The Expositor's Bible Part 4

The stories of Elisha give us many interesting glimpses into the social life of Israel in his day. As to their literal historic accuracy, those must make positive affirmation who feel that they can do so in accordance alike with adequate authority and with the sacredness of truth. Many will be unable to escape the opinion that they bear some resemblance to other Jewish haggadoth, written for edification, with every innocent intention, in the schools of the Prophets, but no more intended for perfectly literal acceptance in all their details than the Life of St. Paul the Hermit, by St. Jerome; or that of St. Antony, attributed erroneously to St. Athanasius; or that of St. Francis in the Fioretti; or the lives of humble saints of the people called _Kisar-el-anbiah_, which are so popular among poor Mohammedans. Into that question there is no need to enter further.

_Abundet quisque in sensu suo._

I. On one occasion a widow of one of the Sons of the Prophets--for these communities, though cn.o.bitic, were not celibate--came to him in deep distress. Her husband--the Jews, with their usual guesswork, most improbably identify him with Obadiah, the chamberlain of Ahab[65]--had died insolvent. As she had nothing to pay, her creditor under the grim provision of the law was about to exercise his right of selling her two sons into slavery to recoup himself for the debt.[66]

Would Elisha help her?

Prophets were never men of wealth, so that he could not pay her debt.

He asked her what she possessed to satisfy the demand. "Nothing," she said, "but a pot of the common oil, used for anointing the body after a bath."

Elisha bade her go and borrow from her neighbours all the empty vessels she could, then to return home, shut the door, and pour the oil into the vessels.

She did so. They were all filled, and she asked her son to bring yet another. But there was not another to be had, so she went out and told the Man of G.o.d. He bade her sell the miraculously multiplied oil to pay the debt, and live with her sons on the proceeds of what was over.

II. We next find Elisha at Shunem, famous as the abode of the fair maiden--probably Abis.h.a.g, the nurse of David's decrepitude--who is the heroine of the Song of Songs. It is a village, now called Solam, on the slopes of Little Hermon (Jebel-el-Duhy), three miles north of Jezreel.

At this place there lived a lady of wealth and influence, whose husband owned the surrounding land. There were but few khans in Palestine, and even where they now exist the traveller has in most cases to supply his own food. Elisha, in his journeys to and fro among the schools of the Prophets, had often enjoyed the welcome hospitality eagerly pressed upon him by the lady of Shunem. Struck with his sacred character, she persuaded her husband to take a step unusual even to the boundless hospitality of the East. She begged him to do honour to this holy Man of G.o.d by building for him a little chamber (_aliyah_) on the flat roof of the house, to which he might have easy and private access by the outside staircase.[67] The chamber was built, and furnished, like any other simple Eastern room, with a bed, a divan to sit on, a table, and a lamp; and there the weary prophet on his journeys often found a peaceful, simple, and delightful resting-place.

Grateful for the reverence with which she treated him, and the kind care with which she had supplied his needs, Elisha was anxious to recompense her in whatever way might be possible. The thought of money payment was of course out of the question: merely to hint at it would have been a breach of manners. But perhaps he might be of use to her in some other way. At this time, and for years afterwards during his long ministry of perhaps fifty-six years, he was attended by a servant named Gehazi, who stood to him in the same sort of relation which he had held to Elijah. He told Gehazi to summon the Shunammite lady. In the deep humility of Eastern womanhood she came and stood in his presence. Even then he did not address her. So downtrodden was the position of women in the East that any dignified person, much more a great prophet, could not converse with a woman without compromising his dignity. The more scrupulous Pharisees in the days of Christ always carefully gathered up their garments in the streets, lest they should so much as touch a woman with their skirts in pa.s.sing by, as the modern Chakams in Jerusalem do to this day.[68] The disciples themselves, sophisticated by familiarity with such teachers, were astonished that Jesus at the well of Shechem should talk with a woman.[69] So, though the lady stood there, Elisha, instead of speaking to her directly, told Gehazi to thank her for all the devout respect and care, all 'the modesty of fearful duty,'[70] which she had displayed towards them, and to ask her if he should say a good word for her to the King or the Captain of the Host. This is just the sort of favour which an Eastern would be likely to value most.[71] The Shunammite, however, was well provided for; she had nothing to complain of, and nothing to request. She thanked Elisha for his kindly proposal, but declined it, and went away.

