ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for 2 Kings 8

2 Kings 8:1–6 After the long narrative about the siege of Samaria (6:24–7:20), the Shunammite woman of 4:8–37 reappears. In 4:13, the woman declined Elisha’s offer of help, saying that she could get help from her own people. In 8:1–6, however, she is no longer with her own people, for she has followed Elisha’s advice and avoided famine by going to live in Philistia.

2 Kings 8:1 Elisha had said. The prophecy had been delivered around the same time that Elisha restored the Shunammite woman’s son to life (4:8–37), and the famine had followed soon after (see 4:38). This event is different from the more severe famine in Samaria described in 6:24–7:20.

2 Kings 8:2 The land of the Philistines was a natural place to seek refuge during a famine in Israel (compare Gen. 26:1). It was also close to Egypt, the breadbasket of the ancient world (e.g., Gen. 12:10; 47:4).

2 Kings 8:3 her house and her land. Someone has taken the woman’s property in her absence—perhaps Jehoram himself, showing the same land-grabbing tendencies as his parents (see 1 Kings 21). In Israel the end of the seventh year was a time for restoration of property and cancellation of debt (Ex. 21:2–3; Deut. 15:1).

2 Kings 8:6 all the produce. The king also provides her with all the income from her land that she would have received had she stayed.

2 Kings 8:7–15 The house of Omri has now held the throne of Israel since 1 Kings 16:23, and in spite of Elijah’s prophecy about its end (1 Kings 21:21–24), one now reads of Ahab’s second apostate son holding on to his kingdom with the help of Elisha. Did Elijah sabotage God’s plan by failing to anoint Hazael and Jehu (1 Kings 19:15–18)? The answer is no. Hazael is now introduced, to be followed shortly by Jehu.

2 Kings 8:8–9 meet the man of God. It appears to have been customary when consulting prophets to offer some payment, in this case an extravagant gift of forty camels’ loads of goods (see 1 Sam. 9:1–9; 1 Kings 14:1–4; 2 Kings 5:1–6). The messenger Hazael enters the narrative without details of his background or role.

2 Kings 8:10 say to him, “You shall certainly recover.” Verses 11–12 indicate that Elisha knows that whatever Hazael says, he intends to kill the king.

2 Kings 8:11 he fixed his gaze. The text does not identify “he” and “him” in this verse. Most interpreters understand the first “he” to be Elisha, who “fixed his gaze” on Hazael, staring at him but also seeing with prophetic vision what Hazael would do in the future. Hazael does not know how to respond and is embarrassed, and then Elisha weeps.

2 Kings 8:15 Hazael became king. Hazael came to power in Syria sometime between 845 b.c., when it is known that Ben-hadad was still on the throne, and 841. He reigned for about 40 years and was one of Israel’s most bitter enemies.

2 Kings 8:16–29 Judah was last mentioned in ch. 3, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Another Judean king has come and gone in the meantime, however, and the reader must be told about him and be introduced to his successor in order to understand chs. 9–10.

2 Kings 8:16 Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. First introduced briefly in 1 Kings 22:50, this king is mentioned again in 2 Kings 1:17. In 8:21, 23–24, his name appears as “Joram,” which is also the name of Israel’s king in this period (v. 16). This Israelite king is himself called “Jehoram” in 1:17 and 3:1. At precisely the point when the southern monarchy has come to resemble the northern monarchy most closely in its worship (see note on 8:18), their kings are called by the same name. One must work hard to distinguish their actions in the text.

2 Kings 8:18 Jehoram walked in the way of the kings of Israel. His father, Jehoshaphat, had made peace with the king of Israel (1 Kings 22:44). From Jehoshaphat’s reign onward, the fortunes of the house of Omri and the house of David were closely interconnected. Jehoram had married the daughter of Ahab, and the two kingdoms followed a similar religious policy (as the house of Ahab had done).

2 Kings 8:19 he promised to give a lamp to him. See 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4. Sins in David’s family are to be punished with the “rod of men” (2 Sam. 7:14–16), not with the destruction of his dynasty.

2 Kings 8:20–22 In his days Edom revolted. The punishment of David’s house in this case (see note on v. 19) comes in Jehoram’s failure to subdue a rebellion by Edom, a country ruled by a king appointed by Judah (1 Kings 22:47; see note on 2 Kings 3:7–9). A city within Judah was also rebelling. Libnah was located southwest of Jerusalem (see also 2 Chron. 21:16–17).

2 Kings 8:23 Chronicles of the Kings. See note on 1 Kings 14:19.

2 Kings 8:28–29 war against Hazael king of Syria. Another joint battle against the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead (see 1 Kings 22:1–4) is followed by withdrawal to the stronghold of Jezreel, so that the Israelite king can recover from his wounds. Ramoth-gilead is apparently back in Israelite hands (2 Kings 9:14), perhaps abandoned in the general Syrian retreat in 7:3–7.