Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Kings 13:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech: “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “A corpse revives at Elisha's bones.”
Read It With
- 2 Kings 13:20–21
Read 2 Kings 13:20 with 13:20–21. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Elisha dies and is buried; raiders interrupt a burial, and the dead man revives when his body touches Elisha's bones.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “A corpse revives at Elisha's bones,” 2 Kings 13:20 opens the thought unit and establishes its first action or speech through the wording “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Kings 13:14–19 establishes this prior movement: Jehoash weeps over dying Elisha, shoots an arrow of deliverance, strikes the ground three times, and is rebuked for stopping. 2 Kings 13:20–21 brings the preceding movement toward its narrated result or transition; that evidenced relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 2 Kings 13:20–21 together
Why these verses belong together: 2 Kings 13:20–21 forms one scene or regnal notice: Elisha dies and is buried; raiders interrupt a burial, and the dead man revives when his body touches Elisha's bones.
Verse 20. 20 And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
Verse 21. 21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
Follow the Context
- Elisha dies and is buried; raiders interrupt a burial, and the dead man revives when his body touches Elisha's bones.
- The unit closes by establishing the result or tension named in “A corpse revives at Elisha's bones” before the next narrated movement.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
2 Kings 13:20 does not permit the wording “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. This sign does not authorize relic commerce, corpse handling, grave rituals, speculative miracle claims, or blaming mourners when the dead remain dead.
What Remains True
Public power, prophetic authority, and worship remain accountable to truth, human responsibility, affected people, and the limits of the evidence rather than title or success alone. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Elisha dies and is buried; raiders interrupt a burial, and the dead man revives when his body touches Elisha's bones. In 2 Kings 13:20, the concrete line “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the…” keeps that truth accountable to narrated evidence.
How It Can Shape Life
- The evidence to keep visible in this verse is “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the….” Use entrusted authority transparently, protect people affected by the decision, record who is responsible, and submit claimed spiritual or political necessity to independent review. This response follows from the unit's own sequence: Elisha dies and is buried; raiders interrupt a burial, and the dead man revives when his body touches Elisha's bones.
Teach It Back
In 70–220 words, explain 2 Kings 13:20's role in 13:20–21. Paraphrase “And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the…,” identify one agent or affected person, state one material source or historical limit, and name one conclusion the context does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Kings 13:20–21 — A corpse revives at Elisha's bonesSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The brief report gives no identity, prayer, or mechanism and cannot be independently verified; it functions literarily as posthumous prophetic potency.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 13:20–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 13:20–21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 646–648, translation and translator notes for 13:20–21
Open source ↗