Bible Strands
2 Kings 13:21
Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. And as soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Israelites interring a corpse during the annual Moabite spring incursion, immediately following the death and burial of the prophet Elisha.
The words — הַגְּדֻד (ha-ggedud) denotes a marauding or raiding band, while קֹבְרִים (koverim) carries the literal sense of those who are burying.
The thread — This motif of posthumous physical revival through contact with a prophet’s remains parallels the healing power attached to Elisha’s own actions in 2 Kings 4:35, the lingering efficacy of Paul’s belongings in Acts 19:12, and the dry bones revival in Ezekiel 37:1.
Why it lands — The text records a sudden physical restoration triggered by contact with holy remains, requiring the reader to acknowledge that the narrative treats divine power as operative independently of the prophet’s biological life.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
Cross-references
- Acts 19:12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them.
- 2 Kings 4:35 Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
- Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.
- John 5:28 Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice
- John 5:25 Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
- Acts 5:15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
- Isaiah 26:19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
- Matthew 27:52 The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
- John 11:44 The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.
- Revelation 11:11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them.