2 Kings 4:23

23 And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.

2 Kings 4:23 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 4:23

And he said, wherefore wilt thou go to him today?
&c.] What reason is there for it? what is the meaning of it?

it is neither new moon nor sabbath;
neither the first day of the month, nor the seventh day of the week, times which were religiously observed; so with the Heathens the new moon and the seventh of the week, and so the fourth, were sacred F21; which notions they borrowed from the Jews, (See Gill on 1 Samuel 20:5) and when, it seems, it was usual to frequent the house of the prophet, to hear the word of God read and explained, and other religious exercises performed, as praying and singing praise, and receiving some good instructions and advice. Joseph Kimchi gives a different sense of these words:

``there is not a month past, no, not a week, since thou sawest him;''

why therefore shouldest thou be in such haste to go to him? so the words for new moon and sabbath may signify:

and she said, it shall be well;
it was right for her to go, and it would be well for him and her, and the family; or, "peace" F23, be easy and quiet, farewell: it is much he had no mistrust of the death of the child, or that it was worse, since it went from him ill.


FOOTNOTES:

F21 Hesiod. Opera & Dies, l. 2.
F23 (Mwlv) "pax", Pagninus, Montanus

2 Kings 4:23 In-Context

21 And she went up, and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and shut the door: and going out,
22 She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23 And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.
24 And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going: And do that which I bid thee.
25 So she went forward, and came to the man of God, to mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi, his servant: Behold that Sunamitess.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.