2 Kings 4:28

Then. — And; so in 2 Kings 4:29; 2 Kings 4:35.

Did I desire (ask) a son of my lord? — Only the conclusion of her appeal is given. She says, Better to have had no son, than to have had one and lost him. The opposite of our poet’s

“‘Tis better to have loved and lost,

Than never to have loved at all.”

But this last is the fruit of reflection; her words are the spontaneous outflow of a mother’s poignant sorrow. Or, perhaps, we should understand that grief does not allow her to specify the cause directly; she leaves the prophet to infer that from her questions.