2 Kings 4:33-43

33 So he entered and ¹shut the door behind them both and prayed to the LORD.

34 And ²he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm.

35 Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and ³stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes.

36 He called Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, "Take up your son."

37 Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, and ⁴she took up her son and went out.

The Poisonous Stew

38 When Elisha returned to ⁵Gilgal, there was ⁶a famine in the land. As ⁷the sons of the prophets ⁸were sitting before him, he said to his servant, "⁹Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."

39 Then one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were.

40 So they poured it out for the men to eat. And as they were eating of the stew, they cried out and said, "O man of God, there is ¹⁰death in the pot." And they were unable * to eat.

41 But he said, "Now bring meal." ¹¹He threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people that they may eat." Then there was no harm in the pot.

42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, "¹²Give them to the people that they may eat."

43 His attendant said, "What, ¹³will I set this before a hundred men?" But he said, "Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and have some left over.' "

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2 Kings 4:33-43 Meaning and Commentary

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, 2Ki 4:1-7 of obtaining a son for a Shunamitish woman, who had been very hospitable to him, 2Ki 4:8-17, of his raising up her son to life when dead, 2Ki 4:18-37, of his curing the deadly pottage made of wild gourds, 2Ki 4:38-41, and of his feeding one hundred men with twenty barley loaves, 2Ki 4:42-44.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 13

1. 2 Kings 4:4; Matthew 6:6; Luke 8:51
2. 1 Kings 17:21-23
3. 1 Kings 17:21
4. Hebrews 11:35
5. 2 Kings 2:1
6. 2 Kings 8:1
7. 2 Kings 2:3
8. Luke 10:39; Acts 22:3
9. Ezek 11:3, 7, 11; Ezekiel 24:3
10. Exodus 10:17
11. Exodus 15:25; 2 Kings 2:21
12. Matthew 14:16-21; Matthew 15:32-38
13. Luke 9:13; John 6:9

Footnotes 1

[a]. Lit "And"