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2 Kings 13 - Elisha's Death and Final Sign

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This narration was recorded before the latest revision of this study.

2 Kings 13 shows Israel under judgment, yet still visited by mercy. Jehoahaz does evil, Syria oppresses Israel, and the people suffer. Yet when Jehoahaz seeks the Lord, the Lord gives deliverance. Later, Joash of Israel comes to the dying Elisha, and the prophet gives him a sign of victory. The chapter ends with one of the most striking resurrection signs in the Old Testament: a dead man touches Elisha’s bones and revives.

The chapter teaches that God’s mercy can visit a compromised people, but God’s promised deliverance calls for a response more enduring than distress or tears. It also reveals that the grace of God working through His saints is not erased by death.

Summary Table

PassageWhat happensSpiritual concern
2 Kings 13:1-9Jehoahaz does evil, seeks the Lord, and receives mercyWhat changes after Jehoahaz prays, and what remains unchanged?
2 Kings 13:10-13Joash reigns in IsraelWhy is the king’s death summarized before the bedside scene?
2 Kings 13:14-19Elisha’s final prophecy and Joash’s partial obedienceWhat do Elisha’s hands on the king’s hands say about the source of victory?
2 Kings 13:20-21Elisha’s death and the resurrection signWhy is the burial party’s fear important to the miracle?
2 Kings 13:22-25God’s covenant mercy to IsraelWhat does the patriarchal covenant explain, and how do three victories answer the sign?

Historical and Scriptural Context

This chapter follows Jehu’s incomplete reform and the weakening of Israel under Syrian pressure. Hazael and Ben-Hadad continue to dominate Israel’s political horizon. The northern kingdom remains spiritually compromised, but God remembers His covenant.

Elisha’s death closes a major prophetic era. His final sign confirms that the God who worked through him is the God of life.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

Samaria remains the political center of Israel’s decline.

Syria / Aram is the external oppressor. The pressure from Damascus fulfills earlier prophetic warnings.

The burial place of Elisha becomes a surprising place of life. In Orthodox sensibility, this anticipates the holiness associated with the relics of saints, with the essential distinction that power belongs to God, not to magic.

Jehoahaz does evil, seeks the Lord, and receives mercy (2 Kings 13:1-9)

Translation note: In 13:5 the NKJV speaks of a “deliverer”; Brenton says “the Lord gave deliverance to Israel.” The displayed wording emphasizes God’s saving act without naming an individual deliverer.

1 In the twenty-third year of Joas son of Ochozias king of Juda began Joachaz the son of Ju to reign in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who led Israel to sin; he departed not from them.

3 And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and delivered them into the hand of Azael king of Syria, and into the hand of the son of Ader son of Azael, all their days. 4 And Joachaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened to him, for he saw the affliction of Israel, because the king of Syria afflicted them. 5 And the Lord gave deliverance to Israel, and they escaped from under the hand of Syria: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as heretofore. 6 Only they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who led Israel to sin: they walked in them—moreover the grove also remained in Samaria. 7 Whereas there was not left any army to Joachaz, except fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry: for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and they made them as dust for trampling.

8 And the rest of the acts of Joachaz, and all that he did, and his mighty acts are not these things written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 9 And Joachaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria: and Joas his son reigned in his stead.

The pattern is painful: sin, oppression, distress, supplication, mercy. God hears Jehoahaz even though Israel’s reform remains incomplete. Mercy here is not approval of sin. It is God’s covenant compassion toward a suffering people.

Salvation language: The Lord gives deliverance because He sees Israel’s affliction. The tents recover ordinary life, but the grove and Jeroboam’s sins remain. Relief is a gift, not evidence that God has approved the idols. The small remnant of the army makes the mercy concrete: Israel is allowed to live when its own strength cannot keep it safe.

Joash reigns in Israel (2 Kings 13:10-13)

10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joas king of Juda, Joas the son of Joachaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria sixteen years. 11 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord; he departed not from all the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who led Israel to sin: he walked in it. 12 And the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he did, and his mighty acts which he performed together with Amessias king of Juda, are not these written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 13 And Joas slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat upon his throne, and he was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

The summary is familiar: reign, evil, persistence in Jeroboam’s sins, death. The repetition itself is theological. Sin becomes monotonous. Without repentance, royal history becomes a cycle of names and failures.

The notice gives Joash’s death before returning to his visit to Elisha. This is the customary summary of a reign followed by a particular scene within it, not a claim that the king visited after he died. His conflict with Amaziah anticipates chapter 14. Public achievements can fill a royal chronicle while the short judgment “he did that which was evil” still tells the reader what his power could not heal.

