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Bible History for the Least and the Lowest ...
Bible History for the Least and the Lowest Author:American Sunday-School Union Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XII. THE DEATH OF ELISHA. Was Elisha still alive? Yes; but he was nov an old man, and very near death ; and King Jehoash went to see him when lie w... more »as ill. Jehoash was not a good man ; but he loved and honoured Elisha, and this was right. The king knew how useful Elisha had been to his country; and he was very sorry to lose him, and wept over him, and cried, " O my father, my father." Israel had suffered much from the Syrians; and Jehoash feared, that now he should have no kind friend to help and comfort him. But Elisha wished to teach the king, that God could still protect Israel. The prophet taught Jehoash this by signs. He gave the king a bow and arrows, and put his hands upon the king's hands, and told Jehoash to open the window eastward. Jehoash opened it, and the prophet said, " Shoot." Jehoash shot the arrow out of the window, as Elisha told him ; and then the prophet explained to Jehoash what the sign meant. He said, " This is the arrow of the Lord's deliverance from Syria.Thus shalt thou smite the Syrians, and destroy them." Then Elisha told the king to take the arrows again, and smite upon the ground. Jehoash did so ; but he smote only three times upon the ground, and then stayed without waiting for Elisha's command. This made the prophet angry. He saw that Jehoash had no faith in God, no trust in him, no care to obey his commands; and he said to the king, " Thou oughtest to have smitten many times; then Syria should have been quite destroyed ; but now thou shalt smite Syria only three times." The Syrians had long troubled Israel. Hazael was king of Syria, and he was cruel to the Israelites, asElisha had prophesied that he would be. But after Hazael was dead, Jehoash conquered the Syrians three times, and got possession again of the cities they had taken....« less