Kings II 4:1

1 And Jebosthe the son of Saul heard that Abenner the son of Ner had died in Chebron; and his hands were paralyzed, and all the men of Israel grew faint.

Kings II 4:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:1

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 ^F17, and it is the commonly received notion of the Jewish writers; though it does not appear that he was a prophet, or the son of a prophet, but the governor or steward of Ahab's house; she was more likely to be the wife of a meaner person; and from hence it is clear that the prophets and their disciples married:

saying, thy servant my husband is dead;
which is the lot of prophets, as well as others, ( Zechariah 1:5 )

and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord;
her husband was well known to the prophet, and known to be a good man, one of the 7000 who bowed not the knee to Baal, for the truth of which she appeals to Elisha; and this character she gives of her husband, lest it should be thought that his poverty, and leaving her in debt, were owing to any ill practices of his:

and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen;
which it seems were allowed of when men became poor and insolvent, and died so, to which the allusion is in ( Isaiah 1:1 ) ( Matthew 18:25 ) , (See Gill on Matthew 18:25). Josephus ^F18 suggests, that the insolvency of this man was owing to his borrowing money to feed the prophets hid in the cave; and it is a common notion of the Jews that this creditor was Jehoram the son of Ahab; and in later times it was a law with the Athenians ^F19, that if a father had not paid what he was fined in court, the son was obliged to pay it, and in the mean while to lie in bonds, as was the case of Cimon ^F20, and others.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 2.
F18 Ibid.
F19 Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 10.
F20 Cornel. Nep. in Vita Cimon. l. 5. c. 1.

Kings II 4:1 In-Context

1 And Jebosthe the son of Saul heard that Abenner the son of Ner had died in Chebron; and his hands were paralyzed, and all the men of Israel grew faint.

2 And Jebosthe the son of Saul had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one Baana, and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Remmon the Berothite of the children of Benjamin; for Beroth was reckoned to the children of Benjamin.

3 And the Berothites ran away to Gethaim, and were sojourners there until this day.

4 And Jonathan Saul's son a son lame of his feet, five years old, and he was when the news of Saul and Jonathan his son came from Jezrael, and his nurse took him up, and fled; and it came to pass as he hasted and retreated, that he fell, and was lamed. And his name Memphibosthe.

5 And Rechab and Baana the sons of Remmon the Berothite went, and they came in the heat of the day into the house of Jebosthe; and he was sleeping on a bed at noon.