2 Kings 6:12

when one of them drops his axe into the water, which Elisha causes to swim, 2Kgs 6:1-7. Elisha, understanding all the secret designs of the king of Syria against Israel, informs the king of Israel of them, 2Kgs 6:8-10. The king of Syria, finding that Elisha had thus penetrated his secrets and frustrated his attempts, sends a great host to Dothan, to take the prophet; the Lord strikes them with blindness; and Elisha leads the whole host to Samaria, and delivers them up to the king of Israel, 2Kgs 6:11-19. The Lord opens their eyes, and they see their danger, 2Kgs 6:20. But the king of Israel is prevented from destroying them; and, at the order of the prophet, gives them meat and drink, and dismisses them to their master, 2Kgs 6:21-23. Ben-hadad besieges Samaria, and reduces the city to great distress, of which several instances are given, 2Kgs 6:24-30. The king of Israel vows the destruction of Elisha, and sends to have him beheaded, 2Kgs 6:31-33. Verse 1 The place - is too strait for us - Notwithstanding the general profligacy of Israel, the schools of the prophets increased. This was no doubt owing to the influence of Elisha. Verse 2 Every man a beam - They made a sort of log-houses with their own hands. Verse 5 Alas, master! for it was borrowed - אהה אדני והוא שאול ahah adonia, vehu shaul! Ah! ah, my master; and it has been sought. It has fallen in, and I have sought it in vain. Or, it was borrowed, and therefore I am the more afflicted for its loss; and Jarchi adds, I have nothing wherewith to repay it. Verse 6 He cut down a stick - This had no natural tendency to raise the iron; it was only a sign or ceremony which the prophet chose to use on the occasion. The iron did swim - This was a real miracle; for the gravity of the metal must have for ever kept it at the bottom of the water. Verse 8 The king of Syria warred against Israel - This was probably the same Ben-hadad who is mentioned 2Kgs 6:24. What was the real or pretended cause of this war we cannot tell; but we may say, in numberless war cases, as Calmet says in this: "An ambitious and restless prince always finds a sufficiency of reasons to color his enterprises." In such and such a place - The Syrian king had observed, from the disposition of the Israelitish army, in what direction it was about to make its movements; and therefore laid ambuscades where he might surprise it to the greatest advantage. Verse 9 Beware that thou pass not such a place - Elisha must have had this information by immediate revelation from heaven. Verse 10 Sent to the place - To see if it were so. But the Vulgate gives it quite a different turn: Misit rex Israel ad locum, et praeoccupavit eum. The king of Israel sent previously to the place, and took possession of it; and thus the Syrians were disappointed. This is very likely, though it is not expressed in the Hebrew text. The prophet knew the Syrians marked such a place; he told the king of Israel, and he hastened and sent a party of troops to pre-occupy it; and thus the Syrians found that their designs had been detected. Verse 13 Behold, he is in Dothan - This is supposed to be the same place as that mentioned in Gen 37:17. It lay about twelve miles from Samaria. Verse 14 He sent thither horses - It is strange he did not think that he who could penetrate his secrets with respect to the Israelitish army, could inform himself of all his machinations against his own life. Verse 16 For they that be with us are more, etc. - What astonishing intercourse had this man with heaven! It seems the whole heavenly host had it in commission to help him. Verse 17 Lord - open his eyes - Where is heaven? Is it not above, beneath, around us? And were our eyes open as were those of the prophet's servant, we should see the heavenly host in all directions. The horses and chariots of fire were there, before the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened. Verse 18 Smite this people - with blindness - Confound their sight so that they may not know what they see, and so mistake one place for another. Verse 19 I will bring you to the man whom ye seek - And he did so; he was their guide to Samaria, and showed himself to them fully in that city. Verse 20 Open the eyes of these men - Take away their confusion of vision, that they may discern things as they are, and distinguish where they are. Verse 21 My father, shall I smite - This was dastardly; the utmost he could have done with these men, when thus brought into his hand, was to make them prisoners of war. Verse 22 Whom thou hast taken captive - Those who in open battle either lay down their arms, or are surrounded, and have their retreat cut off, are entitled to their lives, much more those who are thus providentially put into thy hand, without having been in actual hostility against thee. Give them meat and drink, and send them home to their master, and let them thus know that thou fearest him not, and art incapable of doing an ungenerous or unmanly action. Verse 23 He prepared great provision for them - These, on the return to their master, could tell him strange things about the power of the God of Israel, and the magnanimity of its king. So the bands of Syria came no more - Marauding parties were no more permitted by the Syrian king to make inroads upon Israel. And it is very likely that for some considerable time after this, there was no war between these two nations. What is mentioned in the next verse was more than a year afterwards. Verse 25 And, behold, they besieged it - They had closed it in on every side, and reduced it to the greatest necessity. An ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver - I suppose we are to take the ass's head literally; and if the head sold for so much, what must other parts sell for which were much to be preferred? The famine must be great that could oblige them to eat any part of an animal that was proscribed by the law; and it must be still greater that could oblige them to purchase so mean a part of this unclean animal at so high a price. The piece of silver was probably the drachm, worth about seven pence three farthings of our money; the whole amounting to about two pounds nine shillings. And the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung - The cab was about a quart or three pints. Dove's dung, חריונים chiriyonim. Whether this means pigeon's dung literally, or a kind of pulse, has been variously