And they said unto him. — After he had told them of the Assumption of Elijah (Thenius).
Fifty strong men. — See margin. Perhaps these were attendants on the members of the prophetic guild. (Comp. Elisha’s servant Gehazi, and the fifty sons of the prophets, in 2 Kings 2:7.) Their being “sons of valour” was important, as the search in the mountains would involve danger.
The Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up. — Comp. 1 Kings 18:12; Acts 8:39-40. This suggestion of the sons of the prophets is a good comment on 2 Kings 2:11-12. It shows that what is there told is certainly not that Elijah ascended a fiery chariot and rode visibly into heaven, as the popular notion is.
Upon some mountain, or into some valley. — Literally, on to one of the mountains, or into one of the valleys, of the land of Gilead. The motive of the disciples was not a desire to pay the last honours to the body of the departed master, as Keil suggests; for they rather expected to find Elijah alive. After the words “cast him,” the LXX. has “into the Jordan,” which may be authentic. In that case, the disciples may have thought the prophet was hidden somewhere among the reeds and rushes of the river bank, in order to escape some threatened danger.
Ye shall not send. — Or, Ye must not, ye should not, or ought not, to send.