2 Kings 13:20

20 Elisha died and was buried. Every year bands of Moabites used to invade the land of Israel.

2 Kings 13:20 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 13:20

And Elisha died, and they buried him
In Samaria. Epiphanius says F14, in Sebastopolis of Samaria, Samaria itself was called Sebaste in later times; though the Jews say F15 he was buried in Mount Carmel, in the cave of Elijah; according to the Jewish chronology {p}, he died in the tenth year of Joash, and he prophesied more than sixty years; sixty six, as Abarbinel, since he began to prophesy in the nineteenth year of Jehoshaphat; and, according to Clemens F17 of Alexandria, when he was forty years of age; but it seems rather, as Kimchi observes, that he died in the beginning of the reign of Joash, and even before his father's death, when he was a partner with him in the throne, and before any salvation or deliverance from the Syrians was wrought:

and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the
year;
at the spring of the year, when there was fruit on the earth, those troops of robbers came to plunder and spoil; several of the Jewish writers observe, that in the word for "coming", (h) is instead of (a) , and so may be rendered "in that year", in that selfsame year that Elisha died; and so read the Syriac, Arabic, and the Vulgate Latin versions.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 De Vitis Prophet. c. 6.
F15 Cippi Heb. p. 46.
F16 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 19.
F17 Stromat. l. 1. p. 326.

2 Kings 13:20 In-Context

18 Then Elisha told the king to take the other arrows and strike the ground with them. The king struck the ground three times, and then stopped.
19 This made Elisha angry, and he said to the king, "You should have struck five or six times, and then you would have won complete victory over the Syrians; but now you will defeat them only three times."
20 Elisha died and was buried. Every year bands of Moabites used to invade the land of Israel.
21 One time during a funeral, one of those bands was seen, and the people threw the corpse into Elisha's tomb and ran off. As soon as the body came into contact with Elisha's bones, the man came back to life and stood up.
22 King Hazael of Syria oppressed the Israelites during all of Jehoahaz' reign,
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.