The Histories · Old Testament

2 Kings 6

2 Kings 6: the floating axe head, Syrians led blind to Samaria, and famine

General context

The sons of the prophets find their dwelling too small and go to Jordan to cut beams, with Elisha at their request. A borrowed axe head falls into the water; Elisha throws in a stick, the iron floats, and the man retrieves it. The king of Syria makes war on Israel, but the man of God repeatedly warns the king of Israel where the Syrians will camp. Told that Elisha reports even his bedchamber words, the king of Syria sends horses, chariots and a great host to surround Dothan by night. Elisha's servant is afraid; Elisha says those with them outnumber the enemy, prays, and the servant sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire. Elisha prays for blindness on the Syrians, leads them into Samaria, and prays for their eyes to open. The king of Israel asks whether to strike them; Elisha forbids it and orders food and water, and the fed men return to their master. The narrator says the bands of Syria came no more. Afterward Ben-hadad besieges Samaria, and famine drives prices to eighty pieces of silver for an ass's head. A woman on the wall tells the king that she and another woman agreed to eat their sons, that hers was boiled and eaten, and that the other has hidden her son. The king tears his clothes, showing sackcloth beneath, and swears to behead Elisha the son of Shaphat that day. Elisha, sitting with the elders, foretells the messenger and tells them to hold the door; the closing words say this evil is of the Lord and ask why wait for him any longer.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 6:1, 2 Kings 6:5, 2 Kings 6:6, 2 Kings 6:9, 2 Kings 6:10, 2 Kings 6:12, 2 Kings 6:14, 2 Kings 6:16, 2 Kings 6:17, 2 Kings 6:18, 2 Kings 6:19, 2 Kings 6:21, 2 Kings 6:22, 2 Kings 6:23, 2 Kings 6:24, 2 Kings 6:25, 2 Kings 6:28, 2 Kings 6:29, 2 Kings 6:30, 2 Kings 6:31, 2 Kings 6:32, 2 Kings 6:33

2 Kings 6 (KJV)

¹And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.

²Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

³And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

⁴So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

⁵But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

⁶And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

⁷Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

⁸Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

⁹And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.

¹⁰And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.

¹¹Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

¹²And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

¹³And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

¹⁴Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

¹⁵And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

¹⁶And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

¹⁷And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

¹⁸And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

¹⁹And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

²⁰And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

²¹And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?

²²And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: 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.

²³And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

²⁴And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

²⁵And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

²⁶And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

²⁷And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

²⁸And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.

²⁹So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

³⁰And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

³¹Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

³²But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?

³³And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?

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Historical context

The king of Syria in the Dothan episode is unnamed; Ben-hadad is named only when the siege begins "after this", and the text does not say whether the same king is meant. The king of Israel is never named in this chapter; he is identified by office, and Elisha calls him "this son of a murderer". The frightened servant at Dothan is "the servant of the man of God" and "the young man", not named. The narrator separates the raiding "bands of Syria" that stopped coming from the "all his host" that later besieges Samaria, so the two statements do not contradict each other. The famine prices are given in silver for an ass's head and a portion of dove's dung. The account of the two mothers is the woman's own speech to the king; the narrator adds only the king's reaction. The final speaker in verse 33 is introduced only as "he" after the messenger arrives; 2 Kings 7:17 later says the man of God "spake when the king came down to him", which places the king at the scene. Where Elisha is at the chapter's end is not restated; the elders sit with him "in his house".

Cited passages: 2 Kings 6:8, 2 Kings 6:24, 2 Kings 6:32, 2 Kings 6:15, 2 Kings 6:17, 2 Kings 6:23, 2 Kings 6:25, 2 Kings 6:28, 2 Kings 6:30, 2 Kings 6:33, 2 Kings 7:17

Literary context

Seeing is the thread. Elisha prays that his servant's eyes be opened, then that the Syrians be struck blind, then that their eyes be opened inside Samaria, and the king of Israel speaks only "when he saw them". Two cries of alarm echo each other, "Alas, master!" over the axe and "Alas, my master!" over the army. The king of Syria's question about which servant is for Israel is answered by naming Elisha, and the king of Israel's repeated question about striking is answered with a meal; the narrator then records that the raids stopped. The siege scene inverts that meal: instead of bread and water for enemies, a mother describes eating her son. The narrator lets the crowd, not the king, reveal the sackcloth under his clothes, and sets his oath to kill Elisha directly after it. Elisha's foreknowledge of the messenger repeats his earlier foreknowledge of the Syrian camps. The chapter stops mid-scene, and the next chapter opens with Elisha's answer.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 6:17, 2 Kings 6:18, 2 Kings 6:20, 2 Kings 6:21, 2 Kings 6:5, 2 Kings 6:15, 2 Kings 6:11, 2 Kings 6:12, 2 Kings 6:22, 2 Kings 6:23, 2 Kings 6:29, 2 Kings 6:30, 2 Kings 6:31, 2 Kings 6:9, 2 Kings 6:32

Key moments

The iron swims (2 Kings 6:6). Elisha casts a stick where the borrowed axe head fell, and the iron floats.
Bedchamber words reported (2 Kings 6:12). A servant tells the king of Syria that Elisha relays his private words to Israel's king.
Horses and chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:17). The Lord opens the servant's eyes to see the mountain full of fire around Elisha.
Blind Syrians led to Samaria (2 Kings 6:19). Elisha tells the blinded host to follow him and brings them into Samaria.
Bread instead of the sword (2 Kings 6:22). Elisha forbids the king to strike the captives and has them fed and sent home.
A mother's account under siege (2 Kings 6:29). A woman tells the king she and another woman boiled and ate her son.
The king swears against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31). Having heard the woman, the king vows that Elisha's head will not stand that day.

For reflection

The king wears sackcloth under his clothes and in the same moment swears to take Elisha's head. What does the chapter let the reader see about him that his own words do not say?

People in this chapter

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