2 Kings 13:17
Ver. 17. And he said, open the window eastward,.... Syria lying east of the land of Israel, as the Jewish commentators in general observe, and for which they quote Isa 9:12, but it lay northeast, or rather more to the north; wherefore this may respect the eastward part of the land of Israel, which the Syrians had got possession of, and should be recovered, as this sign showed, see 2Ki 10:33,and he opened it: then Elisha said, shoot, and he shot; the arrow, out of the window, being opened:and he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; meaning, that that arrow was a sign of the Lord's deliverance of Israel from the Syrians, by whom they had been sadly oppressed, and reduced very low:for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou hast consumed them; not the whole nation, but that army they should bring thither; which was a city in the land of Israel, where the Syrians were routed in Ahab's time; 100,000 were slain near it on one day, and 27,000 by the fall of the wall of it, 1Ki 20:26 hence some read the words here, "as in Aphek." 2 Kings 13:18Ver. 18. And he said, take the arrows, and he took them,.... The rest of them:and he said unto the king of Israel, smite upon the ground; the floor of the room in which the prophet lay:and he smote thrice, and stayed; made a stop, ceased smiting; he might think this action trifling, and beneath him, only was willing to please the prophet, but did not do it with a good will, and therefore smote no more; though this was an emblem of his smiting the Syrians, which he might not understand. 2 Kings 13:19Ver. 19. And the man of God was wroth with him,.... Because he ceased smiting, and smote no oftener; for it was revealed to the prophet, by an impulse upon his mind, that by the number of times he smote on the ground, it would be known how often he should get the victory over his enemies; but this was to be left to the king's own will, how often he would smite, and thereby the prophet would know also with what spirit he would pursue his victories, and the advantages he would gain:and said, thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it; as a nation, as well as routed their several armies:whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice; beat them only three times in battle, according to the number of his smitings on the ground. 2 Kings 13:20Ver. 20. And Elisha died, and they buried him,.... In Samaria. Epiphanius says {n}, in Sebastopolis of Samaria, Samaria itself was called Sebaste in later times; though the Jews say {o} he was buried in Mount Carmel, in the cave of Elijah; according to the Jewish chronology {p}, he died in the tenth year of Joash, and he prophesied more than sixty years; sixty six, as Abarbinel, since he began to prophesy in the nineteenth year of Jehoshaphat; and, according to Clemens {q} of Alexandria, when he was forty years of age; but it seems rather, as Kimchi observes, that he died in the beginning of the reign of Joash, and even before his father's death, when he was a partner with him in the throne, and before any salvation or deliverance from the Syrians was wrought:and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year; at the spring of the year, when there was fruit on the earth, those troops of robbers came to plunder and spoil; several of the Jewish writers observe, that in the word for "coming", h is instead ofa, and so may be rendered "in that year", in that selfsame year that Elisha died; and so read the Syriac, Arabic, and the Vulgate Latin versions.{n} De Vitis Prophet. c. 6. {o} Cippi Heb. p. 46. {p} Seder Olam Rabba, c. 19. {q} Stromat. l. 1. p. 326. 2 Kings 13:21Ver. 21. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man,.... That is, as they were going to bury him; for as yet they were not come to the place they designed to bury him at, as appears by what follows:that, behold, they spied a band of men; one of the bands of the Moabites, which came to rob and plunder, and which was about the place where they intended to bury the man; or they supposed would be there by that time they got to it, or at least before they could bury him, and therefore being frightened stopped:and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; that being nearest, they opened it, or rather rolled away the stone from it, and threw the body in great haste:and when the man was let down, and touched the bone's of Elisha; or "went and touched" {r}; that is, as Kimchi interprets it, being cast in, he rolled till he came to the body of the prophet, and touched it:he revived, and stood upon his feet; which might serve to confirm the faith of Joash in the predictions of the prophet concerning his victories; is a proof of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal life, and an emblem of our being quickened through the death of Christ. The Jews say {s} this man was Shallum the son of Tikvah, and husband of Huldah the prophetess, and was a good man, much given to alms, for which he was rewarded; and they further say, he went to his own house, and lived many years, and begat children, and particularly Hananeel, mentioned in Jer 32:7, which is not likely; though others say {t} he was a wicked man, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah, 1Ki 22:24 and therefore not suffered to continue in the prophet's grave; but the former is more probable; and, according to Josephus {u}, it was the band of robbers that left this man, whom they had murdered, in the grave of Elisha. This grave seems to have been in the field, where the Jews of old, and in later times, buried, as in the field of Hebron, the potter's field, &c. so the Greeks, as Pausanias relates {w}, and the Romans also {x}, buried by the wayside.{r} egyw Klyw "abit et tetigit", Pagninus, Montanus. {s} Pirke Eliezer, c. 33. {t} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol, 47. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 11. 2. {u} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 8. sect. 6. {w} Corinthiac. sive, l. 2. p. 97. {x} Vid. Kirchman. Funer. Roman. l. 2. c. 22. 2 Kings 13:22Ver. 22. But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. That he reigned alone, at least, before he took his son Joash to reign with him. 2 Kings 13:23Ver. 23. And the Lord was gracious to them,.... To Israel, notwithstanding their apostasy from him, and the idolatry of the calves they were guilty of:and had compassion on them; being in oppression and distress:and had respect unto them; looked upon them with an eye of pity and mercy:because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; made so long ago he still remembered:and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet; or suffered them to be carried captive into another land, as he afterwards did in the times of Hoshea. 2 Kings 13:24Ver. 24. So Hazael the king of Syria died, and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead. This was Benhadad the third; the first of this name was of the Damascene kings; but though the kingdom was now in another family, yet this name, being respectable with the Syrians, was retained in it. 2 Kings 13:25Ver. 25. And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war,.... Which were in the countries of Gilead and Bashan, and belonged to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, 2Ki 10:33,three times did Joash beat him: in so many pitched battles, but where is not said, no doubt one of them was in Aphek, at least, 2Ki 13:17, and perhaps the other two on the other side Jordan; this agrees with the three times he smote the ground, significant thereof, 2Ki 13:18and recovered the cities of Israel; those before mentioned; otherwise, if those had not been recovered, not ten tribes, only seven and a half, would have been carried captive by the king of Assyria; whereas Josephus {y} says expressly, the ten tribes were carried captive.{y} Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 1.
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