3 Heb. by his feet. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite : (26) run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. (27) And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the Heb., bitter. Scribes on these days has not here been transferred by an anachronism to the days of Elisha. (Comp. Num. xviii. 11 seq.; Lev. xxiii. 3, for the legal mode of observing new moons and Sabbath days.) دو It shall be well.-Omit it shall be. The expression may be equivalent to our common "all right; admitting the truth of what is said, yet persisting in one's purpose. She did not want to be delayed, nor to have her faith shaken by argument. (24) Then she saddled an ass.-And she saddled the ass-i.e., which the young man brought, and probably saddled at her bidding. Slack not thy riding for me.-Literally, restrain me not from riding-i.e., do not stop, or slacken speed. A halt for rest might naturally be taken, as the distance was considerable. (25) To mount Carmel.-Elisha, then, must have dwelt there at least occasionally. (Comp. verse 9.) Carmel probably served as a fixed centre of prophetic teaching for the north, as Gilgal, Beth-el, and Jericho for the south. (Comp. also Elisha's sacrifice there, 1 Kings xviii. 31 seq.) Afar off. The same word (minnèged) as to view (chap ii. 7, 15). Shunammite.-Syriac, Shulamite. (26) Run now, I pray thee, to meet her.—This perhaps indicates the respect in which Elisha held the Shunammitess. But it may denote surprise and apprehension at an unusual visit. Hence the inquiries about each member of the family. It is well. She said this merely to avoid further explanation. She would open her grief to the prophet's own ear, and to none other. (27) To the hill.-Probably to the summit. She caught him by the feet.-She laid hold of (clasped) his feet. Assuming the posture of an humble and urgent suppliant, and no doubt pouring out a flood of passionate entreaties for help. But (and) Gehazi came near to thrust her away. He thought her vehemence a trespass upon the dignity of his master. (Comp. Matt. xix. 13; John iv. 27.) The Lord hath hid it from me.-Supernatural knowledge of every event was not a characteristic of the gift of prophecy. (Comp. 2 Sam. vii. 3 seq. for a somewhat similar case of ignorance on the part of a prophet.) me. the Shunammite. man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told (28) Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? (29) Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. (30) And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. (31) And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor (28) Then.-And; so in verses 29, 35. Did I desire (ask) a son of my lord ?-Only the conclusion of her appeal is given. She says, Better to have had no son, than to have had one and lost him. The opposite of our poet's "Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all." But this last is the fruit of reflection; her words are the spontaneous outflow of a mother's poignant sorrow. Or, perhaps, we should understand that grief does not allow her to specify the cause directly; she leaves the prophet to infer that from her questions. (29) If thou meet any man, salute him not.-An injunction of utmost haste. (Comp. the similar words of our Saviour, Luke x. 4.) A short greeting might end in a long halt. "Orientals lose much time in tedious salutations" (Keil). Lay my staff upon the face of the child.-It seems to be implied that if the mother had had faith this would have sufficed for raising the child. (Comp. chap. ii. 8; Acts xix. 12.) Keil supposes that the prophet foresaw the failure of this expedient, and intended by it to teach the Shunammitess and his followers generally that the power of working miracles was not magically inherent in himself or in his staff, as they might imagine, but only in Jehovah, who granted the temporary use of that power to faith and prayer. In other words, Elisha was seeking to lift the minds of his disciples to higher and more spiritual conceptions of the prophetic office. But this seems doubtful. (30) I will not leave thee.-She wished the prophet himself to go to her child. The writer appropriately substitutes "the mother of the child" for "the Shunammite" or "the woman" in connection with this impassioned utterance, which induced the prophet to yield to her wishes. (31) There was neither voice, nor hearing.— 1 Kings xviii. 29; see margin, and Isa. xxi. 7. Wherefore he went again.—And he came back to meet him (Elisha). The child is not awaked.