The men of the city. — Not “the sons of the prophets,” but the citizens make this trial of the prophet’s miraculous powers.
The situation of this (Heb., the) city is pleasant (Heb., good). — Jericho, “the city of palms” (Deuteronomy 34:3), had a fine position, “rising like an oasis from a broad plain of sand.”
The water is naught. — Heb., bad. “Naught” i.e., “naughty.”
And the ground barren. — 2 Kings 2:21 (“from thence”) shows that the waters, not the soil, were the cause of the evil complained of. “The ground,” or rather, the land is here put for its inhabitants, including the lower animals; and what is said is either “the country bears dead births,” or, “the country has many miscarriages” (pi’el may be either factitive or intensive). (Comp. Exodus 23:26; Malachi 3:11.) The use of different waters is said to have good and bad effects upon the functions of conception and parturition (not “a popular superstition,” as Reuss suggests). “The ground is barren,” or unfruitful, is therefore an incorrect translation.