2 Kings 2:17

_AND WHEN THEY URGED HIM TILL HE WAS ASHAMED, HE SAID, SEND. THEY SENT THEREFORE FIFTY MEN; AND THEY SOUGHT THREE DAYS, BUT FOUND HIM NOT._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

13-18 Elijah left his mantle to Elisha; as a token of the descent of the Spirit upon him; it was more than if he had left him thousands of gold and silver. Elisha took it up, not as a sacred relic to be worshipped, but as a significant garment to be worn. Now that Elijah was taken to heaven, Elisha inquired, 1. After God; when our creature-comforts are removed, we have a God to go to, who lives for ever. 2. After the God that Elijah served, and honoured, and pleaded for. The Lord God of the holy prophets is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; but what will it avail us to have the mantles of those that are gone, their places, their books, if we have not their spirit, their God? See Elisha's dividing the river; God's people need not fear at last passing through the Jordan of death as on dry ground. The sons of the prophets made a needless search for Elijah. Wise men may yield to tha...

Verse 2 Kings 2:17. _TILL HE WAS ASHAMED_] He saw they would not be satisfied unless they made the proposed search; he felt therefore that he could not, with any good grace, resist their importunity any longer....

TILL HE WAS ASHAMED - i. e. to refuse them any longer....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 2:1 THE REMOVAL OF ELIJAH FROM EARTH, AND SOME EARLY MIRACLES OF ELISHA. The great prophet of Israel was to have a departure from earth as marvelous as his life had been. Ewald's words, though not intended in an historical, but only in a literary sense, embody very forcibly what the humble believer may accept as the actual _rationale_ of the occurrence related in 2 Kings 2:1 : "An earthly career which had no equal in the purity of its devotion to the service of Jehovah, and was at the same time consummated by such powerful efforts to promote the

AND WHEN THEY URGED HIM UNTIL HE WAS ASHAMED,.... To deny them any longer, being so very pressing and importunate: HE SAID, SEND; lest they should think he had not the respect for his master he should have had; or was so fond of his office, that he did not choose he should be found alive if he could, and return and reassume it: THEY SENT THEREFORE FIFTY MEN; some one way, and some another: AND THEY SOUGHT THREE DAYS, BUT FOUND HIM NOT; and then returned....

II. THE PROPHET ELISHA 1. The Beginning of His Ministry CHAPTER 2:12-25 _ 1. The mantle used (2 Kings 2:12)_ 2. The sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:15) 3. The healing of Jericho's waters (2 Kings 2:19) 4. Judgment upon the scoffers (2 Kings 2:23) Both Elijah and Elisha are types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names indicate this. Elijah means “my God is Jehovah,” and Elisha, “my God is salvation.” Suffering, affliction and rejection are prominent in the life of Elijah, but it ended for him by being taken into heaven. It foreshadows the path of Him who was rejected by His own, cast

2 KINGS 1:1 TO 2 KINGS 2:25. LAST DAYS AND ASCENSION OF ELIJAH: ELISHA ESTABLISHED AS HIS SUCCESSOR. Here we have perhaps a third Elijah narrative, in which the prophet is represented as playing a part scarcely worthy of the Elijah of 1 Kings 17-19 or 21, who in the first section represents Yahweh against the Tyrian Baal, whereas in the latter he stands for righteousness opposed to legalised violence. Here the king's offence is that he sent to a Philistine oracle instead of inquiring of Yahweh, and his soldiers are punished by fire for summoning the prophet to surrender. The spelling of the prophet's name in Hebrew differs from that in the rest of the OT. The story is mentioned in the Gospel (Luke 9:54). With ch. 2 we seem to en

_till_he _was ashamed_ i.e. to refuse longer so urgent, though as he knew resultless, a petition. There is no pronoun expressed in the original. Hence some have thought the expression meant -to a shameful extent" and was to be applied to the undue persistence of the petitioners. But the same phrase occurs in Judges 3:25 of Eglon's servants who waited till they were ashamed to wait longer. Here it implies that Elisha was at a loss how to refuse them any longer. His narrative was unprecedented in its character, and if they refused to be persuaded by that, he had no more that he could do....

II. ELISHA AND THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS 2:16-25 With the departure of Elijah, Elisha became the _father_ of the prophetic schools. The first official acts of the new leader of the sons of the prophets are related in the remaining verses of chapter 2. Here is recorded (1) his decision regarding a request made by the prophetic students (2 Kings 2:16-18); (2) his healing of the noxious waters at Jericho (2 Kings 2:19-22); and (3) his cursing of the youths at Bethel (2 Kings 2:23-25). A. THE REQUEST OF THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS 2:16-18 TRANSLATION (16) And they said unto him, Behold, we pray you, there are with your servants fifty men of strength. Let us go, we pray you, that