There’s a story in the Old Testament book of Kings in which Jehoash, king of Israel, beset by his enemies the Arameans, visits the dying prophet Elisha to mourn him, even though Elisha has been a constant thorn in the flesh to the wayward monarch.
Elisha tells Jehoash to take his arrows out of their quiver and strike them on the ground, which he duly does three times. Upon this Elisha declares angrily:
“You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
Hey Elisha, what’s a king to do? And how would the king even know why he was doing this in the first place?
But you get the point. Jehoash will only partly complete the job. A couple more blows and the Arameans would be done and dusted.
