2 Kings 2:12

2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” ¹  Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.

2 Kings 3:21

3:21 Now all Moab had heard that the kings were attacking, ²  so everyone old enough to fight was mustered and placed at the border. ³ 

2 Kings 4:40

4:40 The stew was poured out ⁴  for the men to eat. When they ate some of the stew, they cried out, “Death is in the pot, O prophet!” They could not eat it.

2 Kings 6:5

6:5 As one of them was felling a log, the ax head ⁵  dropped into the water. He shouted, “Oh no, ⁶  my master! It was borrowed!”

2 Kings 6:26

6:26 While the king of Israel was passing by on the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Help us, my master, O king!”

2 Kings 8:3

8:3 After seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to ask the king to give her back her house and field. ⁷ 

¹ sn Elisha may be referring to the fiery chariot(s) and horses as the Lord’s spiritual army that fights on behalf of Israel (see 2 Kgs 6:15-17; 7:6). However, the juxtaposition with “my father” (clearly a reference to Elijah as Elisha’s mentor), and the parallel in 2 Kgs 13:14 (where the king addresses Elisha with these words), suggest that Elisha is referring to Elijah. In this case Elijah is viewed as a one man army, as it were. When the Lord spoke through him, his prophetic word was as powerful as an army of chariots and horses. See M. A. Beek, “The Meaning of the Expression ‘The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel’ (II Kings ii 12),” The Witness of Tradition (OTS 17), 1-10.

² tn Heb “had come up to fight them.”

³ tn Heb “and they mustered all who tied on a belt and upwards, and they stood at the border.”

³ tn Heb “and they poured out [the stew].” The plural subject is probably indefinite.

⁴ tn Heb “iron.”

⁵ tn Or “ah.”

⁵ tn Heb “and went out to cry out to the king for her house and her field.”