2 Kings 6:27

27 And he said, "If the LORD do not help thee, from whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press?"

2 Kings 6:27 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 6:27

And he said, if the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help
thee?
&c.] Mistaking her meaning, as if she prayed him to relieve her hunger; the margin of our Bible is, "let not the Lord save thee"; and so some understand it as a wish that she might perish; and so Josephus {o}, that being wroth, he cursed her in the name of God:

out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress?
when neither of them afforded anything; no corn was to be had from the one, nor wine from the other, no, not for his own use, and therefore how could he help her out of either?

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 4.)

2 Kings 6:27 In-Context

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"

27 And he said, "If the LORD do not help thee, from whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press?"

28 And the king said unto her, "What aileth thee?" And she answered, "This woman said unto me, `Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'

29 So we boiled my son and ate him. And I said unto her on the next day, `Give thy son, that we may eat him'; and she hath hid her son."