2 Kings 8:8

8 So the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Question the LORD through him: ‘Will I recover from this sickness?'"

2 Kings 8:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 8:8

And the king said to Hazael
The captain general of his army:

take a present in thine hand, and go and meet the man of God,
who, perhaps, was not as yet come into the city, only into the region of Damascus: or rather "with thee"; so the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions; and which Noldius ^F6 approves of, since a burden of forty camels, ( 2 Kings 8:9 ) could not be carried in the hand:

and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, shall I recover of this
disease?
he did not desire him to pray the Lord that he might recover, only was curious to know whether he should or not, see ( 2 Kings 1:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 189. No. 362.

2 Kings 8:8 In-Context

6 The king questioned the woman, and she told him her story. Then the king appointed an official to help her, saying, "Return everything that belongs to her, as well as everything that the farmland has produced, starting from the day she left the country until right now."

7 Now Elisha had gone to Damascus when Aram's King Ben-hadad became sick. The king was told, "The man of God has come all this way."

8 So the king said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Question the LORD through him: ‘Will I recover from this sickness?'"

9 So Hazael went out to meet Elisha. He took along forty camel-loads of Damascus' finest goods as a gift. He came and stood before Elisha and said, "Your son Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, sent me to you to ask, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?'"

10 Elisha said to him, "Go and tell him, ‘You will definitely recover,' but actually the LORD has shown me that he will die."