Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 6:19

"And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. And he led them to Samaria." — 2 Kings 6:19 (ASV)

This is not the way, neither is this the city. — These words presuppose, according to Josephus, that the prophet had asked them whom they were seeking and that they had replied, “The prophet Elisha.” Thenius and Bähr accept this.

Keil says, “Elisha’s words contain a falsehood and are to be judged in the same way as every ruse by which an enemy is deceived.”

Thenius declares that “there is no untruth in the words of Elisha, strictly taken; for his home was not in Dothan (where he had only stayed for a time), but in Samaria; and the phrase ‘to the man’ might well mean ‘to his house.’”

Surely it is easier to suppose that the “dazing” had caused the Syrians to go wandering about in the valley at the foot of the hill, vainly seeking to find the right way up to the city gate. (Compare to Genesis 19:11, They wearied themselves to find the door.) If the prophet found them in this plight, his words would be literally true.

The man whom you seek. —An irony.

Bring you. — Lead you.

But he led. — And he led (or, guided).

To Samaria. —Hebrew, Shômĕrônâh. The Assyrian spelling is Shâmerîna; and this, compared with the Greek Σαμάρειαν, suggests that the original name was Shâmirîn (“the warders”). The final ô in the present Hebrew form may be due to confounding y with w.