-The lad woke not. The Rabbis explain Gehazi's failure by assuming that he had disobeyed his master's injunction by loitering on the way. This is contradicted by the narrative itself. He had acted with all despatch. Others blame him on 1hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. (32) And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. (33) He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD. (34) And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands and he stretched himself upon 1 Heb., attention. B.C. cir. 891. Shunammite's Son. he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. (37) Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out. (38) And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe the child; and the flesh of the child 2 Heb.once hither pottage for the sons of the prophets. waxed warm. (35) Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. (36) And and once thither. other grounds, which, in the absolute silence of the text, cannot be substantiated. The prophet says no word of censure when he receives the announcement of the failure. Bähr thinks that Elisha himself was at fault in supposing he could transfer the spirit and power of a prophet to his servant; and acted in over-haste without a Divine incentive. (Comp. 2 Sam. vii. 3 seq.) The true explanation is suggested in the Note on verse 29. (Bähr is wrong in taking the staff to be other than a walking staff. A different word would be used for rod or sceptre.) (33) He went in therefore.-Comp. the narrative of Elijah's raising the widow's son (1 Kings xvii. 17— 24), which is imitated in the present account. Them twain.-Himself and the body. (34) He went up.-Upon the bed (chap. i. 6). And lay upon the child.-Comp. I Kings xvii. 21. What is hinted at there is described here (Thenius). Stretched himself upon the child.-Bowed himself. So LXX., Syriac, and Vulg. (Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 42.) This expression summarises the preceding details. The flesh of the child waxed warm.-The life of the Divine Spirit which was in Elisha was miraculously imparted by contact to the lifeless body. (Comp. Gen. ii. 7.) (35) He returned.-From off the bed. Walked in the house to and fro.-Or, in the chamber. Elisha's walking to and fro is an index of intense excitement. He was earnestly expecting the fulfilment of his prayer. Cornelius à Lapide thinks the prophet walked "ut ambulando excitaret majorem calorem quem puero communicaret" (!) The child sneezed.-The verb occurs here only. It denotes a faint rather than a loud sneeze. (Heb., 'atishah; Job xli. 10.) It is omitted by the LXX., which has," and he bowed himself over the boy until seven times." The repeated sneezing was a sign of restored respiration. (Comp. Luke vii. 15.) Keil supposes that whereas Elijah raised the widow's son at once, his successor only restored the Shunammite's son by degrees; and that this betokens an inferiority on the part of Elisha. But the narrative in 1 Kings xvii. 17 seq. is plainly abridged. (39) And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. (36) Take up thy son.-So our Lord "delivered to his mother" the young man whom He raised from death by His word (Luke vii. 15). (37) Then she went in.-And she came. Bowed herself to the ground.-In deep veneration for the prophet of Jehovah. (38-44) Elisha among the sons of the prophets at Gilgal during the famine. (38) And Elisha came again.-Now Elisha had returned, commencing a new narrative. The word "return" refers to the prophet's annual visit. (Comp. verse 25, and chap. ii. 1, Notes.) The story is not put in chronological sequence with the foregoing. And there was a dearth. And the famine was. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him.-As disciples before a master; probably in a common hall, which served for lecture, work, and dining-room. (Comp. chap. vi. 1; Ezek. viii. 1, xiv. 1; Acts xxii. 3.) His servant.-Perhaps not Gehazi, but one of the sons of the prophets. So in verse 43. Seethe pottage.-Gen. xxv. 29. (39) Herbs.-A rare word. (See Isa. xxvi. 19.) The Targum renders " greens." The LXX. retains the Hebrew word; the Syriac and Arabic render "mallows." Thenius thinks that 'apide, the reading of the LXX., points to another word derived from a different root, and meaning "to pluck," so that the word would denote legumina. A wild vine. - Vulg., "quasi vitem silvestrem," i.e., a running plant, like a vine. Wild gourds.-In 1 Kings vi. 18 a related word is used to describe one of the decorations of the Temple ("knops "). Wild gourds, or cucumbers (cucumeres agrestes, or asinini), are oval in shape, and taste bitter. Their Hebrew name (paqqû'ôth) is expressive of the fact that when ripe they are apt to burst upon being touched. If eaten they act as a violent purgative. They were mistaken on the present occasion for edible gourds, a favourite food of the people (Num. xi. 5). The Vulg. renders " colocynth," or coloquintida, a plant of the same family, bearing large orange-like fruits, which Death in the Pot. II. KINGS, V. B. C. cir. 81. The Twenty Loaves. (43) And the people, that they may eat. his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for (40) So they poured out for the men 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. And they could not 2 or, in his scrip. thus saith the LORD, "They shall eat, 1 Heb., evil thing. or, garment. a John 6. 