1 Kings 19:17

The sword of Hazael. A work of judgment was to be wrought on Israel, and Hazael and Jehu were the instruments chosen to perform this work.

Shall Elisha slay. Elisha’s work was certainly not in the same category with that of Hazael and Jehu. There is no record that Elisha ever used the sword literally to slay anyone. Perhaps Elisha’s work of slaying was to be done in a figurative sense: “I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth” (Hosea 6:5); or in the sense in which Jeremiah’s work was described: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down” (Jer. 1:10). It is with the Word of God, which is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” (Heb. 4:12), that prophets do their work of smiting and slaying. Elisha’s mission was one not of physical war but spiritual (2 Cor. 10:3-6); sin was the enemy, and it was wickedness that was to be rooted out of the land, not men.