2 Kings 6:2

2 Let us go, we pray you, to the Yarden, and take there every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. He answered, Go you.

2 Kings 6:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 6:2

Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan
Which, according to Josephus ^F1, was fifty furlongs, or upwards of six miles, distant from Gilgal:

and take thence every man a beam;
by cutting down the trees that grew there; for Mr. Maundrell says ^F2, the banks of Jordan are beset with bushes and trees, which are an harbour for wild beasts; and another traveller ^F3 observes, that it is shadowed on both sides with poplars, alders and who speaks of their cutting down boughs from the trees when there:

and let us make us a place there where we may dwell:
near the banks of Jordan, which they might choose for the seclusion and pleasantness of the situation, or because Elijah was taken up to heaven near it, as Abarbinel thinks; from whence it appears that these scholars were far from living an idle life; for they were not only trained up in useful learning, but were employed in trades and manufactures, to which they had been brought up, and knew how to fell timber, and build houses:

and he answered, go ye;
he gave them leave, without which they did not choose to do anything.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4.
F2 Journey from Aleppo p. 82, 83.
F3 Sandys's Travels, l. 3. p. 110.

2 Kings 6:2 In-Context

1 The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, See now, the place where we dwell before you is too strait for us.

2 Let us go, we pray you, to the Yarden, and take there every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. He answered, Go you.

3 One said, Be pleased, I pray you, to go with your servants. He answered, I will go.

4 So he went with them. When they came to the Yarden, they cut down wood.

5 But as one was felling a beam, the ax-head fell into the water; and he cried, and said, Alas, my master! for it was borrowed.