He told me that thou shouldest surely recover This was abominably false. He told him he should die, 2 Kings 8:10; but Hazael unfairly and unfaithfully concealed that, either because he was loath to put the king out of humour with bad news, or because he thought he should thereby the more easily put in execution the design which he had already formed against his life, finding he was to be his successor, and which he was eager to see accomplished. Elisha's prediction might give Satan an occasion of suggesting this villany to his mind; but, as Mr. Scott justly observes, “it was not the cause of his crime, and forms no excuse for it. Had he been of David's disposition, he would have waited in the path of duty till the Lord had performed his word in that manner which pleased him.” Thus he soon began to manifest the rapaciousness and cruelty of the dog, of which he desired to be thought incapable.
Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 8:14
2 Kings 8:14
14 So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover.