And Elisha said unto him, go, say unto him, thou mayest
certainly recover
That is, of the disease; and there was not only a probability that he might recover of it, it not being a mortal one, but a certainty that he should not die of it, as he did not, but die a violent death, which the prophet predicts in the next clause; though some take these words not as a command, what he should say, but as a prediction of what he would say; that he would go and tell him he should certainly recover, because he would not discourage him, though the prophet assures him in the next clause that he should die: there is a various reading of these words; we follow the marginal reading, but the textual reading is, "say, thou shall not certainly recover", or "in living live"; which agrees with what follows:
howbeit
or "for"
the Lord hath showed me, that he shall surely die;
though not of that sickness, nor a natural death, but a violent one, and that by the hand of this his servant, though he does not express it.