Житие и чудеса святого пророка Елисея

The holy prophet Elisha was the son of Shaphat from the tribe of Reuben 3888. He was born in the city of Abel-Mechol 3889 (1 Kings 19:16) and was a great miracle worker. His very birth was accompanied by miraculous phenomena: in the city of Shiloh, far from Jerusalem, there stood a golden heifer, which the Israelites who had turned into idolatry worshiped as God and made sacrifices. At the very hour of Elisha’s birth, this soulless heifer screamed so loudly that her roar could be heard even in Jerusalem. When everyone was greatly amazed at this, a certain priest, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “A great prophet of God has been born today, and he will have to destroy idols and crush the mighty!” When Elisha reached adulthood, spending his life in virgin purity to please God more, God called him to prophetic service. This calling happened like this. One day Elisha was plowing the land with twelve pairs of oxen. The holy prophet Elijah, who was at that time on Mount Horeb 3890 in conversation with God, received a command from God to anoint Elisha as a prophet in his place. And so, when Elisha was in the field, the holy prophet Elijah approached him, laid his mantle on him 3891, and, conveying the will of the Lord to him, named him a prophet, and commanded him to follow him. Elisha immediately left everything and was ready to follow the holy prophet of God Elijah with all zeal, and only asked him for permission to go home for a short time to say goodbye to his father and mother. At home, he took the pair of oxen with which he himself had plowed, slaughtered them, and cut them with the plow into firewood, laid them on the fire and, having roasted the meat on it, made a treat for the people who came along and his neighbors; after this, having kissed his father and mother, Elisha immediately followed Elijah and served him, learning from him the knowledge of the mysteries of God; by the grace of God he became a prophet, no less than his teacher and mentor, Saint Elijah. When God was pleased to take His servant Elijah in a whirlwind on a fiery chariot to heaven (2 Kings 2:1-15) and resettle him in paradise, then Elijah asked Elisha what gift he wanted from God, which he, Elijah, would intercede for him with his prayer. “Ask,” he said, “what you can do before I am taken from you.” Elisha did not ask for anything temporary on earth, for for him, who left everything for God and was poor in spirit, considering everything for nothing, nothing on earth was required; He did not ask Elijah for health in his body, nor for the length of the days of his life, for, in the hope of the inheritance of eternal life, he did not want a long stay in this temporary life, but he asked himself for the grace of the Holy Spirit, greater than that which rested on Saint Elijah. “Let there be,” he said, “the gift of prophecy and the gift of miracles that is in you, twice as much in me! So that I could teach erring people who have deviated into the service of Baal with a prophetic word, confirming my instructions with miracles, and through this turn them again to the one true God.” Elijah agreed to what Elisha asked, but on condition, telling him: “If you see me taken away from you, then it will be so for you.” And so, as they continued their journey and talked, a fiery chariot and fiery horses appeared, which separated them from each other, and Elijah rushed into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha looked and cried: “My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and his cavalry!” 3892 Finally, when Elisha stopped seeing the fiery chariot, which had disappeared far from him along with Elijah in the heights, he began to cry for him as for a father, tearing his clothes in half. But then he saw the mantle dropped from above by Elijah, which covered him, and he accepted it as a sign of the received spirit of Elijah, and received consolation in his sorrow for him. He kept it with him, like a great treasure, or like a precious royal purple, and with this mantle he performed the same miracle as Elijah had done before. Wanting to cross the Jordan River, he hit the water with his militia - the water parted, and Elisha crossed on dry ground. The prophetic disciples living in Jericho who saw this miracle were convinced that the Spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha and, coming to him, they worshiped him. Saint Elisha came to Jericho and stopped there to stay here for some time. The inhabitants of the city came to him and said: “The location of our city is good, as you yourself see; but the water is not good, and it makes the earth barren!” Elisha demanded that they bring him a new waterpot and pour salt into it. When this was done, he took the waterpot and went to the place where the keys were and, pouring salt there, said: “This is what the Lord says: “I have made this water healthy: it will no longer be the cause of death and infertility. After this, Elisha went from Jericho to the city of Bethel, whose inhabitants, the Israelites, had departed from God and worshiped idols. As he approached the city, the small children who were playing here on the road, meeting him and seeing his bald head, began to laugh at him and shout: “Go, bald one! Go, bald one!” Elisha, passing by, looked around and seeing that they were following him, continuing to mock and shout, cursed them in the name of God. And then two she-bears ran out of the forest and tore apart forty-two youths from them, the rest barely escaped by fleeing to the city. With this execution, the prophet of God, in a righteous judgment, punished those children for their reproach and put an end to their lives, so that, having reached manhood, they would not appear as more evil people; Their parents were punished by this for their idolatry and together received a bitter lesson to raise their