- 106-
narrative shows, on the one hand, the simplicity and earnestness of their faith, and,
on the other, the poverty and humbleness of their outward circumstances.
Evidence of both was soon to appear. As they were engaged in felling the timber the
ax-head of one of the workers became suddenly detached and fell into the water. His
exclamation of distress addressed to Elisha, with this significant addition, that the ax
had been "asked" or "entreated for," constituted an appeal to the prophet. It is of
comparatively secondary importance, whether it had been so asked as a gift, or as a
loan - though the former seems to us the meaning of the word.^219
What followed had best be recorded in a rigorously literal translation of the sacred
text. "And the man of God said: Where has it fallen? And he showed him the place,
and he [Elisha] cut off wood [a stick, piece of a tree], and put it in there [sent it], and
he caused the iron to flow" - on which, the man, as directed by the prophet, "put in
["sent," the same word as before] his hand and took it." The first, but also the most
superficial, impression on reading these words is that they do not necessarily imply
anything miraculous.
Accordingly, both some of the Rabbis and certain modern interpreters have argued,
either that the stick which had been cut off struck right into the hole of the ax-head
and so brought it up, or else that the stick thrust under the ax had rendered it possible
to drag it to land. But, to speak plainly, both these suggestions involve such manifest
impossibilities, as hardly to require serious discussion. It is scarcely necessary to add
that every such explanation is opposed equally to the wording and the spirit of the
sacred text, which assuredly would not have recorded among the marvelous doings
of the heaven-sent prophet a device, which, if it had been possible, could have been
accomplished by any clever-handed person. There cannot be any doubt in the mind
of every impartial man that Scripture here intends to record a notable miracle. On the
other hand, there is nothing in the sacred text which obliges us to believe that the iron
"did swim." In fact, the Hebrew word is never used in that sense.^220 The impression
left on our minds is that the iron which had sunk to the bottom was set in motion,
made to float, probably, by some sudden rush of water. Beyond this we cannot go in
our attempts to explain the manner in which this miraculous result may have been
brought about.
But in another direction we can go much further. We recall what has previously been
stated about the extraordinary character of the mission of Elijah and of Elisha, which
accounts for a series of miracles in their history, unparalleled in the Old Testament,
and, indeed, quite exceptional, being connected with what may be described as the
decisive crisis in the religious history of the kingdom of Israel. If there was to be
direct Divine interposition in order to recall Israel to their allegiance to Jehovah, it is
evident that the religious state of the people, ripening for a judgment which history
(^)