2 Kings 4:35

_THEN HE RETURNED, AND WALKED IN THE HOUSE TO AND FRO; AND WENT UP, AND STRETCHED HIMSELF UPON HIM: AND THE CHILD SNEEZED SEVEN TIMES, AND THE CHILD OPENED HIS EYES._ The child sneezed seven times, and ... opened his eyes. These were the first acts of restored respiration, and they are described as successive steps. Miracles were for the most part performed instantaneously, but sometimes also they were advanced progressively toward completion, and until the Gospel dispensation, when the Spirit was poured out fully, they were performed as it were by effort, and as in this case, after partial failure (1 Kings 18:44; Mark 8:24). Some of the old Jewish writers held that this son became afterward the prophet Habakkuk, and consequently the earliest of the prophets whose collected writings are contai

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 35. _THE CHILD SNEEZED SEVEN TIMES_] That is, it sneezed _abundantly_. When the nervous influence began to act on the muscular system, before the circulation could be in every part restored, particular muscles, if not the whole body, would be thrown into strong contractions and shiverings, and _sternutation_ or sneezing would be a natural consequence; particularly as obstructions must have taken place in the _head_ and its _vessels_, because of the disorder of which the child died. Most people, as well as philosophers and physicians, have remarked how beneficial sneezings are to the removal of obstructions in the head. _Sternutamenta_, says Pliny, _Hist. Nat_., lib. xxviii., cap. 6, _gravedinem capitis emendant_; "Sneezing relieves disorders of the head....

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 HE RETURNED AND WALKED IN THE HOUSE TO AND FRO,.... Left the chamber, and came down to the house where the family chiefly resided, and walked to and fro in deep thought and meditation, and, no doubt, in fervent ejaculations for the wished for blessing to be completed: AND WENT UP; to the chamber again, and up to the bed in it: AND STRETCHED HIMSELF UPON HIM; as before: AND THE CHILD SNEEZED SEVEN TIMES; which was a sign of life, and even of health; and hereby his head was cleared, as some observe, of those humours that had caused the pains in it a, and had issued in death: AND THE CHILD OPENED HIS EYES; upon the prophet, another sign of life. a Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 6. Aristot. Problem. sect. 33. qu. 9....

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 ...

_Then he returned_ i.e. left the bed. _and walked in the house to and fro_ The R.V. inserts -once" before -to and fro", which is according to the Hebrew. The exertion which he had used, and the emotion and anxiety he felt, would be overpowering. Hence the need for a change of posture. Elisha did not leave the chamber but walked from end to end of the room in which the child lay. _the child opened his eyes_ The second effort, supported as it was, we may be sure, by repeated prayer, obtains a gracious answer. The dead child is brought to life....

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;...