2 Kings 4:42

42. There came a man Probably while Elisha still abode at Gilgal, and very soon after the last-mentioned miracle. This man was one of the pious in Israel who did not acknowledge the priests of the calf-worship at Beth-el and Dan.

Baal-shalisha This was either identical with “the land of Shalisha,” mentioned in 1 Samuel 9:4, or else a city of that district. According to Eusebius and Jerome, it lay some fifteen miles north of Lydda, or Diospolis, the modern Ludd, and hence somewhere near, if not at, the site of the present ruins Khurbet Hatta, and therefore about twenty miles west of Gilgal. Near this spot three watercourses unite in the large Wady Kurawa, and hence Thenius conjectures the origin of the name Shalisha, land of three. It was also, perhaps, a seat of the Baal-worship instituted by Jezebel.

Brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits The law ordained that the firstfruits should be given to the priests, (Numbers 18:13; Deuteronomy 18:4;) why, then, are these now brought to Elisha? Doubtless because the legal priesthood had been abolished in the northern kingdom, (see 2 Chronicles 11:14,) and the Lord had raised up the prophetical office to such a religious power and importance as virtually to take its place.

Full ears of corn in the husk thereof Rather, Garden fruits in his sack. That is, says Gesenius, “the produce of gardens, as earlier and more valued than those of the fields; just as with us the finer species of fruits and herbs are cultivated in gardens, and are superior to those growing in the fields. We may perhaps understand grits, or groats, made from the new and earliest grain, in preparing which, as an offering to God, the best and earliest ears were selected from garden wheat or other grain.”