"Is there, then, nothing which we can do for her?" asked Elisha of Gehazi.[72]

There was. Gehazi had learnt that the sorrow of her life--a sorrow and a source of reproach to any Eastern household, but most of all to that of a wealthy householder--was her childlessness.

"Call her," he said.

She came back, and stood reverently in the doorway. "When the time comes round," he said to her, "you shall embrace a son."

The promise raised in her heart a thrill of joy. It was too precious to be believed. "Nay," she said "my lord, thou Man of G.o.d, do not lie unto thine handmaid."

But the promise was fulfilled, and the lady of Shunem became the happy mother of a son.

III. The charming episode then pa.s.ses over some years. The child had grown into a little boy, old enough now to go out alone to see his father in the harvest fields and to run about among the reapers. But as he played about in the heat he had a sunstroke, and cried to his father, "O my head, my head!" Not knowing how serious the matter was, his father simply ordered one of his lads to carry the child home to his mother.

The fond mother nursed him tenderly upon her knees, but at noon he died.

Then the lady of Shunem showed all the faith and strength and wisdom of her character. "The good Shunammite," says Bishop Hall, "had lost her son; her faith she lost not." Overwhelming as was this calamity--the loss of an only child--she suppressed all her emotions, and, instead of bursting into the wild helpless wail of Eastern mourners, or rus.h.i.+ng to her husband with the agonising news, she took the little boy's body in her arms, carried it up to the chamber which had been built for Elisha, and laid it upon his bed. Then, shutting the door, she called to her husband to send to her one of his reapers and one of the a.s.ses, for she was going quickly to the Man of G.o.d and would return in the cool of the evening. "Why should you go to-day particularly?" he asked. "It is neither new moon, nor sabbath." "It is all right," she said;[73] and with perfect confidence in the rect.i.tude of all her purposes, he sent her the she-a.s.s, and a servant to drive it and to run beside it for her protection on the journey of sixteen miles.

"Drive on the a.s.s," she said. "Slacken me not the riding unless I tell you." So with all possible speed she made her way--a journey of several hours--from Shunem to Mount Carmel.

Elisha, from his retreat on the hill, marked her coming from a distance, and it rendered him anxious. "Here comes the Shunammite," he said to Gehazi. "Run to meet her, and ask Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?"

"All well," she answered, for her message was not to Gehazi, and she could not trust her voice to speak; but pressing on up-hillwards, she flung herself before Elisha and grasped his feet. Displeased at the familiarity which dared thus to clasp the feet of his master, Gehazi ran up to thrust her away by force, but Elisha interfered. "Let her alone,"

he cried; "she is in deep affliction, and Jehovah has not revealed to me the cause." Then her long pent-up emotion burst forth. "Did I desire a son of my lord?" she cried. "Did I not say do not deceive me?"

It was enough--though she seemed unable to bring out the dreadful words that her boy was dead. Catching her meaning, Elisha said to Gehazi, "Gird up thy loins, take my staff, and without so much as stopping to salute any one, or to return a salutation,[74] lay my staff on the dead child's face." But the broken-hearted mother refused to leave Elisha. She imagined that the servant, the staff, might be severed from Elisha; but she knew that wherever the prophet was, there was power. So Elisha arose and followed her, and on the way Gehazi met them with the news that the child lay still and dead, with the fruitless staff upon his face.

Then Elisha in deep anguish went up to the chamber and shut the door, and saw the boy's body lying pale upon his bed. After earnest prayer he outstretched himself over the little corpse, as Elijah had done at Zarephath. Soon it began to grow warm with returning life, and Elisha, after pacing up and down the room, once more stretched himself over him. Then the child opened his eyes and sneezed seven times, and Elisha called to Gehazi to summon the mother.

