2 Kings 13:14

2 Kings ELIJAH’S TRANSLATION AND ELISHA’S DEATHBED2 Kings 2:12 . - 2 Kings 13:14 . The scenes and the speakers are strangely different in these two incidents. The one scene is that mysterious translation on the further bank of the Jordan, when a mortal was swept up to heaven in a fiery whirlwind, and the other is an ordinary sick chamber, where an old man was lying, with the life slowly ebbing out of him. The one speaker is the successor of the great prophet, on whom his spirit in a large measure fell; the other, an idolatrous king, young, headstrong, who had despised the latter prophet’s teaching while he lived, but was now for the moment awed into something like seriousness and reverence by his death. Now the remarkable thing is that this unworthy monarch should have come to the dying prophet, and should have strengthened and cheered him by the quotation of his own words, spoken so long ago, as if he would say to him, ‘All that thou didst mean when thou didst stand there in rapturous adoration, watching the ascending Elijah, is as true about thee, lying dying here, of a common and lingering sickness. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.’ Seen or unseen, these were present. The reality was the same, though the appearances were so different. I We have in the first case the chariot and horsemen seen. To feel the force of the exclamation on the lips of Joash, we must try to make clear to ourselves what its original meaning was.

What did Elisha intend when he stood beyond Jordan, and in wonder and awe exclaimed, ‘The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof’? It does not seem to me that the interpretation of the words now in favour is at all satisfactory. It tells us that the expression is to he taken as in apposition with the exclamation ‘My father, my father’; and that both the one phrase and the other mean-Elijah! Yet what a preposterous and strange metaphor it would be to call a man a chariot and pair, or a chariot and cavalry! It seems to me that the very statement of this explanation, in plain English, condemns it as untenable. It is surely less probable that Elisha in that exclamation was describing Elijah than that he was speaking of that wondrous chariot of fire and horses of fire that had come between him and his master, and that his exclamation was one of surprised adoration as he gazed with wide-opened eyes on the burning angel-hosts, and saw his master mysteriously able to bear that fire, ringed round by these flaming squadrons, possibly standing unscathed on the floor of the chariot, and swept with it and all the celestial pomp, by the whirlwind, into heaven. But why should he say ‘the chariot of Israel ’? I think we take for granted too readily that ‘Israel’ here means the nation. You will remember that that name was not originally that of the nation, but of its progenitor and founder, given to Jacob as the consequence and record of that mysterious wrestling by the brook.

2 Kings 13:14 . Elisha was fallen sick, &c. — Elisha lived long; for it was now about sixty years since he was first called to be a prophet. It was a great mercy to Israel, and especially to the sons of the prophets, that he was continued so long a burning and a shining light. Elijah finished his testimony in a fourth part of that time. For God’s prophets have their day appointed them, longer or shorter, as infinite wisdom sees fit. The time of Elisha’s flourishing, however, was much less than the time of his living. During all the latter part of his life, from the anointing of Jehu, which was forty-five years before Joash began his reign, we find no mention made of him, nor of any thing he did, till we find him here upon his death-bed. He was, no doubt, useful to the last, yet, it seems, not so famous as he had formerly been. The king came down, and wept over his face — While he leaned over him to kiss him. This was an evidence of some good in Joash, and that he had a value for a faithful prophet. So far was he from hating and persecuting him as a troubler of Israel, as Ahab had hated and persecuted Elijah, that he loved and honoured him, as one of the greatest blessings of his kingdom. Thus it has sometimes happened, that those who, like Joash, would not be obedient to the word of God, yet have been compelled to hold his faithful ministers in honour, fully convinced of their being upright and holy men of God.

And said, O my father, my father, &c. — Thus he laments over him in the same words which Elisha himself had used when he lamented the removal of Elijah. Probably he had heard or read of them, and judged them as applicable to Elisha as they had been to his predecessor: see on 2 Kings 2:12 . Joash seems to have intended by these words to express Elisha’s fatherly care of Israel, the great authority he had maintained among them, that by his counsels, and prayers, and miracles, they had obtained great and glorious victories over their enemies; and that he and his kingdom would sustain an inestimable loss by his death.

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, {h} O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. (h) Thus they used to call the prophets and servants of God, by whom God blesses his people, as in 2Ki 2:12 meaning that they prospered their country more by their prayers than by force of arms.