23 Then from there he went up to Beth-el; and on his way, some little boys came out from the town and made sport of him, crying, Go up, old no-hair! go up, old no-hair!
But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help.
But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.
Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an oath, By the living Lord.
And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons:
You who would give the Temple to destruction and put it up again in three days, get yourself free: if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests, making sport of him, with the scribes and those in authority, said, A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will have faith in him. He put his faith in God; let God be his saviour now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God.
And they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a rod in his right hand, and they went down on their knees before him, and made sport of him, saying, Long life to the King of the Jews. And they put shame on him, and gave him blows on the head with the rod. And when they had made sport of him, they took the robe off him, and put his clothing on him, and took him away to put him on the cross.
Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing.
Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days:
So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.
The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight.
But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret arts, the seed of her who is false to her husband, and of the loose woman. Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your mouth open wide and your tongue put out? are you not uncontrolled children, a false seed,
And the people will be crushed, every one by his neighbour; the young will be full of pride against the old, and those of low position will be lifted up against the noble.
So put away trouble from your heart, and sorrow from your flesh; because the early years and the best years are to no purpose.
Foolish ways are deep-seated in the heart of a child, but the rod of punishment will send them far from him.
Even a child may be judged by his doings, if his work is free from sin and if it is right.
But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together, yes, low persons came together against me without my knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me.
They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land. And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them. I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me. For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me. The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me: They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me; As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack. Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud. But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me: The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains. With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat. Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust. You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer. You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me. Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm. For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living. Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble? Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need? For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark. My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me. I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help. I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches. My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease. And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
So after taking thought the king made two oxen of gold; and he said to the people, You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough; see! these are your gods, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan. And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan. And he made places for worship at the high places, and made priests, who were not Levites, from among all the people. And Jeroboam gave orders for a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. And in the same way, in Beth-el, he gave offerings to the oxen which he had made, placing in Beth-el the priests of the high places he had made.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 2 Kings 2
Commentary on 2 Kings 2 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 2
2Ki 2:1-10. Elijah Divines Jordan.
1-7. when the Lord would take up Elijah—A revelation of this event had been made to the prophet; but, unknown to him, it had also been revealed to his disciples, and to Elisha in particular, who kept constantly beside him.
Gilgal—This Gilgal (Jiljil) was near Ebal and Gerizim; a school of the prophets was established there. At Beth-el there was also a school of the prophets, which Elijah had founded, notwithstanding that place was the headquarters of the calf-worship; and at Jericho there was another [2Ki 2:4]. In travelling to these places, which he had done through the impulse of the Spirit (2Ki 2:2, 4-6), Elijah wished to pay a farewell visit to these several institutions, which lay on his way to the place of ascension and, at the same time, from a feeling of humility and modesty, to be in solitude, where there would be no eye-witnesses of his glorification. All his efforts, however, to prevail on his attendant to remain behind, were fruitless. Elisha knew that the time was at hand, and at every place the sons of the prophets spoke to him of the approaching removal of his master. Their last stage was at the Jordan. They were followed at a distance by fifty scholars of the prophets, from Jericho, who were desirous, in honor of the great occasion, to witness the miraculous translation of the prophet. The revelation of this striking event to so many was a necessary part of the dispensation; for it was designed to be under the law, like that of Enoch in the patriarchal age, a visible proof of another state, and a type of the resurrection of Christ.
3. take away thy master from they head—an allusion to the custom of scholars sitting at the feet of their master, the latter being over their heads (Ac 22:3).
8. Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters—Like the rod of Moses, it had the divinely operating power of the Spirit.
9. Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee—trusting either that it would be in his power to bequeath it, or that God, at his entreaty, would grant it.
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me—This request was not, as is commonly supposed, for the power of working miracles exceeding the magnitude and number of his master's, nor does it mean a higher endowment of the prophetic spirit; for Elisha was neither superior to, nor perhaps equally great with, his predecessor. But the phrase, "a double portion," was applied to the first-born [De 21:17], and therefore Elisha's request was, simply, to be heir to the prophetic office and gifts of his master.
10. Thou hast asked a hard thing—an extraordinary blessing which I cannot, and God only, can give. Nevertheless he, doubtless by the secret directions of the Spirit, proposed to Elisha a sign, the observation of which would keep him in the attitude of an anxious waiter, as well as suppliant for the favor.
2Ki 2:11-18. He Is Taken Up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire.
11. behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire—some bright effulgence, which, in the eyes of the spectators, resembled those objects.
went up by a whirlwind—a tempest or storm wind accompanied with vivid flashes of fire, figuratively used for the divine judgments (Isa 29:6).
12. Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father—that is, spiritual father, as the pupils of the prophets are called their sons.
the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof—that is, that as earthly kingdoms are dependent for their defense and glory upon warlike preparations, there a single prophet had done more for the preservation and prosperity of Israel than all her chariots and horsemen.
took hold of his own clothes and rent them—in token of his grief for his loss.
13. He took up also the mantle of Elijah—The transference of this prophetic cloak was, to himself, a pledge of his being appointed successor, and it was an outward token to others of the spirit of Elijah resting upon him.
14-18. smote the waters—The waving of the mantle on the river, and the miraculous division of the waters consequent upon it, was an evidence that the Lord God of Elijah was with him, and as this miracle was witnessed by the scholars of the prophets from Jericho, they forthwith recognized the pre-eminence of Elisha, as now the prophet of Israel.
16-18. fifty strong men, let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master—Though the young prophets from Jericho had seen Elijah's miraculous passage of the Jordan, they had not witnessed the ascension. They imagined that he might have been cast by the whirlwind on some mountain or valley; or, if he had actually been admitted into heaven, they expected that his body would still be remaining somewhere on earth. In compliance with their importunity, he gave them permission, but told them what the result would be.
2Ki 2:19-25. Elisha Heals the Waters.
20. Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein—The noxious qualities of the water could not be corrected by the infusion of salt—for, supposing the salt was possessed of such a property, a whole spring could not be purified by a dishful for a day, much less in all future time. The pouring in of the salt was a symbolic act with which Elisha accompanied the word of the Lord, by which the spring was healed [Keil].
23, 24. there came forth little children out of the city—that is, the idolatrous, or infidel young men of the place, who affecting to disbelieve the report of his master's translation, sarcastically urged him to follow in the glorious career.
bald head—an epithet of contempt in the East, applied to a person even with a bushy head of hair. The appalling judgment that befell them was God's interference to uphold his newly invested prophet.