2 Kings 2:3

_AND THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS THAT WERE AT BETHEL CAME FORTH TO ELISHA, AND SAID UNTO HIM, KNOWEST THOU THAT THE LORD WILL TAKE AWAY THY MASTER FROM THY HEAD TO DAY? AND HE SAID, YEA, I KNOW IT; HOLD YE YOUR PEACE._ TAKE AWAY THY MASTER FROM THY HEAD - an allusion to the custom of scholars sitting at the feet of their master, the latter being over their heads (Acts 22:3)....

1-8 The Lord had let Elijah know that his time was at hand. He therefore went to the different schools of the prophets to give them his last exhortations and blessing. The removal of Elijah was a type and figure of the ascension of Christ, and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Elisha had long followed Elijah, and he would not leave him now when he hoped for the parting blessing. Let not those who follow Christ come short by tiring at last. The waters of Jordan, of old, yielded to the ark; now, to the prophet's mantle, as a token of God's presence. When God will take up his faithful ones to heaven, death is the Jordan which they must pass through, and they find a way through it. The death of Christ has divided those waters, that the ransomed of the Lord may pass over. O death, where is thy sting, thy hurt, thy terror!...

Verse 2 Kings 2:3. _KNOWEST THOU THAT THE LORD_] Thus we see that it was a matter well known to all the sons of the prophets. This day the Lord will take thy master and instructer from thee....

CAME FORTH TO ELISHA - It does not appear that any interchange of speech took place between “the sons of the prophets” (see the marginal reference note) and Elijah; but independent revelations had been made to the two “schools” at Bethel and Jericho 2 Kings 2:5, and also to Elisha, with respect to Elijah’s coming removal. FROM THY HEAD - i. e. from his position as teacher and master. The teacher sat on an elevated seat, so that his feet were level with the heads of his pupils (compare Acts 22:3). HOLD YE YOUR PEACE - i. e. “Say nothing - disturb us not. The matter is too sacred for words.”...

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 SONS OF THE PROPHETS THAT WERE AT BETHEL,.... Or the disciples of them, as the Targum; here, though a place where one of Jeroboam's calves was set up, was a school of the prophets, perhaps founded by Elijah as a nursery for religion, and a check upon the idolatry of the times: CAME FORTH TO ELISHA; OUT OF THEIR COLLEGE: AND SAID UNTO HIM, KNOWEST THOU THAT THE LORD WILL TAKE AWAY THY MASTER FROM THY HEAD TODAY? who was, as Abarbinel observes, the crown and glory of his head; or else this is said, as generally thought, in allusion to disciples sitting at the feet of their masters, and so they at the head of them; the rapture of Elijah was by a spirit of prophecy revealed unto them: AND HE SAID, YEA, I KNOW IT; being revealed to him in the same way: HOLD YOUR PEACE: not caring to continue any discourse with them on the subject, that his thoughts, which were intent upon it, might...

2. ELIJAH'S TRANSLATION CHAPTER 2:1-11 _ 1. From Gilgal to Jordan (2 Kings 2:1)_ 2. The divided Jordan (2 Kings 2:7) 3. Elisha's request (2 Kings 2:9) 4. Elijah goes up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11) The time for Elijah's departure had now come, and the LORD, whom he had served so faithfully, “would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind.” As Lord He graciously orders the time and the manner of the departure of His servants (John 21:18). His coming translation was known to him, to Elisha and to the sons of

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

FROM THY HEAD. from over thee: "head, "put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of Part), App-6, for himself"....

_the sons of the prophets_ They were called -sons" in the same way as Elisha calls Elijah -father". See below verse 12. Whether the prophetic body in Gilgal had been warned before Elijah's departure from them that they would see him no more wé are not told; but it seems highly probable that it was so from what is said of Bethel and of Jericho. Thus Elisha started on his journey prepared for what its end would be. _Beth-el_ This was the city which in old time had been called Luz (Joshua 18:13) though from one passage (Joshua 16:2) there seems to have been a distinction between Bethel and Luz, as though the latter had been the old town, and the former a sacred spot near to it. It lay in the northern part of the tribe of Benjamin, and when the kingdoms were divided and Jeroboam set up the calf-worship in I