We continue to hear of the actions of the prophet Elisha, disciple of Elijah.
2 Kings 8: 1-6, Confirmation
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years." The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.
At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, "Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done."
Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life."
The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now."
In 2 Kings 4, Elisha promises a Shunamite woman that she will have a son. Later, when the child is older, he gets sick and dies, but Elisha brings the boy back to life. Then, being told by Elisha of a coming famine, she retreats to the land of the Philistines (westward of Israel.) When she returns to Israel, her land and house had been confiscated and so she appeals to the king (as customary in the ancient Near East.) It so happens that her appearance coincides with Gehazi's telling of her to the king. This both confirms Gehazi's tale and simultaneously gives her standing before the king. We are expected to recognize the divine timing in this event.
We note that this is the same Gehazi whose skin was turned leprous in an earlier chapter. It is not clear if this event occurs before or after that one.
2 Kings 8: 7-11, Elisha and Hazael
Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, "The man of God has come all the way up here," he said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him; ask him, `Will I recover from this illness?'"
Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, "Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, `Will I recover from this illness?'"
Elisha answered, "Go and say to him, `You will certainly recover'; but the LORD has revealed to me that he will in fact die." He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael felt ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep.
Elisha explains to Hazael that Ben-Hadad will indeed die. He doesn't explain yet why that will happen. Clearly Elisha knows something about Hazael and now Hazael knows that he knows. After this conversation, surprisingly, Elisha begins to weep.
(NIV footnotes: The Hebrew in verse 10 is unclear; Elisha might be saying "Go and say, 'You will certainly not recover,' for the LORD has revealed...")
2 Kings 8: 12-15, Betrayal
"Why is my lord weeping?" asked Hazael.
"Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites," he answered. "You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women."
Hazael said, "How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?"
"The LORD has shown me that you will become king of Aram," answered Elisha.
Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, "What did Elisha say to you?"
Hazael replied, "He told me that you would certainly recover."
But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king's face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.
The reason Ben-Hadad will die is because Hazael will assassinate him. After returning to Ben-Hadad, Hazael smothers the king with a heavy thick cloth. This murder leaves no marks and may allow Hazael to claim that his master died naturally.
Elisha's weeping is because he sees the atrocities Hazael will commit against Israel. Hazael will oppress Israel throughout the next four chapters of 2 Kings. Possibly the oldest external source for the kingdoms of Judah comes from the Tel Dan stele, a stone slab found in northern Israel in which an Aramean king boasts of defeating both the king of Israel and the king of the line of David. This Bible Archealogy article claims that the Tel Dan stele records Hazael's claims of defeating Jehoram and Ahaziah.
2 Kings 8: 16-19, Reign of Jehoram
In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
We now move from the history of Israel to the history of Judah. The date is still around 850 BC, only a few years after the events in the first chapter of 2 Kings.
Jehoram takes the throne of Judah. He is married to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (of Israel) and so, despite the previous effect of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram promotes the religion of his in-laws, Ahab and Jezebel of Israel. (The website gotquestions.org has an article on Athaliah.)
2 Kings 8: 20-24, Rebellion of Edom
In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. So Jehoram went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home.
To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time.
As for the other events of Jehoram's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.
Beginning at the reign of Jehoram, continuing into the day of the writer, the kingdom of Edom refused to be a vassal of Judah and sets up its own king. (The town of Libnah is mentioned in Joshua 15: 33-47, see especially verse 42, as a town in the western foothills of Canaan.)
The text alludes to one of a number of ancient annals, long lost.
More details about the reign of Jehoram of Judah are provided in 2 Chronicles 21. There we learn that Elisha confronts him with a letter and that Jehoram dies in pain of a bowel disease. He is not mourned and although he is buried in the City of David, he is not buried in the tomb of the kings.
The scroll of Kings gives names Joram/Jehoram to two kings, one of Judah, one of Israel, who reigned in the same century. Wikipedia has interesting articles on the two: Jehoram of Judah and Jehoram of Israel.
Ahaziah, son of Jehoroam (of Judah) and Athaliah, grandson of Jezebel, now reigns in Judah.
2 Kings 8: 25-29, Ahaziah
In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family.
Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; so King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.
Ahaziah succeeds Jehoram as king of Judah but only reigns one year. He aids Joram/Jehoram (of Israel) against Hazael. Joram/Jehoram is wounded in the battle and returns home to the palace in Jezreel to recover.
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