2 Kings 13:13-23

13 And Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat upon his throne; and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

14 Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness of which he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!

15 And Elisha said unto him, Take the bow and the arrows. And he took unto him the bow and the arrows.

16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put thy hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it; and Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands.

17 And he said, Open the window towards the east. And when he opened it Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD’s salvation, and the arrow of salvation from Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, until thou have consumed them.

18 And he said again, Take the arrows. And he took them. Then he said to the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote three times, and stopped.

19 Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, If thou would have smitten five or six times; then thou would have smitten Syria until thou had consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria three times.

20 And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.

21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and when the dead man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

22 So Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

23 But the LORD was merciful unto them, and had compassion on them, and looked upon them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and did not desire to destroy them or to cast them from his presence as yet.

2 Kings 13:13-23 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