2:11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot 1 pulled by fiery horses appeared. 2 They went between Elijah and Elisha, 3 and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm. 2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” 4 Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.
13:14 Now Elisha had a terminal illness. 12 King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. 13 He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot 14 and horsemen of Israel!” 15
1 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
2 tn Heb “look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire.”
3 tn Heb “and they made a division between the two of them.”
4 sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.
5 sn Joram is a short form of the name Jehoram.
6 tn Heb “and he arose at night and defeated Edom, who had surrounded him, and the chariot officers.” The Hebrew text as it stands gives the impression that Joram was surrounded and launched a victorious night counterattack. It would then be quite natural to understand the last statement in the verse to refer to an Edomite retreat. Yet v. 22 goes on to state that the Edomite revolt was successful. Therefore, if the MT is retained, it may be better to understand the final statement in v. 21 as a reference to an Israelite retreat (made in spite of the success described in the preceding sentence). The translation above assumes an emendation of the Hebrew text. Adding a third masculine singular pronominal suffix to the accusative sign before Edom (reading אֶתוֹ [’eto], “him,” instead of just אֶת [’et]) and taking Edom as the subject of verbs allows one to translate the verse in a way that is more consistent with the context, which depicts an Israelite defeat, not victory. There is, however, no evidence for this emendation.
7 tn Heb “and the people fled to their tents.”
8 tn Heb “and Jehu filled his hand with the bow and he struck Jehoram between his shoulders.”
9 tn Heb “went out from.”
10 tn The words “when she hit the ground” are added for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “and he trampled her.”
12 tn Heb “Now Elisha was ill with the illness by which he would die.”
13 tn Heb “went down to him.”
14 tn Though the noun is singular here, it may be collective, in which case it could be translated “chariots.”
15 sn By comparing Elisha to a one-man army, the king emphasizes the power of the prophetic word. See the note at 2:12.