children in the fear of God and instruct them in reverent veneration of the servants of God. From Bethel Elisha went to Mount Carmel 3893 and from there returned to Samaria. At that time, the Israelites were beginning a war against the Moabites. The king of Moab, whose land abounded in flocks, used to send annually to the king of Israel a tribute of one hundred thousand lambs and one hundred thousand sheep with fleeces 3894. After the death of Achaab, king of Israel, Mosh, the king of Moab, separated from the kingdom of Israel and stopped sending the usual tribute. Then Jehoram, the son of Achaab, who reigned over Israel in Samaria and adhered to the wickedness of his father, gathered his military strength and, inviting the help of Jehoshaphat, the pious king of Judah from Jerusalem, as well as the king of Edom subordinate to him, moved against the Moabites through the desert of Edom. At the discretion of God, the holy prophet Elisha was also in the regiments. Three kings walked with their regiments for seven days and there was no water for either people or livestock; everyone was exhausted from thirst. Joram, king of Israel, said with a sigh: “The Lord gathered us, the three kings, in order to deliver them into the hands of the Moabites. The king of the Jews asked: “Are there any prophets here in the army through whom one could ask the Lord?” The servant of the king of Israel reported that Elisha, the son of Shaphat, was with the regiments, who served the prophet Elijah, pouring water on his hands 3895. King Jehoshaphat testified about Elisha, saying: “The word of the Lord abides in this man.” And so the three kings came to Saint Elisha and asked him to pray to the Lord for them, so that He would reveal to him what awaited them. But Saint Elisha answered Jehoram, king of Israel: – What do I have in common with you? Go to the prophets of your father Ahab and your mother Jezebel and ask them to tell you what awaits you. Joram, king of Israel, humbly said to him: – Has the Lord gathered us three kings to deliver us into the hands of the Moabites? “I call upon the testimony of the Lord of hosts, to whom I stand, that if I had not revered Jehoshaphat, the pious king of Judah, I would not have wished to see you as an idolater. After this, Elisha demanded that the singer 3896 be brought to him. And so, when a Levite singer appeared, who knew how to beautifully sing the psalms of David, and sang, the Spirit of the Lord descended on Elisha, and he, prophesying, said: “Dig deep ditches, because this is what the Lord says: you will not see either rain or wind, and the ditches will be filled with water, which you and your livestock will drink, and the Lord will deliver the Moabites themselves into your hands, and you will defeat their strength and destroy all their fortified cities, cut off all the fruitful trees and dam up every water source with stones and earth, and devastate the entire country of Moab.” And all the words of the prophet came true. The next morning, when the pious Jehoshaphat, king of Jerusalem, according to his custom, made a sacrifice to God with priestly hands, people saw water flowing along the Edom way, which first reached the place where Jehoshaphat’s troops stood, and, spilling over the surrounding area, filled all the ditches and hollows of the streams along the valley, and the whole earth was saturated with water and was wet. The people quenched their thirst and, strengthened by strength, moved towards the Moabites and inflicted a heavy defeat on them; They captured their entire country, and at the command of the prophet, they devastated it, and after that they returned to their country in triumph. One day, a certain widow of a prophetic disciple spoke with grief to Elisha: “Your servant, my husband, has died; You know him well as a God-fearing man. Now a lender comes, to whom my husband owes a lot and does not find anything to take from me, for I have nothing at all; and therefore he wants to take into my work two of my sons, who remained for me as a consolation in my widowhood and dear to me as the apple of my eyes.” So the widow cried bitterly to the prophet of God. According to some legends, this widow was the wife of the prophet Obadiah, the steward of the house of Achaab, who hid a hundred prophets of God from the sword of Queen Jezebel and supported them at his own expense, on which he spent all his property, owing debts to creditors 3897. Dying, he left his wife and children to the providence of God, commanding them to have firm trust in the Lord. The holy prophet Elisha, having mercy on the widow and her children, asked her: -What do you want me to do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house now? “Your servant has nothing in her house except a vessel with a little oil.” - Go, ask your neighbors for as many empty vessels as possible and, having locked yourself in the house with your sons, pour oil from your vessel into all these vessels, and they will be filled. The widow fulfilled the command of the prophet of God. She collected empty vessels from her neighbors, placed them in the house, closed the doors behind her and poured oil from her vessel into the vessels she asked for; Her sons, helping their mother, brought the vessels and filled them, and the oil did not become scarce in her vessel, but flowed as if from a source. When the vessels were all filled, the woman said to her sons: “Put in another vessel.” But the children said that the vessel was no longer empty, and the oil stopped flowing from the widow’s vessel. The widow with great joy hurried to the man of God and told him about this miracle. Elisha told her to go and sell this oil and pay off her husband’s debt, and from what was left to eat with her sons. It happened that the holy prophet Elisha passed through the city of Sonam 3898. Here one rich woman begged him to eat the loaves with her