Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 8:10

"And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit Jehovah hath showed me that he shall surely die." — 2 Kings 8:10 (ASV)

Unto him. —The reading of some Hebrew manuscripts, of the Hebrew margin, and of all the versions, as well as of Josephus.

The ordinary Hebrew text has “not” (lô’, instead of lô), so that the meaning would be, “You will not recover.” But this interpretation is problematic for two reasons: first, the position of the negative before the adverbial infinitive is anomalous; and second, Hazael's report of Elisha’s words in 2 Kings 8:14 is without the negative particle. (See the Note there.) The Authorized Version is, therefore, right.

Thou mayest certainly recover. —Rather, You will certainly live. Elisha sees through Hazael's character and designs, and answers him in the tone of irony he used toward Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:26: “Go, tell your lord—as you, the supple and unscrupulous courtier, will be sure to do—he will certainly recover. I know, however, that he will assuredly die, and by your hand.”

Others interpret this as, “You might recover” (that is, your disease is not mortal), and make the rest of the prophet's reply a confidential communication to Hazael.

But this is to represent the prophet as deceiving Benhadad and guilty of complicity with Hazael, which agrees neither with Elisha’s character nor with what follows in 2 Kings 8:11–12.

The Syriac and Arabic, with some manuscripts, read, “you will die” for “he will die.”