2 Kings 8:11

_AND HE SETTLED HIS COUNTENANCE STEDFASTLY, UNTIL HE WAS ASHAMED: AND THE MAN OF GOD WEPT._ He settled his countenance stedfastly, х_ WAYA`ªMEED_ (H5975) _ 'ET_ (H853) _ PAANAAYW_ (H6440) _ WAYAASEM_ (H7760), and he fixed his countenance, and set it; Septuagint, parestee too prosoopoo autou, kai etheeken]. UNTIL HE WAS ASHAMED ie Hazael The stedfast penetrating look of the prophet seemed to have convinced UNTIL HE WAS ASHAMED - i:e., Hazael. The stedfast, penetrating look of the prophet seemed to have convinced Hazael that his secret designs were known; and the deep emotions of Elisha were justified by the horrible atrocities, too common in ancient warfare which that successful usurper committed in Israel ...

7-15 Among other changes of men's minds by affliction, it often gives other thoughts of God's ministers, and teaches to value the counsels and prayers of those whom they have hated and despised. It was not in Hazael's countenance that Elisha read what he would do, but God revealed it to him, and it fetched tears from his eyes: the more foresight men have, the more grief they are liable to. It is possible for a man, under the convictions and restraints of natural conscience, to express great abhorrence of a sin, yet afterwards to be reconciled to it. Those that are little and low in the world, cannot imagine how strong the temptations of power and prosperity are, which, if ever they arrive at, they will find how deceitful their hearts are, how much worse than they suspected. The devil ruins men, by saying they shall certainly recover and do well, so rocking them asleep in security. Hazae...

Verse 2 Kings 8:11. _HE SETTLED HIS COUNTENANCE STEADFASTLY_] Of whom does the author speak? Of Hazael, or of Elisha? Several apply this action to the prophet: he had a murderer before him and he saw the bloody acts he was about to commit, and was greatly distressed; but he endeavoured to conceal his feelings: at last his face reddened with anguish, his feelings overcame him, and he burst out and wept. The _Septuagint_, as it stands in the _Complutensian_ and _Antwerp_ Polyglots, makes the text very plain: Και ἑστη Αζαηλ κατα πρωσοπον αυτου, και παρεθηκεν ενωπιον αυτου δωρα, ἑως ῃσχυνετο· και εκλαυσεν ὁ ανθρωπος του Θεου, _And Hazael stood before his face,_ _and he presented before him gifts till he was ashamed; and the man_ _of God wept_. The Codex _Vaticanus_, and the Codex _Alexandrinus_, are nearly as the

That is, “And he (Elisha) settled his conntenance, and set it (toward Hazael), until he (Hazael) was ashamed.” Elisha fixed on Hazael a long and meaning look, until the latter’s eyes fell before his, and his cheek flushed. Elisha, it would seem, had detected the guilty thought that was in Hazael’s heart, and Hazael perceived that he had detected it. Hence the “shame.”...

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 8:1 THE SEQUEL OF THE STORY OF THE SHUNAMMITE. THE KILLING OF BENHADAD BY HAZAEL; AND THE WICKED REIGNS OF JEHORAM AND AHAZIAH IN JUDAH. 2 KINGS 8:1 Elisha is still the _protagonistes_ of the historical drama. The writer brings together in the present section two more occasions of a public character in which he was c

AND HE SETTLED HIS COUNTENANCE STEADFASTLY,.... Refrained himself as much as possible, that he might not weep, as some Jewish writers interpret it; or, as others, he turned his face on one side, and covered it with his hands, that Hazael might not see him weep; or rather he set his face on Hazael, and looked at him so wistly: UNTIL HE WAS ASHAMED; that is, Hazael; the prophet looked him out of countenance: AND THE MAN OF GOD WEPT; at the thought of what calamities the man before him, he looked on, would be the cause of in Israel, as the following words show....

ELISHA AND THE SHUNAMMITE. HAZAEL, KING OF SYRIA. This chapter is somewhat varied as to composition. It opens with a short story about Elisha (2 Kings 8:1), of which we may presuppose (_a_) that it is earlier than 5, because Gehazi (2 Kings 8:4) is not a leper; (b) that the king of Israel is an admirer of the prophet, By Elisha's advice the Shunammite lady, whose husband is apparently dead, leaves her home to avoid a famine (_cf_. Ruth 1:1), and her lands were restored when the king ascertained who she was. 2 Kings 8:6 is a second narrative of the prophet. Jehoram must have been king of Israel at the time, as Hazael was contemporary with Jehu. Th

HE: i.e. Hazael. ASHAMED. The thought of murder came into his mind....

_And he settled his countenance stedfastly_ The R.V. adds -upon him" in italics. This no doubt is the sense. Elisha fixed a stedfast gaze on the messenger. -The seer of God descries more in Hazael than he could see in himself: he fixes his eyes therefore stedfastly in the Syrian's face, as one that in those lines read the bloody story of his life. Hazael blushes, Elisha weeps. The intention (i.e. the stedfast gaze) of those eyes did not so much amaze Hazael as the tears. As yet he was not guilty to himself of any wrong that might strain out this juice of sorrow" (Bp Hall). _until_he _was ashamed_ i.e. until Hazael blushed with embarrassment at the searching look....

AND HE SETTLED HIS COUNTENANCE— _"He_ [Hazael] _keeping his countenance, continued with the same look for some time, while the man of God wept."_ Hazael pretended surprise at the answer of Elisha, desirous to conceal from him the satisfaction which he had in the intelligence of his king's death. Houbigant....