficient to suffocate him.

Reign of Joram of Judah (cf. 2 Chron 21:2-20). - Joram became king in thefifth year of Joram of Israel, while Jehoshaphat his father was (still) king,the latter handing over the government to him two years before his death(see at 2 Kings 1:17), and reigned eight years, namely, two years to thedeath of Jehoshaphat and six years afterwards.

(Note: The words יהוּדה מלך ויהושׁפט have been improperly omitted by the Arabic and Syriac, and by Luther, Dathe, and De Wette from their translations; whilst Schulz, Maurer, Thenius, and others pronounce it a gloss. The genuineness of the words is attested by the lxx (the Edit. Complut. being alone in omitting them) and by the Chaldee: and the rejection of them is just as arbitrary as the interpolation of מת, which is proposed by Kimchi and Ewald (“when Jehoshaphat was dead”). Compare J. Meyer, annotatt. ad Seder Olam, p. 916f.)

The Chethîbשׁנה שׁמנה is not to be altered, sincethe rule that the numbers two to ten take the noun in the plural is notwithout exception (cf. Ewald, §287, i.).

Joram had married a daughter of Ahab, namely Athaliah (2 Kings 8:26), andwalked in the ways of the house of Ahab, transplanting the worship ofBaal into his kingdom. Immediately after the death of Jehoshaphat hemurdered his brothers, apparently with no other object than to obtainpossession of the treasures which his father had left them (2 Chronicles 21:2-4). This wickedness of Joram would have been followed by thedestruction of Judah, had not the Lord preserved a shoot to the royalhouse for David's sake. For ניר לו לתת see1 Kings 11:36. The following word לבניו serves as anexplanation of ניר לו, “a light with regard to his sons,”i.e., by the fact that he kept sons (descendants) upon the throne.

sa40

Nevertheless the divine chastisement was not omitted. The ungodliness ofJoram was punished partly by the revolt of the Edomites and of the cityof Libnah from his rule, and partly by a horrible sickness of which he died(2 Chronicles 21:12-15). Edom, which had hitherto had only a vicegerent withthe title of king (see 2 Kings 3:9 and 1 Kings 22:48), threw off theauthority of Judah, and appointed its own king, under whom it acquiredindependence, as the attempt of Joram to bring it back again under hiscontrol completely failed. The account of this attempt in 2 Kings 8:21 and 2 Chronicles 21:9 is very obscure. “Joram went over to Zair, and all his chariotsof war with him; and it came to pass that he rose up by night and smotethe Edomites round about, and indeed the captains of the war-chariots, andthe people fled (i.e., the Judaean men of war, not the Edomites) to theirtents.” It is evident from this, that Joram had advanced to Zair in Idumaea;but there he appears to have been surrounded and shut in, so that in thenight he fought his way through, and had reason to be glad that he hadescaped utter destruction, since his army fled to their homes. צעירה is an unknown place in Idumaea, which Movers, Hitzig, and Ewaldtake to be Zoar, but without considering that Zoar was in the land ofMoab, not in Edom. The Chronicles have instead שׂריו עם, “with his captains,” from a mere conjecture; whilst Thenius regards צעירה as altered by mistake from שׂעירה (“to Seir”), which is very improbable in the case of so well-known a name as שׂעיר. הסּביב is a later mode of writing for הסּובב, probably occasioned by the frequently occurring word סביב. “To this day,” i.e., to the time when the original sources of our books were composed. For the Edomites were subjugated again by Amaziah and Uzziah (2 Kings 14:7 and 2 Kings 14:22), though under Ahaz they made incursions into Judah again (2 Chronicles 28:17). - At that time Libnah also revolted. This was a royal city of the early Canaanites, and at a later period it was still a considerable fortress (2 Kings 19:8). It is probably to be sought for in the ruins of Arak el Menshiyeh, two hours to the west of Beit-Jibrin (see the Comm. on Joshua 10:29). This city probably revolted from Judah on the occurrence of an invasion of the land by the Philistines, when the sons of Joram were carried off, with the exception of the youngest, Jehoahaz (Ahaziah: 2 Chronicles 21:16-17).

According to 2 Chronicles 21:18., Joram died of a terrible disease, in whichhis bowels fell out, and was buried in the city of David, though not in thefamily sepulchre of the kings.

(Note: “The building of Carthage, Dido, her husband Sichaeus, her brother Pygmalion king of Tyre (scelere ante alios immanior omnes), all coincide with the reign of Joram. This synchronism of the history of Tyre is not without significance here. The Tyrian, Israelitish, and Judaean histories are closely connected at this time. Jezebel, a Tyrian princess, was Ahab's wife, and again her daughter Athaliah was the wife of Joram, and after his death the murderess of the heirs of the kingdom, and sole occupant of the throne. Tyre, through these marriages, introduced its own spirit and great calamity into both the Israelitish kingdoms.”- J. D. Michaelis on 2 Kings 8:24.)

Reign of Ahaziah of Judah (cf. 2 Chronicles 22:1-6). - Ahaziah, the youngestson of Joram, ascended the throne in the twenty-second year of his age. The statement in 2 Chronicles 22:2, that he was forty-two years old when hebecame king, rests upon a copyist's error, namely, a confusion of כ twentywith מ forty. Now, since his father became king at the age of thirty-two,and reigned eight years, Ahaziah must have been born in the nineteenthyear of his age. Consequently it may appear strange that Ahaziah hadbrothers still older than himself (2 Chronicles 21:17); but as early marriages arecommon in the East, and the royal princes had generally concubines alongwith their wife of the first rank, as is expressly stated of Joram in 2 Chronicles 21:17, he might have had some sons in his nineteenth year. His motherwas called Athaliah, and was a daughter of the idolatrous Jezebel. In 2 Kings 8:26 and 2 Chronicles 22:2 she is called the daughter, i.e., grand-daughter, of Omri;for, according to 2 Kings 8:18, she was a daughter of Ahab. Omri, the grand-father,is mentioned in 2 Kings 8:26 as the founder of the dynasty which brought somuch trouble upon Israel and Judah through its idolatry.

Ahaziah, like his father, reigned in the spirit of Ahab, because he allowedhis mother to act as his adviser (2 Chronicles 22:3-4).

Ahaziah went with Joram of Israel, his mother's brother, to the war withthe Syrians at Ramoth. The contest for this city, which had already costAhab his life (1 Kings), was to furnish the occasion, according to theoverruling providence of God, for the extermination of the whole of Omri'sfamily. Being wounded in the battle with the Syrians, Joram king of Israelreturned to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds. His nephew Ahaziahvisited him there, and there he met with his death at the same time as Joram at the hands of Jehu, who had conspired against Joram (see 2 Kings 9:14. and 2 Chronicles 22:7-9). Whether the war with Hazael at Ramoth was for the recapture of this city, which had been taken by the Syrians, or simply for holding it against the Syrians, it is impossible to determine. All that we can gather from 2 Kings 9:14 is, that at that time Ramoth was in the possession of the Israelites, whether it had come into their possession again after the disgraceful rout of the Syrians before Samaria (2 Kings 7), or whether, perhaps, it was not recovered till this war. For ארמּים without the article see Ewald, §277, c.

2 Kings 8:29

בּרמה = בּלעד בּרמת, 2 Kings 8:28; see at 1 Kings 22:4.