2 Kings 4:10

10 Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”

2 Kings 4:10 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:10

Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall
Either of the city, to which their house might join, or of their garden, a little distance from the house; though the Jewish writers commonly understand it of a little edifice built up of walls of stone or bricks, and not one with reeds, or stud and mud:

let us set for him there a bed;
that he may stay all night when he pleases:

and a table;
not only to eat his food, but to write on, and lay his books on he reads. Of the table of a scholar of the wise men, in later times, we are told F20, that two thirds of it were covered with a cloth, and the other third was uncovered, on which stood the plates and the herbs:

and a stool;
to sit upon at table:

and a candlestick;
with a candle in it, to light him in the night to read by, and the like:

and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither;
where he would be free from the noise of the house, and be more retired for prayer, reading, meditation, and study, and not be disturbed with the servants of the family, and be mixed with them; all this she contrived, both for his honour, and for his quietness and peace.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Pirke Eliezer, c. 33.

2 Kings 4:10 In-Context

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.
9 Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.
10 Please let us make a small room upstairs and put in it a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp for him. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there.”
11 One day Elisha came to visit and went to his upper room to lie down.
12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him,
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