Elijah’s Little-Known Letter in 2 Chronicles 21:12–15

By Roy E. Knuteson

[Roy E. Knuteson, of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, pastored for forty-five years and is now engaged in a Bible-teaching and writing ministry.]

Tucked away in the seldom-read book of 2 Chronicles is a message from the prophet Elijah, in the form of a letter to Jehoram, king of Judah (2 Chron. 21:12–15). The timing of this rather mysterious letter is an interpretive problem that some commentators either ignore or simply acknowledge with little in-depth analysis. However, a careful consideration of the timing and the contents of this letter significantly changes the common understanding of the ministry and the so-called “translation” of the great prophet. It is necessary first to establish an acceptable and accurate chronology of the life and times of Elijah in order to date this unexpected letter.

Elijah’s Ministry

Elijah is introduced in 1 Kings 17:1 as a “Tishbite,” meaning that he was a native or a “settler” in Gilead east of the Jordan River. Elijah was a distinctively dressed individual (2 Kings 1:7–8), whose relatively short ministry of twenty years or less was characterized by intermittent warnings and prophecies and periods of obscurity. From his point of origin in Gilead, Elijah walked about thirty miles to Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, to confront King Ahab with an announcement of national judgment in the form of an extended drought. Thiele suggests that this first encounter with Ahab occurred in 870 b.c., but Merrill gives the date of 860 b.c.[1] (Conservative scholars generally agree that Ahab reigned from 874 to 853.[2]) During the three and one-half year drought (James 5:17) Elijah was supernaturally sustained outside of Ahab’s jurisdiction at the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan, and in the home of a widow in Zarephath in Phoenicia (1 Kings 17:7–16).

In 867 b.c.[3] (or 857)[4] Elijah appeared again in Ahab’s court and proposed a test to determine whether the true God is Ahab’s god Baal or the Israelites’ God Yahweh. The well-known contest at Carmel concluded with an announcement of a coming rainstorm (18:41–46). When Ahab told his wife Jezebel that Elijah had executed the 450 prophets of Baal, she vowed to kill the prophet. Hearing this death threat, Elijah fled to Mount Horeb, where God recommissioned him and ordered him to anoint Hazael king over Syria in Damascus, Jehu to be king over Israel, and Elisha to be his successor (19:15–16).

Elijah was secluded somewhere during the ensuing wars between Ahab and Ben-hadad (20:1–42). After six years he reappeared to denounce Ahab and Jezebel for the murder of Naboth (21:17–24). This was his last encounter with Israel’s king. However, during the one-year reign of Ahab’s son Ahaziah, the prophet delivered a message of impending death to the new king (2 Kings 1:12–17). Since Ahaziah had no son as a successor, Joram (also known as Jehoram) succeeded him as king “in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah” (v. 17). (It is important to distinguish these two kings who bore the same name and whose rulerships in the two nations overlapped.)

In the meantime the Lord told Elijah that his public ministry was almost over and that he would soon be taken away (2:1). Knowing that their separation was imminent, Elisha was determined not to let his mentor out of his presence. Elijah tried to separate himself from Elisha three times. En route from Gilgal he told Elisha to remain where they were, since he had to go on to Bethel. Elisha refused, and the company of the prophets who resided there announced that Elijah would soon be separated from Elisha. How they knew this is not revealed. The same thing happened at Jericho (v. 5), and again as they went to the Jordan River (v. 7). From a distant vantage point fifty of the sons of the prophets witnessed the dividing of the Jordan River as Elijah struck the running waters with his mantle. When Elijah asked what he could do for his protégé, Elisha asked for a “double portion” of his spirit. This would be granted, he said, “if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you” (v. 10). Then suddenly it happened!

Elijah Disappears

“As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). It is possible to date the disappearance of the prophet based on the dates of Jehoram’s rule in Judah. As Thiele observes, “The time when Jehoram of Judah came to the throne can be fixed at some-time between Nisan and Tishri, 848. This, of course, will be the beginning of his sole reign, for it will be remembered that the double-dating of the accession of Joram of Israel, both in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 3:1), as well as in the second year of Jehoram of Judah (2 Kings 1:17) pointed to a co-regency between Jehoram and his father Jehoshaphat of which 853/52 was the second year.”[5] Japhet concurs. “According to the possible sequence in Kings, Elijah’s death/disappearance (2 Kings 2) preceded the accession of Jehoram or occurred during the early years of his reign; at the date assumed by the present context, Elijah had already made his mysterious departure.”[6]

