And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. (2 Kings 8:12)
The Lord knew better what Hazael would do in the future than did Hazael himself. A man seldom plans aforetime all the dark, foul deeds of which he at times becomes guilty. One evil thought leads to another, and one wicked deed leads to another still more wicked, until the one who consents to walk in the pathway of evil finds himself sinking to depths of iniquity he never would have planned for himself or have thought possible.
Dash their children.
The future king of Syria, in the bitterness and hate that would develop within his soul, would engage in the foulest crimes against the people of Israel. Men at peace do not understand the cruelties and horrors of which they may become capable when they turn to war. The evils enumerated by Elisha were not strange to the nations of the East when these nations gave themselves over to the lusts of battle (see 2 Kings 15:16; Hosea 10:14; 13:16; Amos 1:3, 13).