Elisha, Son of Shaphat: The Prophet Who Would Not Leave Elijah

A Prophet in the Divided Kingdom

Elisha is a prophet of Israel, the son of Shaphat, from Abel Meholah (1 Kings 19:16). He belongs to the era of the divided kingdom, and by the reckoning of Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he was active 896 BC to 838 BC. His name stands in fifty-three verses: three in 1 Kings, forty-nine in 2 Kings, and one in Luke. The first mention is 1 Kings 19:16; the last is in Luke. That distribution tells its own story. Elisha is not a figure of a single dramatic chapter but a presence across almost the whole of 2 Kings, moving among prophets, widows, generals and kings.

Named Before He Is Met

Elisha enters Scripture as a name in a commission given to another man. "Anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel; and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place. He who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill" (1 Kings 19:16-17). Before he speaks a word, he is set within a triad of instruments, and the work assigned him is not gentle. Israel's prophet is placed alongside a foreign sword and a rising king. He appears again at 1 Kings 19:19.

"I Will Not Leave You"

The fullest scene we are given opens with departure. "When Yahweh was about to take Elijah up by a whirlwind into heaven, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, 'Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me as far as Bethel.' Elisha said, 'As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.' So they went down to Bethel" (2 Kings 2:1-3). At Bethel the sons of the prophets ask him, "Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from your head today?" and he answers, "Yes, I know it. Hold your peace." The same question meets him at Jericho, and the same refusal to be sent away: "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you" (2 Kings 2:4-5). He knew what was coming, and he walked toward it rather than waiting behind.

What he asked in that walk is recorded at 2 Kings 2:9, and his cry at the parting at 2 Kings 2:12. Then comes the moment that settles his standing: "He took Elijah's mantle that fell from him, and struck the waters, and said, 'Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah?' When he also had struck the waters, they were divided apart, and Elisha went over. When the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho facing him saw him, they said, 'The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.' They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him" (2 Kings 2:14-15). Further scenes follow at 2 Kings 2:19 and 2 Kings 2:22.

Kings, Armies and a Syrian Commander

Much of Elisha's ministry is transacted with people in power. When Naaman's disease had brought Israel's king to tearing his clothes, "Elisha the man of God" sent word: "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." Naaman came with horses and chariots and stood at the door, and Elisha sent out a messenger: "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean" (2 Kings 5:8-10). No audience, no ceremony, only a word.

In a time of war his servant's eyes are opened at his prayer: "Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see." Yahweh opened the young man's eyes, "and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha." He then prayed for blindness on the approaching force, led them to Samaria, and prayed again, "Yahweh, open these men's eyes, that they may see." The king of Israel, seeing them, asked him, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?" (2 Kings 6:17-21).

The record continues in scenes and single mentions at 2 Kings 3:11, 3:13-14, 4:1-2, 4:8, 4:17, 4:32, 4:38, 5:20, 5:25, 6:1, 6:12, 6:31-32, 7:1, 8:1, 8:4-5, 8:7, 8:10, 8:13-14 and 9:1.

At the end, a king weeps over his sickbed. "Now Elisha became sick with the illness of which he died; and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!'" Dying, Elisha put the king's hands on a bow, laid his own hands on the king's hands, and said, "Yahweh's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you will strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them" (2 Kings 13:14-17). A further account stands at 2 Kings 13:20-21.

Where the Record Is Silent

The passages set out here record no sin and no failure of Elisha; that silence should be reported as silence, not turned into praise the text does not offer. We are told his father's name and his town, and no more of his family: no children are named, and no tribe or people is given for him.

One Line in Luke

Elisha's name crosses into the New Testament exactly once, at Luke 4:27. That single reference is the whole of the line the record draws from this prophet of Israel to the pages of the Gospel, and the reader is sent there to hear it in its own words.