2 Kingschapter 13
25 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. And as soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet.
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 2 Kings Overview.
This chapter shows the northern kingdom at its lowest point under two kings of Jehu's line, and it records the last acts of Elisha. Its first hearers could count what their army had shrunk to, and they knew that relief from Aram came through the wars of Assyria. Listen for God's compassion, given for the sake of the fathers, in a chapter full of ruin. Listen also for a king who is handed a promise and asks for less than he could have had. The last sign in the chapter comes after the prophet has died.
Context
- Who
- Israelites whose national defence had been ground down to almost nothing
- What
- An account of two kings of Jehu's line under pressure from Aram, and of Elisha's last sign and his death.
- Where
- Samaria, the lands Hazael had taken, Elisha's sickbed, and a burial ground in Israel.
- When
- Jehoahaz, 814 to 798 BC, and Jehoash of Israel, 798 to 782 BC.
- Why
- To show God's compassion on Israel for the sake of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even in its lowest years.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to two kings of Jehu's house, Jehoahaz and his son Jehoash, and to Elisha in the last days of a ministry that had run since Elijah was taken. The years are 814 to 782 BC on Thiele's reckoning.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The place is Samaria and the territory Hazael had taken, with the closing scene at the prophet's own sickbed. The occasion is a kingdom under Aramean pressure for a whole reign.
A first hearer measured the collapse in equipment. Fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers was what remained, where Ahab had put two thousand chariots into the field at Qarqar about sixty years earlier. The text says Hazael had made them like the dust at threshing.
The deliverer God sends is unnamed in the chapter, and the historical candidate is Adad-nirari III of Assyria, whose campaigns against Damascus around 796 BC broke Aramean power in the region. His own inscription found at Tell al-Rimah names Joash of Samaria among the kings who paid him tribute, so the relief came through a great power pursuing its own interests. The commentators read the same verse of the man named at the end of the chapter, which is set out in the chapter's study row.
The Asherah pole still standing in Samaria through all of this is noted in passing. It was a wooden cult object representing a Canaanite goddess, and its survival through a national catastrophe says how settled the mixed worship had become.
A first hearer read the deathbed scene as a prophetic sign act. The king's hands go on the bow with the prophet's hands over them. The arrow is shot east, which is the direction of the lost Transjordan territory, and the number of blows on the ground is the number of victories. The burial at the end works the same way, since rock-cut family tombs were reopened to add later bodies. Moabite raiders came at the turn of the year, when the roads dried and the grain stood.
Significance
The first hearers heard something surprising in a chapter about ruin. The LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would not destroy them yet.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They also heard the sharpest lesson in the book about half-hearted asking. The king had a promise in his hands and struck three times, and the limit on the victory was set by the man holding the arrows.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus keeps six notes on this chapter, the fewest of any chapter of 1 to 13, all of them Rashi in the Metsudah Tanach translation of Lakewood, New Jersey, under a CC-BY licence, and it carries eighteen linked notes against them. Two of the six are worth a reader's whole attention, because in them the classical commentary shows its own working and admits its own limit.
The first is at the accession notice, and it is the plainest statement of difficulty in the classical material on this half of the book. Rashi says the verse is contradicted from two sides and that he has not found a reconciliation. He then sets out both sides. The number should have been the thirty-ninth year, because the father came to the throne in the twenty-third year of the southern king and reigned seventeen years. And the notice at the head of the next chapter, which dates the southern king's son to the second year of this northern king, would put this accession in the fortieth year, which was the last. He works the alternative through and concludes that either way the northern king did not begin before the thirty-ninth year (Rashi on II Kings 13:10:1). A reader who meets the modern question of whether the regnal numbers of Kings add up should know that the tradition met it first, at this verse, and wrote down that it had no answer.
The second is a reading about how the book is arranged. Rashi asks why the two verses about the king's death and his son's succession stand here, when the narrative goes on with that same king's deeds and then repeats the same two notices at the next chapter. He answers that they were written here for the sole purpose of causing a break, so that the death of Elisha would not be set immediately beside a verse about idolatry, and the Metsudah footnote gives Radak's alternative, that the verses mark a coregency of two years (Rashi on II Kings 13:13:1). On Rashi's reading the compiler moved a regnal notice to protect a prophet's death from bad company, which is an observation about editing rather than about history.
