Bible Commentaries

D.—The Influence of Elisha with the King, and his Residence at Samaria

2 Kings 8:1-15

1Then spake [Now] Elisha [had spoken] unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for [up] a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years 2 And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years 3 And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land 4 And the king talked [was just then talking] with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done 5 And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life 6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left¹ the land, even until now.

7And Elisha came to Damascus: and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither 8 And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 9So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of [and—omit even of] every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy Song of Solomon, Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 10And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto [tell] him [then], Thou mayst [shalt²] certainly recover [live]: howbeit the Lord hath 11 shewed, me that he shall surely die. And he [Elisha] settled his countenance [, and gazed] steadfastly [at him], until he was ashamed [became confused]: and the man of God wept 12 And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children [in pieces], and rip up their women with child 13 And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, [What is then³ thy servant, the dog,] that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be [let me see thee] king over Syria 14 So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me [:] that [omit that] Thou shouldest [shalt] surely recover [live]. 15And it came to pass on the morrow, that he [Hazael] took a thick cloth [the blanket], and dipped it in [the] water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2 Kings 8:1. Then spake Elisha, &c, or, as it should read, Elisha had spoken; for what is told in 2 Kings 8:2 took place long before the incident which is narrated in the 3 d and following verses, and forms only the necessary introduction. The famine of four years’ duration is doubtless the same which is mentioned 2 Kings 4:38. The years in which it falls among the twelve of Jehoram, it is impossible to fix. The advice which the prophet gave the woman to go into a foreign land, must have been founded upon peculiar grounds, since she did not belong to the poorer classes ( 2 Kings 8:6 and 2 Kings 4:8 sq.). Perhaps she had become a widow, as some suppose, and had lost, in her husband, her chief reliance in a time of distress. She chose the land of the Philistines as her residence, probably because it was near, and because the plains on the sea-coast did not suffer so much from scarcity as the mountainous country of Israel (Thenius). On her return, the woman found her property in the hands of strangers. We may suppose that it had been taken possession of, either by the royal treasury, as property which the owner had abandoned (Grotius, Clericus, and others), or by individuals, who had illegally established themselves in the possession of it, and who were not willing now to surrender it. She appeals, therefore, to the chief Judges, the king.

2 Kings 8:4. And the king talked with Gehazi, &c. Piscator, Sebast. Smith, Keil, and others, have felt compelled to assign this incident to a time previous to the healing of Naaman, because it is said ( 2 Kings 5:27) that Gehazi and all his posterity were, from that time on, to be lepers, but here we find the king conversing with him. In general, there is no objection to this, for it is very doubtful if the narrative of the acts of Elisha presents them to us in their chronological order (see above. p45). The principal ground for this opinion, viz, Gehazi’s leprosy, has not compulsory force, for, although lepers were obliged to remain outside the city ( 2 Kings 7:3, and the places there cited), yet it was not forbidden to talk with them ( Matthew 8:2; Luke 17:12). Naaman, the leper, was admitted to the palace of the king ( 2 Kings 8:6), and, at a later time, such persons were not excluded even from attendance in the synagogues (Winer, R-W-B. i. s. 117). Gerlach thinks that the king could the more probably meet with Gehazi, for the very reason that the latter had not been for a long time in Elisha’s service. Jarchi and some of the other rabbis declare that the four lepers ( 2 Kings 7:3) were Gehazi and his sons, but this is a purely arbitrary and unfounded notion. They were led to it probably by the desire of bringing the present incident into some connection with the preceding. Menzel also brings the story, 2 Kings 8:1-6, into connection with that in chap7. by saying: “Great fear of the prophet took possession of the king from that time on” (i.e., from the death of the scoffer— 2 Kings 7:20—which Elisha had predicted). However, if this had been the ground of his interview with Gehazi, the story would certainly have had a different introduction from that in 2 Kings 8:1-3. It is no cause for wonder that the king did not ask Elisha himself in regard to his Acts, but obtained a recital of them from Gehazi. As he had been himself a witness of so many of the prophet’s Acts, he was now curious to hear, from a reliable source, about those acts which Elisha had done quietly, in the narrow circle of his intimate associates, and in regard to which so many unreliable reports circulated among the people. To whom could he apply with more propriety for this information than to one who had formerly been the prophet’s familiar servant? Among these acts the restoration of the Shunammite’s son to life was the most important. By סרים, 2 Kings 8:6, we must understand a high officer of the court, not necessarily a eunuch (cf. 1 Kings 22:9). תְּבוּאָה can hardly mean the rent; it is rather the produce in kind, which must have been restored to her out of the royal stores.

