2 Kings 2:19

19 Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, "As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages."

2 Kings 2:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 2:19

And the men of the city said unto Elisha
The inhabitants of Jericho, perceiving him to be a prophet, and endowed with a power of working miracles:

behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord
seeth;
in a plain, surrounded with gardens and orchards, with vineyards, oliveyards, and groves of palm trees, and other odoriferous ones:

but the water is naught, and the ground barren;
that is, that part of it where this water was, or ran, for from thence it became barren; or "caused to miscarry", as the word signifies ^F17; not only trees cast their fruit, which it watered, but women became abortive that drank of it, as Josephus says ^F18, and so cattle. Abarbinel thinks it was so from the times of Joshua, being cursed by him; but, if so, it would not have been inhabited again; rather this was owing to a new curse, upon its being rebuilt; though this might affect only a small part of the ground, not the whole, as before observed.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (tlkvm) "orbans", Montanus, Vatablus; "facit abortum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F18 De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 3.

2 Kings 2:19 In-Context

17 But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The fifty of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn't find him.

18 Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, "Didn't I tell you not to go?"

19 Some men from Jericho went to Elisha and said, "As you know, sir, this is a fine city, but the water is bad and causes miscarriages."

20 "Put some salt in a new bowl and bring it to me," he ordered. They brought it to him,

21 and he went to the spring, threw the salt in the water, and said, "This is what the Lord says: "I make this water pure, and it will not cause any more deaths or miscarriages.' "