- 33-
- Mark here the use of the definite article, "the arrows," while in ver. 15 it is only "bow
and arrows."
Instead of obeying fully and literally, or at least shooting five or six times, the king struck
only thrice. It was a symbol he could not fully understand, and which therefore had not
any real meaning for him. Of simple, unquestioning, and persevering obedience of faith
he had not any conception. So far as his capacity reached he did obey. He may have
dimly perceived that it meant the shooting at the enemy prostrate on the ground. But then
"three times" indicated in ordinary Jewish parlance that a thing was completely and fully
done (as in Exodus 23:17; Numbers 22:28, 32, 33; 24:10; 2 Kings 1:9-14), and three
times he had "smitten." This also was symbolic of the king's moral incapacity for full
deliverance. That at such a moment he should have failed in the test of faith and
obedience, perhaps grown weary of what seemed meaningless in its continuation, and
that this failure should have involved the delay of Israel's full deliverance, filled the
prophet and patriot with holy indignation.* It should be to him as he had done - only
thrice, according to his obedience, but not to complete and final victory would Jehoash
smite the Syrians.
- The LXX. alters, "the man of God was wroth," into "was grieved." This is characteristic
of one class of LXX. alterations.
We cannot help connecting the brief notice of the miracle after Elisha's death and burial
with this interview between the king and the prophet. It was not as the king in his faint-
heartedness had cried, or as Israel might have feared, that with the disappearance of the
living prophet from among them "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof" were
gone. It was the God of the prophet, and not the prophet's god, that was Israel's defense
and might. It needed not a living prophet - the same power which stood behind him in life
could work deliverance through him after he was dead.
The main point was not the man, but his mission, and to it -that he was a prophets this
miracle after his death gave the most emphatic attestation; such also as would both in
itself and from its surrounding circumstances specially appeal to that time and generation.
This, without overlooking its other possible symbolic application,* seems to us its chief
meaning.
- It need scarcely be said how absurd would be any inference from this miracle in regard
to the use of "relics," - still more, to their veneration. The two cases have not anything in
common; since if anything is clear, it is the unique character of this miracle.
It appears that "at the coming in of the year" - probably in the spring - after Elisha's
burial, they were carrying a man to his burying, as was the wont, on an open bier. But lo,
as the procession reached the last place of rest, one of those predatory Moabite bands,
which, like the Bedawin of modern times, desolated the land, was seen swooping round
(^)