2 Kings 6:27

27 And he said, If the LORD doth not help thee, 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 eighty [pieces] of silver, and the fourth part of a cab 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 to him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

27 And he said, If the LORD doth not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn-floor, or out of the wine-press?

28 And the king said to her, What aileth thee? and she answered, This woman said to me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow.

29 So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.