11. 3 Heb., before. eat thereof. (41) But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no 1harm in the pot. (42) And there came a man from Baal- 4 Or, gracious. shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto 6 or, victory. 5 Heb., lifted up, are very bitter, and cause colic (cucumis colocynthi, L.). Keil supposes this to be the "wild vine" intended. They knew them not.-And so did not stop the young man from his shredding. (40) There is death in the pot.-The bitter taste, and perhaps incipient effect of the pottage, made them think of poison. (41) Then bring meal.-Keil says, "the meal was only the material basis for the spiritual activity which went out from Elisha, and made the poisonous food wholesome." Thenius, however, supposes that "the meal softened the bitterness, and obviated the drastic effect." But Reuss appears to be right in saying, 66 by mistake a poisonous (not merely a bitter) plant had been put into the pot, and the prophet neutralises the poison by means of an antidote whose natural properties could never have had that effect." The "meal here, therefore, corresponds to the "salt" in chap. ii. 21. And he said, Pour out.-The LXX. adds, "to Gehazi, his servant;" probably a gloss. (42) Baal-shalisha.-Probably the same as Bethshalisha, mentioned by Jerome and Eusebius, fifteen Roman miles north of Lydda-Diospolis, and not far (Comp. "the land of west of Gilgal and Bethel. Its name, Shalisha-as if Shalisha," 1 Sam. ix. 4. Three-land-seems to allude to the three wadies, which there meet in the Wâdy Qurawâ.) Bread of the firstfruits.-Comp. Num. xviii. 13; Deut. xviii. 4, according to which all firstfruits of grain were to be given to the priests and Levites. Such presents to prophets appear to have been usual in ordiOn the present occasion, which was nary times. time of dearth" (verse 42 is connected by the construction with the preceding narrative), one pious person brought his opportune gift to Elisha. a And full ears of corn in the husk thereof. barley loaves and cakes of pressed fruit" (aλáðas). And he said-i.e., Elisha said. Give unto the people.-Comp. Matt. xiv. 16. 117 and shall leave thereof. (4) So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD. 3 CHAPTER V.-Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and 45 honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he What, should I set this before an hundred (Comp. Matt. men ?-Or, How am I to set? &c. xiv. 33.) He said again.-And he said. They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.Heb., eating and leaving! an exclamatory mode of speech, natural in hurried and vehement utterance. Bähr (44) And they did eat, and left thereof.Comp. our Lord's miracles, already referred to. denies any miraculous increase of the food. He makes the miracle consist in the fact that the one hundred men were satisfied with the little they received, and even had some to spare. Similarly, Thenius thinks that the and that the emphasis of the narrative lies rather on provisions were not inconsiderable for a hundred men (?), Elisha's absolute confidence in God than on His wonderworking powers; but this is certainly opposed to the Keil rightly calls attention sacred writer's intention. to the fact that Elisha does not perform, but only predicts, this miracle. V. ELISHA HEALS NAAMAN THE SYRIAN'S LEPROSY, (1) Now.-The construction implies a break between this narrative and the preceding. Whether the events related belong to the time of Jehoram or of the dynasty of Jehu is not clear. Evidently it was a time of peace between Israel and Syria. Naaman (beauty).-A title of the sun-god. (See Note on Isa. xvii. 10.) A great man with his master.-Literally, Honourable.-In special favour. Literally, lifted before his lord. (Comp. Gen. x. 9.) up of face. (Comp. chap. iii. 14, Note; Isa. iii. 3.) By him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.-Notice the high prophetic view that. is Jehovah, not Hadad or Rimmon, who gives victory to Syria as well as Israel. (Comp. Amos ix. 7.) It is natural to think of the battle in which Ahab received his mortal wound (1 Kings xxii. 30, seq.). The Midrash makes Naaman the man who "drew the bow at a The "deliverance" was venture" on that occasion. victory over Israel. He was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.