Though the duration of Elisha ’ 3 career, with the approximate dates of its beginning and end, can be fixed, it is impossible to settle a detailed chronology of his life. In most of the events narrated no further indication of time is given than by the words “the king of Israel,” the name not being specified, so that it is impossible to tell which king is meant. There are two instances at least in which the order of time is obviously the reverse of the order of narrative (compare 2 Kings viii. 1-6 with 2 Kings v. 27, and 2 Kings xiii. 14-21 with 2 Kings xiii. 13). There are besides this other grounds, which it would be out of place to state here, for concluding that the narrative as we now have it has been disarranged and is incomplete. The fact, however, of dislocation and probable mutilation of the original documents requires to be borne in mind in dealing with the life of Elisha. It may serve not only to explain the insuperable difficulties of a detailed chronology, but also to throw some light on the altogether exceptional character of the miraculous element in Elisha’s history. Not only are the miracles very numerous, even more so than in the case of Elijah, but, as has been frequently pointed out, they stand in a different relation to the man and his work from that in which the miracles of Elijah or any of the wonder-working prophets do. With all the other prophets the primary function is spiritual teaching,— miracles, even though numerous and many of them symbolical like Elisha’s, are only accessory. With Elisha, on the other hand, miracles seem the principal function, and the spiritual teaching is altogether subsidiary.

An obvious though only very partial explanation of the superabundance of miracles in Elisha’s life is suggested by the fact that several of them were merely repetitions or doubles of those of his master and predecessor. Such were his first miracle, when returning across the Jordan he made a dry path for himself in the same manner as Elijah (2 Kings ii. 14); the increase of the widow’s pot of oil (2 Kings iv. 1-7); and the restoration of the son of the woman of Shunem to life (2 Kings iv. 18-37). It is to be observed, however, that with all the similarity there is a very considerable difference in the circumstances in the two cases, which makes it difficult to accept the theory that stories from the earlier life have been imported by mistake into the later. Besides, this theory, even if tenable, applies only to three of the miracles, and leaves unexplained a much larger number which are not only not repetitions of those of Elijah, but, as has already been pointed out, have an entirely opposite character. The healing of the water of Jericho by putting salt in it (2 Kings ii. 19-21), the provision of water for the army of Jehoshaphat in the arid desert (2 Kings iii. 6-20), the neutralizing by meal of the poison in the pottage of the famine-stricken sons of the prophets at Jericho (2 Kings iv. 38-41), the healing of Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings v. 1-19), and thecausing the iron axehead that had sunk in the water to rise to the surface (2 Kings vi. 1-7), are all instances of the beneficence which was the general characteristic of Elisha’s wonder-working activity in contrast to that of Elijah. Another miracle of the same class, the feeding of a hundred men with twenty loaves so that something was left over (2 Kings iv. 42-44), deserves mention by itself as the most striking though not the only instance of a resemblance between the work of Elisha and that of Jesus, to which commentators have frequently drawn attention. The one distinct exception to the general beneficence of Elisha’s activity—the destruction of the forty-two children who mocked him as he was going up to Bethel (2 Kings ii. 23-25)—presents an ethical difficulty which is scarcely satisfactorily removed by the suggestion that the narrative has lost some particulars which would have shown the real enormity of the offence of the children. The leprosy brought upon Gelιazi (2 Kings v. 20-27), though a miracle of judgment, scarcely belongs to the same clas3 as the other. The wonder-working power of Elisha is represented as continuing even after his death. As the feeding of the hundred men and the cure of leprosy connect his work with that of Jesus, so the quickening of the dead man who was cast into his sepulchre by the mere contact with his bones (2 Kings xiii. 21) is the most striking instance of an analogy between his miracles and those recorded of mediaeval saints. Stanley in reference to this has remarked that in the life of Elisha “alone in the sacred history the gulf betweeu biblical and ecclesiastical miracles almost disappears.”