The other four notes are short. The saviour God gave Israel Rashi identifies as the king himself, pointing forward to the promise of three victories later in the chapter (Rashi on II Kings 13:5:1). The window opened eastward Rashi explains by the direction of Syria, citing Isaiah for the phrase that places it in the east (Rashi on II Kings 13:17:1). The prophet's rebuke about the arrows Rashi reads as a statement of what should have been done (Rashi on II Kings 13:19:1). The raiding bands at the end of the chapter Rashi reads as a regular practice, and the Metsudah footnote fixes the timing and the contrast, that this was after Elisha's death, because while he lived no Aramean dared to invade, pointing back to the chapter where the captives were fed and sent home (Rashi on II Kings 13:20:1).
Eighteen further notes stand on this chapter with no English text in the corpus and are cited here unquoted, which is the largest linked set in this half of the book. They are Metzudat David on II Kings 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:4:1, 13:8:1, 13:18:1, 13:23:1 and 13:24:1, Radak on II Kings 13:1:1, 13:6:1, 13:7:1, 13:12:1, 13:14:1, 13:16:1 and 13:21:1, and Malbim on II Kings 13:2:1, 13:15:1, 13:22:1 and 13:25:1. The man thrown into Elisha's grave who stood up on touching the bones, at the twenty-first verse, carries a linked note of Radak and no kept text, so the classical commentary on the last of the sixteen miracles has to be followed out through that link and through the rabbinic locators below.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-two Midrash and eight Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The reduction of the army to fifty horsemen and ten chariots draws nine, the heaviest anchor in the chapter after the prophet's death. They are Aggadat Bereshit 39:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:13, Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 8:3 at verses 7 and 8 together, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:21:24, Pesachim 87b:2, Pesikta Rabbati 11:1, Shemot Rabbah 25:8, Sifrei Devarim 47:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 872:1. The succession draws Seder Olam Rabbah 19:2.
The sickness and death of Elisha draw nine more, and they concentrate in the same tractates that carry the bears at Bethel in chapter 2 and Gehazi in chapters 5 to 8, so the tradition reads the prophet's end beside the two episodes it holds him accountable in. They are Bava Metzia 87a:15, Bava Metzia 87a:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Metzia 7:29, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:108, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:109, Ein Yaakov, Bava Metzia 7:25, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 9:8, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:26 and Sanhedrin 107b:16. The arrow shot eastward draws Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:51:4.
The man raised at the touch of the bones draws eight, Chullin 7b:10, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 1:3, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 1:6, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 6:15, Kohelet Rabbah 8:10:1, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 33:1:5, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 47:30:2 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:31:10. Two of those expound Jacob's charge about his own burial, and the first two are the same locators that carry the double portion at chapter 2, which is where the tradition counts the miracles of Elisha and finds this one the sixteenth.
The oppression by Syria and the mercy that held draw the last eleven. Aggadat Bereshit 10:2 and Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 5:7 stand over verses 22 and 23 together, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:3 and Shabbat 55a:14 at the twenty-second. The verse about the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob draws Aggadat Bereshit 30:1, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:1:14, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 32:21:2, Vayikra Rabbah 36:6, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 168:2, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 763:14 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:12, and that run is the largest body of rabbinic material on any single verse in this half of the book. A reader who wants to know what the tradition makes of God keeping a people He is judging has those seven to work from. One further locator, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:17, the corpus files at a reference past the end of this chapter, and it is printed here as the corpus prints it. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Kings 13:5:1, 13:10:1, 13:13:1, 13:17:1, 13:19:1 and 13:20:1, six notes, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Kings 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:4:1, 13:8:1, 13:18:1, 13:23:1 and 13:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on II Kings 13:1:1, 13:6:1, 13:7:1, 13:12:1, 13:14:1, 13:16:1 and 13:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; and reported inside the Metsudah footnotes at 13:13:1 and 13:20:1; Malbim, Malbim on II Kings 13:2:1, 13:15:1, 13:22:1 and 13:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-kings/13.json, the 40 rabbinic locators of this chapter, 32 Midrash and 8 Talmud.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jehoahaz left fifty horsemen: and a savior sent anyway
2 Kings 13:1-3
Jehoahaz son of Jehu: Jehu's dynasty had been promised four generations on the throne, and his son Jehoahaz opens that promise by walking the road Jeroboam laid down. The narrator names the sin before the punishment: the anger of the LORD delivers Israel into the hand of Hazael for the whole reign.
