2. Stay here, pray, for the LORD has sent me to Bethel. Elijah seems to have foreknowledge of his own departure from the earthly realm, and his initial sense is that this should be a private encounter between him and God, not to be witnessed by anyone else, not even by his disciple.

I will not forsake you. By this pronouncement, to be repeated twice, Elisha affirms that he is Elijah’s loyal follower and heir. In the event, his being able actually to see his master’s fiery ascension will justify his request of a double portion of the spirit investing Elijah.

3. the acolyte prophets. Literally, “the sons of the prophets.” The prefix “sons” suggests they are not full-fledged prophets, which means they are either acolytes or members of a professional guild of prophets rather than independent prophetic agents.

Did you know that . . . the LORD is about to take your master. Evidently, Elijah’s imminent departure has become general news, at least in prophetic circles.

from over you. The literal sense is “from your head.”

4. stay here, pray, for the LORD has sent me. This episode follows the folktale patterns manifested in the previous episode of three repetitions with verbatim restatements. Here, too, there is a swerve in the third repetition: in the third instance, Elijah and Elisha do not go to a town but to the Jordan, so there is no group of acolyte prophets for them to encounter, and this third iteration concludes with Elijah’s ascent to the heavens in a chariot of fire.

6. the LORD has sent me to the Jordan. The town of Jericho is close to the Jordan, as is clear in the next verse, when the fifty acolyte prophets can see Elijah and Elisha from a distance.

8. and it parted on both sides. This is, of course, a small-scale reenactment of the miracle performed by Moses in parting the waters of the Sea of Reeds. Here it is executed not with an upraised staff but with the rolled-up prophet’s mantle, which Elisha will then inherit from Elijah. The point of crossing the Jordan is to have Elijah pass through this liminal zone and thus to be on the other side, beyond the land of Israel proper, when he is taken up into the heavens.

9. a double portion of your spirit. Though this may seem to be a presumptuous wish by Elisha to surpass his master, it could just as easily reflect a sense of inadequacy: feeling himself to be no more than an ordinary man, Elisha wants a supercharge of the spirit in order to be Elijah’s successor.

10. If you see me taken from you, let it be thus for you. Elijah himself is not entirely sure that Elisha is worthy to bear a double portion of the spirit. If God unveils his eyes to witness Elijah’s miraculous ascension, that will be proof of his worthiness.

11. a chariot of fire, and horses of fire. As noted above, fire has been an important instrument for Elijah’s prophetic activities.

Elijah went up to the heavens in a whirlwind. This story takes us into new territory. Everywhere in the Hebrew Bible, death is the definitive end, Sheol, the underworld, a hole in the ground into which the once living person goes down. The single previous intimation of Elijah’s ascension is the cryptic notation about Enoch’s being “taken” by God in Genesis 5:24. Elijah does not die but rides up to the celestial sphere in a fiery chariot. His ascension prepares the way for the idea of Christ’s resurrection in Christian Scripture, and it is significant that Elijah and Moses are represented in the New Testament as the two chief precursors of Jesus.

12. My father, my father, Israel’s chariot and its horsemen. Elisha obviously refers to Elijah as his father because he is his master and mentor. The metaphor of the chariot and horsemen, suggested to him by the vision of the chariot of fire before his eyes, registers the idea that Elijah has been Israel’s true power, as chariotry is the driving power of an army.

And he had clung to his garments and torn them in two. Since Elijah had removed his mantle, this would be the tunic worn beneath the mantle. Elisha’s clinging to it reflects his impassioned desire not to part from his master. It seems that as Elijah left him for his ascent, part of the tunic tore away in Elisha’s hands. This is an ironic reversal of the request for a double portion of the spirit because he now holds half a garment.

14. Where is the LORD, God of Elijah? If the LORD is now to be with him as He was with Elijah, He will enable Elisha to replicate the miracles that Elijah performed.

he, too. There is an evident glitch in the Hebrew syntax. These two words in the Hebrew should appear after “and he struck.” The word order in the received text produces an odd bumpiness: “He too and he struck.”

15. And the acolyte prophets . . . saw him from the other side. Elisha’s parting of the waters, in full sight of the assembled Jericho prophets, becomes a public demonstration that he is Elijah’s prophetic heir.

19. Look, pray, it is good to live in the town. Having recognized Elisha as Elijah’s successor, endowed with his powers, the townsmen promptly turn to him with a request for help.

the water is bad and the land bereaves. This is cause and effect: the bad water contaminates the land, which then brings death to man and beast.

21. he . . . flung the salt there. The agency of the miracle is deliberately paradoxical. Salt water is not drinkable, but Elisha’s salt purifies the spring of its blight.

Thus said the LORD: “I have healed these waters.” Elisha pointedly attributes the purification of the spring to God’s intervention, not to a magical act on his part.

23. Away with you, baldy. Literally, “Go up, baldy.” We learn incidentally that Elisha is bald, in contrast to Elijah, who was a hairy man.

24. two she-bears came out of the forest and ripped apart forty-two boys. This murderous response to the boys’ mockery is morally scandalous. Is it meant to suggest that Elisha does not make responsible use of his prophetic powers, that after turning death to life at the spring he now spreads death? The early rabbis were so outraged by this story that they felt constrained to assert it never really happened. Their formulation, “neither bears nor forest,” became idiomatic in Hebrew for a cock-and-bull story.