2 Kings 4:10

_LET US MAKE A LITTLE CHAMBER, I PRAY THEE, ON THE WALL; AND LET US SET FOR HIM THERE A BED, AND A TABLE, AND A STOOL, AND A CANDLESTICK: AND IT SHALL BE, WHEN HE COMETH TO US, THAT HE SHALL TURN IN THITHER._ Let us make a little chamber - not build, but prepare it. She meant a room in the oleah, the porch, or gateway (Judges 2:20; 2 Samuel 18:33; 1 Kings 17:19), attached to the front of the house, leading into the court and inner apartments. The front of the house, excepting the door, is a dead wall, and hence, this room is called a chamber in the wall. It was usually appropriated to the use of strangers, or lodgers for a night, and from its seclusion, convenient for study and retirement....

8-17 Elisha was well thought of by the king of Israel for his late services; a good man can take as much pleasure in serving others, as in raising himself. But the Shunammite needed not any good offices of this kind. It is a happiness to dwell among our own people, that love and respect us, and to whom we are able to do good. It would be well with many, if they did but know when they are really well off. The Lord sees the secret wish which is suppressed in obedience to his will, and he will hear the prayers of his servants in behalf of their benefactors, by sending unasked-for and unexpected mercies; nor must the professions of men of God be supposed to be delusive like those of men of the world....

Verse 2 Kings 4:10. _LET US MAKE A LITTLE CHAMBER_] Judges 1:3:20. As the woman was convinced that Elisha was a prophet, she knew that he must have need of more privacy than the general state of her house could afford; and therefore she proposes what she knew would be a great acquisition to him, as he could live in this little chamber in as much privacy as if he were in his own house. The _bed_, the _table_, the _stool_, and the _candlestick_, were really every thing he could need, by way of accommodation, in such circumstances....

A LITTLE CHAMBER ON THE WALL - The room probably projected like a balcony beyond the lower apartments - an arrangement common in the East. A STOOL - Rather, “a chair.” The “chair” and “table,” unusual in the sleeping-rooms of the East, indicate that the prophet was expected to use his apartment for study and retirement, not only as a sleeping-chamber....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 4:1 TYPICAL MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA. General _introduction_._ _The miracles of this chapter are all of them miracles of mercy. The first and last consist in the multiplying of food, and thus belong to the same class as our Lord's feeding the four and the five thousands, and Elijah's increasing the meal and oil of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:10). It serves no useful purpose to ask how miracles of this class were wrought. The inspired writers have not told us; and our own thoughts upon the subject can at the best be mere unfounded conjectures. The rationalistic attempts which have been made to solve the mystery exhibit a weakness and feeblen

LET US MAKE A LITTLE CHAMBER, I PRAY THEE, ON THE WALL,.... Either of the city, to which their house might join, or of their garden, a little distance from the house; though the Jewish writers commonly understand it of a little edifice built up of walls of stone or bricks, and not one with reeds, or stud and mud: LET US SET FOR HIM THERE A BED; that he may stay all night when he pleases: AND A TABLE; not only to eat his food, but to write on, and lay his books on he reads. Of the table of a scholar of the wise men, in later times, we are told t, that two thirds of it were covered with a cloth, and the other third was uncovered, on which stood the plates and the herbs: AND A STOOL; to sit upon at table: AND A CANDLESTICK; with a candle in it, to light him in the night to read by, and the like: AND IT SHALL BE, WHEN HE COMETH TO US, THAT HE SHALL TURN IN THITHER; where he would b

3. THE MIRACLES CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The widow's oil multiplied (2 Kings 4:1)_ 2. The Shunammite and her reward (2 Kings 4:8) 3. The son of the Shunammite raised from the dead (2 Kings 4:18) 4. The deadly pottage healed (2 Kings 4:38) 5. The multitude fed (2 Kings 4:42) In the previous chapter Elisha appeared as the saviour of Israel, and now he acts in behalf of the widow of one of the sons of the prophets. His name is not given. Elisha had known him as one who feared the Lord. And now the widow deeply in

ELISHA AND THE SHUNAMMITE WOMAN. This gives one of the most delightful pictures of rural life in ancient Israel. It describes the kindly hospitality of the great lady of Shunem, the accommodation provided a chamber with walls (_mg._) and furniture no makeshift arrangement, but such as befitted an honoured guest; the description of the boy's death, her drive from Shunem to Carmel to the prophet, Elisha's behaviour, as revealing his naturally considerate demeanour, is vividly portrayed. More than one expression recalls the Elijah story (_cf._ 1 Kings 18:26 with 2 Kings 4:31, and 1 Kings 18:42 with 2 Kings 4:33). Shunem ...

CHAMBER. upper chamber, or wall-chamber. CANDLESTICK. lampstand. Very little furniture used in the East to-day....

_Let us make_ The R.V. brings -I pray thee" to follow these words according to the Hebrew order. _a little chamber … on the wall_ The Hebrew might mean either a chamber with a wall, a walled room, in contradistinction to one built of wood, or a building above the usual roof of the house and so supported by the walls. The latter seems to be the sense required here, for it is said (verse 21) that the mother _went up_when she wished to lay the dead child upon the prophet's bed. As the roofs of Eastern houses can be reached by a staircase from outside, a chamber on the housetop (cf. Proverbs 21:9; Proverbs 25:24) would furnish the sort of privacy which Elisha would desire. He could also thus come in and go out without being mixed up with the movements of the household. _a bed_ The