and with all her zeal she treated the man of God. The Prophet Elisha very often had to pass through that city when traveling from Carmel to the Jordan, or to Gilgal, or to Jericho, and from there return to Carmel; after inviting the woman, he constantly went into her house to eat bread, because she was pious and virtuous. One day the woman said to her husband: “I am convinced that the man of God who often passes by us is a holy man. We’ll build him a small room, put a bed, a table, a chair and a candlestick there for him, so that when he comes to us from the road, he can rest.” And they arranged it that way. And the holy prophet stopped in this upper room every time he happened to be in this city. One day, the man of God, resting in the upper room built for him, was thinking about how to thank this hospitable and virtuous woman. He told his servant Gehazi to call the woman to him. When she entered, the man of God said to her: - You take such care of us; How can I thank you for this? Do you have any request for the king, or the prince, or the military leader? – I have no request to them, because I live among my people. When the woman left, the saint turned to Gehazi, asking his advice on how he could thank that woman for her good deed. Gehazi answered him: “This woman has no children, and her husband is old, pray to God to give her an heir, a son.” The saint of God did this. He earnestly offered up a fervent prayer for that woman to God and, having received notification from Him, ordered to call her to him a second time. As she entered and stood at the door, the man of God told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son. The woman bowed to him, and, as if in disbelief with joy, with a prayer she asked the saint to assure her of this. The saint convinced her to firmly believe the untrue word. The woman actually conceived and, when the time was right, gave birth to a son, whom she nursed with her breasts. One day, when the boy had already grown up, in the summer at harvest time he went to his father in the field where the harvest was taking place. After staying there a little, he got a headache and shouted: “My head hurts, my head hurts!” The father ordered the servant to take his sick son home. At home, the sick boy lay on his mother’s lap only until noon and died on 3899. The mother took the deceased, carried him to the prophet’s upper room, laid him on the bed and, closing the doors, went out and called her husband. Without telling him anything about the death of her son, she asked him to send her a servant and a donkey, since she had to go to the man of God in Carmel, from where she would soon return. Her husband asked her: “Why are you going to him? After all, today is not a new moon day, nor is it Saturday? (During these days, people gathered to the holy prophet Elisha, who lived on Mount Carmel, to glorify God and teach). The wife answered that although it was neither Saturday nor the new moon, she must go, and she quickly went to the saint. As she approached Mount Carmel, the man of God, foreseeing her coming, said to his servant Gehazi: - This is the Shunammite woman. Run towards her and ask: Are you healthy? Is your husband healthy? Is your son healthy? She said to Gehazi who met her: But when she came to the saint on the mountain, she fell at his feet. Gehazi wanted to remove her from him, but Elisha said: - Leave her, for her soul is now grieving; The Lord hid from me about her sadness and did not reveal it to me. -Did I ask my master for a son? Was it not you yourself, my lord, who asked God for it for me? Didn't I say: don't let me be deceived? And now my son is dead. The man of God was moved by her and, giving his staff to Gehazi, ordered him to quickly go and lay this staff on the dead youth. The mother of the deceased youth was not satisfied with this and, falling to the holy prophet, said to him: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” Then Saint Elisha stood up and went with her. Gehazi, having arrived earlier than him, placed the staff on the youth’s face, but the youth showed no signs of life. Then Gehazi returned and, meeting the man of God, told him that the boy had not been resurrected. Finally, the holy prophet Elisha himself arrived in the city and, entering the woman’s house, went into the upper room. Here on his bed lay a dead youth. Saint Elisha closed the doors and, having prayed to the Lord, prostrated himself over the youth, pressing his lips to his lips, and his eyes to his eyes, and placing his hands on his hands, and his knees on his knees, and breathed on him, and the youth’s body began to warm up. The Prophet stood up, walked around the room and again prostrated himself over the youth. This happened up to seven times, after which the boy opened his eyes. Elisha called Gehazi and told him to call the boy's mother. When she entered, Elisha said to her: The woman fell at the feet of the man of God, and, taking her living son, rejoicing, she gave praise to God 3900. After this, God's prophet Elisha came to Gilgal, the place where in ancient times the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on their way to the Promised Land. Here the prophet Elisha spent a long time. And then famine came in that country. With the prophet were his disciples, who lived their lives in imitation of him, in purity and poverty, like the monks of the new grace. The man of God's stay with his disciples was in a special deserted place. Elisha ordered his servant to put a large cauldron on the fire and cook stew for the disciples of the prophets, who numbered one hundred people. One student went into the field to collect greens and found a wild fruit, similar in appearance to grapes, called coloquinchida, very bitter, which is why it was also called the bile of the earth. This fruit is very harmful to health, although it is used for healing, but consuming