The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 87

the busb1tnd of her bosom, and towe.rd her impreoation of evil on one's self, if one did, or llOn, and tm1·ard her daugliter, and towe.rd if one failed to do, a certain thing. Why her young oue that cometh out from between Jeboram should have considered Elislm as her feet., and toward her children which she responsible for all the horrors of the siego shall bear: for she shall eat them for want is not apparent; but perhaps he supposed of all things secretly in the siege and strait- that it wu in Eli.ba's power to worlr. a ness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress miracle of any kind at any moment that ho thee in thy gat.ee" (uviii. 56, 57). There liked. If so, be misunderstood the no.ture is historical testimony that the prophecy of the miraculous gift. In threatening to was three times fulfilled; viz. (1) in Samaria behead Elisha, he is uot making himself an on the present ooeasion; (2) in Jerusalem executor of the Law, whioh nowhere sano- during the laat siege by Nebuchadnezzar tioued that mode of punishment, but assuro- (Lam. iv. 10); and (3) in Jerusalem during ing the arbi tmry power of the other Oriental the last siege by Titus (Josephus, • Bell. monarchs of bis time, who rege.rded them- Jud.,' vi. 3. § 4). In modern siegea sur- selves as absolute masters of the lives nnd render is made before the population is liberties of their subjects. Beheading was driven to such straits. common in Egypt, in Babylonia, and in Yer. 29.~o we boiled my ■on (oomp. Assyria. Lam. i'I'. 10, "The hands of the pitiful Ver. 32.-But Elisha sat in his house, and woman have 80dden their own children"), the elders sat with him ; and the king sent and did eat him : a.nd I said unto her on the a man from before him. It is best to trans- nut day, Give thy BOn, that we may eat him: late, Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and she bath hid her son. Some have sup- and the elders were sitting with him, when posed that the '\l"oman concealed her child the king sent a man from before him. Elisha in order to consume it alone; but it is more bad a house in Sa.maria, where he ordine.rily probable th.u.t, when the time came for resided, and from which he made bis circuits. currying out her agr11ement, she found that He happened to be sitting there, and the ehe could not give it np, and hid it in order elders of the city to be sitting with him, to save it. when Jehornm sent "a man from before Ver. 30.-.A.nd it came to pus, when the him," i.e. one of the court officials, to put king heard the words of the woman, that he him to dee.th. The "elders" had probably rent his clothes. In horror and consterna- assembled at Elishe.'s house to consult with tion at the terrible state of things revealed him on the critical situation of a:ffe.irs, and by the woman's story (comp. eh. v. 7). And (if possible) obtain from him some miracu- he paued by npon the wall, and the people lous assistance. But ere the meBBenger came looked.. It is better to translate, with our to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this Revisers, (NOID 1u was paasing by upon the 1011 of a murderer hath aent to take away wall;) and the people looked; or, and, as he mine head 1 Elisha we.s supernaturally wa, pauing by upan the wall, th.e people warned of what was about to take ple.ce- loo1:ed. And, behold, he had sackcloth with- th.u.t an executioner was coming almost in upon his flesh. Jebomm had secreily immediately to take away his life, and that essumed the penitential garment, not a mere the king himself would arlive shortly after. sign of woe, but a constant chastisement of He calls the king "this son of a murderer," the flesh. He wore sackcloth next his skin, or rather "this son of the murderer," with 110 one suspecting it, until, in the exaspera- reference to Ahab, the great murderer of tion of his feelings at the woman's tale, he the time, who had sanctioned all Jezebel's rent bis robe, and exposed to view the cruelties-the general massacre of the pro- sackcloth which underlay it. We are phets of Jehovah (1 Kings xviii. 13), the l!Cn.rcely entitled to deny him any true judicial murder of Naboth (1 Kings xxi. peniteutial feeling, though no doubt he was 9-13), the attempt to kill Elijah (1 Kings far from possessing a chastened or bumble xiL 2)-and had, by a fierce and long-con- 11pirit. Poor weak humanity has at one tinued persecution, reduced the worshippers aud the same time good and evil impulses, of Jehovah in IBre.el to the scanty number praiseworthy and culpable feelings, thoughts of seven thousand (1 Kiogs xix. 18). Je- which come from the Holy Spirit of God, horam had now shown that he inherited and thoughts which are in.spired by the evil the bloodtliirsty disposition of his father, one. and l.tad justly earned the epithet which Ver. 31.-Thl!D he said, God do BO and Elisha beijtowed on l.tim. Look, when the more also to me, if the head of Elisha the meBBenger cometh, 1hut the door, and hold ■on of Shaphat Bhall stand 011 him-i.e. him fa1t at the door. Keil renders the last "coutinue on him "-this day. The form clause, " foree l.tim back at the door; " the of OL1ih waB 11 common one (comp. Ituth i. LXX:. "prcs, upon him in the doorway''- 17; 1 Sam. iii. 17; :uv. 22; 2 Sam. xix. ,..,.pa.9Al,j,a.n a.b-rb11 ,,, -rfi Obpq-they were not 13; l Kinp ii. 23; x.ix.. 2, etc.). It was an to allow him to enter the ap11,rtment. la CIJ, VI, 1-33,) THE SECOND BOOK OF T□E KINGS. 12!S