2 Kings 4:24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Drive, and go forward— The appearance of travellers in the Holy Land, differs a good deal from that of those who journey among us. To see a person mounted, and attended by a servant on foot, would seem odd to us; and it would be much more so to see that servant driving the beast before him, or goading it along;—yet these are eastern modes. So Dr. Pococke, in his account of Egypt, tells us, that the man (by which possibly he means the husband) always leads the lady's ass there; and if she has a servant he goes on one side; but the ass-driver follows the man, goads on the beast, and when he is to turn directs his head with a pole. The Shunammite, when she went to the prophet, did not desire so much attendance, but only requested her husband to send her an ass and its driver, to whom she gave the order here mentioned. From the eastern manner of the women's riding on asses, it appears that the word נהג nehag here is rightly translated, drive, rather than lead; and this account of Dr. Pococke's will also explain why she did not desire two asses, one for herself, and the other for the servant who attended her. Solomon might refer to the same, when in Ecclesiastes 10:7 he says," I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth." The reader will judge for himself. See Observations, p. 215.