it in large quantities causes death. The one who gathered did not know all the harm of this fruit, and therefore he collected his full clothes and poured them into the cauldron to cook. When the food was served to the disciples and they began to eat, they immediately felt bitter and fell ill. – Death in the cauldron, man of God! - they cried out in fear, turning to Elisha, and stopped eating, because it was impossible. Elisha ordered to pour a little flour into the cauldron (not to neutralize the food, but to hide his miracles) - the food became pleasant and harmless, and those who ate it were satisfied and healed. At this time, one pious man from the city of Baal-Shalishi 3901 came to the holy prophet Elisha and brought twenty small barley loaves from the first harvest of barley. The man of God ordered those loaves of bread to be distributed to those present. But his servant said that these small loaves of bread would not be enough for a hundred people. - Give it to everyone, let them eat; for thus saith the Lord, they shall all be satisfied, and there will be some left over. And indeed, a hundred people were filled and, according to the word of the Lord, spoken through the mouth of the prophet, many pieces remained. At that time, 3902, a famous commander of the king of Syria, named Naaman, fell ill with leprosy: he was famous for his courage and military victories, and therefore was held in high esteem by the king. Having been ill for a long time, Naaman could not find doctors who could heal him. One day, Syrian soldiers brought a captured girl from the country of Israel and gave her to serve Naaman’s wife. That girl heard from her parents about the holy prophet Elisha and about the great miracles that were performed through his prayers, and she told her mistress, whom she served, about this. “Oh, if only my lord,” said that girl, “had visited the prophet of God, who is in Samaria, then he would have taken away his leprosy from him!” Naaman’s wife conveyed these words of the girl exactly to her husband. Naaman went to his king and began to ask him to let him go to the land of Israel, to Samaria - to the prophet of God for healing. The king not only allowed him to go, but gave him a letter to the king of Israel, Jehoram, son of Achaab. Naaman, taking with him gifts for the man of God - ten talents of silver, six thousand gold coins and ten changes of expensive clothing - arrived in the land of Israel and gave King Jehoram a letter from his king. The letter said: “From my letter that you will receive, find out that I have sent my servant Naaman to you so that you can cleanse him of leprosy.” King Joram of Israel, having read the letter of the king of Syria, was greatly saddened and, tearing his clothes, said: - Am I God, who alone can kill and give life, that he sent me a leper man so that I could cleanse him of leprosy? Don't you notice that he is looking for an excuse to start a war against me? The holy prophet Elisha, having learned that the king was very sad and had torn his clothes, sent to tell him: “Why are you sad and why have you torn your clothes? Let Naaman come immediately and know that there is a prophet of God in Israel.” Naaman came with horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. The Holy Prophet, through a sent servant, said to him: - Go, dip seven times in the Jordan and your body will be the same as it was before, and you will be cleansed 3903. Naaman felt offended by these words of the prophet and left, saying: “I expected that he himself would come out to me and, standing over me, call on the name of his God, touch the leprous parts of my body with his hand and cleanse the leprosy, but he commands me to go to the Jordan. Are not the rivers of Damascus, Avan and Farphar 3904 better than the Jordan and all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I bathe in them and be cleansed?” And Naaman went back from Samaria in great anger. But on the way, his servants advised him to obey the command of the prophet of God and said: “If the prophet had ordered you to do something very difficult, would you not have fulfilled his command? But he only told you: plunge into the Jordan and be cleansed, but you don’t want to do that either.” Naaman listened to the advice of his servants, went to the Jordan, got off his chariot and plunged into the river seven times, as the man of God commanded him, and immediately his body was cleansed and he came out of the river vigorous and healthy, like a young man. And Naaman and all those who accompanied him returned to Saint Elisha and, standing before him, said: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except Israel; Therefore, accept from your servant these gifts that I brought you. And at the same time he offered the man of God gold, silver, and clothes. But Saint Elisha said to him: “As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not take anything from you.” Naaman began to urge the prophet to take what he had brought, but he was adamant and did not take anything. Then Naaman turned to the saint with a request, saying: “Allow your servant to take 3905 lands, as much as he can carry on two pairs of mules; Having brought her home, I will build an altar to the Lord God of Israel, for from now on your servant will not sacrifice to any gods except the One True God” 3906. Saint Elisha allowed him to take what he asked and sent him away in peace. When Naaman left the man of God Elisha, his servant Gehazi began to think: “This is what great joy my lord did to Naaman the Syrian, and he did not take one gift from his hand; I’ll follow him, catch up and take something from him.” And he stood up and hurried after Naaman. Naaman, seeing that Gehazi was hastily catching up with him, got off his chariot and went to meet him. When they came together, Gehazi, after greeting, said to Naaman: “My lord sent me to tell you that