8:1-6 This story must have happened before the events recorded in chapter 5 because the seven-year famine would have ended before Gehazi was struck with leprosy. This shows Elisha’s long-term concern for this widow and contrasts his miraculous public ministry with his private ministry to this family. Elisha exemplifies the kind of concern we should have for others.
8:12, 13 When Elisha told Hazael he would sin greatly, Hazael protested that he would never do that sort of thing. He did not acknowledge his personal potential for evil. In our enlightened society, we might think that we are above gross sin and can control our actions. We think that we would never sink so low. Instead, we should take a more biblical and realistic look at ourselves and admit our sinful potential. Then we will ask for God’s strength to resist such evil.
8:12-15 Elisha’s words about Hazael’s treatment of Israel were partially fulfilled in 10:32, 33. Apparently Hazael had known he would be king because Elijah had anointed him (1 Kings 19:15). But he was impatient and, instead of waiting for God’s timing, took matters into his own hands, killing Ben-hadad. God used Hazael as an instrument of judgment against the disobedient Israelites.
8:18 King Jehoshaphat arranged the marriage between Jehoram, his son, and Athaliah, the daughter of wicked Ahab and Jezebel. Athaliah followed the idolatrous ways of the northern kingdom, bringing Baal worship into Judah and starting the southern kingdom’s decline. When Jehoram died, his son Ahaziah became king. Then, when Ahaziah was killed in battle, Athaliah murdered all her grandsons except Joash and made herself queen (11:1-3). Jehoram’s marriage may have been politically advantageous, but spiritually it was deadly.
8:20-22 Although Judah and Edom shared a common border and a common ancestor (Isaac), the two nations fought continually. Edom had been a vassal state of the united kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah since the days of David (2 Samuel 8:13, 14). Here Edom rebelled against Jehoram and declared independence. Immediately Jehoram marched out to attack Edom, but his ambush failed. Thus, Jehoram lost some of his borderlands as punishment for his failure to honor God.
8:26 Ahaziah was the only remaining son of Jehoram of Judah. Although he was the youngest son, he took the throne because the rest of his brothers had been taken captive in a raid by the Philistines and Arabians (2 Chronicles 21:16, 17). Ahaziah is also referred to as Jehoahaz.
8:26, 27 Ahaziah’s mother was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, former king and queen of Israel, and granddaughter of Omri, Ahab’s father and predecessor. The evil of Ahab and Jezebel spread to Judah through Athaliah.
8:29 Jezreel was the location of the summer palace of the kings of Israel.