2 Kings 8:14 - Exposition

So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. This, as already observed , was giving half Elisha's answer, and suppressing the other half. The suppressio veri is a suggestio falsi ; and the suppression was Hazael's act, not Elisha's. Had Hazael repeated the whole of Elisha's answer, "Say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die;"—Benhadad might have been puzzled, but he would not have been deceived.