69 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 4 This chapter treats of the miracles of Elisha, of his multiplying a poor widow's pot of oil for the payment of her husband's debts, 2 Kings 4:1 of obtaining a son for a Shunamitish woman, who had been very hospitable to him, 2 Kings 4:8, of his raising up her son to life when dead, 2 Kings 4:18, of his curing the deadly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha,.... This, according to the Targum, was the wife of Obadiah, who had hid the prophets by fifty in a cave in the times of Ahab; and so Josephus (q), and it is the commonly received notion of the Jewish writers; though it does not appear that he was a prophet, or...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Great service Elisha had done, in the foregoing chapter, for the three kings: to his prayers and prophecies they owed their lives and triumphs. One would have expected that the next chapter would tell us what honours and what dignities were conferred on Elisha for this, that he should immediately be preferred at court, and made prime-minister of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophet unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. It is sad for anyone to be in debt, and yet there may be circumstances under which even a man who...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD; and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. According to the very cruel custom of those times, if a man were in debt, and had no means of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee?.... Or can I do, being poor himself, and unable to relieve her out of his substance, and not knowing where to get anything for her; and so what could she expect from him? signifying, that he pitied her case, but all that he could do was to give her his best advice, and pray for her: tell me what...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Elisha was probably about as poor as she was, so what could he do for her? 2Ki_4:2. Tell me, what hast thou in the house? “Whatever there is in the house must go towards this debt, so ‘tell me what hast thou in the house?’” 2Ki_4:2. And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. They used oil extensively in the preparation of their food as well as for lighting their dwellings. This woman was so poor that she had no meal in the house, but she had a little...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then he said, go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours,.... For he perceived that she had none: even empty vessels; which they might more readily lend her: borrow not a few; but as many as she could get; the prophet, under a divine impulse, was directed to say this to her, foreseeing, by a spirit of prophecy, that a large quantity of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. “Get as many empty oil jars as ever you can, it does not matter how great nor how many they are, but they must be empty.”
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. Evidently the poor woman’s credit was good though her debts were heavy; her neighbours knew she would have paid her creditor if she could, so they were willing to grant her request though they probably wondered why she wanted so many empty...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when thou art come in,.... Into her house: thou shall shut the door upon thee, and upon thy sons; that they might be alone in the house while the miracle was working; that they might not be interrupted in what they were to do, by the creditor coming in upon them, or by neighbours, who would be for getting the oil from them in the vessels they...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So she went from him,.... And did as he advised her, borrowed many empty vessels of her neighbours, having faith in what the prophet had said to her: and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons; and then went to work as she was directed, with her sons: who brought the vessels to her; the empty ones she had borrowed: and she poured out; the oil...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass when the vessels were full,.... For the oil being miraculously increased as it was poured forth, there was enough to fill all the vessels; Ben Gersom and Abarbinel say, that when the pot was emptied, all the air that entered it was turned into oil: that she said to her son, bring me yet a vessel; as she had two sons, one it is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then she came and told the man of God,.... Elisha the prophet, what had been done, what a quantity of oil she had, and advised with him what was to be done with it: and he said, go, sell thy oil, and pay thy debt; what was thus miraculously produced was no doubt very good and excellent, and would fetch a good price; and she is therefore bid to...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then she came and told the man of God. She must have understood that the oil was to be used for the payment of her debt; but she was a woman of delicate sensitiveness, with a tender conscience, as honest people usually are, so she wanted full permission from Elisha before she would dispose of the oil. She regarded it, in some sense, as his oil: as...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, — “That is thy first duty; ‘pay thy debt,’” —
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And live thou and thy children of the rest. And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. The prophet had helped a poor woman; now a rich woman helps him. God sometimes pays his servants in kind very...