Matthew Henry

The king asked them, “What sort of man came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?”

“He that was a thorn in Ahab's eyes will be so in the eyes of his son while he treads in the steps of his father's wickedness; and he is ready to cry out, as his father did, Hast thou found me, O my enemy?”

Then King Ahaziah sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men.

“It was not long since Elijah had fetched fire from heaven, to consume the sacrifice ( 1 Kings xvii.”

Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.”

“Concerning the work of my hands, command you me, Isa. xiv. What an interest heaven had in the prophets!”

So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. And the third captain went up, fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, “Man of God, may…

“God is not so severe with those that stand it out against him but he is as ready to show mercy to those that repent and submit to him; never any found it in vain to cast themselves upon the mercy of God.”

And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the LORD says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word?

“So thunder-struck is Ahaziah with this message, when it comes from the prophet's own mouth, that neither he nor any of those about him durst offer him any violence, nor so much as give him an affront; but out of that den of lions he…”

Shortly before the LORD took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal,

“He looked forward to the evangelical dispensation, and, in the translation of Elijah, gave a type and figure of the ascension of Christ and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.”

and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.”

“Note, Those that are going to heaven themselves ought to be concerned for those they leave behind them on earth, and to leave with them their experiences, testimonies, counsels, and prayers, 2 Pet. i.”

And Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and to the left, so that the two of them crossed over on…

“When God will take up his faithful ones to heaven death is the Jordan which, immediately before their translation, they must pass through, and they find a way through it, as safe and comfortable way; the death of Christ has divided those waters, that the…”

Elisha also picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

“Elisha took it up, not as a sacred relic to be worshipped, but as a significant garment to be worn, and a recompence to him for his own garments which he had rent.”

Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked.

“Jordan was between him and them; it had been divided to make way for Elijah to his glory; he will try whether it will divide to make way for him to his business, and by that he will know that God is with him, and…”

When the sons of the prophets who were facing him from Jericho saw what had happened, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”

“They were trained up in the schools; Elisha was taken from the plough; yet when they perceived that God was with him, and that this was the man whom he delighted to honour, they readily submitted to him as their head and father, as the…”

“Look now,” they said to Elisha, “we your servants have fifty valiant men. Please let them go and search for your master.

“Some of them perhaps started this as a demurrer to the choice of Elisha: "Let us first be sure that Elijah has quite gone.”

But when they pressed him to the point of embarrassment, he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find Elijah.

“They urged him till he was ashamed to oppose it any further lest he should be thought wanting in his respect to his old master or loth to resign the mantle again.”

When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

“Some reckon them in number just double. Two are recorded in these verses--a miracle of mercy to Jericho and a miracle of judgment to Bethel, Ps. ci. Here is a blessing upon the waters of Jericho, which was effectual to heal them.”

Then he turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD.

“He knew what a generation of vipers those were, and what mischievous enemies they would be to God's prophets if they should live to be men, who began so early to be abusive to them.”

Nevertheless, he clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.

“He departed not therefrom, because that was the state engine by which the division between the two tribes was supported.”

Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he would render to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.

“Taxes were then paid not so much in money as in the commodities of the country, which was an ease to the subject, whether it was an advantage to the prince or no.”

But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here? Let us inquire of the LORD through him.”

“Probably it was such a servant as Obadiah was to his father Ahab, one that feared the Lord; to such a one Elisha made himself known, not to the kings.”

Then Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD of Hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not for my regard for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I…

“He composed himself to receive instructions from God. His mind was somewhat ruffled and disturbed at the sight of Jehoram; though he was not put into a sinful heat or passion, nor had spoken unadvisedly, yet his zeal for the present indisposed him for prayer…”

and he said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Dig this valley full of ditches.’

“God is not tied to second causes. Ordinarily it is by a plentiful rain that God confirms his inheritance ( Ps. lxviii. 9 ), but here it is done without rain, at least without rain in that place.”

“This is blood!” they exclaimed. “The kings have clashed swords and slaughtered one another. Now to the plunder, Moab!”

“Quod volumus facile credimus--What we wish we readily believe. Thus those that are to be destroyed are first deceived ( Rev. xx. 8 ), and none are so effectually deceived as those that deceive themselves.”

So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall.

“This failing, he did that which was brutish and barbarous; he took his own son, his eldest son, that was to succeed him, than whom nothing could be more dear to himself and his people, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall,”

So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall.

“He designed by this, (1.) To obtain the favour of Chemosh his god, which, being a devil, delighted in blood and murder, and the destruction of mankind.”

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD.

“She was a prophet's widow; to whom therefore should she apply, but to him that was a father to the sons of the prophets, and concerned himself in the welfare of their families?”

“Go,” said Elisha, “borrow jars, even empty ones, from all your neighbors. Do not gather just a few.

“She must shut the door, to prevent interruptions from the creditors, and others while it was in the doing, that they might not seem proudly to boast of this miraculous supply, and that they might have opportunity for prayer and praise to God upon this…”