2 Kings 6:6

6 Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and made the iron float.

2 Kings 6:6 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 6:6

And the man of God said, where fell it?
&c.] For though endowed with a spirit of prophecy, he did not know all things, and at all times; and if he did know where it fell, he might ask this question to lead on to the performance of the miracle:

and he showed him the place;
the exact place in the river into which it fell:

and he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither;
he did not take the old helve and throw in, but a new stick he cut off of a tree; some think he made of this another helve or handle, of the same size and measure with the other, and that this being cast in was miraculously directed and fixed in the hole of the iron at the bottom of the water, and brought it up with it; but, as Abarbinel observes, there is no need to suppose this; the wood was cast into the precise place where the iron fell, and was sent as it were to call it up to it:

and the iron did swim;
it came up and appeared, and was bore on the surface of the waters; or, "and made the iron to swim" F5; which some understand of the wood cast in, as if it had some peculiar virtue in it to draw up the iron; but it was not any particular chosen wood, but what first occurred to the prophet F6; and the meaning is, that Elisha caused it to float, contrary to the nature of iron.


FOOTNOTES:

F5 (Puy) "fecit supernatare", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F6 Vid. Friese, Dissert. de Ferro Natante, sect. 7.

2 Kings 6:6 In-Context

4 So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
5 But as one was felling a log, his ax head fell into the water; he cried out, "Alas, master! It was borrowed."
6 Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and made the iron float.
7 He said, "Pick it up." So he reached out his hand and took it.
8 Once when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he took counsel with his officers. He said, "At such and such a place shall be my camp."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.