Therefore Elijah vanished between the second year of Jehoram’s coregency in 852 and the death of Jehoshaphat in 848, since Elisha was already recognized as the primary prophet in Israel, while Jehoshaphat was still alive (3:11–12). When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he killed all his brothers and some of the princes to secure the throne for himself (2 Chron. 21:1–4). In a year or two after Elijah vanished (presumably in 848 or 847) and apparently soon after Jehoram began his sole reign in 848, the king received an unexpected letter. “It is no surprise that God responds to this apostasy through prophecy, though the presence of a letter from Elijah is unexpected. Elijah makes no other appearances in Chronicles, is only known to have prophesied in Israel…[he] wrote no other letters and is thought by many to have died by this time.”[7]

Elijah’s Letter

Elijah’s letter reads, “Thus says the Lord God of your father David, ‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot as the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you, behold the Lord is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives and all your possessions with a great calamity; and you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day’ ” (2 Chron. 21:12–15).

How can the timing of this letter be explained, since it arrived a year or two after Elijah’s disappearance? A number of answers have been suggested by various writers. First, Williamson suggests that Elijah did not actually write this letter.

It is generally agreed that this letter is the Chronicler’s own composition. On the one hand we have repeatedly seen that it is his practice elsewhere to comment in similar fashion on the events he is recording while on the other hand it has been argued that had there existed such a letter from Elijah, the Deuteronomic historian would undoubtedly have included it…Had such a letter been sent to Jehoram, we would not have expected it to be included with the King’s Elijah cycle, since the latter’s literary history must have started in the north and might well have been sufficiently determined early on for no convenient place for the inclusion of this letter to have been found. Despite this, however, the balance of the probability must still be said to lie against the letter’s authenticity.[8]

Curtis and Madsen say this letter is a “pure product of the imagination,”[9] and Myers calls it “apocryphal.”[10]

According to this reasoning the letter was not written by Elijah and therefore the question of dating is moot since the chronicler could insert his own composition wherever he felt it fit the narrative. The letter is then considered legendary and the product of the chronicler’s imagination.

Second, Gottwald states that “Elisha in many respects looks like a double for Elijah, and some scholars have argued that the two cycles refer to a single prophet.”[11] In other words the name Elijah could just as easily be Elisha. This answer, which is pure conjecture, should be rejected.

Third, the coregency of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat is used to explain the chronology and dating problem. Smith states, “We conclude that his translation probably occurred about the time of the accession to the throne of Jehoram of Israel. The difficulty presented to this conclusion by 2 Ch. XXI 12–15 can possibly be resolved by interpreting the much-controversial 2 Ki VIII. 16 to teach a co-regency of Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, kings of Judah, or by regarding the letter as a prophetic oracle written prior to his translation.”[12] This view suggests that Elijah’s departure occurred after he wrote this letter. This is also suggested by Merrill. “This event [the ascension of Jehoram as king of Israel], the author of Kings wrote, occurred ‘in the second year of Jehoram.. . king of Judah.’ Though Jehoram’s sole regency in Judah began in the year of Jehoshaphat’s death (848), he co-reigned with his father from 853 to 848. It is still true, of course, that Jehoram could not have murdered his brothers until after 848, so the matter of Elijah’s knowledge of this fact remains. Since there is no certain way to date Elijah’s translation, perhaps it did not take place until 848 or even later.”[13] Similarly Stet suggests that Elijah wrote the letter “as early as 847” and then was translated later that same year.[14]

However, 2 Kings 2:11 and 3:1 suggest that Elijah vanished before Jehoshaphat died (in 848) and that he wrote the letter after Jehoram killed his brothers (2 Chron. 21:1, 12).

Dillard observes that “a straightforward reading of 2 Kings 2–3 suggests that Elijah had already been taken to heaven and that he was succeeded by Elisha during the reign of Jehoshaphat. He would not have been living during the reign of Jehoram to write a letter.”[15]

Fourth, the most popular view is that the letter is a prophecy.[16] In this view the letter was lying around somewhere for about two years and was then delivered at the appropriate time by an unknown courier. Gaebelein suggests that “this message was probably entrusted by Elijah to Elisha and when the proper moment came, this man of God delivered the writing to Jehoram, telling him at the same time that it was from Elijah.”[17] Payne explains that “Elijah was probably gone by the time of the delivery of this letter, so that its sentences of doom came almost as a voice from the dead.”[18] The Jerusalem Bible says that “the Chronicler speaks of a prophetic document, not the prophet in person.”[19]

However, this is all speculation. The sequence of events recorded in 2 Chronicles 21 suggests that, as stated earlier, the letter was written after the murder of Jehoram’s brothers (vv. 1, 4, 12–15). The citation of these crimes became the basis for the prophecy about the overthrow of Jehoram’s family and the painful and protracted illness from which he would die. The prophetic portion of this letter was fulfilled in the next two or three years, as recorded in verses 16–19. Verse 12, “Then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet,” suggests nothing unusual about the timing and implies that Elijah was still alive somewhere when the letter was delivered. As De Vries says, “Elijah…was living in the north just at this time.”[20] An explanation about the timing of this letter lies in examining what actually happened to Elijah when he was taken from the side of Elisha.

