2 Kings 6:11
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Cross References
Matthew 2:3-12
3When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born. 5They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet, 6‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come a governor who shall shepherd my people, Israel.’”
7Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.”
9They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12Being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.
Job 18:7-11
7The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down. 8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. 9A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. 10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path. 11Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.
1 Samuel 28:21
21The woman came to Saul and saw that he was very troubled, and said to him, “Behold, your servant has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.
Psalms 48:4-5
4For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. 5They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.
1 Samuel 22:8
8Is that why all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?”
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Isaiah 57:20-21
20But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud. 21“There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.”
Study
2 Kings 6:11–14
When the king of Aram found out that Elisha could warn the king of Israel ahead of time, he ordered his men to capture the prophet.
Dothan was about ten miles north of Samaria. Archaeologists have confirmed the city existed during this time.
6:8-12
DISCLOSES THE KING OF SYRIA'S COUNSEL. (Kg2 6:8-17)
the king of Syria warred against Israel--This seems to have been a sort of guerrilla warfare, carried on by predatory inroads on different parts of the country. Elisha apprised King Jehoram of the secret purpose of the enemy; so, by adopting precautionary measures, he was always enabled to anticipate and defeat their attacks. The frequency of his disappointments having led the Syrian king to suspect some of his servants of carrying on a treacherous correspondence with the enemy, he was informed about Elisha, whose apprehension he forthwith determined to effect. This resolution was, of course, grounded on the belief that however great the knowledge of Elisha might be, if seized and kept a prisoner, he could no longer give information to the king of Israel.
6:8-12
Here we have Elisha, with his spirit of prophecy, serving the king, as before helping the sons of the prophets; for that, as other gifts, is given to every man to profit withal; and, whatever abilities any man has of doing good, he is by them made a debtor both to the wise and unwise. Observe here,
I. How the king of Israel was informed by Elisha of all the designs and motions of his enemy, the king of Syria, more effectually than he could have been by the most vigilant and faithful spies. If the king of Syria, in a secret council of war, determined in which place to make an inroad upon the coasts of Israel, where he thought it would be the greatest surprise and they would be least able to make resistance, before his forces could receive his orders the king of Israel had notice of them from Elisha, and so had opportunity of preventing the mischief; and many a time, Kg2 6:8-10. See here, 1. That the enemies of God's Israel are politic in their devices, and restless in their attempts, against him. They shall not know, nor see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, Neh 4:11. 2. All those devices are known to God, even those that are deepest laid. He knows not only what men do, but what they design, and has many ways of countermining them. 3. It is a great advantage to us to be warned of our danger, that we may stand upon our guard against it. The work of God's prophets is to give us warning; if, being warned, we do not save ourselves, it is our own fault, and our blood will be upon our own head. The king of Israel would regard the warnings Elisha gave him of his danger by the Syrians, but not the warnings he gave him of his danger by his sins. Such warnings are little heeded by the most; they will save themselves from death, but not from hell.
II. How the king of Syria resented this. He suspected treachery among his senators, and that his counsels were betrayed, Kg2 6:11. But one of his servants, that had heard, by Naaman and others, of Elisha's wondrous works, concludes it must needs be he that gave this intelligence to the king of Israel, Kg2 6:12. What could not he discover who could tell Gehazi his thoughts? Here a confession of the boundless knowledge, as before of the boundless power, of Israel's God, is extorted from Syrians. Nothing done, said, thought, by any person, in any place, at any time, is out of the reach of God's cognizance.
6:10-12
Sent to the place - To see if it were so. But the Vulgate gives it quite a different turn: Misit rex Israel ad locum, et praeoccupavit eum. The king of Israel sent previously to the place, and took possession of it; and thus the Syrians were disappointed. This is very likely, though it is not expressed in the Hebrew text. The prophet knew the Syrians marked such a place; he told the king of Israel, and he hastened and sent a party of troops to pre-occupy it; and thus the Syrians found that their designs had been detected.
6:11
Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing,.... There was as it were a storm in his breast, as the word signifies; he was like a troubled sea, tossed with tempests, exceeding uneasy in his mind, fretting at the disappointment he met with time after time:
and he called his servants, and said unto them, will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? he suspected that some one of his counsellors was in the interest of the king of Israel, and betrayed his secrets to him, which was the cause of his disappointments.
6:11
The king of the Syrians was enraged at this, and said to his servants, "Do ye not show me who of our men (leans) to the king of Israel?" i.e., takes his part. משּׁלּנוּ = לנוּ מאשׁר, probably according to an Aramaean dialect: see Ewald, 181, b., though he pronounces the reading incorrect, and would read מכּלּנוּ, but without any ground and quite unsuitably, as the king would thereby reckon himself among the traitors.