For he tarried. — Now he (emphatic) was abiding in Jericho (while they were searching).
Did I not say. — Or, command. Elisha could now fairly remind them of his authority. So the phrase “Go not” is, in the Hebrew, imperative. (Comp. “Ye shall not send,” 2 Kings 2:16.) With these words, the history of Elijah significantly closes. “Elias resembled Moses in courage and eloquence, and no other prophet was his equal. But when he withdrew from the world, that Providence which guided the destinies of Israel did not, therefore, forsake His people. A portion of Elijah’s spirit passed to his disciples; and they are forbidden to seek their departed master in the desert: they must find among themselves the means of carrying on his work” (Reuss).
Thenius considers the entire section (2 Kings 1:2 to 2 Kings 2:18) to be a distinct fragment of a lost history of Elijah. Its contents, he says, betray the same poetical (?) spirit as 1 Kings 17-19.