2 Kings 4:40

40 and they pour out for the men to eat, and it cometh to pass at their eating of the pottage, that they have cried out, and say, `Death [is] in the pot, O man of God!' and they have not been able to eat.

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 And Elisha hath turned back to Gilgal, and the famine [is] in the land, and the sons of the prophets are sitting before him, and he saith to his young man, `Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.'

39 And one goeth out unto the field to gather herbs, and findeth a vine of the field, and gathereth of it gourds of the field -- the fulness of his garment -- and cometh in and splitteth [them] into the pot of pottage, for they knew [them] not;

40 and they pour out for the men to eat, and it cometh to pass at their eating of the pottage, that they have cried out, and say, `Death [is] in the pot, O man of God!' and they have not been able to eat.

41 And he saith, `Then bring ye meal;' and he casteth into the pot, and saith, `Pour out for the people, and they eat;' and there was no evil thing in the pot.

42 And a man hath come from Baal-Shalishah, and bringeth in to the man of God bread of first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in its husk, and he saith, `Give to the people, and they eat.'