2 Kings 8:7. And Elisha came to Damascus, &c.: not into the city of Damascus, as is often assumed, for Hazael came out with camels to meet him ( 2 Kings 8:9), so that the most it can mean is that he came into the neighborhood of the city. Perhaps the name Damascus stands for the whole province, as Samaria did. Keil, who follows the old expositors, thinks that Elisha clearly went thither “with the intention of executing the commission which had been laid upon Elisha at Horeb ( 1 Kings 19:15) to appoint Hazael to be king of Syria,” but so important an object to the journey must have been specified in some way. To pass over the objection that that commission was given to Elijah and not to Elisha, and that there is nowhere any mention of its having been transferred to the latter, we observe that the prophet does not say here ( 2 Kings 8:12): Jehovah has commanded me to anoint, or appoint, thee, Hazael, king of Syria, but: He has made me see that thou wilt be king of Syria, and that thou wilt do much evil to Israel. According to Ewald, Elisha went into voluntary exile for a time, on account of a disagreement between himself and Jehoram, who still tolerated idolatry, but the text does not say anything of this, and we are not compelled to assume anything of the kind. The prophet was already known and highly esteemed in Syria, as we see from the entire narrative, especially from 2 Kings 8:7-8. He might very well, therefore, even without any especial ground, extend the journeys, which he made in the pursuit of his prophetical calling ( 2 Kings 4:9), as far as Damascus. We may, nevertheless, suppose that it was done “by the instigation of the Spirit” (Thenius). The Revelation, of which he speaks in 2 Kings 8:10; 2 Kings 8:13, he certainly did not receive until after his arrival in Syria. It was not the occasion of his journey thither.

2 Kings 8:8. And the king said unto Hazael, &c. Josephus calls Hazael ὁ πιστότατος τῶν οἰκετῶν: perhaps he was also commander-in-chief of the army ( 2 Kings 8:12). There is a tacit request in the question of Benhadad that the prophet would obtain his restoration to health, from Jehovah, by prayer. He who wished to consult a man of God did not come with empty hands ( 1 Samuel 9:7; 1 Kings 14:3). The וְ before כָל, 2 Kings 8:9, is hardly explanatory: “and in truth” (Keil); it is rather the simple conjunctive (Thenius). The messenger had a “gift in his hand,” and besides there were all kinds of other valuable articles and products from Damascus, which were carried by forty camels. A camel-load is reckoned at from500 to800 pounds, but it would be wrong to reckon the weight of these gifts accordingly at20,000 to32,000 pounds (Dereser). “The incident is rather to be estimated by the oriental custom of giving the separate parts of a gift to as many servants, or loading them upon as many animals as possible, so as to make the grandest possible display of it. Harmar, Beobb., ii. s. 29. Rosenmüller, Morgenland, iii. s. 17.” (Keil). “Fifty persons often carry what a single one could very well carry” (Chardin, Voyage, iii. p217). Nevertheless, the gifts were very important, and we see from their value in how great esteem Elisha stood among the Syrians. If he refused to accept any gift whatsoever at the healing of Naaman ( 2 Kings 5:16), far less is it likely that he accepted these grand gifts in this case, where he had to bewail the misfortunes of his country ( 2 Kings 8:11-12).

