2 Kings 2:19

ELISHA "HEALED" THE WATERS OF JERICHO

"And the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is bad, and the land miscarrieth. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus saith Jehovah, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spake."

"The water is bad" (2 Kings 2:19). The spring which produced those waters was identified in later times with, "The spring of Ain es-Sultan, just above the present day city of Jericho."[18]

"The land miscarrieth" (2 Kings 2:19). This is a little misleading, because it might appear to mean that the land was unfruitful; "But the Hebrew verb here for `casting of fruit' (which is the Hebrew) is used only of human infertility and the destruction of babes."[19]

Stigers informs us that even today all of the springs that supply the city of Jericho with water are brackish, "But the principal spring is sweet and pure."[20]