"Take up thy son," he said. She prostrated herself at his feet in speechless grat.i.tude, and took up her recovered child, and went.

IV. We next find Elisha at Gilgal, in the time of the famine of which we read his prediction in a later chapter.[75] The sons of the prophets were seated round him, listening to his instructions; the hour came for their simple meal, and he ordered the great pot to be put on the fire for the vegetable soup, on which, with bread, they chiefly lived. One of them went out for herbs, and carelessly brought his outer garment (the _abeyah_)[76] full of wild poisonous coloquinths,[77] which, by ignorance or inadvertence, were shred into the pottage. But when it was cooked and poured out they perceived the poisonous taste, and cried out, "O Man of G.o.d, death in the pot!"

"Bring meal," he said, for he seems always to have been a man of the fewest words.

They cast in some meal, and were all able to eat of the now harmless pottage. It has been noticed that in this, as in other incidents of the story, there is no invocation of the name of Jehovah.

V. Not far from Gilgal was the little village of Baalshalisha,[78] at which lived a farmer who wished to bring an offering of firstfruits and _karmel_ (bruised grain) in his wallet to Elisha as a Man of G.o.d.[79] It was a poor gift enough--only twenty of the coa.r.s.e barley loaves which were eaten by the common people, and a sack[80] full of fresh ears of corn.[81] Elisha told his servitor[82]--perhaps Gehazi--to set them before the people present. "What?" he asked, "this trifle of food before a hundred men!" But Elisha told him in the Lord's name that it should more than suffice; and so it did.

FOOTNOTES:

[65] Jos., _Antt._, IX. iv. 2. This perhaps is only suggested by the reminiscences of 1 Kings xviii. 2, 3, 12.

[66] Lev. xxv. 39-41; Matt. xviii. 25.

[67] 2 Kings iv. 10. Not "a little chamber on the wall" (A.V.), but "an _aliyah_ with walls" (margin, R.V.).

[68] Frankl., _Jews in the East_.

[69] John iv. 27: "Then came His disciples, and marvelled that He was _talking_ (et? ???a????) _with a woman_."

[70] 2 Kings iv. 13: "Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care" (LXX., p?sa? t?? ??stas?? ta?t??).

[71] The Sheykh with whom I stayed at Bint es Jebeil could think of no return which I could offer for his hospitality so acceptable as if I would say a good word for him to the authorities at Beyrout.

[72] Gehazi is usually called the _na'ar_ or "lad" of Elisha--a term implying lower service than Elisha's "ministry" to Elijah.

[73] 2 Kings iv. 23. Hebrew "Peace"; A.V., "It shall be well."

[74] Salutations occupy some time in the formally courteous East.

Comp. Luke x. 4.

[75] 2 Kings viii. 1.

[76] Not "lap," as in A. V. (Heb., _beged_); LXX. s??????e p???e? t?

??t??? a?t??; Vulg., _implevit vestem suam_ (both correctly).

[77] Heb., _paquoth_; LXX., t???p?? ????a?; Vulg; _colocynthidas agri_. Hence the name _cuc.u.mis prophetarum_.

[78] Lord of the Chain and "Three lands." Three wadies meet at this spot, a little west of Bethel.

[79] 2 Kings iv. 42. Karmel, Lev. ii. 14. Perhaps a sort of frumenty.

[80] The word for "wallet" (_tsiqlon_; Vulg., _pera_) occurs here only. Pes.h.i.+to, "garment." The Vatican LXX. omits it. The Greek version has ?? ?????? a?t??.

[81] See Lev. ii. 14, xxiii. 14.

[82] 2 Kings iv. 43. The word for "his servitor" (_m'chartho_) is used also of Joshua. It does not mean a mere ordinary attendant. LXX., ?e?t??????; Vulg., _minister_.