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2 Kings 8:14

in 2 Kings 8

So Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he replied, “He told me that you would surely recover.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou wouldest surely recover.

KJV

So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.

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This verse in 2 Kings 8

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
Hazael omitted the clause by which Elisha had shown how those words were to be understood. He thus deceived his master, while he could flatter himself that he had not uttered a lie.

This site's exposition

What said Elisha to thee

on 2 Kings 8:14-15

Hazael reports only half of what Elisha said, that thou shouldest surely recover, leaving out the word that he shall surely die, and the omission is itself the first move of the murder he commits on the morrow. He takes a thick cloth, dips it in water, and spreads it on the sick king's face until he dies, then reigns in Ben-hadad's stead. Elisha's word is fulfilled by two separate facts at once: the disease was not what killed the king, and the man who did it is the man just told he would be king.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Ephrem the Syrian

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 8:10 · Written before 373.

proposed

"Go, say to him, 'You shall certainly recover;' but the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly die." These were the words of Elisha to the king, who asked him, "Will I live after this illness?" But it seems that they do not agree …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master,.... Benhadad king of Syria: who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? concerning his recovery, which was the thing uppermost in his mind, and he was eagerly desirous to know how it would be: and he answered, he told me that thou shouldest surely recover; which was false; for he only said that he "might", and not that he should; and he concealed what he also declared, that though he might recover of his disease, yet that he should surely die in another way.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ׀and he went

    vaiyelekhH1980 →1546 times

  • מֵאֵ֣תfrom with

    meetH854 →929 times

  • אֱלִישָׁ֗עElisha

    ʾelisha'H477 →58 times

  • וַיָּבֹא֙and he came

    vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • אֲדֹנָ֔יוmaster<s> his

    ʾadonavH113 →333 times

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • ל֔וֹto him

    lo

  • מָֽה־what?

    mah-H4100 →752 times

  • אָמַ֥רdid he say

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • לְךָ֖to you

    lekha

  • אֱלִישָׁ֑עElisha

    ʾelisha'H477 →58 times

  • וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אָ֥מַרhe said

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • לִ֖יto me

    li

  • חָיֹ֥הcertainly <to live>

    chayohH2421 →282 times

  • תִחְיֶֽה׃you will live

    tichyehH2421 →282 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Matthew 26:16

    So from then on Judas looked for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

    it leads to

    • Mark 14:11

      They were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money. So Judas began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

  • Through

    2 Kings 5:25

    When Gehazi went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Gehazi, where have you been?” “Your servant did not go anywhere,” he replied.

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 5:22

      “Everything is all right,” Gehazi replied. “My master has sent me to say, ‘I have just now discovered that two young men from the sons of the prophets have come to me from the…

    • John 13:26–30

      Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this morsel after I have dipped it.” Then He dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.

    • 2 Kings 20:14

      Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” “They came from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

    • Proverbs 30:20

      This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

    • Genesis 16:8

      “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.

  • Through

    2 Kings 8:10

    Elisha answered, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover.’ But the LORD has shown me that in fact he will die.”

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 11:25

      I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

    • Jeremiah 38:21

      But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the LORD has shown me:

About 2 Kings

Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Elijah Ascends to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Kings: the study guide →Read 2 Kings 8 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 8:10; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

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