2 Kings 8:10. And Elisha said unto him, &c. The keri gives לוֹ instead of לֹא after אֱמָר, and the Massoretes reckon this among the fifteen places in the Old Testament where לֹא is a pronoun, and not the negative particle. All the old translations, and some manuscripts also, present the keri. No one of the modern expositors but Keil has adopted לֹא, non; he accepts that reading as “the more difficult.” He rejects the makkeph between אמר and לא, joins לא with the following word חָיֹה, and translates: “Thou shalt not live, and (for) Jehovah hath shown me that he will die.” But וְ never means for, as it would here, if this interpretation were correct. It rather means here but, as it so often does, so that the sentence which begins with it forms a contrast to the one which precedes. This tells strongly against the chetib לֹא. A further consideration is that the infinitive before the verb (חָיֹה תִחְיֶה) always serves to strengthen the verbal idea (Gesen, Gramm., § 131, 2, a), and that, in this construction, the negative stands before the finite verb and not before the infinitive, cf. Judges 15:13 (Ew, Lehrb., § 312, b). לֹא cannot, therefore, be connected with חָיֹה. Still less can it be taken as a negative with אמר, for Hazael says, 2 Kings 8:14 : “He (the prophet) told me: ‘Thou shalt surely recover.’ ” This, therefore, was the answer of Elisha, which Hazael (suppressing the other words of the prophet) brought to the king; an answer such as the latter was eager to receive. If there is any case where the keri is to be preferred to the chetib, this is one. Nearly all the expositors, accordingly, agree in reading לוֹ, but their interpretations differ. Some translate, apparently with literalness: “Tell him:—Thou shalt recover;—but God hath shown me that he shall die,” and they suppose, accordingly, that Elisha consciously commissioned Hazael with a falsehood, either because he did not wish to terrify or sadden the king, that is, out of compassion (Theodoret, Josephus), or, because it was generally held to be allowable to deceive foreign enemies and idolaters (Grotius). Neither the one nor the other, however, is consistent with the dignity and character of the prophet, who here speaks in the name of Jehovah. It is impossible that the narrator, who only aims to advance the glory of the prophet, in all his stories about him, should have connected with his words a sense which would have made Elisha a liar. Other expositors, therefore, explain it thus: “Of thy illness thou shalt not die, it is not unto death;” but that he then added, for Hazael: “the king will lose his life in another way” (i.e., violently). Clericus (following Kimchi), J. D. Michaelis, Hess, Maurer, Von Gerlach, and others, agree in this interpretation. The form חָוֹה תִחְיֶה in the first member of the sentence, to which מוֹת יָמוּת in the second member corresponds, is a bar to this interpretation. The infinitive strengthens the verbal idea in both cases. It cannot serve with תִחְיֶה to tone down the verb (“as far as this illness is concerned, thou mayest preserve thy life”), and with יָמוּת to strengthen it. We must, therefore, translate: “Thou shalt surely live,” and: “He shall surely die.” Then the words can have no other sense than that which Vitringa has established in his thorough discussion of the verse (Observatt. Sac., i3, 16, pages716–728): Vade et dic modo (κατ’ ἐπιτροπήν) ipsi: Vivendo vives; Deus tamen mihi ostendit, illum certe moriturum esse. Song of Solomon, likewise, Thenius: “Just tell him (as thou, in thy capacity of courtier, and according to thy character, wilt surely do): ‘Thou shalt surely recover;’ yet Jehovah hath revealed to me that he shall surely die” (cf. Roos, Fuszstapfen des Glaubens Abrahams, s. 831). [This exposition of the grammatical sense of the words is undoubtedly correct, but there is room for some scruple about the interpretation. Elisha seems to encourage the courtier to flatter the king with a delusive hope. This could at best be only a sneer, or irony. A clue to a better interpretation is given above. Note that the question is: “Shall I recover of this disease?” The answer seems to be measured accurately, and strictly to fit this question: “Go, say to him: Thou shalt surely live.” That is the answer to the question asked, and the infinitive has its full force. Thus the prophet promises a recovery from the illness. At the same time he sees farther, and sees that though the illness is not fatal, other dangers threaten Benhadad. He need not declare this, and in his categorical answer to the king he does not, but in an aside he does: “Nevertheless, Jehovah hath shown me that he shall surely die,” i.e., not of the disease, but by violence.—W. G. S.] Elisha, by his prophetical insight, had seen through the treacherous Hazael, just as he once saw through the plans of Benhadad ( 2 Kings 6:12), and he now showed him that he knew the secret purpose which he cherished in his heart. He gave him to understand this, not only by his words, but also by the circumstance which is added in 2 Kings 8:11 : “And he fixed his countenance steadfastly until he (Elisha) shamed him (Hazael),” i.e., he fixed his eyes steadily and sharply upon him, so that the piercing look produced embarrassment and made Hazael’s countenance fall. This detail is consistent with the above interpretation of 2 Kings 8:10 and with no other. [“Jehovah hath shown me that he shall surely die,” says the prophet, and fixes his eyes upon the ambitious and treacherous courtier, who has already conceived the idea of murdering his master, until the guilty conscience of the latter makes him shrink from the scrutiny.—W. G. S.] The Sept. give a purely arbitrary rendering of 2 Kings 8:11, thus: καὶ ἐστη ’Αζαὴλ κατὰ πρόςωπον αὐτοῦ, καὶ παρέθηκεν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ τὰ δῶρα ἕως ᾐσχύνετο. The only possible subject of וַיַּעֲמֵד is Elisha, and the text says nothing about the presentation of the gifts. עַד־בּשׁ does not mean either: “remarkably long” (Ewald), nor: “In a (taking the words strictly) shameless manner” (Thenius), cf. on 2 Kings 2:17. The man of God did not weep for Benhadad, nor for Hazael, but for his own countrymen, on account of the judgments which should be inflicted upon them by the hand of Hazael, as he himself declares in 2 Kings 8:12.

