2 Kings 8:9

9 So Hazael loaded forty camels with all kinds of the finest products of Damascus and went to Elisha. When Hazael met him, he said, "Your servant King Benhadad has sent me to ask you whether or not he will recover from his sickness."

2 Kings 8:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 8:9

So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him
As was usual when a prophet or seer was consulted, see ( 1 Samuel 9:7 )

even of every good thing of Damascus;
which was a very fruitful place, and had abundance of gardens and orchards in it, which yielded excellent fruit, and of such it is probable the present consisted, and which was large:

even forty camels' burden:
which, as they are strong creatures, will bear a great deal. Abarbinel thinks, bread, flesh, and wine, and fowls, were in the present, but not gold, silver, and raiment, which the prophet had refused to take of Naaman; the Jews have a fable, that there was a precious stone in it, worth all the good things of Damascus:

and came and stood before him, and said, thy son Benhadad, king of
Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying, shall I recover of this disease?
he calls him his son, in veneration of the prophet as a father, as such men were called.

2 Kings 8:9 In-Context

7 Elisha went to Damascus at a time when King Benhadad of Syria was sick. When the king was told that Elisha was there,

8 he said to Hazael, one of his officials, "Take a gift to the prophet and ask him to consult the Lord to find out whether or not I am going to get well."

9 So Hazael loaded forty camels with all kinds of the finest products of Damascus and went to Elisha. When Hazael met him, he said, "Your servant King Benhadad has sent me to ask you whether or not he will recover from his sickness."

10 Elisha answered, "The Lord has revealed to me that he will die; but go to him and tell him that he will recover."

11 Then Elisha stared at him with a horrified look on his face until Hazael became ill at ease. Suddenly Elisha burst into tears.