And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There can be no reason to doubt that this is the spring which flowed into the city; because Elisha "went forth unto the spring of the waters," and healed it, and caused even the land to become fruitful, which before was barren; and the rich verdure which follows its outgoings, the delicate, fringe-like beauty of the branches and graceful tendrils, so soft and slender and varied, as they crowd together, running their roots and fibres into the stream, adding to the music of its waters and the beauty of the scenery, all attest the lasting power of these, words of Elisha (cf. Psalms 107:35-36). (Osborne's 'Palestine, Past and Present,' p. 427; Porter's 'Handbook,' p. 192; Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,'
ii., p. 283; 'Tent and Khan,' p. 372).
There shall not be from thence any more death or barren land, х haa'aarets (H776) mªshakaalet (H7921), land sterile, unproductive, waste]. The radical meaning of the word is given by our translators in the margin, 'causing to miscarry.' The learned editor of Calmet ('Fragments,' No. 5:) considers the word applicable not to the land itself, but to the ungenerative influence of the soil about Jericho upon its inhabitants. 'Since it never had occurred to our translators,' says he, 'that a city, which, by reason of some peculiarity in the land around it, was unfavourable to procreation or to parturition, could possibly be inhabited, and in fact be "pleasant," it has been usual to consider this word here (and here only) as expressing a blight on the fruits; but if this blight occurred every year, it were a circumstance no less singular (perhaps more so) than this fatal effect on animal life; and if this blight occurred but rarely, why ask the prophet to cure that to which all countries are sometimes subject? And, indeed, this seems contrary to the text, which says, "the city was pleasant;" for surely fertile trees contribute to the pleasantness of a city's situation; besides Jericho is noticed as the city of palm trees (2 Chronicles 28:15).
But what shall we say, if there be actually, at this time, cities in the same predicament as that in which Jericho was? Namely, where animal life of certain kinds, pines, decays, and dies; cities where that posterity which should replace the current mortality is either not conceived, or if conceived, is not brought to the birth, or is brought to the birth, is fatal in delivery both to the mother and her offspring.' He quotes the instances of Porto Bello, in South America (Don Ulloa's 'Voyage,' vol. 1:, p. 93), and of Sennaar (Bruce's 'Travels,' vol. 4:, p. 469, 471, 472) and he considers this bad property in the soil was the means of accomplishing the prediction of Joshua respecting the rebuilding of Jericho (cf. Joshua 6:26 with 1 Kings 16:34). By the prophet's curing the WATERS, it should seem they had, at least, some share in producing this effect by being drank, etc.; but those inhabitants of the city and proprietors of the adjacencies, who solicited Elisha, plainly say, 'the land causes to miscarry.'