2 Kings 13

2Ki 13:1-7.

JEHOAHAZ'S

WICKED

REIGN OVER

ISRAEL.

1-3. Jehoahaz . . . reigned seventeen years--Under his government,

which pursued the policy of his predecessors regarding the support of

the calf-worship, Israel's apostasy from the true God became greater

and more confirmed than in the time of his father Jehu. The national

chastisement, when it came, was consequently the more severe and the

instruments employed by the Lord in scourging the revolted nation were

Hazael and his son and general Ben-hadad, in resisting whose successive

invasions the Israelitish army was sadly reduced and weakened. In the

extremity of his distress, Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and was heard,

not on his own account

(Ps 66:18;

Pr 1:28; 15:8),

but that of the ancient covenant with the patriarchs

(2Ki 13:23).

4. he saw the oppression of Israel--that is, commiserated the fallen

condition of His chosen people. The divine honor and the interests of

true religion required that deliverance should be granted them to check

the triumph of the idolatrous enemy and put an end to their blasphemous

taunts that God had forsaken Israel

(De 32:27;

Ps 12:4).

5. a saviour--This refers neither to some patriotic defender nor some

signal victory, but to the deliverance obtained for Israel by the two

successors of Jehoahaz, namely, Joash, who regained all the cities

which the Syrians had taken from his father

(2Ki 13:25);

and Jeroboam, who restored the former boundaries of Israel

(2Ki 14:25).

6. there remained the grove--Asherah--the idol set up by Ahab

(1Ki 16:33),

which ought to have been demolished

(De 7:5).

7. made them like the dust in threshing--Threshing in the East is

performed in the open air upon a level plot of ground, daubed over with

a covering to prevent, as much as possible, the earth, sand, or gravel

from rising; a great quantity of them all, notwithstanding this

precaution, must unavoidably be taken up with the grain; at the same

time the straw is shattered to pieces. Hence it is a most significant

figure, frequently employed by Orientals to describe a state of

national suffering, little short of extermination

(Isa 21:10;

Mic 4:12;

Jer 51:33).

The figure originated in a barbarous war custom, which Hazael literally

followed

(Am 1:3, 4;

compare

2Sa 18:31;

Jud 8:7).

2Ki 13:8-25.

JOASH

SUCCEEDS

HIM.

8. his might--This is particularly noticed in order to show that the

grievous oppression from foreign enemies, by which the Israelites were

ground down, was not owing to the cowardice or imbecility of their

king, but solely to the righteous and terrible judgment of God for

their foul apostasy.

12, 13. his might wherewith he fought against

Amaziah--(See on

2Ki 14:8-14).

The usual summary of his life and reign occurs rather early, and is

again repeated in the account given of the reign of the king of Judah

(2Ki 14:15).

14-19. Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died--Every

man's death is occasioned by some disease, and so was Elisha's. But in

intimating it, there seems a contrast tacitly made between him and his

prophetic predecessor, who did not die.

Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face--He

visited him where he was lying ill of this mortal sickness, and

expressed deep sorrow, not from the personal respect he bore for the

prophet, but for the incalculable loss his death would occasion to the

kingdom.

my father, my father!

&c.--(See on

2Ki 2:12).

These words seem to have been a complimentary phrase applied to one who

was thought an eminent guardian and deliverer of his country. The

particular application of them to Elisha, who, by his counsels and

prayer, had obtained many glorious victories for Israel, shows that the

king possessed some measure of faith and trust, which, though weak, was

accepted, and called forth the prophet's dying benediction.

15-18. Take bow and arrows--Hostilities were usually proclaimed by

a herald, sometimes by a king or general making a public and formal

discharge of an arrow into the enemy's country. Elisha directed Joash

to do this, as a symbolical act, designed to intimate more fully and

significantly the victories promised to the king of Israel over the

Syrians. His laying his hands upon the king's hands was to represent

the power imparted to the bow shot as coming from the Lord through the

medium of the prophet. His shooting the first arrow eastward--to that

part of his kingdom which the Syrians had taken and which was east of

Samaria--was a declaration of war against them for the invasion. His

shooting the other arrows into the ground was in token of the number of

victories he was taken to gain; but his stopping at the third betrayed

the weakness of his faith; for, as the discharged arrow signified a

victory over the Syrians, it is evident that the more arrows he shot

the more victories he would gain. As he stopped so soon, his conquests

would be incomplete.

20, 21. Elisha died--He had enjoyed a happier life than Elijah, as he

possessed a milder character, and bore a less hard commission. His

rough garment was honored even at the court.

coming in of the year--that is, the spring, the usual season of

beginning campaigns in ancient times. Predatory bands from Moab

generally made incursions at that time on the lands of Israel. The

bearers of a corpse, alarmed by the appearance of one of these bands,

hastily deposited, as they passed that way, their load in Elisha's

sepulchre, which might be easily done by removing the stone at the

mouth of the cave. According to the Jewish and Eastern custom, his

body, as well as that of the man who was miraculously restored, was not

laid in a coffin, but only swathed; so that the bodies could be brought

into contact, and the object of the miracle was to stimulate the king's

and people of Israel's faith in the still unaccomplished predictions of

Elisha respecting the war with the Syrians. Accordingly the historian

forthwith records the historical fulfilment of the prediction

(2Ki 13:22-25),

in the defeat of the enemy, in the recovery of the cities that had been

taken, and their restoration to the kingdom of Israel.