And Elisha sat in his house,.... In Samaria:and the elders sat with him; not the elders of the city, or the magistrates thereof, but his disciples, as Josephus says , the eldest of them, whom he admitted to greater familiarity and converse with him:and the king sent a man from before him; to execute what he had sworn should be done that day to the prophet:but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, see ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head?
which he knew by a spirit of prophecy, and spoke of it before the executioner came; he calls Joram the son of a murderer, because of his mother Jezebel, who killed Naboth, and the prophets of the Lord, and to which his father Ahab also consented, and therefore might be so called too; and he intimates hereby that he was of the same temper and disposition, and as the above oath, and his orders, showed:look when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door; and not suffer him to come in:is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?
that is, of Joram king of Israel, who followed the messenger, either to listen and hear what the prophet would say unto him; or repenting of his order, as Josephus thinks, he followed him to prevent the execution.
Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 4.