Making the axe head float
6
📚And the sons of the prophets 📖 said to Elisha, “Now look, the place where we are living with you is too small for us. 2 📚Please let us go to the Jordan, and each man take a beam from there, and let us make a place for ourselves there, where we can live”. And he answered, “Go”.3 📚And one of them said, “Please be willing to go with your servants”. And he answered, “I will go”.
4 📚So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 📚But as one of them was felling a tree, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed 📖”.
6 📚And the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and threw it in there, and the iron floated up. 7 📚So he said, “Lift it out for yourself”. And he stretched out his hand and took it.
6:6-7 Through the prophet God showed His concern for even small matters which affected His servants. Compare Matt 10:30.⚜
Capturing the Arameans
8 📚Then the king of Syria was at war against Israel, and he took counsel with his servants, saying, “My camp will be in such and such a place”.
9 📚And the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass that place, for the Syrians have come down there 📖”. 10 📚And the king of Israel sent men to the place about which the man of God had told him and warned him, and saved himself there, not once or twice.
11 📚Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled about this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?”
6:11 The king thought there was a traitor in their midst sending information to Israel.⚜
12 📚And one of his servants said, “No one, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom”.
13 📚And he said, “Go and find out where he is, so that I can send men and bring him”. And it was told him as follows: “See, he is in Dothan”. 14 📚Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a large army there, and they came at night and surrounded the city.
15 📚And when the servant of the man of God rose early and went out, he saw an army surrounding the city with both horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
16 📚And he answered, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more 📖 than those who are with them”.
17 📚And Elisha prayed and said, “LORD, I pray you, open his eyes, so that he can see”. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he looked and saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 📖 around Elisha.
18 📚And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, “I pray you, strike this people with blindness”. And he struck them with blindness 📖 in accordance with the word of Elisha.
19 📚And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man for whom you are looking”. But he led them to Samaria.
20 📚And it came about, when they came into Samaria, that Elisha said, “LORD, open the eyes of these men, so that they can see”. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they looked and saw that they were in the middle of Samaria. 21 📚And when he saw them, the king of Israel said to Elisha, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?”
22 📚And he answered, “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you take captive with your sword and with your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master”. 23 📚And he prepared a great feast for them. And when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria no longer came into the land of Israel.
6:22-23 The purpose of Elisha’s actions was not to destroy these men, but to prove to them that God was defending Israel. For the time being they learned their lesson.⚜
Israel’s war with Ben-Hadad and a miraculous deliverance
24 📚But after this 📖 it happened that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 📚And there was a great famine in Samaria, and, see, they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth of a kab 📖 of dove’s dung 📖 for five pieces of silver.
6:25 Eighty shekels equals about one kilogram. In times of famine there are usually those who make profit from the suffering of others and in this way show the baseness of their character.⚜
26 📚And as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king”.
27 📚And he said, “If the Lord does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the barn floor or from the winepress?” 28 📚And the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son so that we can eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 📚So we boiled my son and ate him. And the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son so that we can eat him.’ And she has hidden her son”.
6:28-29 God told them such things would happen if they did not obey Him. See Lev 26:27-29; Deut 28:52-57.⚜
30 📚And when the king heard the words of the woman, it came about that he tore his clothes, and he passed by on the wall, and the people looked and there inside he had sackcloth 📖 on his body. 31 📚Then he said, “May God do harm to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today”.
6:31 Compare 1 Kings 18:10, 16; 1 Kings 21:20. Elisha by his prayers, walk with God, and counsel to the king (2 Kings 6:9-10) was the greatest human protector of the kingdom. It was madness for the king to blame him for something that resulted from the unbelief and disobedience of himself and the people. Such is fallen human nature. And such has been and still is the experience of many of God’s servants.⚜
32 📚But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man from his presence, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”
33 📚And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger coming down to him. And the king said, “Look, this disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer 📖?”