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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
6:1-23 Elisha and Syria. With the healing of Naaman, Elisha has involved himself with Syria for the first time. That involvement now occupies most of the attention of the authors for the next two chapters, as they prepare the reader for the bloody events of chs. 8-10.
6:1-7 While one of the prophetic communities is building a new place to meet, a member of the group loses a borrowed axe head. Elisha has past experience of manipulating the waters of the Jordan by the Lord's power (2:14), and here he is miraculously able to make the iron float like the piece of wood he has thrown in beside it.
6:8 the king of Syria was warring against Israel. Relations between Syria and Israel have deteriorated since ch. 5.
6:9 the man of God sent word. Elisha intervenes to help Jehoram, not because anything has changed in his behavior (3:2-3, 13) but simply because the time has not yet arrived for final judgment on this royal house (cf. chs. 9-10). Prophetic oracles apparently were often sought or offered in the ancient Near East in relation to military campaigns (see note on 3:11-14).
6:13 Dothan is only
6:16 those who are with us. Elisha knows that the Lord has sent an army of angels to protect him, and apparently he can see them but the servant cannot. They are more than a match for the Syrian army (cf. Ps. 91:11; Heb. 1:14).
6:17 the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. The angelic armies have been there all along, but they are invisible to Elisha's servant until the Lord enables him to see them (cf. 2:11; also Num. 22:31; Luke 2:13; Col. 1:16). the mountain was full. Syrian troops may surround (Hb. sabab) the city (2 Kings 6:15), but Elisha himself is supported all around (Hb. sabib) by the army of the Lord.
6:18 blindness. Probably not a loss of physical sight (since the Syrians would not doubt their location just because they could no longer physically see it), but rather a dazed mental condition in which they are open to suggestion and manipulation but still able to follow the prophet to Samaria. The Syrians are "bedazzled" and do not "see" things clearly, whereas Elisha's servant has been given perfect clarity of "sight" about reality.
6:19 I will bring you to the man whom you seek. The statement is somewhat puzzling, but rather than leaving the Syrians, Elisha did in fact bring them face to face with the man they were looking for.
6:22 You shall not strike them down. Jehoram would not kill men taken captive with your sword and with your bow, and these are not even men like that. They are to be treated as guests.
