“Threw his cloak around him”
Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak around him. (1 Kings 19:19 BSB)
What it sounds like today
One man drapes his coat over another, a small kindness.
The cultural key
Elijah's cloak (the 'mantle') was not merely clothing but the emblem of the prophetic office and the power resting on him. To throw it over Elisha was a recognized symbolic act: it claimed and commissioned him as successor, the prophetic call made visible in a single gesture. Elisha grasps it at once, slaughtering his oxen and burning his plow to make his break irreversible before following. Later, when Elijah is taken up to heaven, Elisha catches the falling mantle and parts the Jordan with it, office and power handed on. The entire English idiom of 'taking up' or 'passing the mantle' of leadership is born in this scene.
Recovered meaning
Throwing the mantle over Elisha was a commissioning that transferred the prophetic office in one gesture, which is why Elisha drops everything to follow. Our phrase 'passing the mantle' comes straight from here.