LECTURE XLI.

THE TIME OF ELISHA.

DEATH OF AHAZIAH.

2 KINGS I. 1.-XIII. 25.

-LAST ACTS AND TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.. REBELLION OF THE MOABITES. MIRACLES OF ELISHA. - CURE OF THE WATERS OF JERICHO. DESTRUCTION OF THE CHILDREN OF BETHEL.- SUPPLY OF WATER TO THE ISRAELITISH ARMY.- DEFEAT OF THE MOABITES.-SUPPLY OF OIL TO A WIDOW. - BIRTH, DEATH, AND REANIMATION OF HER CHILD. ANTIDOTE TO A POISON.-CREATION OF FOOD. — CURE OF THE LEPROSY OF A SYRIAN. - DETECTION AND PUNISHMENT OF GEHAZI'S FRAUD.- RECOVERY OF AN AXE FROM THE WATER. - COMMUNICATION OF INTELLIGENCE TO THE King. CAPTURE AND DISMISSAL OF A PARTY OF SYRIANS. -SIEGE AND FAMINE OF SAMARIA.-DELIVERANCE THEREFROM. - PREDICTION TO HAZAEL. REVOLT OF IDUMEA. WAR WITH SYRIA. UNCTION OF JEHU. - FATE OF JORAM, AHAZIAH, JEZEBEL, THE SONS OF AHAB, THE BROTHERS OF AHAZIAH, AND THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. DEATH OF JEHU. - USURPATION AND DEATH OF ATHALIAH.-CORONATION OF JOASH.ADMINISTRATION OF JOASH AND JEHOIADA. WARS WITH SYRIA. INTERVIEW OF JOASH WITH ELISHA.- ELISHA'S DEATH AND BURIAL. -RESUSCITATION OF A DEAD BODY BY CONTACT WITH HIS BONES.

THE beginning of the reign of Ahaziah over Israel was disturbed by a rebellion of the Moabites, of the incidents of which, however, nothing is recorded. The king, wounded by a fall in his palace at Samaria, sent messengers to Ekron, one of the Philistine cities, to inquire of the oracle of Baalzebub whether he should recover from the injury. They were met on the way by Elijah, who, after rebuking them for not rather inquiring of the God of Israel, declared that their master should never more rise from his bed. His person, 9

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it appears, was unknown to them, for when they presented themselves before Ahaziah, and reported that they had turned back from their journey because they had been accosted by a wayfarer who told them that the king's hurt was mortal, he questioned them concerning the stranger's appearance, and from their description recognized him as Elijah the Tishbite.

A party of fifty men, sent by Ahaziah to apprehend him, found him where he sat on the top of an hill." Addressing him as a "man of God," their leader summoned him in the king's name to come down. "If I be a man of God," he replied, “then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.' And there came down fire from heav en, and consumed him and his fifty." A second party of the same number was sent by the persevering prince, and precisely the same proceedings were repeated. Nothing discouraged, Ahaziah sent a third officer with the same attendance. Warned by the fate of his predecessors, he approached Elijah on his knees, and prayed for mercy. The prophet was moved by his distress, and, by the direction of "the angel of the Lord," accompanied him to the royal presence. He repeated to Ahaziah in person what he had before told his messengers, and "he died, according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken," and was succeeded by his brother Jehoram.*

The prophet's earthly course was drawing to an end. Departing from Gilgal, he desired his servant Elisha to remain behind, because the Lord, he said, had sent him to Bethel. Elisha, however, would not

* 2 Kings i. 1 – 18. "Moab rebelled against Israel" (1). David had subdued the Moabites (comp. 2 Sam. viii. 2), and, at the division of the kingdoms, they came under the power of that to which their neighbours, the tribes east of Jordan, were attached.

be left, and to Bethel they came together, where the faithful servant, informed by "the sons of the prophets" who dwelt there, that the Lord was about to take his master from his head, replied that he already knew it, and bade them hold their peace. Again Elijah would have pursued his journey alone, but again was denied; and, attended by Elisha, he proceeded to Jericho, where other sons of the prophets addressed Elisha, and were answered in the same language as before. From Jericho, after having again in vain proposed a separation to his companion, Elijah went on to the river Jordan, while "fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off."

Arrived at the river's brink, "Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground." Permitted by Elijah to make a parting request, Elisha asked to be endowed with a double portion of his spirit, and was assured that the boon should be granted, provided he should see his master at the moment of his being taken from his side. "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven; and' Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father! my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' And he saw him no more."

Elisha tore his own garments in token of grief, and clothing himself with his master's mantle, which had fallen as he ascended, set out on his journey homeward, dividing the waters of Jordan with the mantle, as had been done when he crossed before. At Jericho, the first city to which he came, the sons of the prophets acknowledged him as Elijah's representative,

"and they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him." They importuned him to allow them to send out fifty strong men to search for the lost prophet, "lest peradventure the spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley." Refused at first, they persisted in their suit, and obtained permission; “and they sought three days, but found him not."

If the legends and traditions which supplied the author of this book with so large a part of his materials are, in the memoirs of Elijah, full of prodigies of the most amazing description, and not always of any apparent significance, they deal still more freely in such narratives in the record of the adventures of his successor. The citizens of Jericho represented to him, on his arrival there, that the site of their city was agreeable, but that its water was unwholesome and its soil unfruitful. He took some salt in a cruse, and pouring it into the fountain which furnished their supplies, assured them that the water thenceforward should be salubrious, and the land productive. "So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake." As he went on his way to Bethel, from which place he proceeded to Mount Carmel, and thence returned to Samaria, some "little children out of the city" amused themselves with the baldness of his head. "And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord; and there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”*

* 2 Kings ii. 1 – 25. "Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal" (1). By this I suppose we are not to understand the well-known Gilgal near the Jordan, mentioned in Joshua v. 10, and other texts, but another place of the same name, mentioned in Joshua xii. 23 and Deuteronomy xi. 30. From the context of this last verse, it appears to have been near Mounts Gerizim and Ebal; and if so, Elijah, in going from it to Jericho, would pass through

The king and army soon needed his services. In the war which had broken out in consequence of the refusal of the king of Moab to render the annual tribute of his flocks, the forces of Jehoram had been joined by those of Edom, and of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and in their march of seven days through the wilderness of Edom they had been distressed by want of water. Jehoshaphat asked if there was not some prophet of the Lord to whom they could have recourse," and one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, 'Here is Elisha, the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.'" The three kings accordingly left their camp in Edom, and proceeded to the residence of Elisha, in Samaria.

To the king of Israel he would have nothing to say, but referred him to the false prophets in whom his father and mother had trusted. For Jehoshaphat he professed greater respect. He called for a minstrel," and it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him." In this rapt state, he ordered trenches to be opened in the valley, and declared that, without storm or rain, they should be filled with copious supplies of water, and that the expedition should end in a complete subjugation of the Moabites. Accordingly, the next morning, "there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was

Bethel, as he is represented to have done, whereas from the other Gilgal he would have had to retrace his steps the whole way. After all, however, it may be only an instance of the writer's unacquaintance with the geography of the country. "Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me (9); perhaps, as Geddes suggests, a duplicate portion, a similar spirit; but, on the other hand, the still more marvellous adventures attributed to Elisha might well be ascribed to a twofold endowment with Elijah's power. - "He cried, My father! my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof'" (12); there was in this form of exclamation a special appropriateness to the scene described, but it appears to have been language suitable to express reverence for any great public benefactor; comp. xiii. 14.