Elisha’s final prophecy and Joash’s partial obedience (2 Kings 13:14-19)

14 Now Elisaie was sick of his sickness, whereof he died: and Joas king of Israel went down to him, and wept over his face, and said, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof! 15 And Elisaie said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took to himself a bow and arrows. 16 And he said to the king, Put thy hand on the bow. And Joas put his hand upon it: and Elisaie put his hands upon the king’s hands. 17 And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. And Elisaie said, Shoot. And he shot. And Elisaie said, The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; and thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphec until thou have consumed them. 18 And Elisaie said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And the king smote three times, and stayed. 19 And the man of God was grieved at him, and said, If thou hadst smitten five or six times, then thou shouldest have smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed them; but now thou shalt smite Syria only thrice.

Joash weeps and cries, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof!” The chariot-and-horseman wording recalls Elisha’s cry in 2 Kings 2:12. He recognizes that the prophet is Israel’s true strength.

Before the king shoots, Elisha places his hands on the king’s hands and calls the arrow the Lord’s deliverance. The sign begins with a gift mediated through the prophet, not the king’s independent force. The eastern window directs the act toward the contested territory; Aphek gives the promise a place. The dying servant’s weakness does not weaken the God whose word he speaks.

But when commanded to strike the ground, he stops after three strikes. Brenton says the man of God “was grieved at him.” The prophet interprets the three blows as three victories, rather than the fuller victory signified by five or six. The king’s inward calculation is not narrated, and he had not been given a numerical quota. His stopping becomes a sign of curtailed victory in the prophet’s own explanation; it should not become a technique for obtaining miracles by sufficient repetition.

Elisha’s death and the resurrection sign (2 Kings 13:20-21)

20 And Elisaie died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites came into the land, at the beginning of the year. 21 And it came to pass as they were burying a man, that behold, they saw a band of men, and they cast the man into the grave of Elisaie: and as soon as he touched the bones of Elisaie, he revived and stood up on his feet.

A dead man touches Elisha’s bones and lives. The God who worked through the prophet in life now gives life through his bodily remains. This is the biblical event behind Orthodox reverence for holy relics: the body sanctified in God’s service can bear witness to His grace even after death.

This passage gives a biblical foundation for Orthodox reverence for the bodies and relics of saints. Matter can become a bearer of grace because God created matter, the Word became flesh, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies human bodies.

The burial party casts the man into Elisha’s grave because raiders approach. No ritual, spoken petition, or attempt to obtain a miracle is described. God gives life in a scene governed by human fear, and the revived man stands on his feet. Sirach 48:13-14 is Scripture’s own remembrance of Elisha’s wonder-working life and death: his body prophesied even after death. Matthew 27:52-53, Acts 5:15, and Acts 19:11-12 widen the biblical testimony to God’s power through bodily signs; they give no promise that every contact with a relic must produce a cure.

God’s covenant mercy to Israel (2 Kings 13:22-25)

22 And Azael greatly afflicted Israel all the days of Joachaz. 23 And the Lord had mercy and compassion upon them, and had respect to them because of his covenant with Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob; and the Lord would not destroy them, and did not cast them out from his presence. 24 And Azael king of Syria died, and the son of Ader his son reigned in his stead. 25 And Joas the son of Joachaz returned, and took the cities out of the hand of the son of Ader the son of Azael, which he had taken out of the hand of Joachaz his father in the war: thrice did Joas smite him, and he recovered the cities of Israel.

The chapter closes with mercy grounded in covenant. God has compassion because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel’s hope is not their consistency. It is God’s faithfulness.

This is the first explicit naming in Kings of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Brenton says the Lord “did not cast them out from his presence”; the NKJV’s “as yet” makes the later horizon explicit. Mercy restrains destruction at this point, but it does not make persistent apostasy harmless. Second Kings 17:18-20 will tell of removal from His presence. The three recoveries from Ben-Hadad at the close of this chapter also fulfill Elisha’s limited promise exactly.

Orthodox Theological Reading

The resurrection sign through Elisha’s bones belongs naturally within Orthodox theology of sanctification. The saints are not competitors with Christ. They are evidence of Christ’s victory in human persons. Their bodies are not disposable shells but temples of the Holy Spirit.

The chapter also warns against partial response. Joash receives a prophetic act but does not enter it fully. This is a danger in prayer, confession, fasting, and service: we may approach holy things with real emotion but limited obedience.