two prophetic disciples have just come to him from Mount Ephraim, and he asks you to give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.” And immediately he ordered the silver to be put into two bags, and he gave Gehazi two of his servants to carry the message, and in addition he gave him two clothes. Gehazi, coming home with those servants in the evening twilight, took from them what they had brought and, sending them back, hid what he had taken in the house, and he himself appeared to his master. Saint Elisha asked him: “Where did you come from, Gehazi?” “Your servant did not go anywhere.” Then Saint Elisha said to him: “Didn’t my heart walk with you and see how, getting off the chariot, that man walked towards you, and how you accepted silver and clothes from him; and don’t I know that you intend to use this silver to buy yourself olive trees and vineyards, sheep and oxen, servants and maidservants? For this, the leprosy of Naaman will stick to you and your descendants forever. And Gehazi came out from Elisha, covered with leprosy and white as snow. One day the prophetic disciples said to Elisha: “The dwelling in which we live near you is cramped for us; Let us go to the Jordan and bring each one a log and make ourselves a dwelling there. The saint let them go. One of the disciples meekly invited him to go with them, saying to him: “Go, father, and you and your servants.” The man of God stood up and walked with them. When they came to the Jordan and began to chop the logs, one of the choppers’ ax jumped off the ax handle and fell into the water, and he cried out: “Ah, my lord! I borrowed this ax from a friend.” The man of God asked him where the ax fell and when he indicated the place, Elisha cut off a piece of wood, threw it into the water, and the ax floated to the surface of the water. The saint ordered the hewer to take it, and he, stretching out his hand, took it. Such great strength was given to the holy man that he could even reduce the natural weight of iron so that the iron ax floated above the water, like a leaf falling from a tree. The holy prophet Elisha foresaw what was happening far away from him with such clarity that it was as if all this was happening before his eyes. The king of Syria, who was at war with the Israelites, consulted many times with his entourage on how to set up an ambush for the king of Israel, and appointed this or that place where the detachment of soldiers appointed for the ambush was to lie down. But Saint Elisha, foreseeing this, sent to warn the king of Israel, saying: “Beware of passing through this place, because the Syrians are lying there.” The king sent to find out if this was true, and having convinced himself of this, he was careful and did not approach that place, and he himself sent his soldiers, who suddenly attacked the Syrians and defeated them. This happened several times. The king of Syria, hearing about this, was embarrassed and, calling his subordinates, said to them: “Why don’t you tell me who reveals my secrets to the king of Israel and betrays me into his hands?” One of them answered him to this: “No one, my lord the king, and this does not come from us! And the Israelis have a prophet Elisha, who tells the king of Israel even the words that you say in your bedroom.” - Find out where that prophet is? I will send soldiers to take him and bring him here. The soldiers, having found out, told him that Elisha was in Dophaim 3907. The king sent cavalry, chariots and a large detachment of troops there, which approached and surrounded the city at night. Early in the morning, Elisha's servant, leaving the house, saw Syrian troops with horses and chariots surrounding the city in large numbers, and, running to Elisha, he cried out: - What should we do, my lord? – Don’t be afraid: there is more with us than with them. And Elisha turned to God in prayer, saying: - Lord! Open the eyes of your servant, that he may see your power. And God opened the eyes of the servant Elisha - he saw that the whole mountain was occupied by horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. Saint Elisha went out with his servant from the city to the Syrians, and they went to him. Elisha prayed to the Lord, saying: - Smite, Lord, this people with blindness. And the Lord struck them blind, as Elisha asked. Then Elisha said to them: “This is not the road and this city is not where you need to go; but follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for. And he brought them to Samaria. When they arrived in Samaria, Elisha prayed to God and said: - Lord! Open their eyes so that they can see where they are. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in Samaria. The king of Israel, having learned about their arrival, and seeing them, asked Saint Elisha: “Won’t you order, father, to exterminate them?” - No, do not destroy, for it was not you who brought them here, and it was not you who captured them with your weapons; but give them a treat so that they will go to their sovereign. The king gave them a great treat, and they ate and drank, and were released to their king, and after that they stopped their invasions from Syria to the land of Israel. Quite a long time passed and the Syrian king Benhadad began a war with Joram, the king of Israel. He gathered his entire army and surrounded Samaria, the capital city of the kings of Israel, where the holy prophet Elisha was then located. A severe famine began in the city, so that the poorest residents ate their children. One day, a woman came up to the king of Israel as he walked along the city wall and screamed to him: - Help me, sir, my king! – If the Lord does not help you, how can I help you? Will I give you food from the threshing floor or the winepress? But tell me, what do you need? She began her complaint against the other woman by saying: “This woman told me: let’s eat your son today, and