2 Kings 2:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 2:15
And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
prophets
הַנְּבִיאִ֤יםha.ne.vi.'Im
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Jericho
בִּֽירִיחוֹ֙bi.ri.Cho
H3405
Jericho or Jerecho · preposition + proper noun, a place name
saw
וַיִּרְאֻ֨הוּvai.yir.'U.hu
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּvai.Yo.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
spirit
ר֥וּחַRu.ach
H7307
wind · noun, common feminine singular construct
Elijah
אֵלִיָּ֖הוּ'e.li.Ya.hu
H452
Elijah · proper noun, a man's name
rest
נָ֛חָהNa.chah
H5117
to rest · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Elisha
אֱלִישָׁ֑ע'e.li.Sha'
H477
Elisha · proper noun, a man's name
came
וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙vai.ya.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
meet
קִרְאָהqirʼâh
H7125
an encountering
bowed
וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּvai.yish.ta.cha.vu-
H7812
to depress · conjunction + verb, sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
ground
אָֽרְצָה'A.re.tzah
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute + directional suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Peter 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spok…
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæ…
Numbers 11:25-29 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it…
Numbers 27:20 And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.
Joshua 3:7 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Mose…
Joshua 4:14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
2 Kings 2:7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
2 Kings 2:19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is na…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 2:13-18
We have here an account of what followed immediately after the translation of Elijah.
I. The tokens of God's presence with Elisha, and the marks of his elevation into Elijah's room, to be, as he had been, a father to the sons of the prophets, and the chariots and horsemen of Israel.
1. He was possessed of Elijah's mantle, the badge of his office, which, we may suppose, he put on and wore for his master's sake, Kg2 2:13. When Elijah went to heaven, though he did not let fall his body as others do, he let fall his mantle instead of it; for he was unclothed, that he might be clothed upon with immortality: he was going to a world where he needed not the mantle to adorn him, nor to shelter him fr…
smote the waters--The waving of the mantle on the river, and the miraculous division of the waters consequent upon it, was an evidence that the Lord God of Elijah was with him, and as this miracle was witnessed by the scholars of the prophets from Jericho, they forthwith recognized the pre-eminence of Elisha, as now the prophet of Israel.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 2:15
The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha - This was a natural conclusion, from seeing him with the mantle, and working the same miracle. This disposed them to yield the same obedience to him they had done to his master: and in token of this, they went out to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
John Gill on 2 Kings 2:15
And when the sons of the prophets, which were to view at Jericho, saw him,.... Who went out from thence towards Jordan, to have a sight if they could of the assumption of Elijah; these, when they saw Elisha come over Jordan, the waters being parted by him:
they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha; or he has the same power and spirit to work miracles as he had, which they discerned by his dividing the waters of Jordan with his mantle:
and they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him; in reverence of him as their master, in the room of Elijah.
The Church Fathers
I have thought it necessary to dwell some time on the examination of the doctrine of transmigration, because of the suspicion of some who suppose that the soul under consideration was the same in Elijah and in John, being called in the former case Elijah, and in the second case John; and that, not apart from God, had he been called John, as is plain from the saying of the angel who appeared to Zacharias, "Fear not, Zacharias, for thy supplication is heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John;" and from the fact that Zacharias regained his speech after he had written in the tablet, that he who had been born should be called John. But if it were the soul of Elijah, then, when he was begotten a second time, he should have been called Elijah; or for the change of name some reason should have been assigned, as in the case of Abram and Abraham, Sarah and Sarrah, Jacob and Israel, Simon and Peter. And yet not even thus would their argument in the case be tenable; for, in the case of the aforesaid, the changes of name took place in one and the same life. But some one might ask, if the soul of Elijah was not first in the Tishbite and secondly in John, what might that be in both which the Saviour called Elijah? And I say that Gabriel in his words to Zacharias suggested what the substance was in Elijah and John that was the same; for he says, "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah." For, observe, he did not say in the "soul" of Elijah, in which case the doctrine of transmigration might have some ground, but "in the spirit and power of Elijah." For the Scripture well knows the distinction between spirit and soul, as, "May God sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and the passage, "Bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the righteous" as it stands in the book of Daniel, according to the Septuagint, represents the difference between spirit and soul. Elijah, therefore, was not called John because of the soul, but because of the spirit and the power, which in no way conflicts with the teaching of the church, though they were formerly in Elijah, and afterwards in John; and "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," but the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Elijah — Whose God is Jehovah. (1.) “The Tishbite,” the “Elias” of the New Testament, is suddenly introduced to our notice in 1 Kings 17:1 as delivering a message from the Lord to Ahab. There is mention made…
Jericho — Place of fragrance, a fenced city in the midst of a vast grove of palm trees, in the plain of Jordan, over against the place where that river was crossed by the Israelites (Josh. 3:16). Its site was…
Prophet — (Heb. nabi, from a root meaning “to bubble forth, as from a fountain,” hence “to utter”, comp. Ps. 45:1). This Hebrew word is the first and the most generally used for a prophet. In the time of…
Schools of the Prophets — (1 Sam. 19:18-24; 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 12, 15) were instituted for the purpose of training young men for the prophetical and priestly offices. (See PROPHET; SAMUEL.)
Ascension · Of Elijah — Of Elijah
Elisha · his spirit — his spirit
Prophets · Schools of — Schools of
School · General references — General references
Students · In the schools of the prophets — In the schools of the prophets
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 2:14-15
Return of Elisha to Jericho and Bethel, and his First Miracles. - Kg2 2:14, Kg2 2:15. Having returned to the banks of the Jordan, Elisha smote the water with Elijah's mantle, saying, "Where is Jehovah the God of Elijah, yea He?" and the water divided hither and thither, so that he was able to go through. אף־הוּא, which the lxx did not understand, and have simply reproduced in Greek characters, ἀφφώ, is an emphatic apposition, "yea He," such as we find after suffixes, e.g., Pro 22:19; and אף is only a strengthened גּם, which is more usual when emphatic prominence is given to the suffix (vid., Ges. 121, 3). The Masoretic accentuation, which separates it from the preceding words, rests upon a…
Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak and successfully parted the Jordan River. Elisha was indeed Elijah’s successor, as the other prophets recognized.
Rashi on 2 Kings 2:14
Where is Adonoy, the God of Eliyahu? That I was promised that a double portion of his spirit would rest upon me.9Alternatively, where is God who does not show me His sign as He showed Eliyahu is the splitting of the water?”—Ralbag
Then he also struck the water. He too. In the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yose Haglili, [it states that] Elisha’s splitting [the Yardein] was twice as great as Eliyahu’s, for in the beginning there was the merit of them both, and now there was his merit alone.10See Rashi 3:1 below. Thus, Elisha’s request for twice Eliyahu’s spirit had been fulfilled.