-Literally, and the man was a brave warrior, stricken with leprosy. His leprosy need not have been so severe as to incapacitate him for military duties. The victor over Israel is represented as a leper Naaman and the II. KINGS, V. King of Israel. was also a mighty man in valour, but he 1 Heb., was before. changes of raiment. (6) And he brought was a leper. (2) And the Syrians had 3 (5) And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten 3 Heb., gather in. 4 Heb., in his who has to seek, and finds, his only help in Israel (Thenius). (2) The Syrians.-Heb., Aram, the word rendered "Syria " in verse 1. By companies.-Or, in troops, referring to a marauding incursion made at some time prior to the events here recorded. Brought away captive a little maid.— Comp. the reference in Joel iii. 6 to the Phoenician traffic in Jewish slaves. (3) Would God.-O that! 'Ahalê here; in Ps. cxix. 5,'Ahalay. The word seems to follow the analogy of 'ashrê, "O the bliss of!" (Ps. i. 1). It perhaps means "O the delight of!" the root 'ahal being assumed equivalent to the Arabic halâ, Syriac hali, "dulcis fuit." For he would recover him.-Then he would receive him back. (Comp. Num. xii. 14, 15.) In Israel lepers were excluded from society. Restoration to society implied restoration to health. Hence the same verb came to be used in the sense of healing as well as of receiving back the leper. Thenius, however, argues that as the phrase "from leprosy " is wanting in Num. xii., the real meaning is, "to take a person away from leprosy," to which he had been, as it were, delivered up. (4) And one went in.-And he (i.e., Naaman) went in scil., into the palace. Some MSS.: "and she went in and told." Thus and thus.-To avoid repetition of her actual words. (5) Go to, go.-Depart thou (thither), enter (the land of Israel). A letter. Written, probably, in that old Aramean script of which we have examples on Assyrian seals of the eighth century B.C., and which closely resembled the old Phoenician and Hebrew characters, as well as that of the Moabite stone (chap. i. 1, Note). With him. In his hand. (Comp. the expression "to fill the hand for Jehovah "-i.e., with presents; 1 Chron. xxix. 5.) Changes of raiment.-Or, holiday suits. Reuss, habits de fête. (See the same word, haliphoth, in Gen. xlv. 22.) Curiously enough, similar expressions (nahlaptum, hitlupatum) were used in the like sense by the Assyrians (Schrader). Ten talents of silver.-About £3,750 in our money. The money talent was equivalent to sixty the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. (7) And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy ? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. (8) And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent minas, the mina to fifty shekels. The shekel came to about 2s. 6d. of our money. Six thousand pieces of gold.-Heb., six thousand (in) gold: i.e., six thousand gold shekels=two talents of gold, about £13,500. The gold shekel was worth about 45s. of our currency. The total sum appears much too large, and the numbers are probably corrupt, as is so often the case. 66 (6) Now. Heb., And now, continuing an omitted passage. Only the principal sentence of the letter is given. The message pre-supposes a not altogether hostile relation between the two kings; and the words of the next verse, He seeketh a quarrel against me," point to the time of comparative lull which ensued after the luckless expedition to Ramoth-gilead (1.Kings xxii.), and the short reign of the invalid Ahaziah; i.e., to the reign of Jehoram, not to that of Jehoahaz, in which Israel was wholly crushed by Syria (chap. xiii. 3—7). Schenkel thinks the Syrian inroads (verse 2) indicate the reign of Jehu, and that Hazael was the king who wrote the letter, as he was personally acquainted with Elisha (chap. v. 5, seq.). But, as Thenius remarks, he forgets that the relations between Jehu and Syria were throughout strained to the last degree, so that such a friendly passage between the two kings as is here described is not to be thought of. (7) He rent his clothes.-As if he had heard blasphemy. (Comp. Matt. xxvi. 65.) Am I God, to kill and to make alive ?-Deut. xxxii. 39, "I kill, and I make alive; 1 Sam. ii. 6, "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive." Leprosy was a kind of living death. (Comp. Num. xii. 12, Heb., "Let her not become as the dead, who, when he cometh forth of his mother's womb, hath half his flesh consumed.") Wherefore.-Heb., For only know (i.e., notice), and see. Plural verbs are used, because the king is addressing his grandees, in whose presence the letter would be delivered and read. He seeketh a quarrel.