2 Kings 4:40

40 They dished out the food for the men to eat. As they were eating the stew, they cried out, "There's death in the pot, man of God!" So they couldn't eat it.

2 Kings 4:40 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:40

So they poured out for the men to eat
When the pottage was boiled, they poured it out into dishes or basins, for the sons of the prophets to eat:

and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they
cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot;
poison, the cause of death; the pottage was so exceeding bitter, that they concluded there must be some poisonous herb in it; and coloquintida is so bitter, that it is called "the gall of the earth":

and they could not eat thereof:
they stopped eating, it being so very disagreeable, and, as they supposed, dangerous.

2 Kings 4:40 In-Context

38 When Elisha went back to Gilgal, there was a famine in the country. [One day,] while the disciples of the prophets were meeting with him, he told his servant, "Put a large pot on the fire, and cook some stew for the disciples of the prophets."

39 One of them went into the field to gather vegetables and found a wild vine. He filled his clothes with wild gourds. Then he cut them into the pot of stew without knowing what they were.

40 They dished out the food for the men to eat. As they were eating the stew, they cried out, "There's death in the pot, man of God!" So they couldn't eat it.

41 Elisha said, "Bring some flour." He threw it into the pot and said, "Dish it out for the people to eat." Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.

42 A man from Baal Shalisha brought bread made from the first harvested grain, 20 barley loaves, and fresh grain to the man of God. The man of God said, "Give it to the people to eat."