The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 223

"Strike upon the ground:" nnd so Ewald, 28) might have been anticipated by the De Watte, and Thenius, who regard the space of fifteen or twenty years. Wheree.e order ne one to strike with the arrows ngninst now thou she.It smite Syria but thrice(comp. the ground (i.e. the floor) or in tho direction ver. 25, which declares that this prophecy of the ground. Keil nnd Bahr, on the con- was exactly accomplished). trary, think thnt the order wae to shoot the Ver. 20.-And Elisha died, and they buried arrows down from the window 11nd hit the him. There ha.cl been no burial of Elijah, enrth with them. But some oontrnst seems who" went up by a whirlwind into heaven" to he intended between the "shoot" (i"l'.1'.) ( eh. ii. 11 ). All the more anxious, therefore, of ver. 19 and the " strike" (";JI'.') of the would the Israelites be to bury their second preaant passage. Ewnld's explanation is great prophet with doe honour. They pre- thus to be preferred. And he emote thrioe, pared him, no doubt, one of those exca.,ated and sta7ed. Joash struck with the aiTows sepulchres which were usual at the time against the floor three times, and then and in the country-a. squared or vaulted paused, thinking he had done enough. He chamber cut in the native rock. St. Jerome did not enter into the spirit of the sym- says that the place of his sepulture was bolical act, which represented the smiting near Samaria.(' Epitaph. Paulm '), and this and slaying of enemies. Perhaps he had is sufficiently probable; but in the :1-Iiddle not much faith in the virtue of the symbol- Ages his grave was shown at Ruma, in ism, which he may even, with the arrogance Galilee (Ewe.Id, 'Hist. of Israel,' vol. iv. p. of a proud and worldly minded man, have 122, note 3). According to Josephus (' Ant. thougllt childi.eh. J ud.,' ix. 8. § 6), his fnneral was magnificent. Ver. 19.-And the man of God (comp. eh. And the bll.Ilds of the Moe.bites invaded the iv. 7, 25: vi. 6, 9; viii. 4, etc.) was wroth land at the coming in of the 7ea.r. It seem11 with him. Elisha was angered 11t the luke- to be implied that this was a. usual occur- warmneH of Joash, and his lack of faith rence. Just as the Syrians in the days of and zeal. He himself, from his higher stand- Naaman made marauding raids into the point, saw the greatness of the opporttmity, land from time to time (eh. v. 2), so now the tile abundance of favour which God was Moe.bites each spring ma.de an incursion. ready to grant, and the way in which God's The weakness of Israel is strongly marked favour was stinted and narrowed by Joaeh'a by this fact, and still more by the penetra- want of receptiveness. Had the king been tion of the Moabites so deep into their equal to the occasion, a. full end might at country. Amos (ii. I) perhaps glances at once have been made of Syria, and Israel these incursions of Moab. might have been enabled to brace herself Ver. 21.-And it came to pass, as the7 for the still more perilous struggle with were burying a man, that. " They" is used Assyria, in which she ultimately succumbed. indefinitely of some unnamed Israelites, like And Hid, Thou shouldest have smitten the French on. Certain persons, it does not flve or six times; then hadst thou smitten matter who, were burying a man, i.e. about Syria till thou hadst oonsumed it. It has to bury him, and were carrying the corpse been suggested that J 011sh associated the to the grave, when an interruption occurred. number three with the notion of complete- Behold, they spied a band of men-rather, ness, and "thought that what was done the band, i.e. the baud of tho.t year-and they thrice was done perfectly" (Bahr); but in cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha. this case the prophet would scarcely have There was no time for ceremony. Hastily, been angered. It is far more consonant with and somewhat roughly, it may he, the beorera the entire ne.rro.tive to suppose th11t he of the body thrust it into Elisha's tomb, stopped from mere weariness, and want of which happened to be at bond, and from the strong faith and zeal. If he had been mouth of which they were able to remove earnestly desirous of victory, and bad had the closing stone. 