2 Kings 6:1-33 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Bible Comments

2 Kings 6:1. Sons of the prophets. See on 2 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 2:5. Their number had evidently encreased, though in evil times. Their college was a plain home-built house.

2 Kings 6:5. Borrowed. שׂאל, this root, as in Exodus 11., will not bear any other sense than to borrow or to ask. The loss of an axe was almost irreparable, where steel forges were scarce and distant. The recovery of this axe by a miracle was a special mark of the divine favour, towards the new enlargement of the school. The people, though the times were hostile, secretly supported those schools, that glory might dwell in the land.

2 Kings 6:18. Blindness. The LXX read, αορασια, not seeing, or not seeing distinctly; seeing some things, and not seeing others, as might be the case with the men of Sodom.

2 Kings 6:25. An ass's head. The shekels were of various weight and value; the lowest fifteenpense, and the highest something more than half a crown. The cab, a small measure for grain. Bochart seems to be right in his assertion, that a species of pulse was called dove's dung.

2 Kings 6:32. This son of a murderer. Jehoram bears a bloody hand on his coat of arms, because his mother Jezebel had murdered Naboth, and the prophets. The ghosts of martyrs and murdered men besiege the throne of heaven for the visitations of divine justice.

REFLECTIONS.

This passage, more than any other, opens to us the situation of the sons of the great and highly inspired prophets. They are sometimes called young men, candidates for the ministry. They lived in solitude and retirement, but we frequently find them assisting the higher prophets in their ministry; and as they went to deliver for them some of the important messages of heaven, they were evidently employed as prophets, though they still continued to live in or near their beloved retreat. Seminaries may introduce youth to language and literature, but they cannot make preachers. They must have the Spirit, and all the natural endowments of body and mind for the sanctuary, before they go, else education is misapplied. We have next a farther discovery of one of the greatest of Ahab's errors and sins, in sparing the life of Benhadad, whom God had sentenced to die for twice invading Israel, immediately after the terrible drought. This man lived long to be the constant enemy and scourge of Israel. He was inveterately wicked, neither awed by judgments, nor softened by mercy. Let us then beware, for the sparing of one sin may occasion us calamities all our days.

In those evil times, when Israel was weak, and her enemies many, what a blessing were Elijah and Elisha to the land. They were the fathers of the church, and the guardians of their country. They stood alone like the tall monuments which overlook the hills, and singly brave the tempests. Elisha gave the king counsel and advice of the enemies' plans; he struck the detachment with blindness who came to seize him, and there is no saying what he would have done, had the people followed the divine counsel. In Samaria he saved the city during the famine, by affrighting all the alien host; for God would deny no good thing to his prayers.

We see next the inveterate enmity of Ahab's house against the Lord and his prophets. When the woman cried concerning the breach of covenant in hiding a son, a sad proof that Moses's prediction of eating children during the straitness of the siege was in part come to pass, the king was deeply affected, and so far off his guard during the moment of passion, that he swore to destroy Elisha, and sent immediately to execute him, because he would not by another miracle relieve the city in its anguish. The ministers of Baal were busy enough, no doubt, in throwing all the blame on Elisha; but how could the prophet pray for them, till famine in all its horrors had driven them to cry to the Lord. Kindness shown to the righteous by the consummately wicked is merely because they are popular, or because they have an interest in their friendship; they still hate both God and his servants in their heart. Through the whole of those awful times we see a protecting hand is over the faithful. The shining host of angels protected Elisha and his people in Dothan; and now, fear of the people, and terror of conscience, protected him against the oath of the king. What then has a good man in calamities to fear? The Lord is able to deliver him; and if he abandon him to martyrdom, it is to serve some more glorious purpose in his church.

Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 6:1

2 Kings 6:1-33

1 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.

2 Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

3 And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

5 But as one was felling a beam, the axe heada fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.b

9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.

10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.

11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord,c O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a greatd host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.

15 And when the servante of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: followf me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

20 And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

21 And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?

22 And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.

23 And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.

29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the nextg day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer?