CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2 Kings 6:19. I will bring you to the man whom ye seek—This was an evasion for a good purpose, and not an untruth, for Elisha did bring them to him, vanquished and grateful; in the sense of having won them to him, capturing them in the meshes of kindness, instead of their capturing him in hatred and vengeance.
2 Kings 6:25. A great famine in Samaria—The high prices of revolting articles of food is given to show the extremes of distress to which the people were driven. An ass’s head—Regarded as unclean food, yet sold for £5 5s. A cab of doves’ dung—A cab was the smallest Hebrew dry measure, about half-pint, and its price was 12s. 6d. Doves’ dung is probably the name for a kind of pea or seed, which was contemptuously so called. Josephus, however, relates that in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, the sewage even of the city was drained, and the excrements eaten!
2 Kings 6:27. If the Lord do not help thee—Rather, Nay! Jehovah help thee!
2 Kings 6:29. So we boiled my son—Misery had culminated in so abhorrent a deed! The other woman had hid her son, not to consume it, but to shield it from such a fate.
2 Kings 6:30. Sackcloth within upon his flesh—Visible under his torn outer garments he wears the penitential robe of sackcloth. But in his case it showed no humiliation of spirit before God; it was but as the phylacteries of the Pharisees. His imprecation on Elisha shows his evil disposition to be unsubdued. He blamed not himself, but the prophet, as Ahab did Elijah (1 Kings 18:17).
2 Kings 6:32. Son of a murderer—By descent, the son of Ahab; and in disposition like him (1 Kings 21:19). Hold him fast at the door—Keep him off with the door, i.e., by pressing against it. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?—i.e., of the king’s feet, who would impetuously follow on the heels of his messenger. Elisha urges the elders not to let the king’s executioners enter at once, but detain him till the king himself arrives.
2 Kings 6:33. The messenger came down—For “messenger,” Ewald and Grätz read “king,” and the sense requires this. Doubtless he would be admitted to the prophet’s presence; and as he meets Elisha he utters a cry full of despair, in which he confesses that the Lord’s hand is against him, and that he sees now no hope of deliverance from the prevailing distress; yet in his cry of despair there is a tremulous suggestion of possible help from the Lord he had incensed.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2 Kings 6:24-33
THE HORRORS OF FAMINE
I. Famine is the dread companion of war (2 Kings 6:24-25). Benhadad soon forgot the clemency with which his soldiers were treated when in the power of the king of Israel (2 Kings 6:21-23). Perhaps he was chagrined with the failure of his previous attempts with detached bands of warriors, and determined to invade Israel with a vast army. The Syrians poured into the ill-fated country in overwhelming numbers, and so thoroughly invested Samaria, that in a short time the city was reduced to a state of abject famine. The horrors of war and of famine are always in ghastly association.
“Loud the shrieks of battle roar,
Streaming down the hollow wind;
War and slaughter go before,
Want and death are left behind.”
When David had a choice of three punishments for his sin in numbering the people—famine, war, or pestilence—he was in a strait which to select, and in his bewilderment threw himself upon the mercy of God (2 Samuel 24:14) The four lepers who brought the intelligence of the flight of the Syrians evidently concluded there was nothing to choose between famine and the sword (2 Kings 7:4). The pathway of war is streaked with blood, and strewn with the bones of the famished. In the extremity of hunger the most nauseous articles are seized for food. The history of besieged cities reveals the loathsome dishes on which the most delicate were compelled to dine.
II. That famine blunts and demoralises the tenderest feelings of human nature (2 Kings 6:26-29). A mother’s love for her offspring is the strongest passion in the human heart. It is the last foul stroke of famine when this love is shattered; when all delicacy and refinement, all sense of right and wrong, all fond endearment and deep-seated love are so thoroughly extinguished that a mother can share a meal with a neighbour on the boiled body of her own child, then the horrors of famine have reached their climax! And yet this was among the woes that Moses foretold would come to pass with this people in case of disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:53). Kitto furnishes a number of particulars concerning a terrible famine in Egypt, in the year 1200, when the people, after resorting to the most unclean and abominable tood in the extremity of their hunger, began to feed on young children: and it was not uncommon to surprise parties with children half boiled or roasted. At first this was treated by the authorities as a horrible crime; but by-and-bye the horror entirely subsided, and every one spoke of it, and heard it spoken of, as an indifferent and ordinary matter. It is very humbling to man to discover the overwhelming power of the lower passions in extremity. There seems but a brittle barrier between civilized man and the savage. The restraints of Divine grace, direct and indirect, are more potent upon society thau the artificial laws imposed by “use and wont.”
