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ee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it me to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of hovah came upon him. And he said, Thus saith Jehovah, ake this valley full of ditches. For thus saith Jehovah, Ye all not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley all be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and our cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing 1 the sight of Jehovah: he will deliver the Moabites also to your hand. And ye shall smite every fenced city, and very choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all vells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that behold there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.*

The Moabites assembled their armies to encounter this coalition, and from some supernatural effect produced by the sun upon the water, it appeared to them as red as blood; which they took for a symptom that the confederate kings had been fighting amongst themselves, and that the allied hosts had slain each other; whence they said, "Now, therefore, Moab to the spoil."+

Presuming upon this supposition, and probably inattentive to order and discipline, the Moabites approached the camp of Israel; when the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and went forward smiting the Moabites even in their country. And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees; only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit, the slingers went about it and smote it. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men

• 2 Kings, iii. 10–20.

+ 2 Kings, iii. 21-23.

that drew swords, to break through even unto the king Edom; but they could not. Then he took his eldest son should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a bu offering upon the wall. And there was great indigna against Israel, and they departed from him, and returned their own land.†

It is during this reign that some of the splendid mira performed by Elisha are related; viz. the increase of t widow's oil to enable her to pay her creditor; the kinde and patriotism of the woman of Shunem rewarded by the of a son, and his subsequent restoration to life ;§ the beak of the poisoned pottage;|| the multiplying of the first fruits order to supply a multitude; the cleansing the leprost Naaman, the Syrian commander, ** unquestionably one of th most beautiful and instructive relations to be found in book or language; and the recovery of the iron axe.††

But the services of Elisha were not confined to the concer of private individuals only; for the king of Syria having revived the war against Israel placed a camp in ambush i Jehoram, when Elisha sent him word to beware of pass the place of the ambush; who thereupon sent to examine it

* See a great number of instances of similar barbarity, amongs almost all the nations of ancient and modern paganism, collected br Burder, O. L. No. 570., and Burder, O. C. No. 412. Dr. Wall, B Wilson, and others, however, suppose that the king of Moab, in b unsuccessful sortie, had taken the son of the king of Edom prisoner. ¡ and that it was the prince of Idumæa, and not his own son, whom the king of Moab sacrificed on the wall.-See A. Clarke and George Hutcheson on Amos, ii. 1.

+ 2 Kings, iii. 24–27.

§ 2 Kings, iv. 8-37.

2 Kings, iv. 38-41.

** 2 Kings, v.

2 Kings, iv. 1—7. viii. 1-6.

¶ 2 Kings, iv. 42—44. tt 2 Kings, vi. 1—7.

Or rather preoccupied it. So the Vulg.

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d this was repeated several times till the king of Syria gan to suspect the fidelity of his own officers, and asked, ill ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel ? ut they truly answered him, None, my lord, O king, but isha, the prophet, that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel e words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.*

Benhadad having ascertained that the prophet was in Doan, sent an armed force to surround the city, and when his rvant with a fainting heart said, Alas, my master, how hall we do; Elisha replied, Fear not, for they that be with s are more than they that be with them; and thereupon raying that the young man's eyes might be opened, he there aw that Elisha was protected by horses and chariots of fire, vhich filled the mountain by the divine command.+

But this was not all, for God having, at the prayer of Elisha, mote the Syrian host with blindness, the prophet came mongst them and conducted them into the midst of Samaria, and then their eyes were opened. The king of Israel would have slain them, but Elisha said, Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he

* 2 Kings, vi. 8—12.

+ 2 Kings, vi. 13-17. What astonishing intercourse had this man with heaven! It seems the whole heavenly host had it in commission to help him.-A. CLARKE. And what, but the want of faith, deprives every believing Christian of equally powerful protection?

When Elisha shewed Jehoram the impropriety of slaughtering prisoners of war, whom he had taken captive, much more that of smiting those whom God had led into that situation, he desisted from his purpose; nay, he obeyed the prophet's orders in entertaining and dismissing the whole army! Yet this very man soon after determined to murder this same prophet! Scot in loco.

sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bas of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.†

Benhadad, however, having gathered all his host, reinvade the country, and besieged Samaria so closely, that there a great famine, and an ass's head was sold for fourscore pie of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for pieces of silver.

Highly excited by the agonizing representation of a wom who had consented to boil her son to prolong her own life! Jehoram who had so lately§ submitted respectfully to the a thority of Elisha, now suddenly swore,|| God do so and also to me, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, stand on him this day.

Whilst Elisha sat in his house with the elders, a messen,” arrived from the king; but aware of his murderous purpose." he ordered the door to be shut till Jehoram arrived hims when the prophet thus addressed him. Hear ye the word Jehovah; thus saith Jehovah, To-morrow about this ti

* That is, the land of Israel was no longer infested with the datory bands of Syria-it does not mean that the Syrians did invade again. Scot and A. Clarke in loco.

† 2 Kings, vi. 18-23.

them This very evil Moses had foretold should come upon they forsook God.-Deut. xxviii. 53-57. The same evil came this wretched people, when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar.-El v. 10. And again, when Titus besieged Jerusalem.—Jos. vol. 207. and A. Clarke in loco, and on Matt. xxiv. 19.

§ 2 Kings, vi. 23.

Either Elisha had denounced this judgment upon Jehoram is his sins, or Jehoram supposed that it was sent in answer to h prayers: or he thought the prophet could help him if he would; ** he blamed him for inducing him to dismiss the Syrian army, when it his power; or perhaps Elisha had counselled him, in the names Jehovah, to hold out the siege, and that he should be delivered. ** 2 Kings, vi. 32.

Scot in loco.

¶ 2 Kings, vi. 26-31.

all a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two easures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.*

To this merciful intimation, which ought to have filled their hearts with joy and gratitude, an infidel courtier, on whose and the king leaned, tauntingly remarked, "Behold, if Jehovah would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" And Elisha said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.†

Pursuant to this promise, Jehovah had made the host of the -Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host; and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

It would seem that neither Jehoram nor his courtiers, had placed any reliance upon the prophet's declaration, at least they do not appear to have been watching the Syrian army, and were most likely immersed in the sleep of infidelity and despair. In the city, however, there were four lepers, who from their melancholy situation,§ were necessarily suffering, if possible, more severely than the other inhabitants.

These unhappy men, aware of the desperate state of the besieged, and certain that from the diseased and proscribed condition in which they were themselves, they must necessarily be amongst the first victims to the famine and distress which prevailed, consulted together whether they could possibly be worse off if they gave themselves up to the Syrians,

2 Kings, vii. 1.

+ 2 Kings, vii. 2.

§ Lev. xiii. 45, 46.

2 Kings, vii. 6, 7.

It is supposed that the lepers who gave information of the Syrians' retreat, were Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, and his three sons.

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