Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 2:19–end
Elisha had, in this respect, a double portion of Elijah's spirit, that he wrought more miracles than Elijah. Some reckon them in number just double. Two are recorded in these verses - a miracle of mercy to Jericho and a miracle of judgment to Bethel, Psa 101:1.
I. Here is a blessing upon the waters of Jericho, which was effectual to heal them. Jericho was built in disobedience to a command, in defiance to a threatening, and at the expense of the lives of all the builder's children; yet, when it was built, it was not ordered to be demolished again, nor were God's prophets or people forbidden to dwell in it, but even within those walls that were built by iniquity we find a nursery of piety. Fo…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 2:20
ELISHA HEALS THE WATERS. (Kg2 2:19-25)
Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein--The noxious qualities of the water could not be corrected by the infusion of salt--for, supposing the salt was possessed of such a property, a whole spring could not be purified by a dishful for a day, much less in all future time. The pouring in of the salt was a symbolic act with which Elisha accompanied the word of the Lord, by which the spring was healed [KEIL].
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 2:19
The water is naught, and the ground barren - The barrenness of the ground was the effect of the badness of the water.
John Gill on 2 Kings 2:20
And he said, bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein,.... One that had never been used, that it might not be thought that the virtue was owing to anything that had been, or was, put into it:
and they brought it to him; the pot with the salt in it.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 2:16-22
But the disciples of the prophets at Jericho were so unable to realize the fact of Elijah's translation, although it had been previously revealed to them, that they begged permission of Elisha to send out fifty brave men to seek for Elijah. פּן־נשׂאו: whether the Spirit of the Lord has not taken him and cast him upon one of the mountains, or into one of the valleys. פּן with the perfect is used "where there is fear of a fact, which as is conjectured almost with certainty has already happened," like μὴ in the sense of "whether not" (vid., Ewald, 337, b.). יהוה רוּח is not a wind sent by Jehovah (Ges.), but the Spirit of Jehovah, as in Kg1 18:12. The Chethb גּיאות is the regular formation fro…