Elijah’s Departure

The traditional understanding of this rather amazing event is that Elijah went up to heaven in a fiery chariot pulled by horses of fire. Pink believes “it was by celestial beings, the highest among them, that Elijah was taken to heaven…Elijah was removed to the world of angels, and so angels were sent to conduct him hither…that he might ride in state and triumph to the skies like a conqueror.”[21] Krummacher writes the following about this event.

The horses of fire and the flaming chariot stand already prepared behind the clouds to fetch him away, nor has the Lord concealed from him the distinguished manner in which he was about to be taken home…Elijah was not only translated to heaven by a way which passeth not through the gates of death, but this translation was also to take place visibly, with a glory never before witnessed. A whirlwind was to accompany it, nay, a fiery chariot from another world was provided to fetch the prophet home…How he must have felt, when, lifting up his eyes to the heavens, and looking at the stars in the firmament, he would say to himself, “Behold, in a few days I shall be passing through those heavens, far beyond the Orion and the Pleiades, far beyond the sun and the moon, and then—oh then, I shall enter the very sanctuary of heaven into the light of day where the triune Jehovah sitteth on his throne, where the angels strike their harps, and the patriarchs dwell in peaceful tabernacles…” The wonderful event recorded here is one of the most glorious, significant facts which the world ever witnessed before the birth of Christ.[22]

As beautiful and moving as this bit of flowery rhetoric is, it is simply the imagination of the author and lacks scriptural support. The Bible states twice, that Elijah “went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:1, 11). In two occurrences in Job (38:1; 40:6), the Hebrew word סְעָרָה translated “whirlwind” means a windstorm or a tornado-like wind. This Hebrew word is also used metaphorically in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah for God’s judgment on the wicked (Isa. 40:24; 41:16; Jer. 23:19; 30:23; Zech. 9:14).

Such a whirlwind, therefore, could have transported Elijah away from the immediate area, as some tornadoes have been known to do. Second Kings 2:1, 11 state that Elijah went by means of the whirlwind “to heaven.” Edersheim points out that “the Greek rendering of the LXX is ‘as it were’ or ‘like unto heaven.’ … It must however, be admitted that the Hebrew will bear the rendering: ‘towards heaven’ as much as that of the A.V. ‘into heaven.’ ”[23] Lange agrees. “The verse is generally translated as it is by Luther, ‘Behold! There came a chariot of fire and horses of fire … and so Elijah rode in a whirlwind, towards heaven…’ [The Hebrew word] does not mean: up into heaven, but: ‘towards, or in the direction of heaven, heaven-wards.’ ”[24]

It is well-worth observing that the primitive church, little as it was inclined to shrink back from the miracle, still did not say anything of any heavenward ride of Elijah… That the Jews also, before and at the time of Christ, knew nothing of an ascension of Elijah into heaven, is clear from the fact that in the great eulogy of Elijah (Sirach xlviii.1–12) where this wonderful removal is mentioned, neither in ver. 9 nor in ver. 12 do we find εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν… In the scriptures themselves there is no mention whatever of the ascension of Elijah into heaven, not even in Hebr. xi, where we would most expect it… How does it happen that, however often mention may be made of Elijah, just this event, which is asserted to be the most important in his career, remains utterly unmentioned?[25]

The wording therefore does not demand an entrance into the celestial heaven by means of a whirlwind. Consistent with the rest of the story, 2 Kings 2:1, 11 simply means he was taken upward in the direction of heaven. The word “heaven” is used of all three heavens in the Old Testament. But literally dozens of references to “heaven” refer to only the sky, as in “the birds of heaven” (Jer. 15:3, KJV). Many of these references are correctly translated “sky” by both the New American Standard Bible and the New International Version. Since Elijah was caught away by means of a windstorm, it is most reasonable to translate the term “heaven” in 2 Kings 1:1, 11 by the word “sky.” Unlike Jesus, he did not pass “through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14) in his brief ride through the atmosphere above.

