A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William) • SECTION 3

The Shunammite And Hazael 87

← The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

Uncertain date--The journey to Gilgal; to Bethel; to Jericho; to the Jordan--The double portion--Chariot and horses of fire--Elisha recrosses the Jordan--The young prophets and their search--Grandeur of Elijah.

Cycle of supernatural stories--Elisha and Elijah--The cure of the unwholesome fountain--"Go up, thou bald-head"--The children and the bears.

Death of Ahaziah--Jehoram Ben-Ahab of Israel--Good beginnings--Attempts to recover Moab--Alliance with Judah and Edom--The invasion--An army perishing of thirst--Elisha--Music--Trenches in the wâdy--Error of the Moabites--Their disastrous rout--Devastation of the country--Mesha propitiates Chemosh--"Great wrath against Israel"--The invading army retreats.

Their chronological vagueness--Difference between Elisha and Elijah--Contrasts and resemblances--Social life in Israel--1. The widow and the oil--2. The lady of Shunem--Her hospitality--Her reward--3. The boy's death--Her distress--The resuscitation--4. Death in the pot--5. The multiplied first-fruits.

The little maid--The leper--Letter of Benhadad to Jehoram--His indignation--Elisha's message--Naaman's disappointment and anger--His servants--His healing--His gratitude--Bowing in the house of Rimmon--Mean cupidity of Gehazi--Stricken with leprosy--The axe-head.

Syrian marauders--They are baffled--Anger of Benhadad--The vision at Dothan--Meaning of the promises--How fulfilled to God's saints on earth--Some are delivered, some are not--Elisha misleads the Syrians--His generosity to them--Its effects--A fresh Syrian invasion.

Horrible straits of the besieged Samaritans--Stress of famine--The King of Israel--The miserable women--Sackcloth under the purple--The king's fury and despair--He threatens Elisha--The messenger--The king upbraids him--Prophecy of sudden plenty--The disbelieving lord--The extramural lepers--The Syrian camp--The king's misgivings--The lord killed in the rush of the people.

The lady of Shunem leaves her estate--Her return--Gehazi talks with the king--Entrance of the Shunammite--Her estates restored--Elisha visits Damascus--A royal present--Benhadad's illness--Hazael--The dark prophecy--Unexplained death of Benhadad--Hazael's usurpation--Real meaning of Elisha's words to Hazael.

Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.

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