2 Kings 8:12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? The particular statements in Elisha’s reply must not be taken too strictly in their literal meaning. He only means to say: Thou wilt commit in Israel all the cruelties which are wont to be practised in the bitterest wars (see Hosea 10:14; Hosea 13:16; Isaiah 13:15 sq.; Nahum 3:10 sq.; Psalm 137:9; Amos 1:13 sq.). How this was fulfilled we see in chap 2 Kings 10:32 sq.; 2 Kings 13:3-4; 2 Kings 13:7; 2 Kings 13:22. In the 13 th verse, where the proud Hazael, high in office, and already plotting to reach the throne, calls himself “thy servant, the dog,” he commits an extravagance which, in itself, shows us that he was not in earnest, and that his humility was hypocritical and false. “Dog” is the most contemptuous epithet of abuse, 1 Samuel 24:14; 2 Samuel 16:9 (Winer, R-W-B., i. s. 517). Elisha now declares openly to the hypocrite that which, in 2 Kings 8:10-11, by word and look, he had only hinted at: “Jehovah hath shown thee to me as king of Syria,” i.e., I know what thou aimest at, and also what thou wilt become. The words by no means involve a solemn prophetical institution or consecration (anointing) to be king, such as, for instance, occurs in 2 Kings 9:3; 2 Kings 9:6, but they are a simple prediction (which, at the same time, probes Hazael’s conscience) of that which should come to pass. He means to say: As God has revealed to me Benhadad’s death, so has he also revealed to me thy elevation to the throne. Hazael, therefore, startled by the revelation of his secret plans, makes no reply to the earnest words of the prophet, but turns away.

2 Kings 8:14. So he departed from Elisha, &c. Hazael makes the very reply to his master which the prophet had predicted that he would ( 2 Kings 8:10). and we see from the words אָמַר לִי וגו still more clearly, that we must read לוֹ for לֹא in 2 Kings 8:10. In the 15 th verse וַיִּקַּח cannot have any other subject than the three verbs which precede, ויבא,וילך, and ויאמר. It is not, therefore, Benhadad (Luther, Schulz, and others), but Hazael. Moreover, it is inconsistent with the entire context that Benhadad himself, in order to refresh himself, should have laid a cloth, dipped in water, upon his face, and then should have died from the effects of the repressed perspiration. מַכְבֵּר means, primarily, something woven, a woven fabric, but it is not a fly-guard (Michaelis, Hess, and others), nor a bath-blanket or quilt (Ewald); but a woven, and hence thick and heavy, coverlet (Sept. στρῶμα); the bed-coverlet. This, when dipped in water, became so heavy that, when spread over his face, it prevented his breathing, and so either produced suffocation, as most understand it, or brought on apoplexy, as Thenius suggests. Clericus correctly states the reason why Hazael chose just this form of murder: ut hominem facilius Suffocaret, ne vi interemtus videret. He would have the less opposition to fear, in mounting the throne, as he intended, if Benhadad appeared to have died a natural death. We have not, therefore, to think of strangulation, which Josephus states was here employed (τὸν μὲν στραγγάλῃ διέφθειρε). Philippson remarks that, in cases of violent fever, it is the custom in the Orient, according to Bruce, to pour cold water over the bed, and that this bold treatment was perhaps tried in the case of Benhadad, but with unfortunate results. This, however, is not at all probable. We may feel confident that no one will ever succeed in clearing Hazael from the crime of regicide, however much some have tried it. Ewald (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iii. s. 522 3e Ausg. s. 561]), narrates the occurrence thus: “As the king was about to take his bath (?), his servant (?), we cannot now tell more precisely from what particular motive, dipped the bathing-blanket (?) in the warm (?) water, and drew it, before the king could call for help, so tightly together (?) over his head, that he was smothered.” Every one sees that the text says nothing of all that. [It is unnatural, of course, to introduce a new subject for ויקח. Also, it is not likely that the king committed suicide the day after he had shown so much anxiety about his life. Hazael alone remains, and so we translate. But Ewald refers the case to the usage in which an indefinite subject, one (Germ. man), must be supplied, § 294, b. He furthermore points to the article in המכבר, which refers to some well-known object, he thinks to a bath-blanket. This, then, would identify the subject as the servant who was assisting him in the bath. Again, Ewald observes that if Hazael were the subject he would not be mentioned again immediately afterwards (Geschichte, ed. iii. vol. III. s. 562 n2). These considerations are not, perhaps, strong enough to support the inferences which he draws from them, but they certainly are not contemptible.—W. G. S.]

HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL

1. This passage is not by any means arbitrarily inserted here in the course of the history of the kings. It stands in close and intelligent connection with what precedes and what follows. The first incident ( 2 Kings 8:1-6) is not intended simply to prove “how God, by overruling slight circumstances, often brings about great blessings” (Köster); neither can it properly be entitled: “The Seven-year Famine,” or “The Restoration of the Shunammite’s Property.” It is rather intended to show the high estimation in which the king held the prophet. The king had been a witness of very many acts of Elisha, which forced from him a recognition of the prophet’s worth. In order to arrive at a still more complete estimate of him, he desires to learn from a reliable source all the great and extraordinary works which Elisha had accomplished, and of which he had already perhaps heard something by public rumor. He therefore applies to Gehazi for this information. While Gehazi was telling the story of the Shunammite, she herself came in and was able to ratify what he narrated. The king was so much carried away by the story, and by this marvellous meeting with the woman herself, that Hebrews, for the sake of the prophet, restored to her the property she had lost, and even added more than she ever could have expected. This story, therefore, shows us the effect which the acts of Elisha had had upon the king, and is perfectly in place here. Moreover, it forms the connection with what follows. In spite of all his recognition of Elisha as a prophet, still Jehoram “cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam and departed not therefrom” ( 2 Kings 3:3). He still tolerated the disgraceful idolatrous worship in Israel, so that, before his end, Jehu could retort upon him: “What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?” ( 2 Kings 9:22). Therefore it was that the storm-clouds of divine judgment, which were to bring ruin to him, and to the entire house of Ahab, were already collecting. This judgment came from two directions, as the oracle 1 Kings 19:15 sq. (see Exeg. notes thereon) had already predicted that it would come, both from without and from within; foreign invasion from Syria by Hazael, and domestic rebellion by Jehu. The second narrative above concerns Hazael; chap9. treats of Jehu. The main point in the second narrative ( 2 Kings 8:7-15) is the announcement of the divine judgment which is to fall upon Israel by the hand of Hazael ( 2 Kings 8:11-13). All the rest, both what precedes and what follows, is only introduction to this, or development of it. As God’s prophet in Israel ( 2 Kings 5:8), Elisha had the painful task, which he performed with tears, of designating in advance the usurper Hazael as the one through whom the divine judgment should be inflicted, “in order that Israel might thereafter know all the more surely that Jehovah had prepared this chastisement, and that it was His hand which laid this scourge upon apostates” (Krummacher). [As the whole series of incidents, of which this is one, is told in order to show the greatness of the prophet, so it seems more consistent to see the aim of this one in the intention to show that Elisha foreknew and foretold Hazael’s crime and usurpation, and the misery which he inflicted upon Israel.—W. G. S.]

2. The first narrative ( 2 Kings 8:1-6) contains, besides the chief point, which has already been specified, a series of incidents which form a marvellous web of divine dispensations. The restoration of the Shunammite’s property, with which it ends, is connected by a chain of intervening incidents with the famine predicted by the prophet, with which it begins. The restoration of the property presupposes its loss; this the temporary absence from the country; that took place by the advice of the prophet, and this advice was founded upon the scarcity which God had inflicted as a punishment, and which He had revealed beforehand to the prophet. It was especially the marvellous, divinely ordered, meeting of the Shunammite and Gehazi in the presence of the king, which influenced the latter to his unexpected decision. This meeting was, for the king, a seal to the story of Gehazi, and for the Shunammite a seal upon her faith and trust in the prophet. Once she declined any intercession of the prophet with the king on her behalf (chap, 2 Kings 4:13); now she found that she received help, for the prophet’s sake, even without his immediate interference. Krummacher: “God does not always help by startling miracles, although His hands are not tied from even these. More frequently His deliverances are disguised in the more or less transparent veil of ordinary occurrences, nay, even of accidents. This and that takes place, which at the time we hardly consider worthy of notice; but let us wait until these slight providential incidents are all collected together, and the last thread is woven into the artistic web.”