-This form of the verb (hithpael) occurs here only. (Comp. the noun, Judges xiv. 4.) Jehoram was hardly in a position to renew the war, after the severe defeat of his father (1 Kings xxii. 30, seq.). (8) There is a prophet.-With stress on there is (yesh): scil., as his message pre-supposes. When Elisha had heard.-He was in Samaria at the time (verse 3), and would hear of the Elisha's Message. II. KINGS, V. Naaman is Healed. *Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Da- thy clothes? let him come now to me, 1 Heb., I said. his horses and with his chariot, and 2 or, I said with clean? So he turned and went away in myself. He will and down. a rage. (13) And his servants came near, stood at the door of the house of Elisha. coming of the great Syrian captain and of the king's alarm. Why did not Jehoram think at once of Elisha? King and prophet were not on good terms with each other. (Comp. chap. iii. 14.) Besides, Elisha had not as yet done any miracle of this sort; and his apprehensions may have made the king unable, for the moment, to think at all. (9) With his horses and with his chariot.Chariots. (See on chap. ii. 11, 12; and comp. verse 15, infra.) The proper term for a single chariot is used in verse 21. The magnificence of his retinue is suggested. 66 a Stood.-Stopped. The text hardly conveys, as Bähr thinks, the idea that Elisha's house in Samaria was poor hovel," which the great man would not deign to enter, but waited for the prophet to come forth to him. a messenger" (verse 10) at his The prophet had command. 66 (10) Elisha sent a messenger. Avoiding personal contact with a leper. (Comp. verse 15, where Naaman, when restored, goes in and stands before the prophet.) Perhaps reverence held back those who consulted a great prophet from entering his presence (comp. chap. iv. 12); and therefore, Naaman stopped with his fol lowers outside the house. Keil suggests that Elisha did not come out to Naaman, because he wished to humble his pride, and to show that his worldly magnificence did not impress the prophet. But, as Thenius says, there is no trace of pride about Naaman. Go.-Infinitive, equivalent to the imperative. (Comp. Wash in (the) Jordan.-This command would Thy flesh shall come again to thee, and (11) But (and) Naaman was wroth.-Because, as his words show, he thought he was mocked by the prophet. I thought.-I said to myself. Strike his hand.-Rather, wave his hand towards the place. (Comp. Isa. x. 15, xi. 15.) He would not touch the unclean place. 119 Recover the leper.-Or, take away the leprous (part). So Thenius; but everywhere else měçōrā' means leprous man," "leper” (Lev. xiv. 2). 66 So Hebrew text; Hebrew margin, (12) Abana. Amana; and so many MSS., Complut, LXX., Targum, Syriac. (Comp. Amana, Cant. iv. 8, as name of a peak of the Lebanon, which is common in the Assyrian inscriptions also.) The river is identified with the present Buráda, or Barady ("the cold"), which descends from the Anti-Lebanon, and flows through Damascus in seven streams. (The Arabic version has Bardâ.) Pharpar.-Parpar ("the swift "), the present Nahr el-Awaj, which comes down from the great Hermon, and flows by Damascus on the south. Both rivers have clear water, as being mountain streams, whereas the Jordan is turbid and discoloured. Rivers of Damascus.-Add the. Damascus is still famous for its wholesome water. May I not wash in them, and be clean ?—If mere washing in a river be enough, it were easy to do that at home, and to much better advantage. (13) Came near.-Comp. Gen. xviii. 23. My father.-A title implying at once respect and affection. (Comp. 1 Sam. xxiv. 11; chap. vi. 21.) Perhaps, however, the word is a corruption of 'im ("if ”), which is otherwise not expressed in the Hebrew. Great thing.-Emphatic in the Hebrew. Wouldest thou not have done ?-Or, wouldest thou not do? He saith.-He hath said. Be clean ?-i.e., thou shalt be clean: a common Hebrew idiom. (14) Then went he down.-And he went down: scil., from Samaria to the Jordan bed. The Syriac and Arabic, and some Hebrew MSS., read "and he deprobably an error of transcription. parted; Seven times.-" Because seven was significant of the Divine covenant with Israel, and the cure depended on that covenant; or to stamp the cure as a Divine work, for seven is the signature of the works of God" (Keil). In the Assyrian monuments there is an almost exact parallel to the above method of seeking a cure. It occurs among the so-called exorcisms, and belongs to the age of Sargon of Agadê (Accad), before 2200 B.C. Merodach is represented as asking his father Hea how Hea replies that the sick man to cure a sick man. must go and bathe in the sacred waters at the mouth of the Euphrates. It thus appears that in bidding Naaman bathe seven times in the Jordan, Elisha acted |