III. That famine is the source of great distress to the humane ruler (2 Kings 6:30). The first duty of a king is to provide for the immediate physical needs of his subjects. This much is recognised among the wildest tribes. It is, therefore, a cause of unspeakable suffering to a considerate monarch when he is unable to supply his own and his people’s wants. This was the condition of the king of Israel at this time. The barn-floor was swept, and the winepress empty. The staple articles of food were consumed, and king and people were involved in a common suffering. No wonder Jehoram wore the sackcloth of humiliation, and rent his clothes in despair. Kings have their troubles. Great honour means great responsibility. In famine, the king is as powerless as the beggar.
IV. That the innocent are often unjustly blamed and threatened as the cause of famine (2 Kings 6:31-32). There was evidently more sorrow in the king of Israel than repentance. He was not yet brought to see that all this suffering was in consequence of sin. He blames Elisha, and, in his despair and fury, determines to take away the prophet’s life. And yet what had he done? If Elisha foretold and warned them of the famine, did not their sins deserve it? If the prophet might have averted the calamity by his prayer, did not their impenitence restrain him? If he advised the king to hold out the siege, did he not foresee the remarkable deliverance that was at hand, and that only by suffering would both king and people be prepared to acknowledge the hand of God? “All Israel did not afford a head so guiltless as this that was destined to slaughter. This is the fashion of the world; the lewd blame the innocent, and will revenge their sin upon others’ uprightness.” If the soul is innocent of the sins which the vileness of others attributes to it, it can afford to wait for the Divine vindication. The character of His servants is safe in the hands of God.
V. That famine is here acknowledged as a Divine judgment. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord” (2 Kings 6:33). We are to suppose the king had, on reflection repented of his rash command to murder Elisha, and immediately hurried after the messenger to stay the execution. He is convinced the famine is a Divine judgment on the nation for his sins. Having reached this state of mind, he enquires, in a spirit of more genuine repentance than he has before displayed, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” He prays for a removal of the famine. “The passage may be thus paraphrased:—I acknowledge that this evil is a punishment for my sins; the Lord thus chastens me sorely; but now when all this people are brought to such an extremity of woe, why should I wait longer for the Lord to interpose and deliver this people from their sufferings?” It is hard to acknowledge the hand of God in our distresses; it is pleasanter to trace that hand in our gifts and prosperities. Jehovah punishes with reluctance, and of the manifold instrumentalities of punishment at His call, the one to be dreaded is famine. It is well when suffering operates in bringing the soul to God.
LESSONS:—
1. War is a fruitful source of suffering and ruin.
2. National apostasy from God is punished with national calamities.
3. Famine reveals the helplessness of man, and his absolute dependence on God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Kings 6:24. Evil men wax worse and worse. As Benhadad accomplished nothing by his raids, he made an attack with his entire force. A perverse and stubborn man cannot endure to be frustrated, and when he is, instead of leading him to submissiveness, as it ought, it only hurts his pride and makes him more irritated.—Lange.
2 Kings 6:25. The value and worthlessness of money.
1. Money is valuable only as a medium of exchange for the absolute necessaries of life.
2. Is freely parted with under the pressure of starvation.
3. Is powerless to avert death.
—The famine within the walls was more terrible than the sword without. Their worst enemy was shut within, and could not be dislodged of their own bowels. Whither hath the idolatry of Israel brought them? Before they had been scourged with war, with drought, with dearth, as with a single cord; they remain incorrigible, and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them even to death. There needs no other executioners than their own maws. Those things which in their own nature were not edible, at least to an Israelite, were now both dear and dainty.—Bp. Hall.
—Of all the judgments of God in this world, none is more terrible than famine. It is a scourge which draws blood. It often happens that God takes this scourge in hand when, in spite of manifold warnings, His name is forgotten in the land, and apostacy, rebellion, and unbelief are prevalent.—Krummacher.
