2 Kings 6:28-33

28 What's your trouble?" She answered, "The other day this woman here suggested that we eat my child, and then eat her child the next day.

29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I told her that we would eat her son, but she had hidden him!" ¹

30 Hearing this, the king tore his clothes in dismay, and the people who were close to the wall could see that he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes.

31 He exclaimed, "May God strike me dead if Elisha is not beheaded before the day is over!"

32 And he sent a messenger to get Elisha. Meanwhile Elisha was at home with some elders who were visiting him. Before the king's messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "That murderer is sending someone to kill me! Now, when he gets here, shut the door and don't let him come in. The king himself will be right behind him."

33 He had hardly finished saying this, when the king arrived and said, "It's the Lord who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for him to do something?"

2 Kings 6:28-33 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 6

In this chapter are recorded other wonders of Elisha, as causing iron to swim, 2Ki 6:1-7 having knowledge of the secret counsels of the king of Syria, which he disclosed to the king of Israel, 2Ki 6:8-12 smiting the Syrian army with blindness sent to take him, and which he led into the midst of Samaria, 2Ki 6:13-23, and the chapter is closed with an account of the siege of Samaria, and a sore famine in it, 2Ki 6:24-33.

Cross References

• 1. 6.29Deuteronomy 28.57;Lamentations 4.10.

Footnotes

• [a]. [Probable text] king; [Hebrew] messenger.