mine tomorrow, and we cooked my son and ate him.” The next day I told her: let’s eat your son too, but she hid him. The king of Israel, having listened to such a terrible story from a woman, tore his clothes and was terribly angry with the prophet of God Elisha because he, with his advice, kept him from submitting to the king of Syria and not surrendering the city to him, but to wait for God's help. “May God punish me and add more to my punishment if Eliseev’s head remains on him today!” - said the king in anger. And immediately the executioner was sent to cut off the prophet’s head. The man of God was at home, and the elders of Israel were with him. “Do you know,” he said to the elders, “that King Joram, the son of the murderer Achaab, who killed Naboth innocently, has sent the executioner to remove my head now? But you lock the doors tightly and do not let him in here until his master comes here, for the tramp of his master’s feet can be heard, because he is already in a hurry after him.” The saint was still speaking these words when the king approached and stopped the executioner; because after his evil decision the king repented, and he himself hurried after the messenger to prevent the execution of the cruel order, for the king knew about the holiness of the prophet Elisha and his innocence and about all his good deeds for the kingdom of Israel and for many people. Entering the prophet, the king said: - This is what a great disaster has been sent to us from the Lord! What should I expect from Him? I will give the city to the Syrian king and humble myself before him so that we all do not die of hunger; it is better for us all to remain alive by submitting to him than to die of hunger by resisting. But Saint Elisha, turning to the king and all those present, said: – Listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: this same hour tomorrow at the gates of Samaria 3908 they will sell a measure of wheat flour for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel. One of the dignitaries, the closest to the king, on whose hand the king leaned, said to Elisha: “Even if the Lord opened the heavens, then what you say would not happen.” Saint Elisha answered him: “You will see this with your own eyes, but you will not taste that bread.” Having calmed down a little, the king went to his tent. And so at night, when Saint Elisha prayed to the Lord God for the liberation of the city, God sent great confusion to the Syrian army: the Syrians heard a great noise from weapons and the neighing of horses, as if from a large assembled army, and they decided among themselves that it was the kings of Hittite and Egypt, hired by the king of Israel, who came to his aid with their troops. - Let's run away from here, let's run! - they shouted in great fear. And at night, together with their king, they ran back, leaving in place their tents, horses, donkeys and everything that they had in the camp, saving only their lives. That same night, four lepers were sitting near the city gates, who, reasoning with each other, said: “Why are we sitting here, waiting for death? If we go to the city, we will die of hunger, and if we stay here, we will also die; Shouldn’t we go to the Syrian camp and if they don’t spare us, then it’s better to die by the sword than to endure unbearable torment from hunger.” And, having agreed, they got up and went to the Syrian camp, still covered in the darkness of the night. Entering the camp, they did not find a single person and, having gone to the middle of the camp and not seeing anyone, they were much amazed at this. They entered one of the tents, ate and drank, took silver and gold and clothes from it, and went away and hid it. Having returned, they entered another tent and took from it everything they wanted and as much as they could carry, and hid it again. After this they began to confer, saying: “What we are doing is not good; the present day is a day of joyful news, but we are silent: and if we stay here until dawn, we will be guilty of a great sin; Therefore, let us hasten to the city and notify the royal court.” They hurried to the city and, approaching the city gates, said to the guards: “We went to the Syrian camp and did not see a single person there, and did not even hear a human voice; only the tethered horses and donkeys remained there, and the tents also stood in their places, filled with wealth.” The king was immediately notified of everything. The king got up at night, gathered his entourage and began to confer with them and, having doubts, said to them: “I will reveal to you the insidious plan of the Syrians, which they have planned against us. They learned that we were suffering from hunger; therefore, leaving the camp, they hid somewhere in the field, intending, when we left the city, driven by hunger, to capture us alive and enter our city.” The king's servants advised sending someone on reconnaissance. Two horsemen were sent, who, having arrived at the Syrian camp and, finding no one in it, rode in the footsteps of the Syrians to the Jordan. The entire path was covered with clothing and weapons, which were abandoned by the Syrians who fled in great fear. The messengers returned and informed the king and the people about everything. People rushed out of the city and plundered the entire Syrian camp; and a measure of flour of wheat and two measures of barley were sold for one shekel, as the Lord said through the prophet. The aforementioned dignitary, the one on whose arm the king was leaning, received orders from him to stand at the city gates to monitor order. And so, when he wanted to give orders so that the people would not crowd into the gates, the crowd squeezed him and crushed him to death, as was predicted by the man of God Elisha, when this dignitary, not believing the word of the Lord, spoken by the lips of the prophets about the abundance of