2 Kings 6:24-33

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Kings 6:24-33

This last paragraph of this chapter should, of right, have been the first of the next chapter, for it begins a new story, which is there continued and concluded. Here is, I. The siege which the king of Syria laid to Samaria and the great distress which the city was reduced to thereby. The Syrians had soon forgotten the kindnesses they had lately received in Samaria, and very ungratefully, for aught that appears without any provocation, sought the destruction of it, 2 Kgs. 6:24. There are base... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:24

And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host ,.... Still retaining a grudge and enmity against Israel, and not at all softened by the kind and humane treatment his forces had met with, when in the hands of Israel; and finding he could do nothing in a secret way, by ambush, mustered all his forces together, to try what he could by open war: and went up, and besieged Samaria ; Jehoram king of Israel not being able to stop him till he came to his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:25

And there was a great famine in Samaria ,.... No care, perhaps, having been taken to lay up stores against a siege: and, behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver ; shekels, as the Targum explains the word in the next clause, which amounted to about nine or ten pounds of our money; a great price for the head of such a creature, by law unclean, its flesh disagreeable, and of that but very little, as is on an head: and the fourth part of a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:26

And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall , &c.; To spy out the motion and situation of the enemy, and to give orders for the annoyance of them, and to see that his soldiers did their duty: there cried a woman to him, saying, help, my lord, O king ; desired his assistance and help in a cause depending between her and another woman. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:27

And he said, if the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee ?.... Mistaking her meaning, as if she prayed him to relieve her hunger; the margin of our Bible is, "let not the Lord save thee"; and so some understand it as a wish that she might perish; and so Josephus F15 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 4.) , that being wroth, he cursed her in the name of God: out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress ? when neither of them afforded anything; no corn was to be had... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:28

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:29

So we boiled my son, and did eat him ,.... Thus what was predicted, by way of threatening, began to be accomplished, Deuteronomy 28:53 ; see Gill on Deuteronomy 28:53 , and of which there were other instances of a like kind at the siege of Jerusalem, both by Nebuchadnezzar and Vespasian: and I said unto her on the next day ; after her child had been wholly ate up: give thy son, that we may eat him ; according to agreement: and she hath hid her son ; either to save him alive,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:30

And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes ,.... At the horror of the fact reported, and through grief that his people were brought into such distress through famine: and he passed by upon the wall ; returning to his palace: and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth upon his flesh ; which, in token of humiliation for averting the calamities he was under, he had put there before, and now was seen through the rending of his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:31

Then he said, God do so and more also to me ,.... He swore and made dreadful imprecations: if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day ; imputing the sore famine to him, because he had foretold it, and did not pray for the removal of it, as he might; and perhaps had advised and encouraged the king to hold out the siege, which had brought them to this extremity, and therefore was enraged at him. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 6:32

And Elisha sat in his house ,.... In Samaria: and the elders sat with him ; not the elders of the city, or the magistrates thereof, but his disciples, as Josephus says F16 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 4.) , the eldest of them, whom he admitted to greater familiarity and converse with him: and the king sent a man from before him ; to execute what he had sworn should be done that day to the prophet: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, see ye how... read more

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