# Elisha’s last sign points to limited victories

Divided Kingdom · Draft · BSB

Content revision: bb396a2b38d6f4ef · No editorial review date recorded

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Date: Israel · Jehoash · Elisha’s final illness and later events

During Elisha’s final illness, Jehoash of Israel receives a sign involving a bow and arrows. His three strikes on the ground are linked with three victories rather than complete victory. Elisha dies; later a dead man revives on touching his bones. Israel recovers towns from Hazael’s son.

The king’s visit takes place before the death already mentioned in the preceding reign summary. The tomb episode is a separate later incident during a Moabite raid. The narrator grounds the LORD’s compassion in his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not in the kings’ consistent faithfulness.

## Primary Scripture

[2 Kings 13:14–25 (BSB)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2013%3A14%E2%80%9325&version=BSB)

13:14 When Elisha had fallen sick with the illness from which he would die, Jehoash king of Israel came down to him and wept over him, saying, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

13:15 Elisha told him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So Jehoash took a bow and some arrows.

13:16 Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So the king put his hand on the bow, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

13:17 “Open the east window,” said Elisha. So he opened it and Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And Elisha declared: “This is the LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram, for you shall strike the Arameans in Aphek until you have put an end to them.”

13:18 Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them, and Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped.

13:19 But the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to it. But now you will strike down Aram only three times.”

13:20 And Elisha died and was buried. Now the Moabite raiders used to come into the land every spring.

13:21 Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. And as soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet.

13:22 And Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz.

13:23 But the LORD was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And to this day, the LORD has been unwilling to destroy them or cast them from His presence.

13:24 When Hazael king of Aram died, his son Ben-hadad reigned in his place.

13:25 Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz took back from Ben-hadad son of Hazael the cities that Hazael had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Jehoash defeated Ben-hadad three times, and so recovered the cities of Israel.

## Related Scripture

[Deuteronomy 4:31 · teaching](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%204%3A31&version=BSB)

Moses describes the LORD’s mercy and his remembrance of the covenant with the ancestors.

## Location evidence

Neither Elisha’s sickroom nor his burial site is named. No pin turns a traditional grave identification into a textual certainty.

No event map marker is assigned. Do not infer an exact venue from related places.

## For the class

Why does the narrator recall the patriarchal covenant amid these military reversals?

## Interpretation and reuse

Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.

Record source: editorial (content/authored/divided-kingdom.json)

Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.

Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm

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