2 Kongebok 13:17

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

Så sa han: Lukk op vinduet mot øst! Og han lukket det op. Da sa Elisa: Skyt! Så skjøt han. Da sa han: En frelsens pil fra Herren, en frelsens pil mot syrerne! Du skal slå syrerne i Afek og gjøre ende på dem.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Open: 2 Kings 5:10-14, John 2:5-8, John 11:39-41

The arrow: This was a symbolical action, indicative of the deliverance of Israel from Syria. It was an ancient custom to shoot an arrow or cast a spear into a country before the commencement of hostilities. Exodus 4:2, Exodus 4:17, Judges 7:9-20, 2 Samuel 5:24, 1 Corinthians 1:18

Aphek: 1 Samuel 4:1, 1 Kings 20:26

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 3:19 - And ye Amos 5:9 - strengtheneth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said, open the window eastward,.... Syria lying east of the land of Israel, as the Jewish commentators in general observe, and for which they quote Isaiah 9:12, but it lay northeast, or rather more to the north; wherefore this may respect the eastward part of the land of Israel, which the Syrians had got possession of, and should be recovered, as this sign showed, see 2 Kings 10:33,

and he opened it: then Elisha said, shoot, and he shot; the arrow, out of the window, being opened:

and he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; meaning, that that arrow was a sign of the Lord's deliverance of Israel from the Syrians, by whom they had been sadly oppressed, and reduced very low:

for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou hast consumed them; not the whole nation, but that army they should bring thither; which was a city in the land of Israel, where the Syrians were routed in Ahab's time; 100,000 were slain near it on one day, and 27,000 by the fall of the wall of it, 1 Kings 20:26 hence some read the words here, "as in Aphek."

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Eastward - Syria of Damascus lay partly east, but still more north, of the holy land. The arrow was to be shot, eastward, not so much against Syria itself as against the scene of the recent Syrian successes, Gilead 2 Kings 10:33, which was also to be the scene of Joash’s victories over them. Aphek is almost due east from Shunem, where it is not unlikely that Elisha now was.

The arrow ... - literally, “An arrow of deliverance from the Lord, and an arrow of deliverance against Syria; and thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, even to consuming.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 13:17. Open the window eastward — This was towards the country beyond Jordan, which Hazael had taken from the Israelites.

The arrow of - deliverance from Syria — That is, As surely as that arrow is shot towards the lands conquered from Israel by the Syrians, so surely shall those lands be reconquered and restored to Israel.

It was an ancient custom to shoot an arrow or cast a spear into the country which an army intended to invade. Justin says that, as soon as Alexander the Great had arrived on the coasts of Iona, he threw a dart into the country of the Persians. "Cum delati in continentem essent, primus Alexander jaculum velut in hostilem terram jacit." - Just. lib. ii.

The dart, spear, or arrow thrown, was an emblem of the commencement of hostilities. Virgil (AEn. lib. ix., ver. 51) represents Turnus as giving the signal of attack by throwing a spear: -

Ecquis erit mecum, O Juvenes, qui primus in hostem?

En, ait: et jaculum intorquens emittit in auras,

Principium pugnae; et campo sese arduus infert.

"Who, first," he cried, "with me the foe will dare?"

Then hurled a dart, the signal of the war.

PITT.

Servius, in his note upon this place, shows that it was a custom to proclaim war in this stay: the pater patratus, or chief of the Feciales, a sort of heralds, went to the confines of the enemy's country, and, after some solemnities, said with a loud voice, I wage war with you, for such and such reasons; and then threw in a spear. It was then the business of the parties thus defied or warned to take the subject into consideration; and if they did not, within thirty days, come to some accommodation, the war was begun.

Thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek — This was a city of Syria, and probably the place of the first battle; and there, it appears, they had a total overthrow. They were, in the language of the text, consumed or exterminated.