2 Kings 6:32

2 Kings 6:32 to 2 Kings 7:2. A messenger is sent to put Elisha to death. Elisha foretells a sudden plenty in Samaria (Not in Chronicles)

32. But Elisha sat in his house His counsels had been productive of little result, but he is less disturbed than others, having a ground for his trust which they had not found.

and the elders sat with him These must be understood to be the chief men of the city, who had come for his advice, having no other helper to flee unto.

andthe king sent a man One of those who were in waiting to obey his orders and who had heard his threat against Elisha.

he said to the elders i.e. Elisha, divinely forwarned of the impending danger, explains to his companions what the king's design against him was.

this son of a murderer -Still is Naboth's blood laid in Jehoram's dish" (Bp Hall). The prophet speaks as though the messenger were already in sight, so vivid is his own spiritual consciousness of what the king has set afoot.

hold him fast at the door R.V. hold the door fast against him. The literal rendering is given on the margin of R.V., -Thrust him back with the door". The doors in Oriental houses mostly opened outwards, so that if pushed from within they would come against any one that stood on the outside, and drive him backwards. Beside knowing of the king's threat, Elisha seems to have been aware that he had almost immediately changed his purpose, and was hurrying after the messenger to prevent his order from being executed. Hence he explains to the elders that the king's footsteps are to be heard close upon those of his servant. When they supposed, as they would from the fulfilment of the first part of his words, that Elisha knew exactly what was coming, they would be ready, although they were Jehoram's servants, to stop the messenger so long as to see whether the king did really arrive. That the king did come we learn from 2 Kings 7:17.