After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
Parallel Translations
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After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
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And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
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And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 6:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 20:1 Ben Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots. He went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it.
- Deuteronomy 28:52 They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you.
- 1 Kings 22:31 Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, “Don’t fight with small nor great, except only with the king of Israel.”
- 2 Kings 17:5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
- Ecclesiastes 9:14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.
- 2 Kings 18:9 In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
- 2 Kings 25:1 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 6:24 And it came to pass after this,…
2Ki 6:24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
Ver. 24. And went up, and besieged Samaria.] Which city now smarted for Ahab’s foolish pity. {1Ki 20:34}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He whom Ahab wickedly and foolishly spared, 1Ki 20:42,…
He whom Ahab wickedly and foolishly spared, 1Ki 20:42, who now comes to requite Ahab’s kindness, and to fulfil that Divine prediction.
Ben-hadad was a name very frequent among the kings of Syria, 1Ki 15:18; 2Ki 13:3,24, if not common to them all. See Jer 49:27; Amo 1:4.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain This last paragraph of this chapter should, of right,…
This last paragraph of this chapter should, of right, have been the first of the next chapter, for it begins a new story, which is there continued and concluded. Here is,
I. The siege which the king of Syria laid to Samaria and the great distress which the city was reduced to thereby. The Syrians had soon forgotten the kindnesses they had lately received in Samaria, and very ungratefully, for aught that appears without any provocation, sought the destruction of it, Kg2 6:24. There are base spirits that can never feel obliged. The country, we may suppose, was plundered and laid waste when this capital city was brought to the last extremity, Kg2 6:25. The dearth which had of late been in the land was probably the occasion of the emptiness of their stores, or the siege was so sudden that they had not time to lay in provisions; so that, while the sword devoured without, the famine within was more grievous (Lam 4:9): for, it should seem, the Syrians designed not to storm the city, but to starve it. So great was the scarcity that an ass's head, that has but little flesh on it and that unsavoury, unwholesome, and ceremonially unclean, was sold for five pounds, and a small quantity of fitches, or lentiles, or some such coarse corn, then called dove's dung, no more of it than the quantity of six eggs, for five pieces of silver, about twelve or fifteen shillings. Learn to value plenty, and to be thankful for it; see how contemptible money is, when, in time of famine, it is so freely parted with for anything that is eatable.
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II. The sad complaint which a poor woman had to make to the king, in the extremity of the famine. He was passing by upon the wall to give orders for the mounting of the guard, the posting of the archers, the repair of the breaches, and the like, when a woman of the city cried to him, Help, my lord, O king! Kg2 6:26. Whither should the subject, in distress, go for help but to the prince, who is, by office, the protector of right and the avenger of wrong? He returns but a melancholy answer (Kg2 6:27): If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I? Some think it was a quarrelling word, and the language of his fretfulness: "Why dost thou expect anything from me, when God himself deals thus hardly with us?" Because he could not help her as he would, out of the floor or the wine-press, he would not help her at all. We must take heed of being made cross by afflictive providences. It rather seems to be a quieting word: "Let us be content, and make the best of our affliction, looking up to God, for, till he help us, I cannot help thee." 1. He laments the emptiness of the floor and the wine-press. These were not as they had been; even the king's failed. We read (Kg2 6:23) of great provisions which he had a command, sufficient for the entertainment of an army, yet now he has not wherewithal to relieve one poor woman. Scarcity sometimes follows upon great plenty; we cannot be sure that tomorrow shall be as this day, Isa 56:12; Psa 30:6. 2. He acknowledges himself thereby disabled to help, unless God would help them. Note, Creatures are helpless things without God, for every creature is that, all that, and only that, which he makes it to be. However, though he cannot help her, he is willing to hear her (Kg2 6:28): "What ails thee? Is there anything singular in thy case, or dost thou fare worse than thy neighbours?" Truly yes; she and one of her neighbours had made a barbarous agreement, that, all provisions failing, they should boil and eat her son first and then her neighbour's; hers was eaten (who can think of it without horror?) and now her neighbour hid hers, Kg2 6:28, Kg2 6:29. See an instance of the dominion which the flesh has got above the spirit, when the most natural affections of the mind may be thus overpowered by the natural appetites of the body. See the word of God fulfilled; among the threatenings of God's judgments upon Israel for their sins this was one (Deu 28:53-57), that they should eat the flesh of their own children, which one would think incredible, yet it came to pass.
