2 Kings 6:2

2 Please allow us to go to the Yarden; each of us will collect a log there, and we'll build a place there for us to live." He answered, "Go ahead."

2 Kings 6:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 6:2

Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan
Which, according to Josephus ^F1, was fifty furlongs, or upwards of six miles, distant from Gilgal:

and take thence every man a beam;
by cutting down the trees that grew there; for Mr. Maundrell says ^F2, the banks of Jordan are beset with bushes and trees, which are an harbour for wild beasts; and another traveller ^F3 observes, that it is shadowed on both sides with poplars, alders and who speaks of their cutting down boughs from the trees when there:

and let us make us a place there where we may dwell:
near the banks of Jordan, which they might choose for the seclusion and pleasantness of the situation, or because Elijah was taken up to heaven near it, as Abarbinel thinks; from whence it appears that these scholars were far from living an idle life; for they were not only trained up in useful learning, but were employed in trades and manufactures, to which they had been brought up, and knew how to fell timber, and build houses:

and he answered, go ye;
he gave them leave, without which they did not choose to do anything.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4.
F2 Journey from Aleppo p. 82, 83.
F3 Sandys's Travels, l. 3. p. 110.

2 Kings 6:2 In-Context

1 The guild prophets said to Elisha, "As you can see, the place where we are living in order to be with you is too small for us.

2 Please allow us to go to the Yarden; each of us will collect a log there, and we'll build a place there for us to live." He answered, "Go ahead."

3 But one of them said, "Please, won't you come with your servants?" He answered, "All right, I will";

4 so he went with them. When they arrived at the Yarden, they cut down trees;

5 but as one was felling a tree trunk, the head of his axe fell in the water. "Oh, no!" he cried. "My master, it was a borrowed one!"