2 Kings 8:1

2 Kings 8:1-6. The land of the Shunammite is restored to her by the king's order for the sake of Elisha's miracles (Not in Chronicles)

1. Then spake Elisha R.V. Now Elisha had spoken. It is clear from verse 3 that Elisha's advice was given at least seven years before the event narrated in these verses. Hence the necessity for the change of tense. It is probable that the accounts of Elisha's work and influence are not related in their chronological order. The famine here spoken of was most likely the same to which allusion is made in 2 Kings 4:38, and perhaps the conference of the king with Gehazi mentioned in verse 4 took place before the latter was smitten with leprosy. It is not however absolutely certain that Jehoram might not have an interview with Gehazi, though leprous. Bp Hall says of them: -I begin to think some goodness in both these. Had there not been some goodness in Jehoram, he had not taken pleasure to hear, even from a leprous mouth, the miraculous acts and praises of God's prophet: had there not been some goodness in Gehazi, he had not, after so fearful an infliction of judgement, thus ingenuously recounted the praises of his severe master".

the woman, whose son he had restored i.e. the Shunammite whose story is told in 2 Kings 4:8-37.

sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn Why such advice should be given to a woman, who from the history appears to have been in better circumstances than others, it is not easy to decide. As the husband is nowhere mentioned in this appeal to Jehoram, it may be that he, being already old when the son was restored to life, had in the meantime died. Then she may have fallen into some distress, and have been unable to dwell on the lands which her husband had cultivated.

the Lord hath called for a famine Similarly the Lord is said to call forthe sword against a land, Jeremiah 25:29; Ezekiel 38:21.

and it shall also come Elisha, as the seer, foretells the duration of the dearth, as he had done the termination of the siege, and the consequent abundance in Samaria (2 Kings 7:1). In both cases his words are directly referred to Jehovah.