2 Kings 8

CHAPTER 8

The Shunammite’s Land Restored (8:1-6)

1-6 In this section the writer continues the story of the Shunammite woman he described earlier³¹ (see 2 Kings 4:8-37). Elisha had advised the woman and her family to leave Israel because a sevenyear famine was about to begin. The woman took his advice, but now after the seven years were up she had returned and found that her house and land had been taken over either by the king or by an illegal occupant. So she and her son went to the king to beg him for the return of her property.

By God’s providential timing, Elisha’s former servant Gehazi was meeting with the king at the very moment the Shunammite woman arrived. The king was most likely Jehu, the successor of Joram (2 Kings 9:1-10,24). It is unlikely that Joram would have been inquiring about all the great things Elisha had done (verse 4), because he was already well acquainted with them. For his part, Gehazi had been dismissed from Elisha’s service earlier (2 Kings 5:26-27), but he still would have been the most knowledgeable source of information about Elisha.

The Lord, through Elisha, had already shown great mercy to this Shunammite woman; now He was about to do it once more. Gehazi had just told the king about how Elisha had raised a dead child to life—and in walks the child himself! Thus Gehazi confirmed the woman’s story; as a result, the king was happy to give her back her property—plus the income her land would have provided during the seven years she had been away.

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad (8:7-15)

7-9 On one occasion Elisha was in Damascus, the capital of Aram (Syria); at that very time Aram’s king, Ben-Hadad, had become ill. Hearing that the great prophet was in the city, Ben-Hadad sent his deputy Hazael to Elisha to inquire whether or not he would recover from his illness. Of course, Hazael did not know that Elisha had come to Damascus for the very purpose of making him king of Aram, in accordance with the Lord’s earlier instructions to Elijah (see 1 Kings 19:15-17).

10-15 When Hazael asked Elisha about Ben-Hadad’s recovery, Elisha gave him an ambiguous answer. In effect, Elisha said that Ben-Hadad would recover from his illness—if nothing else happened to him. But then he added, Something else will happen to him: he will be murdered.”

At that moment, Elisha was selecting Hazael to be both the murderer and the next king. Elisha must have known that this was something Hazael had thought about, because Elisha stared at him until Hazael felt ashamed (verse 11).

Elisha also knew what Hazael was going to do after he had become king, and the thought of it made him weep (verse 12). Hazael was going to be used by God in a most brutal way to punish the Israelites for their disobedience and apostasy.

Hazael protested that he’d never be able to carry out such acts; he was only an official. But Elisha told him he would soon be king (verse 13). This was all the encouragement Hazael needed. After telling Ben-Hadad he would recover, the very next day Hazael murdered him and succeeded him as king, just as Elisha had said (verse 15).

God’s selection of Hazael to punish Israel did not mean that Hazael was justified in murdering Ben-Hadad or later carrying out atrocities against the Israelites. Hazael did these things because of the evil in his heart; God simply used this evil man to further His greater purposes.³²

Jehoram King of Judah (8:16-24)

(2 Chronicles 21:1-20)

16-19 In this section the writer describes the reign of Jehoram, one of Judah’s wickedest kings. According to 2 Chronicles 21:4, one of his first acts as king was to murder all of his brothers, together with other princes of Israel who might pose a threat to his throne. One reason Jehoram did so much evil was because he was married to a daughter of Ahab named Athaliah (verses 18,26). She exerted influence over her husband Jehoram and later over her son Ahaziah in much the same way Jezebel had exerted influence over Ahab (1 Kings 21:25). Indeed, Athaliah nearly became the undoing of the kingdom of Judah: she brought Baal worship into Judah (2 Chronicles 24:7) and she eliminated the entire royal family—the entire line of David—except for one who escaped (2 Kings 11:1-3). But in spite of the evil of Jehoram and his wife Athaliah, God did not immediately destroy Judah, because He remembered His covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:16) and His promise to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever³³ (verse 19).

20-24 Even though the Lord kept Judah from being destroyed during Jehoram’s reign, Judah and Jehoram did experience a number of judgments from the Lord. Three judgments came in the form of military defeats. First Edom rebelled,³⁴ which resulted in Jehoram nearly losing his life (verses 20-21); second, Libnah revolted (verse 22); and third, according to 2 Chronicles 21:16-17, the Philistines and Arabs invaded Judah and carried off all of Jehoram’s sons except Ahaziah, his youngest (verse 25). It was God’s justice that the man who had murdered his brothers should now pay with the loss of his sons.

The final judgment on Jehoram came in the form of an incurable disease of the bowels, from which he died in great pain; the people did not honor him in death³⁵ (2 Chronicles 21:18-19).

Ahaziah King of Judah (8:25-29)

(2 Chronicles 22:1-9)

25-29 Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram and Athaliah the daughter of Ahab (verse 18); all of his older brothers had been killed by raiding Philistines and Arabs (see 2 Chronicles 21:16-17; 22:1). He, too, like his father Jehoram, came under the influence of the wicked Athaliah; as a result, he walked in the ways of the house of Ahab (verse 27).

Just as Ahaziah’s grandfather Jehoshaphat had joined with Ahab in a vain attempt to retake the city of Ramoth Gilead from the Arameans (see 1 Kings 22:1-4), so too did Ahaziah join with Ahab’s son Joram to try again to retake Ramoth Gilead, this time from Hazael, the new king of Aram (verses 15,28). Once again the battle went badly and Joram was wounded. In verse 29, we are told that Ahaziah went from Jerusalem down to Jezreel in Israel to see the wounded Joram; this sets the stage for the next chapter, where we read of the death of both Joram and Ahaziah. God’s judgment against these two kings, son and grandson of Ahab, was but one more step in the fulfillment of God’s word to Elijah that He would cut off every last male among Ahab’s descendants (1 Kings 19:17; 21:20-22).

According to 2 Chronicles 22:7-9, when Ahaziah arrived in Jezreel, he and Joram went out to meet Jehu, whom the Lord had chosen to destroy the house of Ahab (1 Kings 19:16-17; 2 Kings 9:6-10). Jehu not only succeeded in killing the two kings, but he put to death their families as well. Detailed accounts of Jehu’s actions are found in the next two chapters.