was needful that the prophet should before his departure once more give emphatic testimony to

Jehovah, emphatic confirmation also of His promise, and encouragement to Israel. So would his

dying words become a permanent message to the people, and not only sum up and seal, but, so to

speak, perpetuate his whole mission. It was in accordance with almost uniform prophetic custom

(comp. 1 Kings 11:29 - 32; Isaiah 20:2; Jeremiah 13:1; Ezekiel 4:1, and others), and also best

suited to the condition of the king and the circumstances of the case, that this message should be

joined to a symbolic act as its sign. It would be impossible to misunderstand it, when Elisha bade

Jehoash take bow and arrows and put his hand upon the bow, while the prophet himself laid his

hands upon that of the king. And when this had been done, the window towards the east was

opened, or rather, its lattice removed, and the king at Elisha's command shot the arrow. Towards

the east was Syria; in shooting the arrow thit her, the king of Israel was acting at the direction, and

with the symbolically assured helping Presence of the LORD. And so it meant: "An arrow of

salvation [deliverance] of Jehovah [the deliverance being His] and an arrow of salvation from

[against, over] Syria;" to which the prophetic promise was immediately added' "For thou shalt

smite Syria in Aphek to destruction [complete annihilation]." The latter statement, it need scarcely

be said, referred only to the Syrian host at Aphek, since this first was followed by other victories.

But Aphek was a significant name, marking the locality where by Divine prediction and Divine

help Israel had once before defeated the overwhelming might of Syria (1 Kings 20:26-30).

But the interposition of God, although direct, is not of the nature of magic. If any success granted

by Him is to be complete, it implies moral conditions on our part. To put it otherwise: the full

reception of God's benefits has for its condition full receptivity on the part of man. This was the

mean ing of Elisha's further behest to the king; this also the explanation of Jehoash's failure. The

prophet bade him seize "the arrows" which he had already taken from the quiver,* and "strike (that

is, shoot, hit) towards the earth."

* Mark here the use of the definite article, "the arrows," while in ver. 15 it is only "bow and

Instead of obeying fully and literally, or at least shooting five or six times, the king struck only

thrice. It was a symbol he could not fully understand, and which therefo re had not any real

meaning for him. Of simple, unquestioning, and persevering obedience of faith he had not any

conception. So far as his capacity reached he did obey. He may have dimly perceived that it meant

the shooting at the enemy prostrate on the ground. But then "three times" indicated in ordinary

Jewish parlance that a thing was completely and fully done (as in Exodus 23:17; Numbers 22:28,

32, 33; 24:10; 2 Kings 1:9-14), and three times he had "smitten." This also was symbolic of the

king's moral incapacity for full deliverance. That at such a moment he should have failed in the

test of faith and obedience, perhaps grown weary of what seemed meaningless in its continuation,

and that this failure should have involved the delay of Israel's full deliverance, filled the prophet

and patriot with holy indignation.* It should be to him as he had done - only thrice, according to

his obedience, but not to complete and final victory would Jehoash smite the Syrians.

* The LXX. alters, "the man of God was wro th," into "was grieved." This is characteristic of one

class of LXX. alterations.

We cannot help connecting the brief notice of the miracle after Elisha's death and burial with this

interview between the king and the prophet. It was not as the king in his faint-heartedness had

cried, or as Israel might have feared, that with the disappearance of the living prophet from among

them "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof" were gone. It was the God of the prophet,

and not the prophet's god, that was Israel's defense and might. It needed not a living prophet - the

same power which stood behind him in life could work deliverance through him after he was dead.

The main point was not the man, but his mission, and to it -that he was a prophets this miracle

after his death gave the most emphatic attestation; such also as would both in itself and from its