2 Kings 6:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

This is not the way, &c.— Elisha says this without being asked; for if the Syrians had asked him whether this was the way to the city of Dothan, his answer certainly would have been a falsehood; from which his words are clear; this is not the way, neither is this the city; because the prophet does not say the way to Dothan, nor the city of Dothan; but uses a feint or stratagem which has always been allowed in war against enemies whom he afterwards treated humanely. We are not to imagine that the blindness wherewith the Lord smote there men was so total that they quite lost the use of their eyes; but only that it was such a dimness and confusion in their sight, as hindered them from distinguishing one object from another: the city of Dothan, for instance, from the city of Samaria. See a similar case, Genesis 19:11. This is no more than what happens to several men in their liquor, that though their eyes be open, and can perceive the several objects which surround them, yet they cannot discern wherein they differ: and if we may suppose that the Syrian army was under the same Αορασια, as the Greeks happily term it, we need no more wonder that they readily accepted a guide who offered his service, than that a drunkard, after having lost his way, and found himself bewildered, should be thankful to any hand which should undertake to conduct him safe home. See Houbigant and Scheuchzer.