2 Kings 2:19

_AND THE MEN OF THE CITY SAID UNTO ELISHA, BEHOLD, I PRAY THEE, THE SITUATION OF THIS CITY IS PLEASANT, AS MY LORD SEETH: BUT THE WATER IS NAUGHT, AND THE GROUND BARREN._ The situation of this city is pleasant ... but the water is naught, and the ground barren. There is near some tumuli, marking the ancient site of Jericho, a foundation, 'Ain es Sultan, 'the Foundation of Elisha.' Its waters are diffused over the plain....

19-25 Observe the miracle of healing the waters. Prophets should make every place to which they come better for them, endeavouring to sweeten bitter spirits, and to make barren souls fruitful, by the word of God, which is like the salt cast into the water by Elisha. It was an apt emblem of the effect produced by the grace of God on the sinful heart of man. Whole families, towns, and cities, sometimes have a new appearance through the preaching of the gospel; wickedness and evil have been changed into fruitfulness in the works of righteousness, which are, through Christ, to the praise and glory of God. Here is a curse on the youths of Bethel, enough to destroy them; it was not a curse causeless, for it was Elisha's character, as God's prophet, that they abused. They bade him "go up," reflecting on the taking up of Elijah into heaven. The prophet acted by Divine impulse. If the Holy Spiri...

Verse 2 Kings 2:19. _THE WATER_ IS _NAUGHT, AND THE GROUND BARREN._] The barrenness of the ground was the effect of the badness of the water....

THE WATER IS NAUGHT - i. e. “bad.” AND THE GROUND BARREN - Translate “and the land apt to miscarry.” The stream was thought to be the cause of untimely births, abortions, and the like, among the cattle, perhaps also among the people, that drank of it....

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 THE MEN OF THE CITY SAID UNTO ELISHA,.... The inhabitants of Jericho, perceiving him to be a prophet, and endowed with a power of working miracles: BEHOLD, I PRAY THEE, THE SITUATION OF THIS CITY IS PLEASANT, AS MY LORD SEETH; in a plain, surrounded with gardens and orchards, with vineyards, oliveyards, and groves of palm trees, and other odoriferous ones: BUT THE WATER IS NAUGHT, AND THE GROUND BARREN; that is, that part of it where this water was, or ran, for from thence it became barren; or "caused to miscarry", as the word signifies q; not only trees cast their fruit, which it watered, but women became abortive that drank of it, as Josephus says r, and so cattle. Abarbinel thinks it was so from the times of Joshua, being cursed by him; but, if so, it would not have been inhabited again; rather this was owing to a new curse, upon its being rebuilt; though this might affect only...

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

Elisha heals the noxious water at Jericho (Not in Chronicles) 19. _And the men of the city_ These are the ordinary inhabitants. From the sons of the prophets they would gather that Elisha was now gifted with the spirit and power of Elijah. The situation of Jericho, near the passage of the Jordan, was such as to attract a considerable population after it was rebuilt, and for the sake of the prosperity which came to them in other ways they were content to dwell in such an unwholesome place. Now however they saw a hope of benefit and with this thought they came to Elisha. -It is good making use of a prophet while we have him" (Bp Hall). _I_[R.V. WE] _pray thee_ The Hebrew is a mere interjection. The change in the English is justified because the petitioners were numerous. _the situation of_this _city_is _pleasant_ Jericho was a part of that country which, in...

DISCOURSE: 359 ELISHA HEALING THE SPRING WITH A CRUSE OF SALT 2 Kings 2:19. _The men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake_. THE miracles recorded in the Old Testament are replete with most important instruction. Many of them are typical; such as, the deliverance of the first-born through the blood of the paschal lamb; the passage of Israel through the Red Sea; the guidance of them by th