Elisha Recovers an Axe Head and Traps the Syrian Army

The chapter opens with a practical problem. The sons of the prophets tell Elisha that the place where they live with him has become too small. They propose going to the Jordan River to cut beams and build a new dwelling. Elisha agrees to go with them.

At the Jordan, the men begin cutting wood. One of them swings his axe, and the iron head flies off the handle and sinks into the water. The man cries out in distress because the axe was borrowed. He has no way to replace it.

Elisha asks where it fell. The man points to the spot. Elisha cuts a stick, throws it into the water at that place, and the iron rises to the surface and floats. He tells the man to take it up. The man reaches out and takes the axe head. The miracle is quiet, specific, and immediate.

The scene shifts abruptly to war. The king of Syria is campaigning against Israel. He sets up ambushes at certain places, but Elisha repeatedly warns the king of Israel, telling him exactly where the Syrians are coming down. The king of Israel avoids those places, not once but many times.

The king of Syria is deeply disturbed. He calls his servants and demands to know which of them is leaking his plans to Israel. One servant answers that no one is betraying him—Elisha the prophet in Israel tells the king of Israel the very words the Syrian king speaks in his bedchamber.

The Syrian king decides to capture Elisha. He learns that Elisha is in Dothan and sends horses, chariots, and a great army. They surround the city by night. When Elisha’s servant rises early and sees the armed force encircling them, he cries out in fear. Elisha tells him not to be afraid, because those who are with them are more than those who are with the Syrians.

Elisha prays that the Lord would open his servant’s eyes. The Lord opens them, and the servant sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. The visible army is real, but the unseen protection is greater.

The Syrians come down toward Elisha. He prays again, asking the Lord to strike them with blindness. The Lord does so. Elisha then tells the blinded soldiers that they are on the wrong road and in the wrong city. He offers to lead them to the man they seek. He brings them straight into Samaria.

Once they are inside Samaria, Elisha prays for their eyes to be opened. The Lord opens their eyes, and they realize they are trapped in the middle of the enemy capital. The king of Israel sees them and asks Elisha whether he should strike them down. Elisha refuses. He tells the king not to kill men he has not captured with sword or bow. Instead, he orders that bread and water be set before them. The king prepares a great feast, lets them eat and drink, and sends them back to their master. After that, Syrian raiding bands stop coming into Israel.

The chapter does not end there. Later, Benhadad king of Syria gathers his entire army and besieges Samaria. The famine in the city becomes so severe that a donkey’s head sells for eighty pieces of silver and a small amount of dove’s dung for five pieces. As the king of Israel walks on the wall, a woman cries out for help. He tells her that if the Lord will not help her, he cannot—he has no grain or wine to give. She then describes a pact she made with another woman: they agreed to boil and eat her son one day, and the other woman’s son the next. They ate her son, but the next day the other woman hid her son and refused to give him up.

The king tears his clothes when he hears this. The people see that he is wearing sackcloth underneath, against his skin. He swears an oath that Elisha’s head will be removed from his shoulders by the end of the day. He sends a messenger to carry out the execution. But Elisha, sitting in his house with the elders, knows what is coming. He tells the elders that the king—whom he calls a son of a murderer—has sent someone to take his head. He instructs them to shut the door and hold it against the messenger. He adds that the sound of the king’s own footsteps is coming behind the messenger. While Elisha is still speaking, the messenger arrives, and the king himself appears, saying that this evil is from the Lord and asking why he should wait for the Lord any longer.