The place which Elisha filled in the history of Israel during his long career as a prophet was, apart altogether from his wonder-working, one of great influence and importance. In the natural as in the supernatural sphere of his activity the most noteworthy thing is the contrast between him and his predecessor. Elijah interfered in the history of his country as the prophet of exclusiveness, Elisha as the prophet of comprehension. During the reign of Jehoram he acted at several important crises as the king’s divine counsellor and guide. At the first of these, when he delivered the army that had been brought out against Moab from a threatened dearth of water (2 Kings iii.), he plainly intimates that, but for his regard to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, who was in alliance with Israel, he would not have interfered. His next signal interference was during the incursions of the Syrians, when he disclosed the plans of the invaders to Jehoram with such effect that they were again and again (“not once nor twice ”) baffled (2 Kings vi. 8-23). When Benhadad, the king of Syria, is informed that “Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber,” he at once sends an army to Dothan, where the prophet is residing, in order to take captive the destroyer of his plans. At the prayer of Elisha an army of horses and chariots of fire is revealed to his servant surrounding the prophet. At a second prayer the invaders are struck blind, and in this state they are led by Elisha to Samaria, where their sight is restored. Their lives are spared at the command of the prophet, and they return home so impressed with the supernatural power that is opposed to them that their incursions thenceforward cease. The marauding incursions were given up, however, only to be followed by the invasion of a regular army under Benhadad, which laid siege to Samaria, and so caused a famine of the severest kind (2 Kings vi. 2 4-29). The calamity was imputed by Jehoram to the influence of Elisha, and he ordered the prophet to be immediately put to death. Forewarned of the danger, Elisha ordered the messenger who had been sent to slay him to be detained at the door, and, when immediately afterwards the king himself came (“messenger” in 2 Kings vi. 33 should rather be king), predicted a great plenty within twenty-four hours. The apparently incredible prophecy was fulfilled by the flight of the Syrian army under the circumstances stated in 2 Kings vii. After the episode with regard to the woman of Shunem (2 Kings viii. 1-6), which, as has been already pointed out, is introduced out of its chronological order, Elisha is represented as at Damascus (2 Kings viii. 7-15). The object for which he went to the Syrian capital is not expressly stated, but it evidently was to fulfil the second command laid upon Elijah, viz., to anoint Hazael as king of Syria. The reverence with which the heathen monarch Benhadad addressed Elisha deserves to l<e noted as showing the extent of the prophet’s influence. In sending to know the issue of his illness, the king causes himself to be styled “Thy son Benhadad.” Equally remarkable is the very ambiguous nature of Elisha’s reply (2 Kings viii. 10), which may, however, be due to the doubtful state of the Hebrew text. The next and, as it proved, the last important interference of Elisha in the history of his country, constituted the fulfilment of the third of the commands laid upon Elijah. The work of anointing Jehu to be king over Israel was performed by deputy, as related in 2 Kings ix 1-3. During the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz the Scripture narrative contains no notice of Elisha, but from the circumstances of his death (2 Kings xiii. 14-21) it is clear that he had continued to hold the office and receive the honours of a prophet. Joash the king waited on him on his deathbed, and addressed him in the same words of profound reverence and regret which he himself had used to Elijah: “Oh my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.” By the result of a symbolic discharge of arrows he informed the king of his coming success against Syria, and immediately thereafter he died. It seems fitly to complete the contrast between him and his greater predecessor to be told expressly that “he was buried.” The miracle wrought at his tomb has been already noticed.

Elisha is canonized in the Greek Church, his festival being on the 14th June, under which date his life is entered in the Acta Sanctorum.

Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson of Nimshi, to be king, in pursuance of an order given to Elijah some years before; and Jehu having received the royal unction, executed every thing that had been foretold by Elijah against Ahab’s family, and against Jezebel. Elisha falling sick, Joash, king of Israel, came to visit him, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” Elisha desired the king to bring him a bow and arrows. Joash having brought them, Elisha requested him to put his hands on the bow, and at the same time the prophet put his own hand upon the king’s, and said, Open the window which looks east, and let fly an arrow. The king having done this, Elisha said, This is the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance: thou shalt be successful against Syria at Aphek. Elisha desired him again to shoot, which he did three times, and then stopped. But Elisha with vehemence said, “If thou hadst smitten five or six times, then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria only thrice.” This is the last prediction of Elisha of which we read in Scripture, for soon after he died; but it was not his last miracle: for, some time after his interment, a company of Israelites, as they were going to bury a dead person, perceiving a band of Moabites making toward them, put the corpse for haste into Elisha’s tomb, and, as soon as it had touched the prophet’s body, it immediately revived; so that the man stood upon his feet: a striking emblem of the life-giving effect of the labours of the servants of God, after they themselves are gathered to their fathers.