2 Kings 13:1
“In this chapter the history of the kingdom of Israel is traced through the two reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash. In 2 Kings 14 the history of Judah is resumed. In the three and twentieth year - Rather, the “one and twentieth year.” See 2Ki 13:10.”
followed the sins that Jeroboam: Jehoahaz keeps the calf worship at Bethel and Dan that Jeroboam set up and his father Jehu left standing. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown held that when he prayed, the LORD heard him on account of the ancient covenant with the patriarchs. His record gave no ground for an answer.
2 Kings 13:2
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... Committed idolatry: and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; worshipping the golden calves: he departed not therefrom; from the worship of them.”
delivered them continually: The Berean's continually stands for a phrase that Albert Barnes rendered literally as all the days. Barnes limited it to the days of Jehoahaz, as verse 22 puts it, or to the days of Hazael, whose armies Ben-hadad sometimes led. Ben-hadad later lost the cities to Jehoash at verse 25.
2 Kings 13:3
“All their days - literally, “all the days.” Not “all the days” of the two Syrian kings, for Ben-hadad lost to Joash all the cities which he had gained from Jehoahaz 2Ki 13:25; but either “all the days of Jehoahaz” 2Ki 13:22, or “all the days of Hazael” - both while he led his own armies, and while they were led by his son.”
2 Kings 13:4-6
Jehoahaz sought the favor of the LORD: Under Hazael's oppression Jehoahaz prays, and “the LORD gave Israel a deliverer”, whom Gill and the older commentators identify as Joash. Israel kept “the sins that the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit,” and Ahab's Asherah pole still stood. Mercy answers the cry, and the reform never comes.
2 Kings 13:4
“In the extremity of his distress, Jehoahaz besought the Lord, and was heard, not on his own account (Ps 66:18; 15:8), but that of the ancient covenant with the patriarchs (2Ki 13:23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
lived in their own homes: The King James wording has the people dwelling in their tents, and Albert Barnes points to the same phrase at 1 Kings 8:66. Barnes read their escape as the end of Aramean oppression and a return to full independence. Gill glossed the homes as places of peace and safety.
2 Kings 13:5
“And the Lord gave Israel a saviour,.... Not an angel sent by him, nor a captain raised up among them, nor the prophet Elisha, who predicted their deliverance, nor Jehoahaz himself, but his son Joash, 2Ki 13:25. so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; were not in subjection to them, nor harassed by them, nor in fear of them: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as before time; in peace and safety.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 13:5
“The Lord gave Israel a saviour - Not immediately on the repentance of Jehoahaz but after his death (see 2Ki 13:25). They went out from under the hand of the Syrians - i. e. they ceased to be oppressed by the Syrians; they shook off their yoke, and became once more perfectly independent. Tents - See 1Ki 8:66 note.”
The Asherah pole even remained: Adam Clarke named the goddess behind the pole as Asherah, or Astarte, still worshipped in Samaria. John Gill noted Jehu destroyed Baal and left Ahab's pole standing, and his son did the same. The Syriac and Arabic versions, Gill adds, read the first clause as he did not turn away.
2 Kings 13:6
“Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, but walked therein,.... Continued to worship the calves still, which was an instance of great ingratitude; the Syriac and Arabic versions read, "he departed not"; Jehoahaz the king: and there remained the grove in Samaria; which Ahab made there, 1Ki 16:33, neither Jehu nor his son had it cut down, though Baal was destroyed.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 13:6
“The grove also in Samaria - Asherah, or Astarte, remained in Samaria, and there was she worshipped, with all her abominable rites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
except fifty horsemen, ten chariots: Hazael's oppression is measured in a single ruined army: “fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers” left, “like the dust at threshing”. Barnes reads the threshing figure as more than metaphor, the literal use of the threshing instrument on captives that 2 Sam 12:31 also records.
