2 Kings 2:16-13:20

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - 2 Kings 2:16-17

2 Kings 2:16-17. Behold, there be with thy servants fifty strong men Able to take such a journey. Let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master They had received but an imperfect revelation of God’s design, with respect to Elijah, when they asked Elisha if he knew that the Lord would take away his master: for they seem to have supposed that the Spirit of God might have taken him up and cast him, either dead or alive, upon some mountain, or in some valley at a distance; see on 1 Kings... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 2:1-25

1:1-8:15 MINISTRY OF ELISHAElijah succeeded by Elisha (1:1-2:25)Ahab’s son Ahaziah had not reigned long when he was injured in a fall. When he sent messengers to ask foreign gods whether he would recover, Elijah met them along the way. He sent them back with a message that the king would die, because he had forsaken the true God for foreign gods (1:1-10). Ahaziah sent soldiers to arrest Elijah, apparently with the intention of killing him because of his bold words. The ungodly king lost a... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 2 Kings 2:16

2 Kings 2:16. The Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up— From some expressions in Scripture it seems as if the Spirit of the Lord frequently used to carry the prophets through the air, and with great swiftness remove them to distant places. Obadiah speaks of it as a common thing, 1 Kings 18:12. And in the New Testament we are told of Philip, that when they were come out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught him away, that the eunuch saw him no more:—And Philip was found at Atzotus; Acts... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - 2 Kings 2:16

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... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 2 Kings 2:15-25

The evidence of Elisha’s succession 2:15-25Had Elijah still been alive on the earth, Elisha could not have exercised authority as his successor. In this chapter there are parallels between the succession of the prophets and the succession of the kings that the writer recorded elsewhere in Kings. Elisha gave the skeptics opportunity to verify Elijah’s departure (cf. 1 Kings 18:12). After all, Elijah had been known to disappear and reappear suddenly (cf. 1 Kings 18:12). The same Spirit that had... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Kings 2:1-25

Elijah’s Translation to HeavenThe great service rendered to Israel by the prophet whose life is here closed was the stand which he made for the religion of Jehovah when its supremacy was threatened by the worship of the Zidonian Baal introduced by Jezebel. In view of such a crisis, the degradation of Jehovah’s worship by the association with it of the golden calves set up by Jeroboam could for a while be ignored, a superstitious form of the true faith being preferable to total apostasy; though... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 2 Kings 2:16

(16) And they said unto him.—After he had told them of the Assumption of Elijah (Thenius).Fifty strong men.—See margin. Perhaps these were attendants on the members of the prophetic guild. (Comp. Elisha’s servant Gehazi, and the fifty sons of the prophets, in 2 Kings 2:7.) Their being “sons of valour” was important, as the search in the mountains would involve danger.The Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up.—Comp. 1 Kings 18:12; Acts 8:39-40. This suggestion of the sons of the prophets is a... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 2 Kings 2:1-25

Elijah's Farewell to Elisha 2 Kings 2:9 I. We see here the last act of a great life. It is not perhaps what we should have expected from a man like Elijah the Tishbite. But, in truth, the greatest and the strongest men are not unfrequently the simplest and the tenderest; and Elijah, whose life had been passed in vehement speech and in heroic action Elijah is thinking, just like any humble peasant, of what he can best do for his, as yet, undistinguished follower. 'Ask what I shall do for thee... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 2:1-25

ELISHA2 Kings 2:1-25"He did wonders in his life, and at death even his works were marvelous. For all this the people repented not."- Sirach 48:14-15AT this point we enter into the cycle of supernatural stories, which gathered round the name of Elisha in the prophetic communities. Some of them are full of charm and tenderness; but in some cases it is difficult to point out their intrinsic superiority over the ecclesiastical miracles with which monkish historians have embellished the lives of the... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - 2 Kings 2:12-25

II. THE PROPHET ELISHA 1. The Beginning of His Ministry CHAPTER 2:12-25 1. The mantle used (2 Kings 2:12-14 ) 2. The sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:15-18 ) 3. The healing of Jericho’s waters (2 Kings 2:19-22 ) 4. Judgment upon the scoffers (2 Kings 2:23-25 ) Both Elijah and Elisha are types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names indicate this. Elijah means “my God is Jehovah,” and Elisha, “my God is salvation.” Suffering, affliction and rejection are prominent in the life of Elijah,... read more

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