2 Kings 8:14
So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.
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EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(14) That thou shouldest surely recover.—Rather, Thou wilt certainly live, repeating Elisha’s actual words, but not the tone and gesture which accompanied them.

2 Kings 8:14. He told me that thou shouldest surely recover — This was abominably false. He told him he should die, 2 Kings 8:10; but Hazael unfairly and unfaithfully concealed that, either because he was loath to put the king out of humour with bad news, or because he thought he should thereby the more easily put in execution the design which he had already formed against his life, finding he was to be his successor, and which he was eager to see accomplished. Elisha’s prediction might give Satan an occasion of suggesting this villany to his mind; but, as Mr. Scott justly observes, “it was not the cause of his crime, and forms no excuse for it. Had he been of David’s disposition, he would have waited in the path of duty till the Lord had performed his word in that manner which pleased him.” Thus he soon began to manifest the rapaciousness and cruelty of the dog, of which he desired to be thought incapable.

8:7-15 Among other changes of men's minds by affliction, it often gives other thoughts of God's ministers, and teaches to value the counsels and prayers of those whom they have hated and despised. It was not in Hazael's countenance that Elisha read what he would do, but God revealed it to him, and it fetched tears from his eyes: the more foresight men have, the more grief they are liable to. It is possible for a man, under the convictions and restraints of natural conscience, to express great abhorrence of a sin, yet afterwards to be reconciled to it. Those that are little and low in the world, cannot imagine how strong the temptations of power and prosperity are, which, if ever they arrive at, they will find how deceitful their hearts are, how much worse than they suspected. The devil ruins men, by saying they shall certainly recover and do well, so rocking them asleep in security. Hazael's false account was an injury to the king, who lost the benefit of the prophet's warning to prepare for death, and an injury to Elisha, who would be counted a false prophet. It is not certain that Hazael murdered his master, or if he caused his death it may have been without any design. But he was a dissembler, and afterwards proved a persecutor to Israel.Hazael omitted the clause by which Elisha had shown how those words were to be understood. He thus deceived his master, while he could flatter himself that he had not uttered a lie. 11. he settled his countenance stedfastly until he was ashamed—that is, Hazael. The steadfast, penetrating look of the prophet seemed to have convinced Hazael that his secret designs were known. The deep emotions of Elisha were justified by the horrible atrocities which, too common in ancient warfare, that successful usurper committed in Israel (2Ki 10:32; 13:3, 4, 22). He represents the prophet’s answer by halves, that by his master’s security he might have the fitter opportunity to execute his reasonable design.

So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master,.... Benhadad king of Syria:

who said to him, what said Elisha to thee? concerning his recovery, which was the thing uppermost in his mind, and he was eagerly desirous to know how it would be:

and he answered, he told me that thou shouldest surely recover; which was false; for he only said that he "might", and not that he should; and he concealed what he also declared, that though he might recover of his disease, yet that he should surely die in another way.

So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
14. So [R.V. Then] he departed from Elisha] The last words of the prophet had shewn him that his whole aim was clear in Elisha’s sight, and his character thoroughly read. He had been treated as a man who would give a soft answer whatever the real message might be, and now he is sent away with the knowledge that the Lord sees all his policy. But he was a determined spirit, and the words of the prophet did not act as a check, but set him on a bolder course of villainy. He first acts the part that had been imputed to him, and with a lying tongue says ‘He told me thou shouldest surely recover’. After that he cannot wait for time to bring about what God had said would be, but by a short road comes to the throne after smothering his master.

Verse 14. - So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. This, as already observed, was giving half Elisha's answer, and suppressing the other half. The suppressio veri is a suggestio falsi; and the suppression was Hazael's act, not Elisha's. Had Hazael repeated the whole of Elisha's answer, "Say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die;" - Benhadad might have been puzzled, but he would not have been deceived. 2 Kings 8:14But when Hazael replied in feigned humility, What is thy servant, the dog (i.e., so base a fellow: for כּלב see at 1 Samuel 24:15), that he should do such great things? Elisha said to him, "Jehovah has shown thee to me as king over Aram;" whereupon Hazael returned to his lord, brought him the pretended answer of Elisha that he would live (recover), and the next day suffocated him with a cloth dipped in water. מכבּר, from כּבר, to plait or twist, literally, anything twisted; not, however, a net for gnats or flies (Joseph., J. D. Mich., etc.), but a twisted thick cloth, which when dipped in water became so thick, that when it was spread over the face of the sick man it was sufficient to suffocate him.
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