[28] And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She
answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we
may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ [29] So
we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her,
‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her
son.” [30] When the king heard the words of the woman, he
tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the
people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his
body— [31] and he said, “May God do so to me and more also,
if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his
shoulders today.” (2 Kings 6)
Mothers were forced to eat their own children to survive. The king was so
angered by these conditions that he swore to kill Elisha (2 Kings 6:31).
Elisha, however, prophesied that the next day the famine would be over,
and the nation would feast in abundance. That prophecy came true when
that night the Lord caused the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots. They
fled in fear, leaving everything behind (see 2 Kings 7).
While the Syrians left Samaria, they continued to be a burden to the nation
of Israel. On one occasion, King Joash approached Elisha with his deep
concern about the threat Syria was posing for his country. We read in 2
Kings 13:14 that Elisha was sick at this time and about ready to die. Laying
his hand on the king’s hand, Elisha asked him to take his bow shoot an
arrow out the window. As he prepared to shoot his arrow, the prophet told
King Joash to strike the ground with the arrow to indicate the level of
victory he would have over the Syrians. When the king hit the ground three
times, Elisha told him that he would have three victories over Syria, but he
would not totally defeat them (see 2 Kings 13:15-19). These would be the
last words of Elisha the prophet but not his miraculous deeds.
After Elisha was buried, bands of Moabites invaded the land. They
interrupted a funeral service and those carrying the man had to throw his
body into the grave of Elisha, presumably because they needed to defend
themselves or flee for their lives. 2 Kings 13:21 tells us that when the body
of the dead man touched the bones of Elisha, life was given to him and he
was revived and stood on his feet. What is interesting about this is that this