The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 110

Disbelief ie exprC'ssecl., not only in the pro- them, the inmates of the city having barely phetic , craoity of Elish&, but in the power enough wherewith to sustain themselves (oh, of Gnd. Henoe Elisha'~ stern reply. And vi. 25). Thus they were on tile point of he said, Behold, thou she.It see it with thine perishing. eyes, but Bh&lt not ee.t thereof. At onee a Ver. 4.-If we say, We will enter into thre.at nnd e. warning. lf the thing wae to the city, then the fo.mine is in the city, and he, ~nd the lurd to see it and yet not profit we eh&ll die there. The lepers were oer- by it, the only reasonable oonclusion was ta inly not at liberty to enter the eity whon that his death wo.s imminent. He was thus they pleased ; but perhaps they might have warned, and given time to "set his house in managed, in one way or another, to return order," and to repent and make his peace within the walls. They ask themselves, with the Almiglity. Whether he took nd- however, "Cui bona? " What will be the 'l"antage of the warning, or even understood use of it? The famine is inside the town it, we are not told. no less thnn outside. If they entered the city, by hook or by crook, it would onlv be Vers. 3-16.-The mode in which Eli- to " die there." And if we sit still here, we slia's prophecy of relief and deliverance wo.s die also j rather, if we remain here, or, if we fulfilled is now set forth. Four lepers, ex- dwell here. Lepers, excluded from e. city, clurled from the city, and on the poiut of o.re in the hnbit of building themselves huts perishing of hunger, felt that they could be nea.r the gateways. "The lepers of Jeru- salem, e.t the present do.y, have their tents no worse off, and might better their condi- by the side of the Zion gate" (Keil, ad loo.), tion, if they deserted to the Syrians. They If the leprous men remained where they therefore drew off from the city e.t nightfall, were, death stared them in the face equally, and ma.de for the Syrian camp. On arriving, Now therefore come, a.nd let us fall llDto the host of the Syrians. Let us, i.e., foll they found it deserted. The entire host, a.way from our own aide, desert them, e.nd seized with a sudden panic, had fled, about go over to the enemy (comp. oh. xxv. 11; the time that they began their journey. Jer. x.xxvii. 13, 14; xxxix. 9; Iii. 15). It The lepers' first thought we.s to enrich them- they save UB alive, we sh&ll live; e.nd if selves by plunder, but after a while it oc- they kill us, we shall but die; i.e. we cannot be worse off than we are, even if they kill curred to them that, unless they hastened us; while it may be that they will he more to ca.rry the good news to Samaria, inquiry merciful, and let us Ii ve. would be made, their prooeedings would be Ver. 5.-And they rose up in the twilight. found out, and they would be severely Most certainly in the evening twilight, as punished. So they returned to the capital, soon as the sun we.sdown (seever. 9). Had they set off in the daytime, the garrison and reported what they had discovered. would have shot at them from the we.Us. Jehoram, on receil'ing the news, feared tbe.t To go llDto the camp of the Syrians: and the S_yria.ns had prepared a trap for him, when they were come to the uttermost pe.rt and declined to move. He coUBented, how- -i.e. the most advanced part, that which cvor, to send out scouts to reconnoitre. The was nearest to So.maria-of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. The scouts found evident proof that the entire camp we.s empty, deserted. Not e. soul we.a, army had actually fled and was gone, where- anywhere to be seen. upon there was e. general raid upon the Ver. 6.-For the Lord had me.de the host campe.nd its stores, which were so abundant of the Syrians to hear a noise of ohariots, that Elli!ha's propheoy w1111 fulfilled ere the a.nd a noise of horses, even thll noise of a day ended. great host. ~\p, voice, ill used for noises of any kind (see Exod. xx. 18 ; Ps. xiii. 7; Ver. 3.-And there were four leprous men xciii. 4; Jer. xlvii. 3; Ezek. i. 24; iii. 13; at the entering in of the gate ; or, at the Joel ii. 5; N ah. iii. 2), though generally entrance w tlte gate-l=e. Lepera were for- for those in which the human voice pre- l,idden by the Law to reside within cities ponderated. A noise like that of ohal':iots (Lev. xiii. 46; Numb. v. 3). They were and of horses and of e. great host (~iii ~'NI:!) thrust out when the disease developed was borne in upon the ears of the Syrians itself, and forced to dwell without the walls. about nightfall of'the dnyon whichJehoram No doubt tLeir fri,md.i! witbin the city or- had determined to put Elisha to dee.th; e.nd, clini;.rily supplied them with food; and as they expected no reinforcements, they hence they congregated about the city gates. naturally concluded that succour had ar- Aud they aaid one to another, Why eit we rived to help their enemy. How the noise here llDtil we diet ln the extreme scarcity, was producud it is impossible to say. Na- it ill probable that no food WIUI brought to ture.I ce,uees e.fe insufficieni; 1md t4e writer ou. vu. 1-20.J THE SECOND HOOK OF THE KINGS, 149