2 Kings 13:7
“The meaning is that “he, the king of Syria” (2Ki 13:4 Hazael) limited the standing army of Jehoahaz. Like the dust by threshing - An expression not only employed metaphorically, and importing defeat, conquest, and grinding oppression Jer 51:33; Mic 4:12, but implying also the literal use of threshing-instruments in the execution of prisoners of war (marginal reference, and compare 2Sa 12:31).”
2 Kings 13:8-9
the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz: The text spends no more ink on a king who prayed once and reformed nothing. Joash his son succeeds him, the deliverer promised at verse 5 not yet named but already on the throne. The pattern holds across the whole book: mercy is granted, and the throne passes on unchanged.
2 Kings 13:8
“Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might,.... Which he exerted against the Syrians, being a man of courage, though not successful, because the Lord was not with him, but against him: are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? where their acts, and the events of their reigns, were recorded.”
was buried in Samaria: John Gill counted Jehoahaz among the kings of Israel buried in Samaria from Omri on. The son who succeeds him, Jehoash, receives only a short account in the verses that follow, in Gill's words. He is the third generation of Jehu's line on the throne.
2 Kings 13:9
“And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers,.... Died, as they did: and they buried him in Samaria; where Omri, and all the kings of Israel, that descended from him, were buried: and Joash his son reigned in his stead; of whom a short account is given in the following verses.”
Jehoash of Israel and the sins that would not die
2 Kings 13:10-13
Jehoash son of Jehoahaz: Jehoash inherits his father's sin along with his father's throne: the same refusal to turn from Jeroboam's way. Verse 13 has “Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne” before the narrative has told Jehoash's own acts. The book often names the next king before it finishes the last one's story.
2 Kings 13:10
“In the thirty and seventh year - Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was associated with his father in the government two years before his death. It is this association that is spoken of here. He succeeded him two years after, a little before the death of Elisha. Joash reigned sixteen years, which include the years he governed conjointly with his father. - Calmet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
did not turn away from all: The verdict on Jehoash repeats the verdict on his father at verse 2 almost word for word. Adam Clarke, following Calmet, counts his sixteen years as including a co-regency, the son sharing his father's government for two years before Jehoahaz died. The whole reign stands under one verdict.
2 Kings 13:11
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,.... As his father did, and his character is described in the same words, see 2Ki 13:2.”
his war against Amaziah king of Judah: Adam Clarke points to the full account at 2 Chronicles 25. Jehoash defeated Amaziah, entered Jerusalem, broke down four hundred cubits of its wall and carried off treasures of the palace and the house of God. Amaziah was later killed in a conspiracy at Lachish.
2 Kings 13:12
“Wherewith he fought against Amaziah - This war with Amaziah may be seen in ample detail 2 Chron. 25; it ended in the total defeat of Amaziah, who was taken prisoner by Joash, and afterwards slain in a conspiracy at Lachish. Joash took Jerusalem, broke down four hundred cubits of the wall, and took all the royal treasures, and the treasures of the house of God. See 2Ch 25:20-27.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne: The burial notice closes the reign of Jehoash before the story of Elisha's death. Clarke followed the view that placed Elisha's last sickness in the tenth year of this king, which gives the prophet about sixty-five years of ministry. The scene at verse 14 falls inside the reign already closed.
Shoot the arrow of Jehovah's deliverance: then smite the ground
The king of Israel weeps and cries, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”, the cry Elisha gave for Elijah at 2:12. The prophet's ministry is named in a soldier's words for national defense. A calf worshipper still knows where Israel's true strength has stood.
2 Kings 13:14
“Now Elisha was fallen sick - This is supposed to have taken place in the tenth year of Joash; and if so, Elisha must have prophesied about sixty-five years. O my father, my father - “What shall I do now thou art dying? thou art the only defense of Israel.” He accosts him with the same words which himself spoke to Elijah when he was translated; see 2Ki 2:12 (note), and the note there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 13:14
“Elisha was aware that therefore he was loth to part with him because he looked upon him as the great bulwark of the kingdom against that common enemy, and depended much upon his blessings and prayers in his designs against them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 13:14
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Kings 13:15-19
Elisha's hands on the king's hands mark the arrow as the LORD's act through a human hand. The king “struck the ground three times and stopped”. Elisha names the cost, “You should have struck the ground five or six times”, and now he “will strike down Aram only three times”.
2 Kings 13:15
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands: John Gill pictured the king's left hand on the bow and his right on the arrow, with Elisha's hands laid over both. The king would draw the bow, and in Gill's reading the LORD, whom the prophet stood for, would give the victory. The prophet's hands rest on the king's.
2 Kings 13:16
“And he said unto the king of Israel, put thine hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it,.... His left hand: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands; on both his hands, which were put, the one on the bow, the other on the arrow (m); hereby signifying, that though the king would draw the bow in battle, the Lord, whom the prophet represented, would give the success; and that it would be by his help, and through his blessing on his arms, that he would obtain victory over his enemies. (m) See Virgil. Aeneid.”
Albert Barnes took the eastward shot as aimed at Gilead, the land Hazael had taken at 2 Kings 10:33. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the arrow as a declaration of war for that invasion. Matthew Henry placed Aphek where the Aramean forces were camped or would gather.
2 Kings 13:17
Eastward - Syria of Damascus lay partly east, but still more north, of the holy land. The arrow was to be shot, eastward, not so much against Syria itself as against the scene of the recent Syrian successes, Gilead 2Ki 10:33, which was also to be the scene of Joash’s victories over them. Aphek is almost due east from Shunem, where it is not unlikely that Elisha now was. The arrow ... - literally, “An arrow of deliverance from the Lord, and an arrow of deliverance against Syria; and thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, even to consuming.”
Adam Clarke took the striking to mean shooting the arrows into the ground, for the king had just been told to take them. He judged that the king did not know what hung on the number of strokes. Clarke allowed that the LORD had already fixed three victories over Aram.
2 Kings 13:18
“Smite upon the ground - As he was ordered to take his arrows, the smiting on the ground must mean shooting arrows into it. He smote thrice, and stayed - The prophet knew that this shooting was emblematical: probably the king was not aware of what depended on the frequency of the action; and perhaps it was of the Lord that he smote only thrice, as he had determined to give Israel those three victories only over the Syrians.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the man of God was angry: Albert Barnes drew from the prophet's anger that a man's unbelief can narrow what God is willing to give, and he compared Mark 6:5-6. He found the king obeying without zeal or belief. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown saw in the same king a weak faith that the LORD still accepted.
2 Kings 13:19
“The unfaithfulness of man limits the goodness of God. Though Joash did the prophet’s bidding, it was without any zeal or fervour; and probably without any earnest belief in the efficacy of what he was doing. Compare Mar 6:5-6. God had been willing to give the Israelites complete victory over Syria 2Ki 13:17; but Joash by his non-acceptance of the divine promise in its fulness had checked the outflow of mercy; and the result was that the original promise could not be fulfilled.”
A dead man revives at the touch of Elisha's bones
2 Kings 13:20-21
the Moabite raiders: When a burial party saw a band of raiders, they threw a man's body into Elisha's tomb. As soon as it touched the bones, “the man was revived and stood up on his feet”. It is the last of Elisha's miracles, worked without a word from his mouth.
2 Kings 13:20
“Moabites invaded - The mentioning this immediately on the death of Elisha intimates, that the removal of God's faithful prophets, is a presage of judgments approaching.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
touched the bones of Elisha: Albert Barnes describes Jewish graves as caves cut in the rock and shut with a heavy stone, where the dead lay wrapped in grave clothes. Matthew Henry read the revival as a sign that Israel's cause would rise again. Barnes counted it more wonderful than any miracle of Elisha's life.
