2 Kings 2:1 - Exposition

And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven. The subject is introduced as one of general notoriety, the writer professing rather to give the exact details of a well-known fact, than to relate a new fact unknown to his readers. "When the time came," he means to say, "for Elijah's translation, of which you, my readers, all know, the following were the circumstances under which it took place." The fact itself was deeply impressed on the Jewish consciousness. "Elias," says the Sou of Sirach, "was taken up in a whirlwind of fire, and in a chariot of fiery homes" (Ecclesiasticus 48:9). He was ranked with Enoch, as not having seen death (Josephus, 'Ant. Jud.,' 9.2. § 2), and was viewed as "continuing in heaven a mysterious life, which no death had ever interrupted, whence he was ready at any time to return to earth". The scribes thought that he was beyond all doubt to make his appearance upon the earth in person, before the coming of the Messiah ( Matthew 16:10 ). By a whirlwind. Sa'arach is not so much an actual "whirlwind" as a storm or atmospheric disturbance ( συσσεισμός , LXX .). It is a word which only occurs here in the historical Scriptures. That Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Elisha had become to Elijah what Joshua was to Moses ( Exodus 24:13 )—his "minister," or regular attendant, from the time of his call at Abel-meholah ( 1 Kings 19:21 ). Elijah had no fixed residence, but moved from place to place as the Spirit of God suggested. His wanderings had now brought him to Gilgal (probably Jiljilieh , near Nablous), one of the most ancient sanctuaries of the land ( 1 Samuel 10:8 ; 1 Samuel 11:15 , etc.), celebrated in the history of Saul and Samuel.