3. What is here told us about king Jehoram presents him to us from his better side. His desire to learn all of Elisha’s Acts, still more the way in which he was ready at once to help the distressed Shunammite to the recovery of her property, testify to a receptivity for elevated impressions, and to a disposition to yield to them. By the fact that he recognized all that was extraordinary in the person of the prophet, and yet that he did not desist from his false line of conduct, he showed that, in the main point, the relation of himself and of his people to Jehovah, nothing good could any longer be expected of him. His better feelings were transitory and, on a broad and general survey, in effectual. He continued to be a reed, swayed hither and thither by the wind, easily moved, but undecided and unreliable, so that finally, when all the warnings and exhortations of the prophet had produced no effect, he fell under the just and inevitable judgment of God.

4. The second narrative ( 2 Kings 8:7-15) relates, it is true, the fulfilment of the oracle in 1 Kings 19:15, but it shows, at the same time, that that oracle cannot be understood in its literal sense (see the Exeg. notes on that passage), for it is historically established here that Hazael, who now appears for the first time in the history, was not anointed king of Syria by either Elijah or Elisha, though he does appear as the divinely-appointed executor of the judgments which God had decreed against Israel. Jehovah “shows” him as such to the prophet, and the latter, far from seeking him in Damascus and anointing him, or even saluting him, as king, gives the usurper, who comes to meet him with presents and hypocritical humility, to understand, both by his manner and his words, that he sees his treacherous plans, and he tells him, with tears, what God had revealed, that he should be the great enemy and oppressor of Israel. Thereupon Hazael departs, startled and embarrassed, without a word. This is the clear story of the incident as this narration presents it to us. There is no room, therefore, for any supposition that Hazael was anointed by the prophet. On the other hand, it is an entire mistake, on the part of some of the modern historians, to see in the conduct of Elisha only the “enmity of the prophets of Jehovah” towards Jehoram and his dynasty, and to make Elisha a liar and a traitor, as Duncker (Geschichte des Alterthums, i. s. 413) does, when he says: “At a later time [after the siege of Samaria by Benhadad, chap6.] Elisha spent some time among the enemies of his country, in Damascus. Here Benhadad was slain by one of his servants, Hazael, at the instigation of Elisha. Hazael then mounted the throne of Damascus and renewed the war against Israel, not without encouragement from Elisha.” In like manner Weber (Gesch. des Volkes Israel’s, 236) remarks: “This opportunity [the illness of Benhadad] appears to have been taken advantage of by the prophet to bring about a palace revolution, as a result of which the king of Damascus was murdered on his sick-bed, by means of a fly-net (?).” Such misrepresentation of history can only be explained by the neglect or ignorance of the Hebrew text. When will people cease to make modern revolutionary agitators of the ancient prophets? According to Köster (Die Proph, s. 94) the sense of the entire story is this: “A prophet may not allow himself to be restrained from proclaiming the word of Jehovah, by the possibility of evil or crime which may result from it.” This thought, which is, at best, a very common-place one, and which might have been presented more strikingly and precisely in a hundred other ways, is entirely foreign to the story before us.

5. The prophet Elisha appears, in this second narrative, in a very brilliant light. As he had forced recognition of his own worth from the king of Israel, so he had attained to high esteem with the king of Syria. The rude, proud, and unsubmissive Benhadad, the arch-enemy of Israel, whose undertakings Elisha had often frustrated, who had once sent an armed detachment to capture him, shows him, as soon as he hears of his presence in his country, the highest honors. He sends out his highest officer with grand gifts to meet him, calls himself humbly his Song of Solomon, and sends a request to him that he will pray to God on his behalf. This in itself overthrows the notion that “Elisha’s celebrated skill in medicine” (Weber) led the king to this step. We are not told what produced this entire change in Benhadad’s disposition; but it is, at any rate, a strong proof of the mighty influence which Elisha must have exerted, both by word and deed, that he was held in so high esteem even in Syria, and that Benhadad himself bent before him. This reception, which he met with in a foreign land, was also a warning sign for Israel. He stands before us, high in worth and dignity in this occurrence also, both as man of God and prophet. He does not feel himself flattered by the high honors which are conferred upon him. They influence him as little as the rich gifts, which he does not even accept. At the sight of the man who, according to the purpose of God, was to be the scourge of his people, he is carried away by such grief that Hebrews, as our Lord once did, at the sight of Jerusalem moving on to its destruction, burst into tears for the people who did not consider those things “which belonged to their peace.” How any one can form the suspicion, under such circumstances, that Elisha stood in secret collusion with Hazael, to whose conscience he addresses such sharp reproofs, or can say: “Hazael at once commenced a war upon Israel, instigated by Elisha” (Weber), it is hard to understand.

