his presence. Ahab and Jezebel’s deaths would be associated with dogs; Elijah’s departure happened through supernatural intervention. Elisha’s response was a spontaneous cry of grief which honored Elijah and captured his sorrow: My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel! Elijah had been his mentor (“my father”), and Elisha knew him to be God’s true military defense of the nation (“the chariots and horsemen of Israel,” a description later used of Elisha in 2 Kgs. 13:14). God’s prophet