And he prepared a great feast for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
All Commentaries on 2 Kings 6:23 Go To 2 Kings 6
Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
Elisha prayed before the Lord and said, “strike this people with blindness.” And he struck them with blindness according to the words of Elisha. Ben-hadad, king of the Arameans, sent a large army to surround the city of Dothan and ordered them to arrest Elisha, who lived there at that time. Now his servant saw the army of the Arameans and was horrified. But Elisha opened the eyes of the young man and showed him the ranks of fire that the Lord had erected around him against the Arameans, and his fear disappeared. At the same time [the enemies] were struck in their eyes and did not know the route of their march. They asked Elisha to be their guide; he led them to Samaria, and they were imprisoned inside walls. Then their eyes opened and they realized the danger into which they had voluntarily thrown themselves. But Elisha ordered that nobody should hurt them, and by his command, king Jehoram warmly received them. After offering them a banquet, he sent them back to their land in peace.
This is the symbolic meaning [of this passage]: God had predicted through the prophet Isaiah, “The heart of these people was hardened; they have stopped their ears and have shut their eyes, so that they cannot see with their eyes.” The people of Abraham had been blinded by a just sentence of God, because of their perverse will. They asked that the Savior of the world be killed and tried to delete any memory of him completely, but Christ has converted them from their perversity to good behavior. He has delivered his persecutors from their blindness and has given them the bread of heaven. Then he has scattered them through the earth to announce his wonders. Such were those who came back from the mount of Golgotha, beating their own chest. They said to Simon and the other apostles with contrite hearts, “Brothers, what should we do?” And such was Saul, the persecutor of the church whose eyes were open without seeing and whose eyes God wondrously closed but opened again very soon, and to whom he ordered to bring his name before the nations, the kings and the children of Israel.