'l'hey did not " throw n faith in the symbolioal action as divinely the body in, but pushed it in. And when direoted, he would have kept on smiting the man was let down. The man was not till the prophet told him it was enough, or "let down." Our translators seem to have at any rate would have smitten the ground been unacquainted with the Jewish mode of five or six times instead of three. The burial. They im11gine th11t Elisha's tornb idea that he abstained from modesty or is n pit dug in the ground from the surface from prudence, " lest too extravagant de- downwards, like a modern gmve, and the mo.ads might deprive him of all" (Von mnn h11s therefore to be " let down,'' or to Gerlach), finds no support in the text of the "go doton" (marginal translation) into it. narrative. He abstained (as Keil suys) The Revised Version a.voids the mistrans- because "he was wanting in the proper lation, but weakens the force of the original. zeal fol' obtaining the full promist'S of God." Translate, and when the man came, etc. Hod it been otherwise, the complete suc- And touohed the bones of Elisha, he revived. cess obtained by Jeroboam II. (eh. iv. 25- The violent push given to the corpse im-  THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [on. xm. 1-26. --------------------------------- parted to it a movement which brought it not destroyed" (2 Cor. iv. 9). The n11tional in oon t~.t with the bones, i.e. the body life might seem to h11ng by a threud, but (I Kingt1 xiii. 81) of Elisha, e.s it Jay, wound the threa.d hRd not snapped. Neither oaat in its grave-clothes, but uncoffined, on the he them from his preaence aa yet. 'l'he floor of the sepulohral chamber. At the writer has it in his mind that ultimately moment of contact the doad man came to life they tDere Ol\et awny, rejected, removed out -" revirnd." And lltood up on hie feet. In of God's sight (oh. xvii. 18, 20, 23); but it mnny Jewish tombs the sepulchralohamber we.snot" as yet "-there was still an intervo.l would allow of this. of a oentury, or a little more, before the blow Ver. 22.-But Kuael Xing of Syria op- fell, and tho nation of the ten tribes ceased pnased Israel all the days of .Tehoaha.z; to exist. rather, now Hcuael King of Syria had Ver. 24.-So Hanel King of Syria died; oppres,;ed lsra-el, etc. The author, having rather, and Hazael ... died. His death parenthetically related the extraordino.ry is a new fact, not involved in anything that miracle =ught by the instrumentality of has been previously stated. It appears by Elisha's corpse, returns to the subject of the ver. 22 th11t he outlived Jehoaho.z. And S:i,Tian oppression. He had, in vers. H--19, Benha.dad his son reigned in his stead. dwelt upon the promises of victory given bv Hazael, the usurper, gave his eldest son the prophet to Joash. He is now bent on the name of the monarch whom he had relating their fulfilment. But before doing murdered. It was o.u old royal name in so Le recapitulates. Ver. 22 refers back to Syria. (1 Kings xv. 18), having been borne ver. 3, a.nd ver. 23 to vers. 4 and 5. by a.t least two of Haza.el's predecessors. Yer. 23.-Alld the Lord was graoio111 unto The meaning which has been assigned to it them, and had comp81111i.on on them. Even (" Son of the sun ") is doubtful. in his wrath God •· thinketh upon mercy." Ver. 25.-And J'ehoash the son of J'ehoahu While he was still punishing Israel by the took again out of the hand of Benha.dad the sword of Hazael, he was yet careful not to son of Hamel the cities, which he had taken make a full end, not to o.llow the affliction out of the hand of J'ehoa.haz his father by to proceed too far. He still preserved the war. The capture of these cities by Bon- nation, and kept it in being. And ha.d hadad h11d not been previously mentioned. respeot Ullto them--i.e. " oon.sidered them- It appears by the present passage, compared kept them in his mind-did not permit them with ver. 22, that, during the lifetime of to slip out of his recollection "-beoa11Se his father, Benha.dad had led expeditions of his covenant with Allraham, Isaac, and into the l&nd of Israel, acting o.s his father's .Taoob. God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, representative and genera.I, and had ma.de and Jacob was a covenant of mercy. By it himself ma.ster of several Israelite towns. he had pledged himself to multiply tlieir These were now recovered by· Jehoash, seed, to be their God, and the God of their They lay probably in the Cis-Jorda.nic terri- aeed after them, and to give to their seed tory.· Three times did .ToB.Bh beat him, and the whole land of Cana.a.n for a.n e'Derlasting recovered the cities of Israel ( comp. var. posseasi.on (Gen. xvii. 4-8, et.c.). This 19). Thrice defeated, Haza.al was forced to covenant bound him to extend his protec- abandon his conquests in Western Samaria. tion over the people of Israel so long as they He retained, however, the trane-J ordanio had not utterly and entirely ca.,;t off their territory, which wa.e not recovered by the allegiance (comp. eh. xvii 7-18). And Isra.elitee till the reign of J eroboa.m II. (see wonld DOt destroy them. They were " per- oh. xi. V. 25), secuted, but not foraa.ken; cast doWD, but