2 Kings 4:23

23 "Why do you want to go to him today?" he asked. "It isn't the time for the New Moon Feast. It isn't the Sabbath day." "Don't let that bother you," she said.

2 Kings 4:23 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:23

And he said, wherefore wilt thou go to him today?
&c.] What reason is there for it? what is the meaning of it?

it is neither new moon nor sabbath;
neither the first day of the month, nor the seventh day of the week, times which were religiously observed; so with the Heathens the new moon and the seventh of the week, and so the fourth, were sacred ^F21; which notions they borrowed from the Jews, (See Gill on 1 Samuel 20:5) and when, it seems, it was usual to frequent the house of the prophet, to hear the word of God read and explained, and other religious exercises performed, as praying and singing praise, and receiving some good instructions and advice. Joseph Kimchi gives a different sense of these words:

``there is not a month past, no, not a week, since thou sawest him;''

why therefore shouldest thou be in such haste to go to him? so the words for new moon and sabbath may signify:

and she said, it shall be well;
it was right for her to go, and it would be well for him and her, and the family; or, "peace" ^F23, be easy and quiet, farewell: it is much he had no mistrust of the death of the child, or that it was worse, since it went from him ill.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F21 Hesiod. Opera & Dies, l. 2.
F23 (Mwlv) "pax", Pagninus, Montanus

2 Kings 4:23 In-Context

21 She went up to the room on the roof. There she laid him on the bed of the man of God. Then she shut the door and went out.

22 She sent for her husband. She said, "Please send me one of the servants and a donkey. Then I can go quickly to the man of God and return."

23 "Why do you want to go to him today?" he asked. "It isn't the time for the New Moon Feast. It isn't the Sabbath day." "Don't let that bother you," she said.

24 She put a saddle on her donkey. She said to her servant, "Let's go. Don't slow down for me unless I tell you to."

25 So she started out. She came to Mount Carmel. That's where the man of God was. When she was still a long way off, he saw her coming. He said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the woman from Shunem!