office.
Verse 20
Elisha understanding the sign, left the oxen standing, ran after Elijah, and said to him, “Let me kiss my father and my mother,” i.e., take leave of my parents, and when I will follow thee. For the form אשׁקה see Ewald, §228, b. As he has ploughed his earthly field with his twelve pair of oxen, he was not to plough the spiritual field of the twelve tribes of Israel (Luk 9:62). Elijah answered, “Go, return, for what have I done to thee?” שׁוּב לך belong together, as in 1Ki 19:15; so that Elijah thereby gave him permission to return to his father and mother. כּי signifies for, not yet (Thenius); for there is no antithesis here, according to which כּי might serve for a more emphatic assurance (Ewald, §330, b.). The words “what have I done to thee?” can only mean, I have not wanted to put any constraint upon thee, but leave it to thy free will to decide in favour of the prophetic calling.
Verse 21
Then Elisha returned, took the pair of oxen with which he had been ploughing, sacrificed, i.e., slaughtered them (זבח used figuratively), boiled the flesh with the plough, gave a farewell meal to the people (of his place of abode), i.e., his friends and acquaintance, and then followed Elijah as his servant, i.e., his assistant. The suffix in בּשּׁלם refers to הבּקר צמּד, and is more precisely defined by the apposition הבּשׂר, “namely, the flesh of the oxen.”
Chap. 20
Verse 1
The First Victory. - 1Ki 20:1. Benhadad, the son of that Benhadad who had conquered several cities of Galilee in the reign of Baasha (1Ki 15:20), came up with a great army - there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots - and besieged Samaria. The thirty-two kings with him (אתּו) were vassals of Benhadad, rulers of different cities and the territory
