![]() In response, Elisha gives the king a final opportunity for his blessing in relation to building the kingdom. Seeing Elisha on his deathbed, the king suddenly realizes that Elisha, as a prophet of God, has been the key to Israel’s military success-over and over again-even more so than the military itself! He suddenly sees that without God involved, there could be no hope of gaining ground, of going further. So, the events surrounding his death were apparently deemed important enough to God to ensure that they were recorded.Įlisha was suffering from an illness, and the king of Israel went to see him. Between the last reference to the life of Elisha and this story of his death, there is a 43-year period of silence. There are plenty of internet resources for exploring the meaning of Biblical passages of the many I looked through in researching this answer, this interpretation seemed the most useful.There is an obscure little passage in the Old Testament, tucked away in the book of 2 Kings, that tells of the death of the great prophet Elisha. So the Psalm is saying that if there's a difficulty regarding a business dealing or a matter of law, there's an advantage in having your loyal sons to back you up in the dispute – whether by the threat of their physical presence, or by the financial resources they can contribute, or by their loyal testimony. The gate of the city was typically where both commerce and justice took place. They shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Note also that "court" is given as "the gate" in the King James and other versions: Not a bad age to have your kids old enough to come to your defence when there's a difficulty! If the man had fathered five kids by age 21, he would be 36 by the time the youngest of those five turned 15 and thus would still be in the prime of his life. Note that in those days, adult simply meant old enough to take on adult duties such as marrying, managing one's own farm/business, etc – say, 15 or 16 years old. The pronoun refers to the children, but the assumption is that the children have grown to be adults in the context of "contending with opponents".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |