2 Kings 13:20

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

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 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.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.