1 Kings 19:19

CALL OF ELISHA, 1 Kings 19:19-21.

19. Departed thence Left the wilderness of Horeb to go to the wilderness of Damascus. 1 Kings 19:15.

Ploughing with twelve yoke of… before him That is, ploughing in company with eleven other men who each had a plough and a yoke of oxen. This is still common in the East. It is not necessary to suppose, as many have done, that Elisha owned all the oxen, and that the men were merely his servants. Dr. Thomson speaks of seeing more than a dozen ploughs following one another as closely as possible. “To understand the reason of this,” he says, “several things must be taken into account. First, that the arable lands of nearly all villages are cultivated in common; then, that Arab farmers delight to work together in companies, partly for mutual protection, and in part from their love of gossip; and as they sow no more ground than they can plough during the day, one sower will answer for the entire company. Their little ploughs make no proper furrow, but merely root up and throw the soil on either side, and so any number may follow one another, and when at the end of the field, they can return along the same line, and thus back and forth until the whole is ploughed.”

He with the twelfth “It is well that Elisha came the last of the twelve, for the act of Elijah would have stopped all that were in advance of him.”

Elijah passed by him Rather, passed over to him. Perhaps he passed over the Jordan, having been journeying on the opposite shore.

Cast his mantle upon him This was a symbolical act on the part of Elijah, investing Elisha with his own prophetic office. The sign was understood and the call obeyed.