2 Kings 2:19

19 Therefore the men of the city said to Elisha, Lo! the dwelling of this city is full good, as thou thyself, lord, seest; but the waters be most evil, and the land is barren.

2 Kings 2:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 2:19

And the men of the city said unto Elisha
The inhabitants of Jericho, perceiving him to be a prophet, and endowed with a power of working miracles:

behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord
seeth;
in a plain, surrounded with gardens and orchards, with vineyards, oliveyards, and groves of palm trees, and other odoriferous ones:

but the water is naught, and the ground barren;
that is, that part of it where this water was, or ran, for from thence it became barren; or "caused to miscarry", as the word signifies ^F17; not only trees cast their fruit, which it watered, but women became abortive that drank of it, as Josephus says ^F18, and so cattle. Abarbinel thinks it was so from the times of Joshua, being cursed by him; but, if so, it would not have been inhabited again; rather this was owing to a new curse, upon its being rebuilt; though this might affect only a small part of the ground, not the whole, as before observed.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 (tlkvm) "orbans", Montanus, Vatablus; "facit abortum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F18 De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 3.

2 Kings 2:19 In-Context

17 And they constrained him, till he assented to them, and said, Send ye (them out). And they sent (out the) fifty men; and when they had sought him by three days, they found him not (and after they had looked for him for three days, they still could not find him).

18 And they turned again to Elisha; and he dwelled in Jericho. And he said to them, Whether I said not to you, Do not ye send (them out)? (And they returned to Elisha, who had stayed in Jericho. And he said to them, Did I not say to you, Do not ye go?/Do not ye send them out?)

19 Therefore the men of the city said to Elisha, Lo! the dwelling of this city is full good, as thou thyself, lord, seest; but the waters be most evil, and the land is barren.

20 And he said, Bring ye to me a new vessel, and put ye salt into it. And when they had brought it to him,

21 he went out to the well of waters, and sent salt into it, and said, The Lord saith these things, I have healed these waters, and neither death, nor barrenness, shall be more in them. (he went to the well of water, or to the spring, and put the salt into it, and said, The Lord saith these things, I have healed this water, and no more shall there be death, or barrenness, in it.)