2 Kings 8:12

_AND HAZAEL SAID, WHY WEEPETH MY LORD? AND HE ANSWERED, BECAUSE I KNOW THE EVIL THAT THOU WILT DO UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: THEIR STRONG HOLDS WILT THOU SET ON FIRE, AND THEIR YOUNG MEN WILT THOU SLAY WITH THE SWORD, AND WILT DASH THEIR CHILDREN, AND RIP UP THEIR WOMEN WITH CHILD._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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 8:12. _I KNOW THE EVIL THAT THOU WILT DO_] We may see something of the accomplishment of this prediction, 2 Kings 10:32-12; 2 Kings 13:3; 2 Kings 13:7....

THE EVIL THAT THOU WILT DO - The intention is not to tax Hazael with special cruelty, but only to enumerate the ordinary horrors of war, as it was conducted among the Oriental nations of the time. Compare the marginal references....

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 HAZAEL SAID, WHY WEEPETH MY LORD?.... Imagining it was for the death of Benhadad he had predicted, for which he could see no reason; of the title, "my lord", see 1 Kings 18:7 AND HE ANSWERED, BECAUSE I KNOW THE EVIL THAT THOU WILT DO UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; which he foresaw by a spirit of prophecy; and Israel being his own people, he sympathized in their calamities before they came: THEIR STRONG HOLDS WILT THOU SET ON FIRE; which should be taken by him, see 2 Kings 10:32 AND THEIR YOUNG MEN WILT THOU SLAY WITH THE SWORD; in battle: AND WILT DASH THEIR CHILDREN; against rocks and stones, or stone walls, or upon the ground, floor, or pavement, as was usual in war g, see...

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

THE EVIL. Described in 2 Kings 10:32. 2Ki 12:17. 2 Kings 13:3; 2 Kings 13:22....

_and wilt dash their children_ R.V. AND WILT DASH IN PIECES THEIR LITTLE ONES. We have no details of Hazael's cruelty in the future, but hints of it are found. In 2 Kings 10:32 it is said -Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel", and in 2 Kings 13:3 we read -the Lord delivered Israel into the hand of Hazael", and in verse 22 of that chapter -Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz". The special instances of cruelty mentioned in this verse were those perpetrated among all the Eastern nations of Hazael's time, and examples are to be found in several places in Scripture. Cf. Isaiah 13:15-16; Hosea 10:14

DISCOURSE: 370 ELISHA PREDICTS THE ATROCIOUS ACTS OF HAZAEL 2 Kings 8:12. _And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel_. TO reconcile Divine foreknowledge with the contingency of human events is a difficulty, which probably will never be solved in this present state of our existence. Yet, if it cannot be explained, it may be illustrated in some measure, and in such a way as to afford considerable satisfaction to the mind. In the history of which our text is a part, there is a circumstance which reflects some light upon it. Benhadad, king of Syria, was ill; and, hearing that Elisha was come into his county, he sent his servant Hazael, with very large and munificent presents, to inquire whether he should recover of his disease. The question being asked by Hazael, Elisha told him, that his master