(15.) Beyond tiiis we have no record of Elisha's having taken any part in the revolution of Jehu, or the events which followed it. He does not again ap- pear till we find him on his deatli-bed in his own house (xiii, 1-1-10). Joash, the grandson of Jehu, is now king, and he has come to weep over the approaching de]):irture of tlie great and good prophet. His words are the same as tl;ose of Elisha when Elijah was taken away — " My fatlier ! my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" But it is not a time for weeping. One tiiouglit fills the mind of both king and prophet. Syria is tiie tierce enemy who is gradually destroying the countrj^ and against Syria one final effort must be made before the aid of Elisha becomes unolitainable. What was the exact significance of the ceremonial employed, our ignorance of Jewish customs does not permit \is to know, l)ut it was evidently sym- bolic. The window is opened towards the hated coun- try, the bow i^ poiuted in the^same direction, and tiie prophet laying liis hands on the string as if to convey force to the shot, "the arrow of Jehovah'a deliverance, 1
the arrow of deliverance from Syria."" is discharged. This done, the king takes up the bundle of arrows, and, at the command of Elisha, beats them on the ground. But he does it with no energy, and the suc- cesses of Israel, which might have been so prolonged as completely to destroy the foe, are limited to three victories. See Jehoash.
(IG.) The power of the prophet, however, does not terminate with his death. Even in the toml) (Jose- phus embellishes the account bj' stating that he had a magnificent funeral, Ant. ix, 8, 6) he restores the dead to life. Moab had recovered from the tremen- dous reverse inflicted on her Ijy the three kings at the opening of Elisha's career (2 Kings iii), and her ma- rauding bands had again begun the work of depreda- tion which Syria so long pursued (2 Kings v, 2 ; vi, 23). The text perhaps infers that the spring — that is, when the early crops were ripening — was the usual period for these attacks ; iuit, be this as it may, on the present occasion they invaded the land "at the coming in of the j'ear." A funeral was going on in the cem- etery which contained the sepulchre of Elisha. See- ing the Moabitish spoilers in the distance, the friends of the dead man hastened to conceal his corpse in the nearest hiding-place. They chose — whether by design or by accident is not said — the tomb of the jirophet, and, as the body was pushed (Ti^^) into the cell wliich formed the receptacle for the corpse in Jewish tombs, it came in contact with his bones. The mere touch of those hallowed remains was enough to effect that which in his lifetime had cost Elisha both prayers and exertions — the man "revived and stood np on his feet." Other miracles of the prophet foreshadow, as we Iiave remarked, tiie acts of power and goodness of our Saviour, l)ut this may rather be said to recal the marvels of a later period — of the early ages of the Christian Church. It is in the story of Gervasius and Protasius (Augustine's Confessions, ix, § IG), and not in anj' occurrence in the life of our Lord or of the apostles, that we must look for a parallel to the last- recorded miracle of Elisha (2 Kings xiii, 20-22 ).
2. Characteristics and Trailitional Views. — In almost every respect Elisha presents the most complete con- trast to Elijah. The copious collection of his saj'ings and doings which are preserved in the 3d to the 9th chapter of the 2d book of Kings, though in many re- spects deficient in that remarkal)le vividness which we have noted in the records of Elijah, is yet full of testi- monies to this contrast. Elijah was a true Bedouin child of the desert. The clefts of the Cherith, the wild shrubs of the desert, the cave at Horeb, the top of Carmel, were his haunts and his resting-places. If he enters a citj', it is onl}' to deliver his message and be gone. Elisha, on the other hand, is a civilized' man, an inhal)itant of cities. He passed fi'om the translation of his master to dwell at Jericho (2 Kings ii, 18) ; from thence he "returned" to Samaria (ver. 25). At Samaria (v, 3 ; vi, 32 ; comp. ver. 24) and at Dothan (vi, 14) he seems regularly to have resided in a house (v, 0, 24; vi, 32; xiii, 17) with "doors" and "windows," in familiar intercourse with the sons of the prophets, with the elders (vi, 32), with the lady of Shunem, the general of Damascus, the king of Israel. Over the king and the "captain of the host" he seems to have possessed some special influence, capal)le of being turned to material advantage if desired (2 Kings iv, 13). The touches of the narrative are very slight, l)Ut we can gather that his dress was the ordinar}' gar- ment of an Israelite, the heged, probabh' siuiilar in form to the long abheyeh of the modern Syrians (2 Kings ii, 12), that his hair was worn short (if not naturally de- ficient) behind, in contrast with the long locks of Eli- jah (ii, 23), and that he used a walking-stafl' (iv, 210 of the kiud ordiuarily carried by grave or aged citizens (Zech. viii, 4). What use he made of the rough man- tle of Elijah, which came into his possession at thair