2 Kings 2:1

2 Kings 2:1-18. Elijah is carried up into heaven. The Spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. His first prophetic appearance (Not in Chronicles)

1. when the Lord would take up Elijah The whole of the following narrative about Elijah's assumption must be drawn from what was communicated by Elisha. It was probably collected by some among the sons of the prophets, and added to the previous record of Elijah's life. The insertion of the history here would appear, from 2 Chronicles 21:12-15, to be a departure from the strict order of events. Jehoshaphat king of Judah is still alive, and in the next chapter we shall find an account of his expedition, in conjunction with Jehoram of Israel against the Moabites. In the passage just cited, however, the Chronicler tells of a letter which Elijah sent to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, at a time, as it appears, after his father's death. Jehoram had risen up to the kingdom of his father and had slain all his brethren with the sword, and was walking in the ways of the northern kings of the house of Ahab. The letter was to warn him of the punishment which awaited his evil deeds. We can hardly place such acts as are there described during the period in which Jehoram was as it seems associated with Jehoshaphat in the kingdom. The father must have been dead ere one brother could slay all the rest of the family. The margin of the A.V. in 2 Chronicles 21:12 describes Elijah's letter as -writ before his death", apparently with the meaning that it was prepared by prophetic foreknowledge and sent by some one else when the time came that its warning was needed. It seems much more likely that the compiler of Kings decided to make his history of Elijah complete before he went on to other matters, and has by so doing put the final scene of the prophet's earthly life a little earlier than its proper place in the history.

into heaven by a whirlwind The R.V., to preserve the same order of words as the original, has -by a whirlwind into heaven". The writer uses the figure which most nearly describes such a manifestation as that by which Elijah was translated. Human speech must of course fail to convey a true picture of so sublime a scene.

Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal No mention of Elisha as Elijah's companion is given in the history between the day of Elisha's call and the time of the events in this chapter. But in 1 Kings 19:21 we read that Elisha -ministered unto" Elijah, and in 2 Kings 3:11 he is called -Elisha the son of Shaphat which poured water on the hands of Elijah": i.e. who performed for the aged prophet such services as a young attendant could yield to his master. We may therefore conclude that Elisha's time had been mainly spent in Elijah's company. The -Gilgal" spoken of here must be a different place from that so named in Joshua 4:19; Joshua 5:9-10. That was situate in the Jordan valley and not very far from Jericho. But here the travellers are described (verse 2) as -going dawn" from Gilgal to Bethel. There is however another place of the same name in the hill country of Ephraim, which is also the place alluded to in Deuteronomy 11:30 and is now known as Jiljilia, and by making this the starting-point of Elijah's last journey, the description in the text becomes quite accurate, for that place stands considerably higher than Bethel. It is known from 2 Kings 4:38 that at Gilgal there was a colony of the prophets. At the time when he was to be translated Elijah was probably dwelling among the prophetic body, and passed to the other two centres, Bethel and Jericho, that to them he might leave the precious memory of a visit on the last day when he was seen on earth. -For a meet farewell to the earth, Elijah will go visit the schools of the prophets, before his departure. These were in his way: of any part of earth, they were nearest unto heaven" (Bp Hall).