2 Kings 6:28

_AND HE SAID, IF THE LORD DO NOT HELP THEE, WHENCE SHALL I HELP THEE? OUT OF THE BARNFLOOR, OR OUT OF THE WINEPRESS?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

24-33 Learn to value plenty, and to be thankful for it; see how contemptible money is, when in time of famine it is so freely parted with for any thing that is eatable! The language of Jehoram to the woman may be the language of despair. See the word of God fulfilled; among the threatenings of God's judgments upon Israel for their sins, this was one, that they should eat the flesh of their own children, Deuteronomy 28:53-5. The truth and the awful justice of God were displayed in this horrible transaction. Alas! what miseries sin has brought upon the world! But the foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord. The king swears the death of Elisha. Wicked men will blame any one as the cause of their troubles, rather than themselves, and will not leave their sins. If rending the clothes, without a broken and contrite heart, would avail, if wearing sackcl...

The king had assumed that the cry of the woman was for food. Her manner indicated that it was not so. He therefore proceeded to inquire what she wanted of him. THIS WOMAN - Both women, it would seem, were present; and the aggrieved one pointed to the other....

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-7:20 FURTHER MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA. The historian relates first a (comparatively) private miracle wrought by Elisha in the vicinity of Jericho, for the benefit of one of the "sons of the prophets" (2 Kings 7:1). He then tells us briefly of a series of public miracles which brought Elisha into much note and prominence. War, it appears, had again broken out in a pronounced form between Israel and Syria, Syria being the aggressor. The Syrian monarch prepared traps for his adversary, encamping in places where he hoped to take him at a disadvantage. But Elisha frustrated these plans, by addressing warnings to the King of Israel, and pointing out to him the various positions occupied ...

AND THE KING SAID UNTO HER, WHAT AILETH THEE?.... His passion subsiding, or pitying her as in distress, and supposing that there might be something particular and pressing in her case: AND SHE ANSWERED, THIS WOMAN SAID UNTO ME; who was now with her, and to whom she pointed: GIVE THY SON, THAT WE MAY EAT HIM TODAY, AND WE WILL EAT MY SON TOMORROW; and this was agreed to between them, that first one should be eaten, and then the other, and that they should feed upon one as long as it would last, and then on the other; for it is not to be limited precisely to a day and tomorrow....

5. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The lost axe-head recovered (2 Kings 6:1)_ 2. Elisha makes known Ben-hadad's plans (2 Kings 6:8) 3. Elisha's arrest planned (2 Kings 6:13) 4. The blinded Syrians led to Samaria (2 Kings 6:18) 5. Samaria besieged (2 Kings 6:24) 6. The king's wrath against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31) It has been truly said that the miracle of the swimming axe-head reveals the condescension of

AN AXEHEAD SWIMS. ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS AT DOTHAN. In several minor miracles Elisha is always represented as working them not by his word, but by some expedient. Thus he heals the miscarrying waters by salt, and the pot by meal, and recovers the axehead by casting a stick into the water. The prophet appears in the second narrative as the moving spirit in the Syrian war. Whenever the king of Syria devised an ambush (2 Kings 6:8, with a slight alteration of reading), Elisha revealed the secret. Elisha was at Dothan (2 Kings 6:13), a city standing on a hill about 10 miles N. of Samaria, on the caravan road from Egypt to Damascus (Genesis 37:17, p. 30). Elisha was defended, as we are finely told, by horses and chariots of f

WOMAN. One of the ten deaths occasioned by women. See note on Judges 4:21....

_What aileth thee?_ The woman's cry is not stopped by his answer. She has more to speak about than to ask him for food. _This woman said unto me_ It would appear as if she had brought her neighbour along with her, that what she deemed justice might be done her at once. That they should be brought to such hardships and horrors as are here described had been foretold to Israel in early times (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57); cf. also Lament. 2 Kings 2:20; 2 Kings 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10. Josephus relates the like dreadful suf

II. ELISHA'S PREDICTIVE MIRACLES 6:24-8:15 Three predictive miracles of Elisha are recorded in connection with this period of Aramean invasion: He predicted (1) the deliverance of Samaria from an Aramean siege (2 Kings 6:24 to 2 Kings 7:20); (2) a famine in Israel (2 Kings 8:1-6); and (3) the murderous career of Hazael (2 Kings 8:7-15). A. PREDICTION OF DELIVERANCE FOR SAMARIA 6:24-7:20 Several different stories connected with an Aramean siege of Samaria have been collected in 2 Kings 6:24 to...