2 Kings 8 · a question people ask
Did Elisha tell Hazael to lie?
Benhadad sent Hazael to ask, "Will I recover from this sickness?" (8:8, 8:9). Elisha answered, "Go, tell him, ‘You will surely recover;’ however the LORD has shown me that he will surely die" (8:10). Asked by his master what Elisha said, Hazael gave only the first half: "He told me that you would surely recover" (8:14). The next day the king died, and Hazael reigned in his place (8:15). Christians agree on all of this, and that what Elisha says the LORD has shown him is "that he will surely die" (8:10). One word of 8:10 is also written one way in the Hebrew and marked to be read another; the WEB follows the reading marked (see Written "not", read "to him"). Christians read Elisha's first words in two main ways, each resting on verses.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Both halves are true
Those who hold this view note that Benhadad's question was about "this sickness" (8:8, 8:9), and that Elisha's first words answer that question: the sickness would not kill him. The second half says what the LORD had shown: "he will surely die" (8:10). The chapter doesn't say that he died of the sickness; it tells that he died the next day and that Hazael reigned in his place (8:15). On this reading both halves of Elisha's answer are true, and Hazael's report (8:14) gave only the first.
2 Kings 8:8-10 · 2 Kings 8:14-15
What Hazael would say
Those who hold this view read Elisha's first words as the message Hazael would carry to his master, not as what the LORD had shown, since the words Elisha says the LORD has shown him are "that he will surely die" (8:10), and Hazael does carry only the first words (8:14). They set it beside Micaiah's first answer to the king of Israel, "Go up and prosper" (1 Kings 22:15), which the king didn't take as the truth in the LORD's name (1 Kings 22:16), before Micaiah told what he had seen (1 Kings 22:17).
2 Kings 8:10 · 2 Kings 8:14 · 1 Kings 22:15-17
The verses
“The king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him and said, “Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” Elisha said to him, “Go, tell him, ‘You will surely recover;’ however the LORD has shown me that he will surely die.””
“Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” He answered, “He told me that you would surely recover.” On the next day, he took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it on the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael reigned in his place.”