grain, contradicted: “If the Lord opens the heavens, then this will not happen” (1 Samuel 6 et seq.). This great saint of God was also famous for his other wondrous prophetic gifts and deeds, as is narrated at length in the books of the Kingdoms. He predicted a seven-year famine in the land of Israel (2 Kings 8:10). Having foreseen the death of King Benhadad of Syria, he predicted the transfer of the kingdom of Syria into the hands of Hazael. Having anointed Jehu, one of the princes of Israel, as king (2 Kings 9:3), he incited him to destroy the God-hating, idolatrous house of Achaab. Jehu killed two kings of idolaters: Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah, the grandson of the pious king Jehoshaphat, who, not imitating his grandfather, deviated into wickedness. He killed Jezebel, the wicked wife of Achaab, the mother of Joram, and killed all the priests and magicians of Baal. In all these matters he was assisted by the blessings and prayers of the holy prophet Elisha. After the death of Jehu, his son Jehoahaz reigned in Israel, and he was succeeded by Joash, the grandson of Jehu. During the reign of Joash, the man of God, who was staying in Samaria, and, already a very old man, fell ill. King Joash of Israel came to visit him and, weeping over him, said: - Father, father, the chariot of Israel and his horses! “Take a bow and arrow, open the window to the east, where Syria is, and draw the bow and arrow. The king did this. The Prophet of God, placing his hands on the king’s hands, said: “Let the arrow hit Syria.” And the king shot an arrow. The Prophet said: “This arrow is the arrow of the Lord’s salvation, and you will defeat Syria.” And again he ordered the king to take his bow and arrows in his hands. The king took it. The Prophet told him: - Hit the ground with an arrow. The king struck three times and stopped. The man of God became angry with him, saying: “If you had struck five or six times, you would have defeated Syria completely, but now you will inflict only three defeats on it” 3909. Thus prophesying to the king, Saint Elisha died and was buried with honors in 3910. Not only did the prophet Elisha perform miracles during his lifetime, but even after his death he showed himself to be a miracle worker. A year after his death, they carried one deceased person to be buried outside the city. At this time, a crowd of Moabites appeared and raided the land of Israel. Those carrying the deceased saw the enemies from afar and threw the corpse into a nearby cave. This was the cave in which the ashes of the prophet Elisha rested. As soon as the dead man touched the bones of the prophet, he immediately came to life and, leaving the cave, went to the city 3911. So after death, God glorified His saint 3912. For all this, to our God be glory, honor and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen 3913. In the flesh, an Angel, the foundation of the prophets, the second Forerunner of the coming of Christ, the glorious Elijah, who sent Elisha’s grace from above to drive away illnesses and cleanse lepers: in the same way he brings healing to those who honor him. Thou hast appeared as a prophet of God, receiving deep grace truly worthy of you, blessed Elisha: Elijah, for thou wast a fellow citizen, and with him prayed unceasingly to Christ God for all of us. And according to other legends, he came from the tribe of Manasseh. The city of Abel-Meholah was located near the Jordan River. Horeb is a mountain in the Arabian desert, the western elevation of the same mountain range, the eastern part of which is Mount Sinai. Milk - outerwear, cloak. The kings of other nations used horses and chariots in war. Therefore, Elisha called the great Elijah the chariot of Israel and the horseman, since he alone was enough to defeat the enemies and grant victory to his fellow tribesmen (Blessed Theodore, question 8). Carmel is a mountain in the tribe of Issachar; The prophet Elijah often stayed here (1 Kings 18:19). “He poured water on the hands of Elijah,” i.e. was a constant servant of the prophet Elijah, and therefore is a prophet worthy of complete trust, as the king of Judah Jehoshaphat said about Elisha (2 Kings 3:12), apparently having already heard about him. The fact that the prophet Elisha, in order to prepare his spirit for the reception of revelation or to calm his spirit from anger at King Jehoram (2 Kings 3:13–14), resorts to the action of string music, after which “the Hand of the Lord was upon him” (cf. 3 Kings 18:16; Jer. 1:9), is seen, firstly, as a well-known custom in ancient times - to resort to music (cf. 1 Samuel 16:16) to distract the spirit from the outside world, calm and excite; secondly, the use of music (with the singing of hymns) in prophetic schools (1 Samuel 10:5), with which the prophet. Elisha stood in close connection. According to Blessed Theodoret, “the priests, according to the Mosaic Law, used trumpets, and the Levites used harps, Psalms, cymbals and other musical instruments. Their use of this was David’s spiritual sweetness. The prophet ordered to call one of these singers. And when the singer sang, the grace of the Spirit indicated what to do” (Q. 12 on 2 Kings). 