2 Kings — Chapter 2

When the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha went from Gilgal. Lapide: Elijah was taken up alive into heaven in a fiery chariot, a figure of Christ's glorious Ascension. As Elijah ascended to heaven visibly before his disciples, so Christ ascended before His disciples on Mount Olivet. Origen and S. Jerome hold that Elijah, still living, awaits the time of Antichrist, when he shall return to preach penance, as prophesied in Malachias iv.

Elias said to Eliseus: Stay thou here, because the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Eliseus said to him: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. Lapide: Elisha's threefold refusal to leave Elijah (at Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan) is a model of perseverance for disciples. He clung to his master even when urged to depart. The sons of the prophets at each station knew prophetically that Elijah was about to be taken — yet Elisha kept his peace and pressed on. So the perfect disciple does not dispute with God's designs, but follows through to the end.

Elisha said: I beseech thee that in me there may be a double portion of thy spirit. Lapide: Elisha asked not merely for the same spirit as Elijah, but double — denoting the two-fold grace of the Holy Ghost to be poured out at Pentecost upon all the Church, whereas under the Law the Spirit rested on a few prophets only. Elisha thus figures the Apostles who received the sevenfold Spirit in fulness at the coming of the Paraclete.

There appeared a fiery chariot and fiery horses, and it divided them asunder; and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Lapide, citing S. Augustine, Theodoret, and Beda: The fiery chariot and horses were formed by angels from fire and cloud to represent their nature — swift, ardent, unconquerable. Elijah's rapture is a clear type of Christ's bodily Ascension into heaven, which was likewise visible, bodily, and final. Elijah's body was preserved, since Antichrist is to be overcome before the last day.

And Eliseus seeing it, cried: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof. Lapide: Elisha called Elijah \"father\" because he was his teacher and superior; \"chariot of Israel\" because he defended Israel more powerfully by his prayers than all the chariots and horsemen of the kingdom. So too the saints in heaven are the true defense of the Church militant.

The spirit of Elias hath rested upon Eliseus. Lapide: Eliseus received a double portion of the spirit of Elias — not simply the same grace doubled, but a twofold dignity, both of prophet and of wonder-worker, given him by God on account of his perseverance in following his master. This double spirit also figures the two Testaments and the twofold people, Jews and Gentiles, gathered into the Church.

He said: Bring me a new vessel, and put salt in it. And when they had brought it, going out to the spring of the waters, he cast the salt into it. Lapide, citing S. Ambrose and S. Augustine: The new vessel signifies Baptism; the salt, the wisdom of Christ and the word of the Apostles; the spring, the nations who were sterile before Christ. Elisha healing the waters is a type of Christ who at His Baptism in the Jordan consecrated the waters of baptism to be healing and life-giving.

And he went up from thence to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, little boys came out of the city and mocked him, saying: Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. Lapide, with S. Augustine, S. Jerome, and S. Bernard: The boys who mocked Elisha are figures of the Jews who mocked Christ on the Cross, crying \"Go up\" — that is, ascend the cross. The two bears sent against them represent Titus and Vespasian, who forty years after Christ's Ascension came out of the forest of the gentiles to destroy Jerusalem.