2 Kings 2:9
2 Kings 2:99After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” “Please, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
"Ask what I should do for you before I am taken from you" is Elijah's question to Elisha before the chariot-of-fire narrative. The Watchtower reads "taken from you" as an atmospheric translation or relocation — consistent with the broader Watchtower framework that denies any human has been bodily taken to heaven proper ( is cited as universal denial). Elijah's experience is therefore understood as a unique prophetic removal, not as an ascension to the heavenly realm where Jesus now sits at the Father's right hand.
The Hebrew verb laqach ("taken") in is the same verb uses of Enoch: "God had taken him." The lexical link across the Old Testament translation narratives is deliberate, and it is reinforced by in the NWT: "by faith Enoch was transferred so as not to see death." Enoch did not die. Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind. Both are exceptional departures from the normal pattern of death and burial.
The Watchtower's reading of as a universal denial of bodily translation fails because it requires Scripture to contradict itself within the same canon — says God took Enoch; says Enoch did not see death; describes Elijah's ascent in a whirlwind. is better read as Jesus's claim to exclusive revelatory authority (matching ) rather than a historical census. And is also one of the text-bundles the Watchtower appeals to in arguing for an "invisible presence" return of Christ — an argument 's "in the same manner as you saw him go" closes decisively. Jesus went visibly and bodily; he comes the same way, with every eye seeing him (Rev 1:7).