Unintentionally Humorous Texts: The "Bad Axe” Incident

Introduction: This is a follow up to the story of Elisha being asked, maybe as an afterthought?, to go with student prophets as they built a new facility. One of these men had borrowed an axe but something awful happened. By the way, this story has nothing whatsoever to do with the city of Bad Axe, Michigan.

Text: 2 Kings 6:1-7, KJV: 1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. 2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. 3 And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. 4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. 5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. 6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. 7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

The history

Elisha had met with a group of student prophets, all of the living in the kingdom of Israel (the Ten Northern Tribes, hereafter called the North). Even though many of the Israelites had abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there were still a number of these men who refused. They were willing to stay true and become prophets of the LORD such as Elisha himself and Elijah before him.

The first verses describe how the facility where these men were living had become too small. When Elisha came by, the students asked him for his approval to build a new building closer to the Jordan River. This was logical as trees do tend to grow faster and better when they’re close to water! Take a look at just about any river or stream and compare the trees with those which grow, more or less, in drier areas.

Elisha approved, and off they went to the new location. For one student, though, something bad was about to happen.

The humor

This man had the misfortune to borrow a bad axe! I’m not sure how the heads were attached to the handles in those days; Wikipedia, for what it’s worth, mentioned some hand-held axes but I doubt that was the case here. Somehow the axe head, the iron part, came loose from the handle or “haft” as it’s sometimes called, and fell into the Jordan River!

It’s bad enough that this man was so poor he had to borrow an axe, not being able to buy one for his own use, but to have the business end of the thing go for a “cool, refreshing dip” must have been too much for him!

So then, he goes to Elisha, probably flustered beyond words, and not knowing what else to say or do! Elisha, gently (have you noticed, generally he was a man of very few words?) asked “Where did it fall?” When the student showed it to him, Elisha cut down a stick or, apparently, a small piece of wood, and threw that item into the water.

And the iron rose to the surface! The KJV uses the word “swim” but it’s a bit hard to think of a piece of metal actually swimming (no arms and no legs would make it a trifle difficult, no?). At any rate, these two seemed to be close to the river, close enough for the student to reach out his hand and grab the axe head.

This student had the misfortune of borrowing a bad axe (and, as some have said, shame on the owner for loaning him something in that condition!) and, worse, he saw the axe head go sailing off into the Jordan River. Elisha showed compassion for this young man and, using a stick, threw that piece of wood into the river and made the iron rise to the top.

I don’t know about you, but that would have been really something to see!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)