2 Kings 13:21
“They cast the man - Rather, “they thrust the man.” The graves of the Jews were not pits dug in the ground, like ours, but caves or cells excavated in the side of a rock, the mouth of the cave being ordinarily shut by a heavy stone. Stood up on his feet - Coffins were not used by the Jews. The body was simply wrapped or swathed in grave-clothes (compare Luk 7:15; Joh 11:44). This miracle of Elisha’s after his death is more surprising than any of those which he performed during his lifetime.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 13:21
“After this, another law is published. It says, "Whatever soul touches anything unclean, or the carcass of unclean beasts, and conceals it and is defiled, or if he touches the uncleanness of [a person] or anything unclean by which he is defiled," and so forth. These, to be sure, are observed by the Jews indecently and uselessly enough. And why should one who, for example, touches a dead animal or the body of a dead person be held to be impure? What if it is the body of a prophet?”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Leviticus 3.3.1patristic
2 Kings 13:21
“And it may, perhaps, have a reference to Christ, by whose death and burial the grave is made to all believers a safe and happy passage to life. It likewise intimated that though Elisha was dead, yet, in virtue of the promises made by him, Israel's interests, though they seemed quite sunk and lost, should revive and flourish again.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 13:22-23
oppressed Israel throughout the reign: The LORD “was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them” because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Judah's throne rests on David's covenant, while here the northern people rest on the older covenant with the patriarchs. Barnes sets this beside the casting out at 2 Kings 17:18-20.
2 Kings 13:22
“But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. That he reigned alone, at least, before he took his son Joash to reign with him.”
because of His covenant with Abraham: John Gill set the LORD's grace beside the calf worship Israel still practiced, and read the casting out as the captivity under Hoshea. Matthew Henry saw the delay as a reprieve that gave Israel room to repent. He counted the slowness of God's judgment to the honor of His mercy.
2 Kings 13:23
“And the Lord was gracious to them,.... To Israel, notwithstanding their apostasy from him, and the idolatry of the calves they were guilty of: and had compassion on them; being in oppression and distress: and had respect unto them; looked upon them with an eye of pity and mercy: because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; made so long ago he still remembered: and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet; or suffered them to be carried captive into another land, as he afterwards did in the times of Hoshea.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 13:23
“The writer regards the captivity of Israel as God’s “casting them out of His sight” (see 2Ki 17:18, 2Ki 17:20); and notes that this extreme punishment, though deserved, was by God’s mercy not allowed to fall on them as yet.”
2 Kings 13:23
“It was of the Lord's mercies that they were not consumed, because he would not destroy them as yet. He foresaw they would destroy themselves at last, but as yet he would reprieve them, and give them space to repent. The slowness of God's processes against sinners must be construed to the honour of his mercy, not the impeachment of his justice.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 13:24-25
When Hazael king of Aram died: Jehoash recovers the cities his father lost: “Jehoash defeated Ben-hadad three times, and so recovered the cities of Israel”. Gill and Henry both tie the count to the three strokes on the ground at verse 18, and there his victories stopped. A half obedience buys a partial deliverance.
2 Kings 13:24
“So Hazael the king of Syria died, and Benhadad his son reigned in his stead. This was Benhadad the third; the first of this name was of the Damascene kings; but though the kingdom was now in another family, yet this name, being respectable with the Syrians, was retained in it.”
recovered the cities of Israel: Barnes took these cities to lie west of the Jordan, for the land east of the river had fallen to Hazael at 2 Kings 10:33. Matthew Henry counted the recovery a mercy to the towns themselves, freed from oppression, and a gain in strength for the whole kingdom.