6. This narrative leaves no room for doubt as to Hazael’s character, and especially is that labor thrown away which is spent upon the attempt to acquit him of the murder of Benhadad, or to represent his guilt at least as uncertain, for וַיָּמֹת, which follows the words: He (Hazael) “spread it on his face,” means, so that he died, as in 1 Samuel 25:38; 1 Kings 2:46; 2 Kings 12:21. At heart proud, haughty, and imperious, he affects humility and submissiveness; towards his master, who had entrusted him with the most important commission, he is false and treacherous. He shrinks from no means to attain his object. He lies and deceives, but, at the same time, he is cunning and crafty, and knows how to conceal his traitorous purposes. When, alarmed and exposed by the words of the prophet, he can no longer keep them secret, he marches on to the crime, although he seeks to execute it in such a way that he may not appear to be guilty. With all this he combines energy, courage, cruelty, and a blind hatred against Israel, as the sequel shows. On account of these qualities, he was well fitted to be, in the hand of God, a rod of anger and a staff of indignation ( Isaiah 10:5). “The Lord makes the vessels of wrath serviceable for the purpose of His government” (Krummacher), and here we have again, as often in the history of redemption, an example of wickedness punished by wickedness, and of godless men made, without their will or knowledge, instruments of holiness and justice (see above, 1 Kings 22. Hist. § 6).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

2 Kings 8:1-6. King Jehoram and the Shunammite. (a) The marvellous meeting of the two (the inscrutable and yet wise and gracious orderings of God, Isaiah 28:29; Isaiah 55:8-9); (b) the restoration of the property believed to be lost (a proof of the truth of Proverbs 21:1; and Psalm 146:7; Psalm 146:9; therefore, Psalm 37:5).

2 Kings 8:1-3. Krummacher: Famine, pest, war, and all other forms of calamity, form an army which is subject to the command of God, which comes and goes at His command, which is ready to attack or ready to retire as He may order, and which can assail no one without command. They are sometimes commissioned to punish, and to be the agents of the divine justice, sometimes to arouse and to bring back the intoxicated to sobriety, sometimes to embitter the world to sinners, and push them to the throne of grace, and sometimes to try the saints, and light the purifying fires about them.… So no man has to do simply with the sufferings which fall upon him, but, before all, with Him who inflicted them.—Seiler: It is not a rare thing for God to lead even a large number of persons at the same time away from a certain place, where some calamity would have befallen them with others. Do not abandon thy fatherland without being certain of the call of God: “Arise! Go,” &c, as Abraham was ( Genesis 12:1). Faith clings to the words in Psalm 37:18-19. It is the holy duty and the noblest task of human government to help the oppressed, to secure justice for orphans, and to help the cause of the widow ( Isaiah 1:17; Psalm 82:3).

2 Kings 8:4-6. The King’s Consultation with Gehazi. (a) The motive of it; (b) the effect of it.

2 Kings 8:4. Osiander: That is the way with many great men; they like to hear of the deeds and discourses of pious teachers, and even admire them, but will not be improved by them ( Mark 6:20; Acts 24:24 sq.; Acts 25:22; Acts 26:28).—Krummacher: People are not wanting even now-a-days who, although they are strangers to the life which has its source in God, nevertheless have a feeling of interest and enthusiasm for the miraculous contents of the text. They read such portions of Scripture with delight.… Even a certain warmth of feeling is not wanting. What, however, is totally wanting, is the broken and contrite spirit, the character of a poor and helpless sinner.

2 Kings 8:5. That the word which has been heard may not fall by the wayside, but take root in the heart, God, in His mercy, often causes special occurrences to take place immediately afterwards which bear testimony to the truth of the word.

2 Kings 8:6. For the sake of the prophet the Shunammite was helped out of her misfortune, and reinstated in the possession of her property. The Lord never forgets the kindnesses which are shown to a prophet in the name of a prophet ( Matthew 10:41); He repays them not once but many times ( 2 Kings 4:8-10). The word of God often extorts from an unconverted man a good and noble action, which, however, if it only proceeds from a sudden emotion, and stands alone, resembles a flower, which blooms in the morning, and in the evening fades and dies. True servants of God, like Elisha, are often fountains of great blessing, without their own immediate participation or knowledge.

