Buy Now-The Tanach Summary Series
Purchase on our website
Sign up for Daily link via Whatsapp
- Elisha sweetens the bitter waters:
- Elisha is informed that the water is polluted and is causing death: The people of the city [of Jericho] told Elisha that although the city is a good place to live in, as he can see, the water is polluted and is causing people to die. [They thus asked him to help solve the problem and fix the pollution issue that they were facing with the city’s water.] So, Elisha instructed the townspeople to bring him a new jug which contains salt in it [which he will use to sweeten the waters].
- Elisha purifies the water: After they brought the jug with salt to Elisha he then went to the source of the water and threw the salt into it. He then exclaimed, “So said Hashem: I have cured these waters and therefore there will no longer be death and bereavement that comes from there from now on.” Indeed, from that day and onward, the water became cured, as Elisha had spoken. [This was a double miracle, as salt is bitter and destroys the water, and in this case, not only did it not destroy it, but it actually cured it.[1]]
[1] Rashi 2:21