And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet,.... Not what was written by him after his ascension to heaven, and from thence came to Jehoram, even seven years after that, as say some Jewish writers (z); nor was it a writing from another person of the same name in those times, since of such an one we nowhere read; nor from Elisha bearing the name of Elijah, having a double portion of his spirit on him, since he is never so called; but this was a writing of Elijah's before his ascension, who, foreseeing by a spirit of prophecy what Jehoram would be guilty of, wrote this, and gave it to one of the prophets, as Kimchi suggests, and most probably to Elisha, to communicate it to him at a proper time; and who might, as the above writer intimates, think it came immediately from heaven: saying, thus saith the Lord God of David thy father; and from whose God he had departed, and to which ancestor of his he was so much unlike: because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah; neither trod in the steps of his father nor grandfather. (z) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 17. Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 12. 1. A. M. 3050.