2 Kings 4:24

_THEN SHE SADDLED AN ASS, AND SAID TO HER SERVANT, DRIVE, AND GO FORWARD; SLACK NOT THY RIDING FOR ME, EXCEPT I BID THEE._ SAID TO HER SERVANT, DRIVE, AND GO FORWARD. It is usual for women to ride on asses, accompanied by a servant, who walks behind, and the drives beast with his stick, goading the animal at the speed required by his mistress. The Shunammite had to ride a journey of the five or six hours to the top of Carmel....

18-37 Here is the sudden death of the child. All the mother's tenderness cannot keep alive a child of promise, a child of prayer, one given in love. But how admirably does the prudent, pious mother, guard her lips under this sudden affliction! Not one peevish word escapes from her. Such confidence had she of God's goodness, that she was ready to believe that he would restore what he had now taken away. O woman, great is thy faith! He that wrought it, would not disappoint it. The sorrowful mother begged leave of her husband to go to the prophet at once. She had not thought it enough to have Elisha's help sometimes in her own family, but, though a woman of rank, attended on public worship. It well becomes the men of God, to inquire about the welfare of their friends and their families. The answer was, It is well. All well, and yet the child dead in the house! Yes! All is well that God doe...

Verse 2 Kings 4:24. _DRIVE, AND GO FORWARD_] It is customary in the East for a servant to walk _along side_ or _drive_ the ass his master rides. Sometimes he walks _behind_, and goads on the beast; and when it is to turn, he directs its head with the long pole of the goad. It is probably to this custom that the wise man alludes when he says, "I have seen servants on horses, and princes _walking as servants_ on the earth," on the _ground_....

SLACK NOT THY RIDING - Translate, “delay me not in my riding, except I bid thee.” The servant went on foot with the donkey to urge it forward, as is the ordinary custom in the East....

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

THEN SHE SADDLED AN ASS,.... Her servant did it by her order: AND SAID TO HER SERVANT, DRIVE, AND GO FORWARD; make all the haste he could: SLACK NOT THY RIDING FOR ME, EXCEPT I BID THEE; do not be afraid of riding too fast for me; if thou dost, I will tell thee; till then, keep on a good pace: Abarbinel says she walked afoot all the way, and ordered the man not to slacken his pace in riding for her, unless she called to him; and the Targum seems to favour this sense, "do not press me to ride unless I call to thee;'' so that the ass was for Elijah to ride on; but one would think, that, as she was in haste, quicker dispatch would be made by her riding than by walking, see 2 Kings 4:22....

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 ...

_slack not_thy _riding for me_ R.V. SLACKEN ME NOT THE RIDING. The R.V. thus avoids the pronominal adjective, which has no equivalent in the Hebrew. The servant seems to have been one to run by the side of the rider as a driver, and as a protection, to be ready also in case of mishap. Such runners were not uncommon in the East, being especially used by dignified persons. So Adonijah (1 Kings 1:5) and Absalom before him (2 Samuel 15:1) provided themselves with attendants of this sort, when they were aspiring to be kings. The rendering of A.V. would suggest that the servant was riding, but the Hebrew does not warrant this, and for women to travel thus riding behind a manservant on the same beast is not like Eastern custom....

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 appear...