Elisha

Elisha (’Elisha‘, “my God is salvation”) was a farmer, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen at Abel-meholah in the Jordan valley, when Elijah cast his mantle on him and claimed him as successor (1Ki.19.19–21). For some years he served Elijah, then received a double portion of his master’s spirit when Elijah was taken up across the Jordan (2Ki.2.9–14). His public ministry runs from roughly 850 to 800 BC, through the reigns of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash. He bases himself at Samaria and Bethel but moves through the country as the political crisis with Aram (Syria) intensifies. The cycle of miracles in 2 Kings 2–9 includes purifying the spring at Jericho, multiplying a widow’s pot of oil, raising the son of the Shunammite woman, feeding a hundred prophets with twenty loaves, healing the Syrian commander Naaman of leprosy at the Jordan, blinding a Syrian army, and predicting the relief of besieged Samaria. He intervenes directly in regional politics, anointing Hazael as king of Aram and instigating Jehu’s coup. Even at his death the touch of his bones revives a corpse (2Ki.13.21).