2 Kings 6:32

_BUT ELISHA SAT IN HIS HOUSE, AND THE ELDERS SAT WITH HIM; AND THE KING SENT A MAN FROM BEFORE HIM: BUT ERE THE MESSENGER CAME TO HIM, HE SAID TO THE ELDERS, SEE YE HOW THIS SON OF A MURDERER HATH SENT TO TAKE AWAY MINE HEAD? LOOK, WHEN THE MESSENGER COMETH, SHUT THE DOOR, AND HOLD HIM FAST AT THE DOOR: IS NOT THE SOUND OF HIS MASTER'S FEET BEHIND HIM?_ But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him. The latter clause of 2 Kings 6:33, which contains the king's impatient exclamation, enables us to account for the impetuous order he issued for the beheading of Elisha. Though Jehoram was a wicked king, and most of his courtiers would resemble their master, many had been won over, through the prophet's influence, to the true religion. A meeting, probably a prayer-meeting, of those was held in his house, probably the school of the prophets ...

24-33 Learn to value plenty, and to be thankful for it; see how contemptible money is, when in time of famine it is so freely parted with for any thing that is eatable! The language of Jehoram to the woman may be the language of despair. See the word of God fulfilled; among the threatenings of God's judgments upon Israel for their sins, this was one, that they should eat the flesh of their own children, Deuteronomy 28:53-5. The truth and the awful justice of God were displayed in this horrible transaction. Alas! what miseries sin has brought upon the world! But the foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord. The king swears the death of Elisha. Wicked men will blame any one as the cause of their troubles, rather than themselves, and will not leave their sins. If rending the clothes, without a broken and contrite heart, would avail, if wearing sackcl...

Verse 2 Kings 6:32. _THIS SON OF A MURDERER_] Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel. But Ahab is called a _murderer_ because of the murder of Naboth. _SHUT THE DOOR_] He was obliged to make use of this method for his personal safety, as the king was highly incensed. _THE SOUND OF HIS MASTER'S FEET BEHIND HIM?_] That is, King Jehoram is following his messenger, that he may see him take off my head....

BUT ELISHA SAT ... - Translate, “And Elisha was sitting in his house, and all the elders were sitting with him, when the king sent, etc.” The “elders,” - either “the elders of the city” or “the elders of the land,” - who may have been in session at Samaria now, as they had been at the time of a former siege 1 Kings 20:7 - had gone to Elisha for his advice or assistance. Their imminent peril drove them to acknowledge the power of Yahweh, and to consult with His prophet. THIS SON OF A MURDERER - i. e. of Ahab, the murderer, not only of Naboth, but also of all the prophets of the Lord (marginal reference), whom be allowed Jezebel to slay. HOLD HIM FAST AT THE DOOR - The elders, public officials, not private friends of Elisha, could not have be

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 ...

AND ELISHA SAT IN HIS HOUSE,.... In Samaria: AND THE ELDERS SAT WITH HIM; not the elders of the city, or the magistrates thereof, but his disciples, as Josephus says p, the eldest of them, whom he admitted to greater familiarity and converse with him: AND THE KING SENT A MAN FROM BEFORE HIM; to execute what he had sworn should be done that day to the prophet: BUT ERE THE MESSENGER CAME TO HIM, HE SAID TO THE ELDERS, SEE YE HOW THIS SON OF A MURDERER HATH SENT TO TAKE AWAY MINE HEAD? which he knew by a spirit of prophecy, and spoke of it before the executioner came; he calls Joram the son of a murderer, because of his mother Jezebel, who killed Naboth, and the prophets of the Lord, and to which his father Ahab also consented, and therefore might be so called too; and he intimates hereby that he was of the same temper and disposition, and as the above oath, and his orders, showed: look...

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

HOLD HIM FAST AT THE DOOR: or, hold the door fast against him. App-6....

2 Kings 6:32 to 2 Kings 7:2. A messenger is sent to put Elisha to death. Elisha foretells a sudden plenty in Samaria (Not in Chronicles) 32. _But Elisha sat in his house_ His counsels had been productive of little result, but he is less disturbed than others, having a ground for his trust which they had not found. _and the elders sat with him_ These must be understood to be the chief men of the city, who had come for his advice, having no other helper to flee unto. _and_the king _sent a man_ One of those who were in waiting to obey his orders and who had heard his threat against Elisha. _he said to the elders_ i.e. Elisha, divinely forwarned of the impending danger, explains to his companions what the king's design against him was. this son of a murderer