7:3-11 God can, when he pleases, make the stoutest heart to tremble; and as for those who will not fear God, he can make them fear at the shaking of a leaf. Providence ordered it, that the lepers came as soon as the Syrians were fled. Their consciences told them that mischief would befall them, if they took care of themselves only. Natural humanity, and fear of punishment, are powerful checks on the selfishness of the ungodly. These feelings tend to preserve order and kindness in the world; but they who have found the unsearchable riches of Christ, will not long delay to report the good tidings to others. From love to him, not from selfish feelings, they will gladly share their earthly good things with their brethren.

Verse 6. - For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. קול, voice, is used for noises of any kind (see Exodus 20:18; Psalm 42:7; Psalm 93:4; Jeremiah 47:3; Ezekiel 1:24; Ezekiel 3:13; Joel 2:5; Nahum 3:2), though generally for those in which the human voice preponderated. A noise like that of chariots and of horses and of a great host (חַאילִ גָדול) was borne in upon the ears of the Syrians about nightfall of the day on which Jehoram had determined to put Elisha to death; and, as they expected no reinforcements, they naturally concluded that succor had arrived to help their enemy. How the noise was produced it is impossible to say. Na-rural causes are insufficient; and the writer evidently regards the event as miraculous: "The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise," etc. Nothing can be more weak and irrelevant than to remark, with Bahr," There are instances, even nowadays, that people in certain mountainous regions regard a rushing and roaring sound, such as is sometimes heard there, as a sign of coming war." The Syrians thought they heard the actual arrival of a vast army. And they said one to another, Lo, the King of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites. This supposition has been thought "strange," almost inexplicable. "No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed," says Mr. Sumner ('The Books of the Kings,' vol. 2. p. 72, Eng. trans.). But the Assyrian records of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. make it evident, not only that the Hittites still existed at that date, but that they were among the most powerful enemies of the Ninevite kings, being located in Northern Syria, about Carchemish (Jerabus) and the adjacent country. It is also apparent that they did not form a centralized monarchy, but were governed by a number of chiefs, or "kings," twelve of whom are mentioned in one place (G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' p. 112). It was no very improbable supposition on the part of the Syrians that Jehoram had called in the aid of the Hittite confederacy, and that they had marched an army to his assistance. And the kings of the Egyptians. "The plural, kings of the Egyptians," says Keil, "is not to be pressed. It is probably occasioned only by the parallel expression,' kings of the Hittites.'" But Egyptian history shows us that about this date Egypt was becoming disintegrated, and that two or three distinct dynasties were sometimes ruling at the same time, in different parts of the country - one at Bubastis another at Thebes, a third at Tanis, occasionally a fourth at Memphis (see "Ancient Egypt," in 'The Story of the Nations,' p. 311). The writer thus shows a knowledge of the internal condition of Egypt which we should not have expected. To come upon us; i.e. to fall upon us from the north and from the south at the same time. In their panic, the Syrians did not stop to weigh probabilities, or to think how unlikely it was that such a simultaneous attack could have been arranged between powers so remote one from the other.

For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host,.... Or of many armies, as the Targum; either in the air by the ministry of angels; or the Lord so wrought upon their imagination, that they fancied they heard such noises; or he caused such noises in their ears:

and they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites; one of the nations of the Canaanites, and may be here put for the whole of those that remained, and who lived upon the borders of the land of Israel; though Josephus (y) has it, the kings of the isles; that is, of Chittim, see Jeremiah 2:10.

and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us; Egypt being now divided into petty kingdoms; or else the governors of the several nomes or districts of it are here meant: for the king of Israel to hire these kings was very unlikely in his present circumstances; but those unreasonable things, in their panic, their imaginations suggested to them.

(y) Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4.) sect. 5.

6, 7. the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots—This illusion of the sense of hearing, whereby the besiegers imagined the tramp of two armies from opposite quarters, was a great miracle which God wrought directly for the deliverance of His people.

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