disputed by learned men. After having written much upon the subject, illustrated with quotations from east, west, north, and south, I choose to spare my reader the trouble of wading through them, and shall content myself with asserting that it is probable a sort of pease are meant, which the Arabs to this day call by this name. "The garvancos, cicer, or chick pea," says Dr. Shaw, "has been taken for the pigeon's dung, mentioned in the siege of Samaria; and as the cicer is pointed at one end, and acquires an ash color in parching, the first of which circumstances answers to the figure, the second to the usual color of dove's dung, the supposition is by no means to be disregarded." I should not omit saying that dove's dung is of great value in the East, for its power in producing cucumbers, melons, etc., which has induced many learned men to take the words literally. Bochart has exhausted this subject, and concludes that a kind of pulse is meant. Most learned men are of his opinion. Verse 27 If the Lord do not help thee - Some read this as an imprecation, May God save thee not! how can I save thee? Verse 29 So we boiled my son - This is horrible; but for the sake of humanity we must allow that the children died through hunger, and then became food for their starved, desperate parents. She hath hid her son - He was already dead, says Jarchi; and she hid him, that she might eat him alone. This very evil Moses had foretold should come upon them if they forsook God; see Deu 28:53-57. The same evil came upon this wretched people when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; see Eze 5:10. And also when Titus besieged Jerusalem; see Josephus, De Bell. Judaic. lib. vi., cap. 3, and my notes on Mat 24:19. Verse 30 He had sackcloth within upon his flesh - The king was in deep mourning for the distresses of the people. Verse 31 If the head of Elisha - shall stand on him - Either he attributed these calamities to the prophet, or else he thought he could remove them, and yet would not. The miserable king was driven to desperation. Verse 32 This son of a murderer - Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel. But Ahab is called a murderer because of the murder of Naboth. Shut the door - He was obliged to make use of this method for his personal safety, as the king was highly incensed. The sound of his master's feet behind him? - That is, King Jehoram is following his messenger, that he may see him take off my head. Verse 33 Behold, this evil is of the Lord - It is difficult to know whether it be the prophet, the messenger, or the king, that says these words. It might be the answer of the prophet from within to the messenger who was without, and who sought for admission, and gave his reason; to whom Elisha might have replied: "I am not the cause of these calamities; they are from the Lord; I have been praying for their removal; but why should I pray to the Lord any longer, for the time of your deliverance is at hand?" And then Elisha said, - see the following chapter, 2 Kings 7 (note), where the removal of the calamity is foretold in the most explicit manner; and indeed the chapter is unhappily divided from this. The seventh chapter should have begun with 2Kgs 6:24 of this chapter, as, by the present division, the story is unnaturally interrupted. How natural is it for men to lay the cause of their suffering on any thing or person but themselves! Ahab's iniquity was sufficient to have brought down God's displeasure on a whole nation; and yet he takes no blame to himself, but lays all on the prophet, who was the only salt that preserved the whole nation from corruption. How few take their sins to themselves! and till they do this, they cannot be true penitents; nor can they expect God's wrath to be averted till they feel themselves the chief of sinners. Introduction Elisha foretells abundant relief to the besieged inha

The Syrians Ensnared; the Syrians Generously Liberated. ( b. c. 893.) 8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. Here we have Elisha, with his spirit of prophecy, serving the king, as before helping the sons of the prophets; for that, as other gifts, is given to every man to profit withal; and, whatever abilities any man has of doing good, he is by them made a debtor both to the wise and unwise. Observe here, I. How the king of Israel was informed by Elisha of all the designs and motions of his enemy, the king of Syria, more effectually than he could have been by the most vigilant and faithful spies. If the king of Syria, in a secret council of war, determined in which place to make an inroad upon the coasts of Israel, where he thought it would be the greatest surprise and they would be least able to make resistance, before his forces could receive his orders the king of Israel had notice of them from Elisha, and so had opportunity of preventing the mischief; and many a time, v. 8-10 . See here, 1. That the enemies of God's Israel are politic in their devices, and restless in their attempts, against him. They shall not know, nor see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, Neh. iv. 11 . 2. All those devices are known to God, even those that are deepest laid. He knows not only what men do, but what they design, and has many ways of countermining them. 3. It is a great advantage to us to be warned of our danger, that we may stand upon our guard against it. The work of God's prophets is to give us warning; if, being warned, we do not save ourselves, it is our own fault, and our blood will be upon our own head. The king of Israel would regard the warnings Elisha gave him of his danger by the Syrians, but not the warnings he gave him of his danger by his sins. Such warnings are little heeded by the most; they will save themselves from death, but not from hell. II. How the king of Syria resented this. He suspected treachery among his senators, and that his counsels were betrayed, v. 11 . But one of his servants, that had heard, by Naaman and others, of Elisha's wondrous works, concludes it must needs be he that gave this intelligence to the king of Israel, v. 12 . What could not he discover who could tell Gehazi his thoughts? Here a confession of the boundless knowledge, as before of the boundless power, of Israel's God, is extorted from Syrians. Nothing done, said, thought, by any person, in any place, at any time, is out of the reach of God's cognizance.