2 Kings 6:11

_AND THE MAN OF GOD SENT UNTO THE KING OF ISRAEL, SAYING, BEWARE THAT THOU PASS NOT SUCH A PLACE; FOR THITHER THE SYRIANS ARE COME DOWN._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

8-12 The king of Israel regarded the warnings Elisha gave him, of danger from the Syrians, but would not heed the warnings of danger from his sins. Such warnings are little heeded by most; they would save themselves from death, but will not from hell. Nothing that is done, said, or thought, by any person, in any place, at any time, is out of God's knowledge....

Benhadad supposed that there must be a traitor in his camp. He asks therefore, “Will no one denounce him?”...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-7:20 FURTHER MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA. The historian relates first a (comparatively) private miracle wrought by Elisha in the vicinity of Jericho, for the benefit of one of the "sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 7:1). He then tells us briefly of a series of public miracles which brought Elisha into much note and prominence. War, it appears, had again broken out in a pronounced form between Israel and Syria, Syria being the aggressor. The Syrian monarch prepared traps for his adversary, encamping in places where he hoped to take him at a disadvantage. But Elisha frustrated these plans, by addressing warnings to the King of Israel, and pointing out to him the various positions occupied ...

THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE KING OF SYRIA WAS SORE TROUBLED FOR THIS THING,.... There was as it were a storm in his breast, as the word signifies; he was like a troubled sea, tossed with tempests, exceeding uneasy in his mind, fretting at the disappointment he met with time after time: AND HE CALLED HIS SERVANTS, AND SAID UNTO THEM, WILL YE NOT SHOW ME WHICH OF US IS FOR THE KING OF ISRAEL? he suspected that some one of his counsellors was in the interest of the king of Israel, and betrayed his secrets to him, which was the cause of his disappointments....

2 Kings 6:1. _And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us._ It seems to have been a habit of the prophets to gather about them companies of young men whom they instructed in the holy Scripture and in the truths of revelation. Many of these young men became prophets themselves and were the instructors of the people. Elisha, then, was the President of a College for young men who were being trained for the sacred ministry of God. They had grown so numerous that they were cramped in their lodging and they said, «The place is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us fit place there, where we may dwell.» They were ready to work to build their own lodging; they do not appear to have gone into debt for it, and to have saddled themselves and the institutio

5. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The lost axe-head recovered (2 Kings 6:1)_ 2. Elisha makes known Ben-hadad's plans (2 Kings 6:8) 3. Elisha's arrest planned (2 Kings 6:13) 4. The blinded Syrians led to Samaria (2 Kings 6:18) 5. Samaria besieged (2 Kings 6:24) 6. The king's wrath against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31) It has been truly said that the miracle of the swimming axe-head reveals the condescension of

AN AXEHEAD SWIMS. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS AT DOTHAN. In several minor miracles Elisha is always represented as working them not by his word, but by some expedient. Thus he heals the miscarrying waters by salt, and the pot by meal, and recovers the axehead by casting a stick into the water. The prophet appears in the second narrative as the moving spirit in the Syrian war. Whenever the king of Syria devised an ambush (2 Kings 6:8, with a slight alteration of reading), Elisha revealed the secret. Elisha was at Dothan (2 Kings 6:13), a city standing on a hill about 10 miles N. of Samaria, on the caravan road from Egypt to Damascus (Genesis 37:17, p. 30). Elisha was defended, as we are finely told, by horses and chariots of f

_Therefore_[R.V. AND] _the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled_ Because he saw on all these occasions that the opportunity he had looked for was taken away. He appears to have been acting on information which told him of expected movements of the forces of Israel. When his design was frustrated over and over again it was natural to think of treachery among his own people....

I. ELISHA'S PATRIOTIC MIRACLES 6:8-23 Elisha was involved in the crisis which his nation faced at the hands of the Arameans. On various occasions Elisha rendered valuable aid to his king by revealing the military plans of Benhadad (2 Kings 6:8-12). On one occasion he captured single-handedly a whole troop of Aramean soldiers and brought them to the capital (2 Kings 6:13-23). A. ELISHA REVEALS THE PLANS OF THE ENEMY 6:8-12 TRANSLATION (8) Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel, and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place will be my encampment. (9) But the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware of passing by this place, for there the Arameans are hiding. (10) And the king of Israel sent unto the place of which the man o