2 Kings 8:7-15. Elisha in Syria, (a) Benhadad’s mission to him; (b) the meeting with Hazael; (c) the announcement of the judgments upon Israel.

2 Kings 8:7-8. Benhadad upon the Sick-bed. (a) The rebellious, haughty, and mighty king, the arch-enemy of Israel, who had never troubled himself about the living God, lies in wretchedness; he has lost courage, and now he seeks the prophet whom he once wished to capture, just as a servant seeks his master. The Lord can, with his hammer, which breaketh in pieces even the flinty rock, also make tender the hearts of men ( Isaiah 26:16). Those who are the most self-willed in prosperity are often the most despairing in misfortune. Not until the end approaches do they seek God; but He cannot help in death those who in life have never thought of Him. (b) He does not send to ask the prophet: What shall I, poor sinner, do that I may find grace and be saved? but only whether he shall recover his health. (Starke: The children of this world are only anxious for bodily welfare; about eternal welfare they are indifferent.) It should be our first care in severe illness to set our house in order, and to surrender ourselves to the will of God, so that we may truthfully say with the apostle: “For whether we live,” &c. ( Romans 14:8). The time and the hour of death are concealed from men, and it is vain to inquire about them.

2 Kings 8:7. The man of God is come! That was the cry in the heathen city of Damascus, and the news penetrated even to the king, who rejoiced to hear it. This did not occur to Elisha in any city of Israel, Luke 4:24 sq. ( John 1:11; Acts 18:6). Blessed is the city and the country where there is rejoicing that a man of God is come!

2 Kings 8:9-11. So much the times may change! He who once was despised, hated, and persecuted, is now met with royal honors and rich presents; but the one makes him uncertain and wavering just as little as the other. The testimonials of honor, and the praise of the great and mighty, the rich and those of high station, are often a much more severe temptation to waver for the messengers of the word of God, than persecution and shame. To be a true man of God is not consistent with vanity and self-satisfaction. The faithful messenger delivers his message without respect of persons, in season and out of season ( 2 Timothy 4:2). He who seeks for the honor which cometh only from God ( John 5:44), will not let himself be blinded by honor before men ( Acts 14:14; Sirach 20:31).

2 Kings 8:10. However well a man may know how to conceal his secret thoughts and wicked plans, there is One who sees them, even long before they are put in operation; from whom the darkness hideth not, and for whom the night shineth as the day ( Psalm 139:2-12). He will sooner or later bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and reveal the secret counsel of the heart ( 1 Corinthians 4:5).

2 Kings 8:11. He who has a good conscience is never disturbed or embarrassed if any one looks him directly in the eye; but a bad conscience cannot endure an open, firm look, and trembles with terror at every rustling leaf.

2 Kings 8:11-12. Elisha weeps. These were not tears of sentiment, but of the deepest pain, worthy of a man of God, who knows of no greater evil than the apostasy of his people from the living God, the determined contempt for the divine word, and the rejection of the divine grace. Where are the men who now-a-days weep such tears? They were also tears of the most faithful love, which is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up. So our Lard wept once over Jerusalem ( Luke 19:41), and St. Paul over Israel ( Romans 9:1-3).

2 Kings 8:13. Subserviency before men is always joined with falseness and hypocrisy. Therefore trust no one who is more than humble and modest. Hazael called himself a dog, while he plotted in his heart to become king of a great people.—Cramer: It is the way with all hypocrites that they bend and cringe, and humble themselves, and conceal their tricks, until they perceive their opportunity, and have found the key of the situation ( 2 Samuel 15:6).—Krummacher: There is scarcely anything more discordant and disgusting than the dialect of self-abasement, when it bears upon its face the stamp of affectation and falsehood.

2 Kings 8:14-15. It is the curse which rests upon him who has sold himself to sin, that all which ought to awaken his conscience, and terrify and shock him out of his security, only makes him more obstinate, and pushes him on to carry out his evil designs (cf. John 13:21-30).

2 Kings 8:15. The Lord abhorreth the bloody and deceitful man ( Psalm 5:7). He who, by treason and murder, ascends a throne, is no king by the grace of God, but only a rod of wrath in the hands of God, which is broken in pieces when it has served its purpose.

Footnotes