2 Kings 6:31 - Exposition

Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him —i.e. "continue on him"— this day. The form of oath was a common one (comp. Ruth 1:17 ; 1 Samuel 3:17 ; 1 Samuel 25:22 ; 2 Samuel 19:13 ; 1 Kings 2:23 ; 1 Kings 19:2 , etc.). It was an imprecation of evil on one's self, if one did, or if one failed to do, a certain thing. Why Jehoram should have considered Elisha as responsible for all the horrors of the siege is not apparent; but perhaps he supposed that it was in Elisha's power to work a miracle of any kind at any moment that he liked. If so, he misunderstood the nature of the miraculous gift. In threatening to behead Elisha, he is not making himself an executor of the Law, which nowhere sanctioned that mode of punishment, but assuming the arbitrary power of the other Oriental monarchs of his time, who regarded themselves as absolute masters of the lives and liberties of their subjects. Beheading was common in Egypt, in Babylonia, and in Assyria.