48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?.... This the good king should have done before be set out, but had neglected it; however, it was not too late: and one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said; who might be one that feared the Lord, and was intimate with Elisha, or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him,.... To give them an answer, which he concluded from his being a servant and disciple of Elijah, whom he succeeded in his office, and of whom he had, doubtless, heard; and from his following the camp, and being in it, which he easily imagined was not to fight, but to assist by his advice and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, what have I to do with thee?.... An idolater; I can hold no discourse nor have any conversation with thee, nor give thee any advice or assistance: get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother; the prophets of Baal, and of the groves: and the king of Israel said unto him, nay;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Elisha said, as the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand,.... Whose minster and prophet he was, to whom he prayed, and whose service he was ready to perform: surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah; revere him not only as a king, but as a pious prince, and a worshipper of the true God: I would not look...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But now bring me a minstrel,.... A piper, a man that knows how to play upon the harp, as the Targum; according to Procopius Gazaeus, this was one of the Levites he ordered to be fetched, who was used to the spiritual melody of David, and could play on musical instruments as he directed. This he did to allay his passion, and compose his spirits,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said, thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches. In which the allied army lay encamped, that they might be ready to receive large quantities of water, sufficient for the whole army and cattle, when it came.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For thus saith the Lord, ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see the rain,.... Neither perceive the south wind blow, which usually brings rain, nor clouds gathering in the heavens, as portending it, nor any filling from thence: yet that valley shall be filled with water; and all the ditches dug in it: that ye may drink, both ye and your...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord,.... To give them such a plenty of water in such an extraordinary manner: he would do for them what was greater, not only save them from falling into the hand of Moab, which they feared, but he wilt deliver the Moabites into your hands; which was more than was asked for, or expected.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And ye shall smite every fenced city and every choice city,.... That is, the inhabitants of them with the sword, and demolish them also, 2 Kings 3:25, and shall fell every good tree; which seems contrary to the law in Deuteronomy 20:19, but that may respect trees belonging to a city when besieged only, or only to Canaanitish cities; or the law was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered,.... At Jerusalem; which always went along with the daily burnt offering of the lamb, which might not indeed be offered before break of day, yet quickly after; for no sacrifice could be offered before that, [See comments on Exodus 29:39], that, behold, there came water by the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them,.... The kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom: they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward; that were of an age capable of that, and all who were more grown; or "girt on a girdle" (l), a military one, with which the sword was girt, who were at age to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they rose up early in the morning,.... To watch the motions of their enemies, and be upon their guard against them: and the sun shone upon the water; with which the valley was filled: and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood; so it appeared through the rays of the sun reflected on it.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, this is blood,.... They were very confident of it, having no notion of water, there having been no rain for some time; and perhaps it was not usual to see water at any time in this place: the kings are surely slain; they and their forces: and they have smitten one another; having quarrelled either about their religion, or about want...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when they came to the camp of Israel,.... Not in an orderly regular manner, in rank and file, as an army should march, but in a confused manner, everyone striving who should get thither first, and have the largest share of the booty: the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; being prepared for them, they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they beat down the cities,.... Demolished the walls of them, and houses in them, wherever they came: and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; which they had taken out of the walls and houses they pulled down; or which they picked up in the highway, as they passed along, being a stony country; or which being laid...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him,.... The siege was so close, the slingers or engineers did so much execution, that he saw the city would soon be taken, and he be obliged to deliver it up: he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords; men expert in war, bold and daring: to break through even unto the king...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead,.... Not the eldest son of the king of Edom, whom the king of Moab had in his hands before, which made the king of Edom the more willing to join in this expedition for the recovery of his son, as Joseph Kimchi thinks; or whom he took now in his sally out upon him, as Moses Kimchi...
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...