2 Kings 6:26-29. The horrible in humanity.
1. Revealed in its most revolting aspects in extremity.
2. Seen in the triumph of sheer animalism over the keenest instincts of natural affection.
3. Beyond the power of king or council to obviate.
4. Is controlled only by the restraints of Divine grace.
—Necessity leads to prayer whenever there is a spark of the fear of God remaining; but where that fear is wanting, “Necessity knows no law,” becomes the watchword. The crime of the two women is a proof that where men fall away from God they may sink down among the ravenous beasts. Separate sores which form upon the body are signs that the body is diseased and the blood poisoned. Shocking crimes of individuals are proofs that the community is morally rotten.—Lange.
2 Kings 6:30-33. A desperate monarch. 1. Humbled and bewildered by the Sufferings and extremities of his people (2 Kings 6:30).
2. Vows vengeance on the innocent (2 Kings 6:31).
3. Repents his rash decision, and hastens to prevent its execution (2 Kings 6:32).
4. Is constrained to acknowledge the national suffering as a punishment for sin, and to seek Divine help in its removal (2 Kings 6:33).
2 Kings 6:30-31. See here a faithful picture of the wrongheadedness of man in misfortune. In the first place, we half make up our minds to repent in the hope of deliverance; but if this is not obtained at once and in the wished-for way, we burst out in rage either against our fellow-men, or against God Himself. Observe, moreover, the great ingratitude of men. Jehoram had already several times experienced the marvellous interference of God; once it fails, however, and he is enraged. The garments of penitence upon the body is of no avail, if an impenitent heart beats beneath it. Anger and rage, and plots of murder, cannot spring from the heart that is truly penitent. It is the most dangerous superstition to imagine that we can make satisfaction for our sins, can become reconciled to God and turn aside His wrath, by external performances, the wearing of sackcloth, fasting, self-chastisement, or the repetition of prayers. The world is horrified at the results of sin, but not at sin itself. Instead of confessing. “We have sinned,” Jehoram swears the man of God shall die.—Lange.
2 Kings 6:31. This imprecation, which the king wishes immediately to execute, proves that his distress of mind was no wholesome fruit of the recognition of his own guilt, such as the law coming to his view must have produced, but only a consequence of his contemplating the heart-rending misery that now for the first time stands before his eyes in all its fright-fulness, for which he wished to wreak his vengeance on the prophet whom he held to be the prime cause of the appalling necessity, probably because he had given the advice not to surrender the city on any condition, with the promise that God would deliver them if they humbled themselves before Him in sincere repentance and implored His aid. By putting on a garment of hair, the king believed he had done his part; and since, notwithstanding this, the expected help did not come, he fell into a rage which was to be expended on the prophet. This rage arose, indeed, only from a momentary ebullition of anger, and soon gave way to the better voice of conscience. The king hastened after the messenger whom he had sent to behead Elisha, in order himself to prevent the execution of the death order which he had given in the haste of his burning rage; but it proves that true repentance, which springs from the recognition of the necessity as a judgment imposed by the Lord, was still wanting in the king. The act of desperation to which his violent passion had hurried him would have taken place had not the Lord protected His prophet and revealed to him the design of the king, so that he could take measures to prevent it.—Keil.
2 Kings 6:32. He that foresaw his own peril provides for his safety. “Shut the door, and hold him fast at the door.” No man is bound to tender his throat to an unjust stroke. The same eye that saw the executioner coming to smite him, saw also the king hastening after him to stay the blow. The prophet had been no other than guilty of his own blood if he had not reserved himself awhile for the rescue of authority. O, the inconstancy of carnal hearts! It was not long since Jehoram could say to Elisha, “My father, shall I smite them?” Now he is ready to smite him as an enemy whom he honoured as a father. Yet again, his lips had no sooner given sentence of death against the prophet, than his feet stir to recall it.—Bp. Hall.
—“Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”—Repentance.
1. Is a commendable feeling when it is the reversal of a cruel and unjust policy.
2. Loses no time in seeking to undo the evil that was threatened.
3. Leads to the removal of suffering that human rage is impotent to cure.
2 Kings 6:33. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord.” These are the words of a despairing man, in whose soul, however, a trace of faith is still concealed. For in the very fact that the king shows this frame of mind before the prophet, he lets it be understood that he still cherishes a feeble glimmer of hope and confidence in the Lord, and wishes to be directed and encouraged by the prophet. This encouragement is accordingly imparted to him.—Keil.