Commentators unanimously agree that Hazael deceived his master. He did this not by inventing a story, but by telling a malicious half-truth. He repeated Elisha's words that the king could recover from his illness but, as Albert Barnes and John Gill note, deliberately omitted the prophet's warning that the king would still surely die by other means. This serves as a powerful reminder that withholding key parts of the truth is a form of lying.