2 Kings 4:25

_SO SHE WENT AND CAME UNTO THE MAN OF GOD TO MOUNT CARMEL. AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE MAN OF GOD SAW HER AFAR OFF, THAT HE SAID TO GEHAZI HIS SERVANT, BEHOLD, YONDER IS THAT SHUNAMMITE:_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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...

The distance was about sixteen or seventeen miles....

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

SO SHE WENT AND CAME UNTO THE MAN OF GOD AT MOUNT CARMEL,.... Where Elijah used to be, and where, perhaps, was a school of the prophets; this, according to Bunting x, was sixteen miles from Shunem: AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE MAN OF GOD SAW HER AFAR OFF; as he might from the eminence of the mountain: THAT HE SAID TO GEHAZI HIS SERVANT, BEHOLD, YONDER IS THAT SHUNAMMITE; that has so often and so hospitably entertained us at her house. x Travels, c. p. 207....

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 ...

_to mount Carmel_ The distance would occupy five or six hours riding. (Bunsen, _Bibelwerk_.) The LXX. inserts at the beginning of this verse a further direction to the servant. -Come, set forth and go to the man of God to Mount Carmel". This is a result of reading the Hebrew words twice over. Probably from previous visits both the Shunammite and her servant were familiar with the road; for the whole narrative gives the impression that on Carmel there was a centre of prophetic teaching and religious worship, and that the family from Shunem were among the frequenters thereof. Elisha discerns her coming in the distance and is able to say to Gehazi who she is some time before she arrives. _that_[R.V. THE] _Shunammite_ The pronoun of the original is, except in this instance, connected with masculine nouns. It is better to consider it here as rendered by -yonder", which the A.V. puts in itali...

C. RESURRECTION OF THE SHUNAMMITE'S Song of Solomon 4:18-37 TRANSLATION (18) And the child grew, and it came to pass one day that he went unto his father to the reapers. (19) And he said unto his father, My head, my head! And he said unto the lad, Carry him unto his mother. (20) And he carried him, and brought him unto his mother, and he sat upon her knees unto noon and died. (21) And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. (22) And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray you, one of the servants, and one of the donkeys that I may hasten unto the man of God, and come again. (23) And he said, Why are you going unto him? Today is not the new moon or sabbath. And she said, it will be well. (24) And she saddled the donkey and said unto her servant, Drive, and go forward, Do not slacken for my sake the riding unless I co...

VARIOUS MIRACLES OF ELISHA The miracles related of Elisha in this and the following Chapter s resemble many of those previously recounted of Elijah. Thus both prophets multiplied the sustenance of a woman in need (2 Kings 4:1; 1 Kings 17:8); both restored a dead child to life (2 Kings 4:8; 1 Kings 17:17); both came into conflict with their king on the occasion of a famine (2 Kings 6:24; 1 Kings 18;...