2 Kings 4:21 Commentary

Great service Elisha had done, in he foregoing chapter, for the three kings: to his prayers and prophecies they owed their lives and triumphs. One would have expected that the next chapter would tell us what honours and what dignities were conferred on Elisha for this, that he should immediately be preferred at court, and made prime-minister of state, that Jehoshaphat should take him home with him, and advance him in his kingdom. No, the wise man delivered the army, but no man remembered the wise man, Ecc 9:15. Or, if he had preferment offered him, he declined it: he preferred the honour of doing good in the schools of the prophets before that of being great in the courts of princes. God magnified him, and that sufficed him - magnified him indeed, for we have him here employed in working no fewer than five miracles. I. He multiplied the poor widow's oil (Kg2 4:1-7). II. He obtained for the good Shunammite the blessing of a son in her old age (Kg2 4:8-17). III. He raised that child to life when it was dead (Kg2 4:18-27). IV. He healed the deadly pottage (Kg2 4:38-41). V. He fed 100 men with twenty small loaves (Kg2 4:42-44).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 4 This chapter treats of the miracles of Elisha, of his multiplying a poor widow's pot of oil for the payment of her husband's debts, Kg2 4:1 of obtaining a son for a Shunamitish woman, who had been very hospitable to him, Kg2 4:8, of his raising up her son to life when dead, Kg2 4:18, of his curing the deadly pottage made of wild gourds, Kg2 4:38, and of his feeding one hundred men with twenty barley loaves, Kg2 4:42.

And she went up,.... Into the little chamber built for the prophet: and laid him on the bed of the man of God; not from any imagination of any virtue in it to bring her child to life; though she might think of the prophet, and have faith that he could raise it to life, as Elijah raised the widow of Zarephath's son laid on his bed, of which she might have heard; but this being a private room, and into which none went, she laid it here to conceal its death from her husband and family, and to prevent grief, and that they might not bury it until she returned: and shut the door upon him; that no creature might enter, and, do any damage to his corpse: and went out; not out of the chamber, that she did before she shut the door, but out of the house.

“The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her,” but after a few years, the child died. His mother placed the corpse on the bed of the prophet in the high room of her house and then rushed to meet him, blessed him and knelt down at his feet, not in order to make a request but to rebuke him. She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead your servant?’ ” [“Why did you take me and throw me into the pangs of Eve, when I was free of them, and why did you make death, against which I had risen and for which I had no consideration, reign over me? Indeed, thanks to my unlucky sterility I had been away from those two evils. Because of my fear of death I had not asked you for children, and because of the mockeries of the pagans, among whom I live, I did not desire them. So I have said to you: Do not ask that children be given to me.”]5From her lips she gave reproaches, while with her hands she implored him and, catching hold of his feet, besieged him. She swore she would not leave him until he had given her his grace and had brought back to life her son, which death had grasped. So Elisha was profoundly touched by the words of the woman. [Because he did not suffer so much for the death of the child as for the mockeries he would have been obliged to bear on the part of the prophets of Baal.]

A widow of one of the prophets, oppressed by a merciless creditor, applies to Elisha, who multiplies her oil; by a part of which she pays her debt, abut subsists on the rest, Kg2 4:1-7. His entertainment at the house of a respectable woman in Shunem, Kg2 4:8-10. He foretells to his hostess the birth of a son, Kg2 4:11-17. After some years the child dies, and the mother goes to Elisha at Carmel; he comes to Shunem, and raises the child to life, vv. 18-37. He comes to Gilgal, and prevents the sons of the prophets from being poisoned by wild gourds, Kg2 4:38-41. He multiplies a scanty provision, so as to make it sufficient to feed one hundred men, Kg2 4:42-44.

Laid him on the bed of the man of God - She had no doubt heard that Elijah had raised the widow's son of Zarephath to life; and she believed that he who had obtained this gift from God for her, could obtain his restoration to life.

ELISHA AUGMENTS THE WIDOW'S OIL. (Kg2 4:1-7) there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets--They were allowed to marry as well as the priests and Levites. Her husband, not enjoying the lucrative profits of business, had nothing but a professional income, which, in that irreligious age, would be precarious and very scanty, so that he was not in a condition to provide for his family. the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen--By the enactment of the law, a creditor was entitled to claim the person and children of the insolvent debtor, and compel them to serve him as bondmen till the year of jubilee should set them free.