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painful secret of some trouble to come - forbearing to take any part till the moment
for action, or rather for their obedience, was indicated to them from above.
It was, surely, not an accidental circumstance that when Elisha arrived in Syria Ben-
hadad was on that sick-bed from which his treacherous servant intended he should
never rise. For the prophet was not to come until all was ready and prepared for the
deed by which Hazael would ascend the throne of Syria, that while in its sequences
necessarily connected with the judgments foretold upon Israel, yet no part of the
incentive to the crime could be imputed to the agency of the Divine messenger.
Evidently, if Hazael had not intended to murder his master, and to pretend that he
had died of his disease, the words of Elisha would have had no meaning, nor could
they have suggested to him his crime.
On hearing of the near approach of the great prophet of Israel, Ben-hadad charged
Hazael, probably his vizier or chief general, to meet Elisha, and inquire through him
of Jehovah, whether he would recover from his sickness. After the manner of the
time, Hazael went to meet the prophet with a present. We are not to understand that
those forty camels which bore "of every good thing of Damascus," were literally
fully laden. This magnifying of a present by distributing and laying it on a great
many bearers or beasts of burden, is characteristic of the East, and is not
uncommonly witnessed in our own days. Hazael delivered his master's message with
unblushing hypocrisy. But Elisha had read his purpose, and replied in language
which, while it unmasked, could never have suggested his murderous scheme: "Go,
say to him, [viz. as thou intendest to do] Thou shalt surely live; howbeit Jehovah has
shown me that he shall surely die." And as we recall the hypocritical words by which
Hazael had tried to disguise his purpose and deceive the prophet, we feel that this
was the most fitting answer to his pretended humility and care.
Yet this was only the beginning of what Elisha had to say to Hazael. "And he
[Elisha] steadied his face, and set it till he [Hazael] was ashamed," when reading not
only his inmost thoughts, but his future history also, the prophet burst into weeping.
When Hazael inquired as to the reason of his tears, Elisha told the terrible cruelties
which he knew the Syrian would perpetrate upon Israel. The mock humility of
Hazel's answer: "But what is thy servant, the dog, that he should do this great thing?"
reveals at least the spirit in which he contemplated such deeds against Israel. If
Hazael had still thought to deceive Elisha, the announcement that God had shown to
his prophet Hazael as king of Syria, must have convinced him that disguise was
useless. Little more requires to be told. Hazael returned to his master, and gave him
the lying assurance of recovery, as Elisha had foretold. Then as in his sore sickness
Ben-hadad lay prostrate and helpless, Hazael laid upon his face a coverlet which had
been soaked and made heavy with water. And so Ben-hadad died, and his murderer,
whose crime remained probably unknown, ascended the throne.
(^)