CHAPTER 2

(896 B.C.)

THE REVELATION OF ELIJAHS TRANSLATION

¹And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into Heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. (Elisha, since called of God, had now been with Elijah for approximately 10 years. The Gilgal mentioned here is the Gilgal close to Jericho, not another Gilgal that was close to Shiloh in Samaria.)

²And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Beth-el. (Elisha knew that Elijah was about to be taken, but probably, at this stage, not how he would be taken; consequently, he will not let the great Prophet out of his sight.)

³And the sons of the prophets who were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Know you that the LORD will take away your master from your head today? And he said, Yes, I know it; hold you your peace (how they knew this, we arent told!).

⁴And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho (it is the persistent soul who reaps the benefits of what Christ has done for us at Calvary, and only the persistent soul [Lk. 11:5-13]).

⁵And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Know you that the LORD will take away your master from your head today? And he answered, Yes, I know it; hold you your peace.

⁶And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray you, here; for the LORD has sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And they two went on.

ELIJAH DIVIDES THE JORDAN

⁷And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.

⁸And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground (by the Power of God, the Jordan River opened).

THE DOUBLE PORTION

⁹And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you, before I be taken away from you. And Elisha said, I pray you, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me (in essence, a double portion of the Spirit of God, which was on Elijah).

¹⁰And he said, You have asked a hard thing (the word hard, in the Hebrew, actually means you have made a great claim; the bane of the modern Church is that we make a much lesser claim, or no claim at all; as Believers, understanding that we are serving a great God, we should stake a great claim): nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so unto you; but if not, it shall not be so. (The great question should be, even to modern Believers, What do you see? Do we see the miracle-working Power of God, or do we see other things?)

THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH

¹¹And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven (in the original Hebrew, it says, And Elijah went up in a storm into the heavens; there is no mention of a whirlwind; two only of the seed of Adam, Enoch and Elijah, have passed from Earth to Heaven without dying).

¹²And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof (Elijah had been the strength of Israel). And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces (Elisha tearing the clothes portrays the fact that he is no longer a learner, but now the Prophet).

ELISHA DIVIDES THE JORDAN

¹³He took up also the mantle (the outer garment) of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan (probably where he and Elijah had crossed it a short time earlier);

¹⁴And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over (the Lord proclaimed to Elisha that He was with him by enabling him to repeat Elijahs last miracle, and thus gave him an assurance that He would be with him thenceforth in his Prophetic Ministry).

¹⁵And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah does rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him (they recognized the Power of God upon him).

¹⁶And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with your servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray you, and seek your master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, You shall not send (evidently, they didnt understand what they saw regarding Elijah, that is, if they had seen anything at all; so they ventured the opinion that the body of Elijah would be found nearby, etc.).

¹⁷And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not (exactly as Elisha knew they would do).

¹⁸And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? (He waited at Jericho until the fifty men returned from their vain search, and then reminded them that his advice to them had been not to start on a useless errand.)

JERICHO HEALED

¹⁹And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray you, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees: but the water is naught (poisoned), and the ground barren (because of the poisoned water. Jericho is the city of the curse, and by God at that, simply because of its heathen worship in the days of Joshua. As well, the world is cursed, because of sin. In fact, it could be, as Jericho, a pleasant place; but instead, the water is poisoned and the ground barren).

²⁰And he said, Bring me a new cruse (this is symbolic of the sinless Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the cruse was made of clay), and put salt therein (the salt in it a type of the incorruptible Word of God, that in its plenitude dwelt in Him was the vehicle of this great healing power). And they brought it to him.

²¹And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there (the Word of God must be cast into the poisoned spring; there is no other answer; thats the reason that it is imperative that this great Gospel of Jesus Christ be taken to the whole world [Mk. 16:15]), and said, Thus says the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land (Christ Alone can heal the broken heart, can set the captive free [Lk. 4:18-19]).

²²So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke (it was not a mere temporary, but a permanent, benefit which Elisha bestowed upon the town; when Christ comes in, there is no more death or barren land).

²³And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, you bald head; go up, you bald head (the words, little children, are probably an unfortunate translation; the Hebrew word is naar; it can mean anything up to 40 years old; as well, the words, bald head, do not necessarily mean that Elisha had no hair on his head; it could have signified a worthless fellow; at any rate, it was a term of contempt).

²⁴And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the Name of the LORD (placed a curse on them). And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two children of them (when they insulted the man of God, they, in effect, were insulting the Lord).

²⁵And he went from thence to Mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.