1 Kings 18ff. The creditor's intention to sell the widow's children into slavery was justified by the letter of the law (Lev.25:39; Exod.21:2) and the cruel practice of life (Matt.18:25). The city of Sonam or Shunem was located in the tribe of Issachar (Joshua 19:18) opposite the mountains of Gilboa (1 Sam. 28:4), near Carmel. The illness of the pious woman's son was apparently sunstroke (Judith 8:2–3; Ps 120:6). The actions of the prophet when resurrecting a dead child are very similar in essence to the actions of the prophet. Elijah at the resurrection of the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:19–23). The prophet Elisha “attached his own instruments of feeling to the instruments of the senses of the deceased, so that the deceased would become involved in the life of the living, obviously through the action of spiritual grace that bestows life” (Blessed Theodore, question 18). This miracle prefigured the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. (The narrative of 2 Kings 4:8–37 is read as Proverb 12 at Vespers on Holy Saturday). Baal-Shalisha (cf. 1 Samuel 9:4) is a city, supposedly, in the tribe of Ephraim. Leprosy is the most terrible and disgusting, contagious disease; it dominates mainly in countries with a hot climate, especially in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, India and in the East in general. As this disease develops, the skin turns white, then swells, dries, becomes covered with scabs and ulcers with a disgusting odor, then members of the body disappear, and for the most part, eventually those affected by this disease die in terrible agony. When Naaman arrived at the house of the prophet Elisha, “he, keeping the law, as those living under the law, did not agree to see Naaman as a leper (according to the law Lev. 13:14), but ordered him to wash himself seven times in the river. Jordan" (Blessed Theodore, question 19). The Syrian rivers Awana and Farfar reputedly flowed from the Anti-Lebanon mountains and irrigated Damascus. Naaman's request to the prophet to give him a certain amount of land from the country of Israel is explained by Naaman's deep reverence for Jehovah - Naaman considers the very land of the country of His worship sacred, and takes part of the land sanctified by the blessing of Jehovah's prophet Elisha. In addition, Naaman the Syrian told the prophet of God about himself that he, as a servant of the king, must accompany his sovereign to the church of Remman and there bow down with the king, who is thrown to the ground in front of the idol, leaning on his hand; and now Naaman asked Elisha if the Lord would forgive him for bowing down in the church of Remman? Elisha calmed him down and he set off (2 Kings 5:18–19). Dophaim is a city on the trade route from Gilead to Egypt, north of Samaria; Joseph was once sold here (Gen. 37:17, 25). The prophet speaks to the king and the elders of the people about the impending extraordinary cheapness of bread precisely: “at the gates of Samaria” - at the gates where all public life, including trade, by the way, was concentrated in the East. To the question: “Why did the prophet Elisha announce future victory with a bow and arrow?” (2 Kings 13:15) blessed. Theodoret (question 42) answers: “They did not believe words so much as they believed predictions through deeds. In this case, the symbolic action directly expressed the reality of war and victory it signified. The position of Elisha's hands on the king's hands (2 Kings 13:16) could indicate the prayerful assistance of the prophet, and therefore Jehovah, to the king of Israel in the upcoming struggle with the Syrians. The direction of the shot to the east referred to the Syrians who occupied the East Jordanian cities and regions of the Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 10:33). The Holy Prophet Elisha died at a very old age, about 100 years old. He entered the prophetic ministry under Ahab (1 Kings 19:19) - about 900 BC, and died under Joash, in the thirties of the 9th century. According to Blessed Jerome, the grave of the prophet was pointed out near Samaria (cf. 2 Kings 5:9, 6:32). The holy relics of the prophet Elisha, during the time of the blessed. Jerome, along with the relics of St. the prophets Obadiah and John the Baptist were driven out of demons in Sebastia or Samaria; during the time of Julian they were burned, but the remains from the fire were preserved by the faithful, some of them were transferred to Alexandria. In Constantinople, St. a church was dedicated to the prophet, and in Palestine St. John of Damascus wrote the canon. Feast in honor of St. Prophet Elisha on June 14 is the most ancient and common to all peoples of the East and West. Posthumous miracle of the prophet, according to blessed. Theodoret, had the following meaning: “The prophet, even after death, resurrected the dead man brought to him, so that this miracle would testify to the extra grace he had received, against the teacher.” In addition, the temporary purpose of the miracle could be to inspire Israel to fight their enemies, but the eternal and significant purpose was to testify to the truth of the future general resurrection of the dead. In particular, the truth of the Orthodox Church’s veneration of the relics of the holy saints of God is proven here. Thus, the power of God, which was on the prophet Elisha during his life, was communicated to his relics during this miracle. In addition to the many predictions, miracles and benefits shown to people, the prophet Elisha contributed greatly to the development and elevation of prophetic schools (2 Kings 2:1-25, 3:1-27, 5:1-27, etc.) and without a doubt, from these schools for the most part came those prophets, of whom there were so many during the time of the kings and who, partly orally, partly in writing, supported faith and piety among the people. Jesus the son of Sirach in his praise of St. Elisha says the following: “Filled with the spirit of Elijah, Elisha did not tremble in his days before the prince, and no one prevailed over him; nothing prevailed against him, and after his dormition his body prophesied; Just as he performed miracles in his life, so after his death his deeds were wondrous” (Sir.48:12-16). In the New Testament, the Lord Himself mentions Elisha as a great prophet of God, letting us see the wise ways of God’s Providence in his miracles and healings. “There were many lepers in Israel under the prophet Elisha,” He said in denouncing the unbelief of his compatriots, “and not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:23–27). You might be interested in: