2 Kings 7:6

2Ki 7:6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, [even] the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

Ver. 6. To hear a noise of chariots.] Some think this noise was not in the air, but in their ears only, because none else heard it. But God can easily hold men’s senses, as hath been showed. {2Ki 6:18 Act 9:18} And it is likely that the angels made a hurrying noise in the air over their heads, which struck them into a great fear, and set them going in such posthaste, that they left their horses behind them. See a like miracle, 2Sa 5:24, and observe how

“ Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus. ”

So the Roman historian reporteth, that by the noise of a great laughter, Hannibal’s great army lying at the gates of Rome was suddenly frightened and made to run away; whereupon a temple Deo Ridiculo, to the laughing god, was consecrated in via Appia, in the highway to the city.

Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us.] A mere fancy of their own: whereby the Lord would, as it were, in a way of scorn and derision, put them into this disorder, running without any real cause, like so many madmen. God could have taken another course with them, as to have slain them by his angels, consumed them with fire from heaven, &c. About the year of grace 394, Theodosius had a great victory over the Persians and Saracens, whilst the Lord smote them with a panic terror, so that they ran headlong into the river Euphrates, and there perished in the waters above a hundred thousand of them, saith mine author. {a}

{a} Alsted., Chronol., p. 300.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 7:6. The Lord had made the host of the Syrians hear a noise of chariots, &c. — The air, by the ministry of angels, doubtless, was put into such a motion about the camp of the Syrians, as to give sounds like to those it would have given if it had been agitated by the rattling of chariots, the prancing of horses, and all the other motions and actions of a numerous army and their attendants: so that the Syrians could not well draw any other conclusion than that an exceeding large army was marching against them and was just at hand, as they heard exactly the same noise as if it had been actually so. Some have supposed that it was not the air which was influenced, or acted upon, in this miracle, but the ears of the Syrians: if so, the work was the more wonderful, for in that case there must have been as many distinct miracles wrought as there were individuals that heard the noise. In either way their hearing was imposed upon, just as the sight of those that besieged Dothan had been imposed on: for God knows how to work upon any and every sense, pursuant to his own counsels. They said, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites — Under which name, as elsewhere under the name of Amorites, seem to be comprehended all, or any of the people of Canaan. For though the greatest number of that people were destroyed, yet very many of them were spared, and many of them, upon Joshua’s coming, fled away, some to remote parts, others to the lands bordering upon Canaan, where they seated themselves, and grew numerous and powerful. Kings of the Egyptians — Either the king of Egypt, the plural number being put for the singular, or the princes and governors of the several provinces in Egypt.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus God needeth no great preparation to destroy the wicked, though they be never so many: for he can scatter them with a small noise, or shaking of a leaf.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots--This illusion of the sense of hearing, whereby the besiegers imagined the tramp of two armies from opposite quarters, was a great miracle which God wrought directly for the deliverance of His people.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. The Lord had made the - Syrians to hear a noise] This threw them into confusion; they imagined that they were about to be attacked by powerful auxiliaries, which the king of Israel had hired against them.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(6) For.—Now: introducing a new paragraph.

Even the noise.—Rather, a noise. The Syriac and the Arabic, as well as some Hebrew MSS., read “and a noise.” This is preferable. (Comp. 2Ki_6:14, where chariots and horses and a host [of infantry] are distinguished from each other.) The word qôl (literally, “voice”) is commonly used of thunder. (Comp. Psalms 29, passim.) The noise the Syrians heard was doubtless a sound in the air among the neighbouring hills.

The kings of the Hittites.—Comp. 1Ki_9:20; 1Ki_10:29. The tract of north Syria between the Euphrates and the Orontes was the cradle of the Hittite race, and it was over this that these kings of the several tribes bore sway. In the thirteenth century (B.C. ) their power extended over great part of Asia Minor, as rock inscriptions prove. Carchemish, Kadesh, Hamath, and Helbon (Aleppo) were their capitals. Rameses II. made a treaty of peace with Heta-sira, the prince of the Hittites. In the time of Tiglath Pileser I. (B.C. 1120), the Hittites were still paramount from the Euphrates to the Lebanon. Shalmaneser II. mentions a Hittite prince, Sapalulme, king of the Patinâa, a tribe on the Orontes. The Hittites from whom Solomon exacted forced labour were those who were left in the land of Israel (comp. Genesis 23, Gen_26:34; 1Sa_31:6), not the people of the great cities mentioned above, which remained independent, as we know from the Assyrian inscriptions. (Comp. Amo_6:2; 2Ch_8:4 for Hamath.) Tiglath Pileser II. conquered Hamath (B.C. 740). Twenty years later it revolted under Yahubihdi (“Jah is around me;” comp. Psa_3:3), but was again reduced, and made an Assyrian prefecture by Sargon, who afterwards stormed Carchemish (B.C. 717). (Comp. 2Ki_17:24; 2Ki_17:30.)

The kings of the Egyptians.—The plural may be rhetorical. (Comp. 2Ch_28:16 : “The kings of Assyria,” and Note.) Little is known of the state of Egypt at this time (towards the close of the twenty-second dynasty). The Syrians were seized with panic, under the idea that they were about to be attacked on all sides at once. Some such wild rumour as that expressed by the words of the text must have been spread through the camp; but we need not press the literal accuracy of the statement, for who was there to report the exact nature of the alarm to the historians of Israel? Moreover, it is evident from the style of the narrative in chapters 6 and 7 that it rests upon oral tradition, so that it would be a mistake to press subordinate details. Prof. Robertson Smith considers that the sudden retreat of the Syrians is explained by the fact that the Assyrians were already pressing upon them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise] As the eyes of the Syrians who came to seize Elisha were deluded, and deceived, so here the other sense is made to err. We need not enquire how it was brought about, for we are not told, nor intended to know. The report of what had alarmed the host would come to the knowledge of the Israelites in time, and they could only say, ‘It is the Lord’s doing, and is marvellous in our eyes’.

hath hired against us] Instances of such mercenary service are found elsewhere in the Bible narrative. Thus (2Sa_10:6) ‘the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob &c.’ And Amaziah, king of Judah, hired valiant men out of Israel (2Ch_25:6).

the kings of the Hittites] In the Bible we first meet with the Hittites as one among several nations whose land God promised to Abraham and his seed (Gen_15:20). Next they are mentioned as dwelling near Hebron (Gen_23:4), and from them Abraham buys a burial-place for Sarah, which is afterwards spoken of (Gen_25:9) as in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite. Two of Esau’s wives were of this people (Gen_26:34), and their name occurs several times in the story of the captivity, among the people whose land Israel was to go up and possess (Exo_3:8; Exo_3:17; Exo_13:5 &c.). In Num_13:29 the spies when they came back mentioned the Hittites as some of the dwellers in the country, and in Jos_1:4, the whole country which the people were to go in and possess is described as ‘from the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites’. The Hittites are among the enemy whom Israel overcame at the taking of Jericho (Jos_24:11), and they are part of the host conquered at the waters of Merom (Jos_11:4). Some of them continued to dwell in the land in the days of the Judges (Jdg_3:5) and intermingled with the children of Israel. Uriah the Hittite was among David’s captains (2Sa_23:39), and Hittite women were among the wives of Solomon (1Ki_11:1). For the kings of the Hittites, Solomon (1Ki_10:29) brought horses out of Egypt, and in the present chapter we have the same kings represented as a cause of great alarm to the Syrian host around Samaria. Yet in profane literature this people, evidently very wide-extended and powerful, are unmentioned, and it is only the modern deciphering of the records of Egypt and Babylon which has given us a conception of the Hittite power. Thence we learn that from very early times they were in conflict with Egypt, and that one of their chief towns, Kadesh on the river Orontes, was the scene of several contests between the Hittites and the Egyptians. Their other chief city is found to have been Carchemish on the Euphrates, so that the description of their territory in Jos_1:4 is seen to be utterly correct, and we can understand how the hiring of such a mighty enemy would be sure to alarm Benhadad. For particulars of the inscriptions which relate to the Hittites see Records of the Past 2:161; 2:61; 5:6, &c. and Dr Wright’s Empire of the Hittites.

and the kings of the Egyptians] Large districts of Egypt, called by Greeks, Nomes, were under distinct organization though owning allegiance to the Pharaoh. It is very probable that at various periods there were two if not three kingdoms in the land. Hence the Assyrians speak of the kings that had been hired out of Egypt. If this had been the case then Ben-hadad and his army would have been shut in both on the north and on the south. We need not wonder at the terror such a thought inspired. The plural ‘kings’ of the Egyptians may perhaps here be used vaguely, as ‘princes’ of Babylon is in 2Ch_32:31, when only Berodach-baladan is in question.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host,.... Or of many armies, as the Targum; either in the air by the ministry of angels; or the Lord so wrought upon their imagination, that they fancied they heard such noises; or he caused such noises in their ears:

and they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites; one of the nations of the Canaanites, and may be here put for the whole of those that remained, and who lived upon the borders of the land of Israel; though Josephus (y) has it, the kings of the isles; that is, of Chittim, see Jer 2:10.

and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us; Egypt being now divided into petty kingdoms; or else the governors of the several nomes or districts of it are here meant: for the king of Israel to hire these kings was very unlikely in his present circumstances; but those unreasonable things, in their panic, their imaginations suggested to them.

(y) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4.) sect. 5.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It is a matter of no importance whether we say that the miracle by which God now performed deliverance for Samaria consisted in a mere illusion of the sense of hearing (compare 2Ki 6:19-20); or whether there was any objective reality in the sound (compare the marginal references).

The king of Israel hath hired - The swords of mercenaries had been employed by the nations bordering on Palestine as early as the time of David 2Sa 10:6; 1Ch 19:6-7. Hence, the supposition of the Syrians was far from improbable.

The kings of the Hittites - The Hittites, who are found first in the south Gen 23:7, then in the center of Judea Jos 11:3, seem to have retired northward after the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites. They are found among the Syrian enemies of the Egyptians in the monuments of the 19th dynasty (about 1300 B.C.), and appear at that time to have inhabited the valley of the Upper Orontes. In the early Assyrian monuments they form a great confederacy, as the most powerful people of northern Syria, dwelling on both banks of the Euphrates, while at the same time there is a second confederacy of their race further to the south, which seems to inhabit the anti-Lebanon between Hamath and Damascus. These southern Hittites are in the time of Benhadad and Hazael a powerful people, especially strong in chariots; and generally assist the Syrians against the Assyrians. The Syrians seem now to have imagined that these southern Hittites had been hired by Jehoram.

The kings of the Egyptians - This is a remarkable expression, since Egypt elsewhere throughout Scripture appears always as a centralised monarchy under a single ruler. The probability is that the principal Pharaoh had a prince or princes associated with him on the throne, a practice not uncommon in Egypt. The period, which is that of the 22nd dynasty, is an obscure one, on which the monuments throw but little light.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hethites. Septuagint, "Chetteans." Josephus, "the islands" of Cyprus, &c. He seems to have read Cethim in the text, as they peopled Cyprus. (Calmet) --- See Jeremias ii. 10. (Menochius) --- These Hethites seem to have dwelt in the stony Arabia, (Judges i. 26.) or in Syria. (Haydock) --- Solomon had connexions with them, 3 Kings x. 29. (Calmet) --- Angels made the noise of a mighty army, and probably appeared, as they had done to Giezi, chap. vi. 17. (Tirinus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To hear a noise; either in the air; or rather, in their ears; otherwise the Samaritans had heard it.

The Hittites under which name (as elsewhere under the name of the Amorites) he seems to understand all or any of the people of Canaan. For though the greatest number of that people were destroyed, yet very many of them were spared, and many of them upon Joshua’s coming fled away, some to more remote parts, (which that famous and ancient inscription upon a pillar in Africa testifies,) and others to the lands bordering upon Canaan, where by reason of the scarcity of inhabitants there was in that age room enough for them; and there they seated themselves, and grew numerous and powerful and had (after their ancient and constant manner) kings over them. The kings also of Tyrus or Sidon may be here included.

The kings of the Egyptians; by which they may understand either the king of Egypt, the plural number being put for the singular, as it is elsewhere; of the princes and governors of the several nomi or provinces in Egypt, such being oft called kings in Scripture.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. To hear a noise of chariots — This may have been the noise of the same host whose movements David was once permitted to hear in the tops of the trees, and which led him on to the conquest of the Philistines. 2Sa_5:24. Or the noise may have had no objective reality, but may have been a mere delusion produced in the minds of the Syrians. In either case it was caused by the Lord, and the Syrians were led to imagine that Jehoram had hired against them the armies of other nations.

Kings of the Hittites — After the Israelitish conquest of Palestine, the Hittites seem to have retired into Syria. “They are found,” says Rawlinson, “among the Syrian enemies of the Egyptians, in the monuments of the nineteenth dynasty, and appear at that time to have inhabited the valley of the upper Orontes. In the early Assyrian monuments they appear as the most powerful people of northern Syria, and were especially strong in chariots.”

Kings of the Egyptians — But, so far as we know, Egypt was always governed by a single ruler, and not, as the Canaanite races, by a number of petty kings. We need not assume, however, that these terrified Syrians used accurate language on this occasion.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. lwOq, voice, is used for noises of any kind (see Exo_20:18; Psa_42:7 Psa_93:4; Jer_47:3; Eze_1:24 Eze_3:13; Joe_2:5; Nah_3:2) though generally for those in which the human voice preponderated. A noise like that of chariots and of horses and of a great host (lwOdg liyaj) was borne in upon the ears of the Syrians about nightfall of the day on which Jehoram had determined to put Elisha to death; and, as they expected no reinforcements, they naturally concluded that succor had arrived to help their enemy. How the noise was produced it is impossible to say. Na-rural causes are insufficient; and the writer evidently regards the event as miraculous: "The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise," etc. Nothing can be more weak and irrelevant than to remark, with Bahr," There are instances, even nowadays, that people in certain mountainous regions regard a rushing and roaring sound, such as is sometimes heard there, as a sign of coming war." The Syrians thought they heard the actual arrival of a vast army. And they said one to another, Lo, the King of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites. This supposition has been thought "strange," almost inexplicable. "No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed," says Mr. Sumner ("The Books of the Kings," vol. 2. p. 72, Eng. trans.). But the Assyrian records of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. make it evident, not only that the Hittites still existed at that date, but that they were among the most powerful enemies of the Ninevite kings, being located in Northern Syria, about Carchemish (Jerabus) and the adjacent country. It is also apparent that they did not form a centralized monarchy, but were governed by a number of chiefs, or "kings," twelve of whom are mentioned in one place (G. Smith, "Eponym Canon," p. 112). It was no very improbablesupposition on the part of the Syrians that Jehoram had called in the aid of the Hittite confederacy, and that they had marched an army to his assistance. And the kings of the Egyptians. "The plural, kings of the Egyptians," says Keil, "is not to be pressed. It is probably occasioned only by the parallel expression," kings of the Hittites. But Egyptian history shows us that about this date Egypt was becoming disintegrated, and that two or three distinct dynasties were sometimes ruling at the same time, in different parts of the country one at Bubastis another at Thebes, a third at Tanis, occasionally a fourth at Memphis (see "Ancient Egypt," in "The Story of the Nations," p. 311). The writer thus shows a knowledge of the internal condition of Egypt which we should not have expected. To come upon us; i.e. to fall upon us from the north and from the south at the same time. In their panic, the Syrians did not stop to weigh probabilities, or to think how unlikely it was that such a simultaneous attack could have been arranged between powers so remote one from the other.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hittites - Under which name (as elsewhere under the name of the Amorites) he seems to understand all the people of Canaan. For though the greatest number of that people were destroyed, yet very many of them were spared, and many of them upon Joshua's coming, fled away, some to remote parts, others to the lands bordering upon Canaan, where they seated themselves, and grew numerous and powerful. Kings - Either the king of Egypt, the plural number being put for the singular, or, the princes and governors of the several provinces in Egypt.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Had caused the camp of Arom to hear. It seemed to them as though they were hearing.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.