2 Kings 13:21

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19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! ^aBut now you will strike Syria only three times.”

20 Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the ^araiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year.

21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

Israel Recaptures Cities from Syria

22 And ^aHazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

23 But the Lord was ^agracious to them, had compassion on them, and ^bregarded them, ^cbecause of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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2 Kings 13:21

They cast the man - Rather, "they thrust the man." The graves of the Jews were not pits dug in the ground, like ours, but caves or cells excavated in the side of a rock, the mouth of the cave being ordinarily shut by a heavy stone.

Stood up on his feet - Coffins were not used by the Jews. The body was simply wrapped or swathed in grave-clothes (compare Luke 7:15; John 11:44).

This miracle of Elisha' s after his death is more surprising than any of those which he performed during his lifetime. The Jews regarded it as his highest glory (compare Ecclesiaticus 48:13, 14). It may be said to belong to a class of Scriptural miracles, cases, i. e. where the miracle was not performed through the agency of a living miracle-worker, but by a material object in which, by God' s will, "virtue" for the time resided (compare Acts 19:12). The primary effect of the miracle was, no doubt, greatly to increase the reverence of the Israelites for the memory of Elisha, to lend force to his teaching, and especially to add weight to his unfulfilled prophecies, as to that concerning the coming triumphs of Israel over Syria. In the extreme state of depression to which the Israelites were now reduced, a very signal miracle may have been needed to encourage and reassure them.

**Other Barnes' Notes entries containing 2 Kings 13:21:**

2 Kings 4:43
Matthew 27:60

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2 Kings 13:22 >>

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