When Elijah was informed that his public ministry as a prophet was over, he requested that Elisha leave him alone. Since Elisha refused to do this, God used the dramatic means of a fiery chariot and fiery horses to separate these two men, and at the same time, He used a literal whirlwind to transport Elijah away from the area and from Elisha.[26] Earlier Obadiah the messenger of Ahab expressed his concern about just such a happening. He told Elijah that he was concerned that “the Spirit of the Lord [would] carry you away where I do not know” (1 Kings 18:12). Like Philip in Acts 8:39 Elijah was caught away to another place on earth. During Elijah’s lift-off in the whirlwind, his mantle fell to the ground and was retrieved by Elisha and used as the symbol of his new power as the prophet of God. Although Elijah knew that his departure was at hand, he never spoke of his being taken to heaven. Instead he along with some of the prophets who were informed of the separation, simply spoke of his being “taken away” (2 Kings 2:3, 5, 10). The sons of the prophets who witnessed the separation and windstorm believed that “perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him on some mountain or into some valley” (v. 16).

Obviously it seemed to them that Elijah did not go straight up to the third heaven, as is generally believed. Instead fifty of these young men asked for and received the reluctant permission of Elisha to search for him for three days. Though they hoped to find the living prophet in the somewhat immediate area, they did not find him. Elijah simply disappeared. And apparently he was unheard of again until he penned this letter to Jehoram. The person who carried the letter knew of his whereabouts, but he made no comment about it since it was generally assumed that Elijah was still alive and it was typical of him to appear and disappear.

There is no biblical revelation of Elijah’s “translation” as there is for Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, as one might expect if Elijah too was raptured to heaven. Admittedly, however, the word לָקַח, “taken away,” is used of Enoch being translated to heaven (Gen. 5:24). But it is also used of removing a person to another geographic location (e.g., four kings carried away Lot, 14:12; and Saul sent men to take away David, 1 Sam. 19:14).

Where Elijah was put down on earth no one knows. But the Lord prompted him to write this letter to Jehoram to remind the king of his murderous ways and to announce God’s judgment on him, which was fulfilled two years later (2 Chron. 21:19).

Jehoram’s crimes must have been common knowledge, and the details were therefore also available to Elijah wherever he was living at that time. Just as Elijah abruptly appeared on the scene, so he disappeared without notice. When and where he died is not revealed. He did reappear in person on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4), and he will appear once again before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes” (Mal. 4:5–6).

Whatever interpretation anyone makes of this fascinating and intriguing story, serious consideration must be given to this late-dated letter from Elijah.

Notes

1. Edwin Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 65; Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 346.
2. See the chart “Kings of Judah and Israel and the Preexilic Prophets,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament, ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1983), 513.
3. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, 65.
4. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 346.
5. Ibid., 69.
6. Sara Japhet, I and II Chronicles: A Commentary, Old Testament Commentary (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993), 812.
7. Martin J. Selman, 2 Chronicles: A Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 435 (italics his).
8. Hugh Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, New Century Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 306.
9. E. L. Curtis and A. A. Madsen, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles (Edinburgh: Cluck, 1910), 415.
10. J. M. Myers, I and II Chronicles, Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), 122.
11. Norman Gottwald, A Light to the Nations (New York: Harper Brothers, 1959), 263.
12. B. L. Smith, “Elijah,” in The New Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 363.
13. Eugene H. Merrill, “2 Chronicles,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, 636.
14. J. H. Stet, “Elijah,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 66.
15. Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), 167.
16. The New Scofield Study Bible (New York: Oxford, 1984), 452; and Selman, 2 Chronicles, 436.
17. A. C. Gaebelein, The AnnotatedBible (New York: Our Hope, 1915), 11:447.
18. J. Barton Payne, “Second Chronicles,” in TheWycliffe Bible Commentary, ed. Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison (Chicago: Moody, 1962), 407.
19. The Jerusalem Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), 549.
20. Simon J. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Forms of the Old Testament Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 333. See also Selman, 2 Chronicles: A Commentary, 436.
21. A.W. Pink, The Life Of Elijah (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), 311.
22. F. W. Krummacher, Elijah the Tishbite (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.). 213–14, 242.
23. Alfred Edersheim, The History of Israel and Judah (New York: Revell, 1885), 6:103.
24. John Peter Lange, The Second Book of the Kings, Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, trans. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.), 13–14.
25. Ibid., 15. Sirach 48:9 does refer to the whirlwind as a “whirlwind of fire,” perhaps thus suggesting a kind of supernatural ascent to heaven. But 2 Kings 2:1 and 11 refer simply to a whirlwind, not a whirlwind of fire.
26. Why were there a fiery chariot and horses? Thomas L. Constable says these “were symbols of God’s power in battle. Horses and chariots were the mightiest means of warfare in that day. God was saying in this event that His power was far greater than any military might. It was this might that Elijah had demonstrated and which Elisha in his wisdom valued so highly” (“2 Kings,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary,Old Testament, 540). Leon Wood says that they were symbols of strength and protection (Elijah: Prophet of God [Des Plaines, IL: Regular Baptist, 1968], 155).