Bible Strands
2 Kings 3:13
Elisha, however, said to the king of Israel, “What have we to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and of your mother!” “No,” replied the king of Israel, “for it is the LORD who has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elisha speaks to the king of Israel during a joint military consultation, immediately after Jehoshaphat confirms the prophet carries the Lord's word (2 Kings 3:12) and before Elisha's conditional rebuke (2 Kings 3:14).
The words — The Hebrew מַה־ (mah) poses "what?" in the dismissal מַה־לִּי וָלָךְ ("What have we to do with each other?"), while לֵ֚ךְ (lekh) issues the command "go" toward the king's own religious lineage.
The thread — The king's appeal to human prophets mirrors the assembled but ineffective counsel of 1 Kings 22:6 and confronts the idolatrous legacy questioned in Deuteronomy 32:37, while the narrative context of 2 Kings 3:12 establishes the Lord's exclusive authority in the moment.
Why it lands — The text reports Elisha's rejection of the king's political and religious alliances before explaining why the king insists on divine intervention, requiring a reader to follow the narrative sequence that isolates the Lord's summons as the sole operative reality.
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 Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay: for the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 18:19 Now summon all Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel, along with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
- 1 Kings 22:6 So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”
- Deuteronomy 32:37 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
- 1 Kings 22:10 Dressed in royal attire, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.
- 1 Kings 22:22 And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
- 2 Kings 3:10 “Alas,” said the king of Israel, “for the LORD has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab!”
- Judges 10:14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”
- Ruth 1:15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”
- Proverbs 1:28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- Jeremiah 2:27 say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’