Christological Reading

Elisha’s bones giving life point beyond Elisha to Christ’s death and resurrection. If contact with the bones of a prophet becomes a sign of life, how much more does union with the crucified and risen Christ give true life?

The deliverance God gives in 13:5 restores life under Syrian oppression. Christ’s saving work reaches the wound that temporary recovery cannot heal: sin, corruption, and death. This comparison rests on the divine saving act in Brenton, not on an unnamed personal savior supplied from a different translation.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St. Cyril of Jerusalem makes two distinct uses of Elisha’s final sign. In Catechetical Lecture 14.16 he argues for Christ’s resurrection from the biblical wonders already received by his hearers: “Eliseus then raised a dead man, but he conquered not the world; Elias raised a dead man, but devils are not driven away in the name of Elias.”1 Elisha remained dead; Christ Himself rose, and His resurrection brought life beyond one restored burial. Cyril expressly refuses to disparage the prophets in order to praise their Master.

In Lecture 18.16 Cyril turns to the holiness of the body: “a virtue resides in the body of the saints.”2 He explains this through the righteous soul’s long service in the body and immediately compares the handkerchiefs and aprons associated with Paul in Acts 19:11-12. Here “virtue” means power, not a property independent of God. This is the relics argument, distinct from the resurrection comparison in Lecture 14.

St. Irenaeus asks in Fragment 35 of the Fragments from the Lost Writings: “If the corpse of Elisha raised a dead man, how much more shall God, when He has quickened men’s dead bodies, bring them up for judgment?”3 The fragment points to bodily resurrection and judgment. The miracle is therefore both consolation and a summons to live before the God who raises and judges.

St. John Chrysostom, discussing healing and faith in Homily 57 on Matthew, notes that this burial party acted from fear rather than faith. Nevertheless, “by the mere virtue of the holy body the dead man arose.”4 His observation keeps us close to the unexpected event: God’s gift is not the result of the mourners’ skill or spiritual achievement. Reverence for a saint’s body honors God’s sanctifying grace; it does not turn matter into a charm.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

No reading is appointed under 2 Kings 13 in the Coptic lectionary evidence used here. The Synaxarium remembers the Appearance of the Bodies of St. John the Baptist and Elisha the Prophet on 2 Paona and the Departure of Elisha the Prophet on 20 Paona.5 These are commemorations, not evidence that this whole chapter is read on those days.

The lectionary joins biblical remembrance to the Church’s calendar. Elisha’s death and final sign make the honor shown to holy bodies intelligible: the whole human person belongs to God. Resurrection hope directs that honor toward Christ, the source of life, while the covenant mercy at the chapter’s close calls the living to repentance.

Iconography and Visual Teaching 🖼️

The kings chart distinguishes Jehoahaz and Joash of Israel from Joash of Judah. Images of Elisha’s burial or the revived man are often Western dramatic illustrations; the biblical episode does not authenticate them as Orthodox icons.

  • Visual source collection: Elisha, Wikimedia Commons category. Individual works require their own attribution and identification as icon, historical artwork, or illustration.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Ask for mercy without bargaining

Jehoahaz is heard while Israel’s idols remain. Bring distress to God honestly, then use the relief He gives as time to relinquish the sin rather than as proof that no change is needed.

Let tears lead to fidelity

Joash weeps at Elisha’s bedside but receives a curtailed victory. Let grief at the loss of a holy person become a concrete continuation of the prayer, mercy, or obedience that person taught you.

Honor the whole person

Elisha’s bones bear witness that God sanctifies the body as well as the soul. Treat your own body and the bodies of others with chastity, tenderness, and dignity, especially in sickness and at death.

Remember judgment with hope

Irenaeus reads the revived man as a sign of resurrection and judgment. Pray for the departed and prepare for your own account before Christ through confession and reconciliation, trusting the Lord whose covenant compassion outlasts human strength.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Resurrection and Life, have mercy on Your afflicted people and remember the departed in Your kingdom. Strengthen my wavering obedience, sanctify my body and soul, and keep me from treating Your gifts as things I can control. Bring me through death to the life You promise, and prepare me to stand before You with repentance and hope. Amen.

Footnotes

  1. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 14.16. New Advent. ↩

  2. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 18.16. New Advent. ↩

  3. St. Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings, Fragment 35. CCEL. ↩

  4. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Homily 57, section 3, on Matthew 17:10-21. New Advent. ↩

  5. Coptic readings and commemorations from @andraws/lectionary-data 1.3.1, preserving the package’s Katameros-cycle and date-resolved source distinctions. A related commemoration or Gospel appointment is not an appointment of this chapter. ↩

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