2 Kings 13:12-22

12 Forsooth the residue of [the] words of Jehoash, and all things that he did, but also his strength, how he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, whether these be not written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of the kings of Israel?

13 And Jehoash slept with his fathers; forsooth Jeroboam (II) sat upon his throne (and his son, Jeroboam II, sat on his throne). And Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

14 Forsooth Elisha was sick in a sickness, by which and he was dead (Now Elisha was sick with the sickness from which he would die); and Jehoash, king of Israel, went down to him, and wept before him, and said, My father! my father! the chariot of Israel, and the charioteer thereof!

15 And Elisha said to him, Bring thou a bow and arrows. And when he had brought to Elisha a bow and arrows,

16 he said to the king of Israel, Set thine hand on the bow. And when he had set his hand (on it), Elisha setted his hands on the hands of the king,

17 and (he) said, Open thou the east window. And when he had opened (it), Elisha said, Shoot thou an arrow; and he shot (it). And Elisha said, This is an arrow of [the] health of the Lord, and an arrow of health against Syria; and thou shalt smite Syria in Aphek, till thou waste it (And Elisha said, This is an arrow of the Lord's victory, yea, an arrow of victory over Syria; and thou shalt strike Syria in Aphek, until thou destroy it).

18 And Elisha said, Take away the arrows. And when he had taken (them) away, Elisha said to him, Smite thou the earth with a dart (Strike thou the earth with this arrow). And when he had smitten three times, and had stood,

19 the man of God was wroth against him, and said, If thou haddest smitten five times, either six times, either seven times, thou shouldest have smitten Syria unto the ending (of it); now forsooth thou shalt smite it three times (but now thou shalt strike it only three times).

20 Then Elisha was dead (Then Elisha died), and they buried him. And the thieves of Moab came into the land in that year.

21 Forsooth some men buried a man (And some men were burying a man), and they saw the thieves, and they cast forth the dead body into the sepulchre of Elisha; and when it had touched the bones of Elisha, the man lived again, and stood up on his feet.

22 Then Hazael (But Hazael), king of Syria, tormented Israel in all the days of Jehoahaz.

2 Kings 13:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 13

This chapter gives an account of the wicked reign of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel, and of the low estate he was brought into by the Syrians, 2Ki 13:1-9, and of the reign of his son Joash, 2Ki 13:10-13, and of the sickness and death of Elisha; of the visit Joash made him in his sickness; and of his prediction of the king's success against the Syrians; and of the reviving of a dead man cast into the prophet's sepulchre, 2Ki 13:14-21 and of the success of Joash against the Syrians, according to the prediction of the prophet, 2Ki 13:22-25.

\\of Judah\\ The same year he was so zealous and busy in repairing the temple, 2Ki 12:6,

\\Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria\\; whereas Joash began to reign in the seventh year of Jehu, and Jehu reigned but twenty eight years, 2Ki 10:36, and 2Ki 12:1, this could be but the twenty first of Joash; to reconcile which it must be observed, that it was at the beginning of the seventh year of Jehu that Joash began to reign, and at the beginning of the twenty third of Joash that Jehoahaz began to reign, as the Jewish commentators observe:

\\and reigned seventeen years\\; the two last of which were in common with his son, as Junius, see 2Ki 13:10 17831-941219-2104-2Ki13.2