2 Kings 13:25
“The cities which ... - Probably cities west of the Jordan, since the tract east of that river was conquered, mainly if not wholly, in the reign of Jehu 2Ki 10:33.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 13:25
“This was a great kindness to the cities themselves, which were hereby brought from under the yoke of oppression, and to the whole kingdom, which was much strengthened by the reduction of those cities. Thrice Joash beat the Syrians, just as often as he had struck the ground with the arrows, and then a full stop was put to the course of his victories.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Historical narrative, two regnal records with the prophet's death set inside the second, as Keil classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam | The same clause falls on Jehoahaz at verse 2 and on Joash at verse 11, and the parenthesis at verse 6 adds that the grove Ahab set up still stood in Samaria. Matthew Henry reads the repetition as the narrator naming the sin before he names the punishment. Four reigns of Jehu's house run under one sentence.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Kings 13:1. | 2 Kings 13:2, 2 Kings 13:6, 2 Kings 13:11 |
| My father, my father, the chariots of Israel | Joash weeps over the dying Elisha in the exact words Elisha himself cried when Elijah was taken at 2:12. Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry both read the king's tears as real, whatever his reign had been. A prophet's ministry is named in a soldier's vocabulary of national defence, by a king who kept the calves.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Kings 13:14. | 2 Kings 13:14, 2 Kings 2:12 |
| Three strokes, three victories | Joash strikes the ground three times at verse 18 and beats the Syrians three times at verse 25, and the chapter sets the two counts twenty-five verses apart without comment. John Gill and Matthew Henry both draw the line straight from the one to the other. Albert Barnes states the principle the scene turns on, that the unfaithfulness of man limits the goodness of God.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Kings 13:19. | 2 Kings 13:18, 2 Kings 13:19, 2 Kings 13:25 |
| The LORD gave Israel a saviour | The promise stands at verse 5 with no name attached and is discharged at verse 25 when Jehoash recovers the cities his father lost. John Gill names the saviour as Joash and points forward to verse 25, and Adam Clarke names him in the same way. The deliverance arrives after the man who prayed for it is dead.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 2 Kings 13:5. | 2 Kings 13:5, 2 Kings 13:25 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is who the saviour of verse 5 was. John Gill sets out the candidates and rejects them in order, an angel, a captain raised up among them, the prophet Elisha, and Jehoahaz himself, before naming Joash and pointing to verse 25. Adam Clarke names Joash and calls it certain from the successful Syrian wars at the close of the chapter. Albert Barnes agrees on the man and adds the timing, that the relief came after the king who prayed had died. The three readings agree, and the chapter itself gives no name at verse 5. A second line of answer looks outside the text. The historical candidate is Adad-nirari III of Assyria, whose campaigns against Damascus around 796 BC broke Aramean power in the region. His own inscription found at Tell al-Rimah names Joash of Samaria among the kings who paid him tribute, which this estate records in the chapter's head context row. The two answers sit together, since the relief came through a great power pursuing its own interests and the recovered cities are credited to Joash at verse 25.
The second is the arrangement of the verses. Adam Clarke reports that Houbigant recommended reading verse 7 after verse 4, then verses 5 and 6, then verse 8. The received order stands in the Berean text in the store, and the estate follows it. The proposal is recorded here because Clarke records it.
The third is what Elisha's anger at verse 19 teaches. Albert Barnes states it as a principle, that the unfaithfulness of man limits the goodness of God. He reads Joash's three strokes as obedience without belief in what he was doing, comparing Mark 6:5 to 6. Charles Spurgeon preached the same scene as a call to ask for more than a token. The text states the arithmetic and leaves the motive unexplained.
The fourth is the miracle at verse 21. Matthew Henry reads it as a sign that Israel's interests would revive though Elisha was dead. He adds that it may have reference to Christ, by whose death and burial the grave becomes a passage to life for believers. Albert Barnes describes the burial customs that make the scene possible, a rock-cut cave shut by a stone and a body wrapped rather than coffined. The estate carries the dossier's own sober statement of the pattern, that the life at work in Elisha belonged to God and did not stop when the prophet died (src/components/book/dossier-content/2-kings.ts).
Where the chapter reaches
Verse 23 is the counterweight the whole book rests on for the northern kingdom. The dossier quotes it directly and sets it against the pace of judgment. Under Jehoahaz, when the northern kingdom deserved nothing, the LORD was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, for the sake of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Albert Barnes reads the words as yet against the later casting out at 2 Kings 17:18 to 20, which makes this a mercy with a horizon.
Where chapter 8 holds Judah's throne on the covenant with David, this chapter holds the northern people on the covenant older than either kingdom.
Elisha's bones at verse 21 close the ministry that began at 2:1, and the dossier sets the raising of the Shunammite's son at 4:35 beside it as the two ends of one pattern. The church has long read that pattern toward the resurrection, and the dossier makes the sober point first.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 569, The Arrows of the Lord's Deliverance; Keil, The Books of the Kings, in the Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, 1857 to 1878, on 2 Kings 13 and the guide's themes table, `src/components/book/guides/2-kings/Book2KingsGuide.tsx`, mercy interleaved with judgment, at 13:23.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.