III. The king's indignation against Elisha upon this occasion. He lamented the calamity, rent his clothes, and had sackcloth upon his flesh (Kg2 6:30), as one heartily concerned for the misery of his people, and that it was not in his power to help them; but he did not lament his own iniquity, nor the iniquity of his people, which was the procuring cause of the calamity; he was not sensible that his ways and his doings had procured this to himself; this is his wickedness, for it is bitter. The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and then his heart fretteth against the Lord. Instead of vowing to pull down the calves at Dan and Beth-el, or letting the law have its course against the prophets of Baal and of the groves, he swears the death of Elisha, Kg2 6:31. Why, what is the matter? What had Elisha done? his head is the most innocent and valuable in all Israel, and yet that must be devoted, and made an anathema. Thus in the days of the persecuting emperors, when the empire groaned under any extraordinary calamity, the fault was laid on the Christians, and they were doomed to destruction. Christianos ad leones - Away with the Christians to the lions. Perhaps Jehoram was in this heat against Elisha because he had foretold this judgment, or had persuaded him to hold out, and not surrender, or rather because he did not, by his prayers, raise the siege, and relieve the city, which he though he could do but would not; whereas till they repented and reformed, and were ready for deliverance, they had no reason to expect that the prophet should pray for it.
IV. The foresight Elisha had of the king's design against him, Kg2 6:32. He sat in his house well composed, and the elders with him, well employed no doubt, while the king was like a wild bull in a net, or like the troubled sea when it cannot rest; he told the elders there was an officer coming from the king to cut off his head, and bade them stop him at the door, and not let him in, for the king his master was just following him, to revoke the order, as we may suppose. The same spirit of prophecy that enabled Elisha to tell him what was done at a distance authorized him to call the king the son of a murderer, which, unless we could produce such an extraordinary commission, it is not for us to initiate; far be it from us to despise dominion and to speak evil of dignities. He appealed to the elders whether he had deserved so ill at the king's hands: "See whether in this he be not the son of a murderer?" For what evil had Elisha done? He had not desired the woeful day, Jer 17:16.
V. The king's passionate speech, when he came to prevent the execution of his edict for the beheading of Elisha. He seems to have been in a struggle between his convictions and his corruptions, knew not what to say, but, seeing things brought to the last extremity, he even abandoned himself to despair (Kg2 6:33): This evil is of the Lord. Therein his notions were right and well applied; it is a general truth that all penal evil is of the Lord, as the first cause, and sovereign judge (Amo 3:6), and this we ought to apply to particular cases: if all evil, then this evil, whatever it is we are now groaning under, whoever are the instruments, God is the principal agent of it. But his inference from this truth was foolish and wicked: What should I wait for the Lord any longer? When Eli, and David, and Job, said, It is of the Lord, they grew patient upon it, but this bad man grew outrageous upon it: "I will neither fear worse nor expect better, for worse cannot come and better never will come: we are all undone, and there is no remedy." It is an unreasonable thing to be weary of waiting for God, for he is a God of judgment, and blessed are all those that wait for him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And as the king of Israel was passing by…
And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, &c. To spy out the motion and situation of the enemy, and to give orders for the annoyance of them, and to see that his soldiers did their duty:
there cried a woman to him, saying, help, my lord, O king; desired his assistance and help in a cause depending between her and another woman.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Ben-hadad - He whom Ahab wickedly spared, now comes…
Ben-hadad - He whom Ahab wickedly spared, now comes to requite his kindness, and to fulfil that Divine prediction. Ben- hadad was a name very frequent among the kings of Syria, if not common to them all.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ki 6:24. And it came to pass after this,…
2Ki 6:24. And it came to pass after this, &c. — How long after we are not informed; but probably some years, when they had forgotten the kindnesses they had received in Samaria, which for a time, it appears, had quite disarmed them of their hatred against Israel, and caused them to lay aside all thoughts of war. Now, however, they alter their minds, and break out again into hostilities. Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host — He whom Ahab wickedly spared, now comes to requite his kindness, and fulfil the divine prediction contained in 1Ki 20:42. They will not now, as before, make incursions and inroads into the country, in small bands and companies, which, as they had experienced, might easily be entrapped; but will wage an open and solemn war, and fall upon the Israelites at once, with all their forces united. Ben-hadad was a name very frequent among the kings of Syria, if not common to them all. And went up, and besieged Samaria — Plundering and laying waste the country, no doubt, as he went; and meeting with no opposition till he came to the capital city.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain After this - Perhaps some years after - when…
After this - Perhaps some years after - when the miracle and the kind treatment were alike forgotten.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain BEN-HADAD BESIEGES SAMARIA. (Kg2 6:24-33)
BEN-HADAD BESIEGES SAMARIA. (Kg2 6:24-33)
Ben-hadad . . . besieged Samaria--This was the predicted accomplishment of the result of Ahab's foolish and misplaced kindness (Kg1 20:42).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA AND THE GREAT FAMINE SUDDENLY…
THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA AND THE GREAT FAMINE SUDDENLY ENDED, 2 Kings 6 :2Ki_6:24 to 2Ki_7:20.
24. After this — Sometime after the events recorded in the preceding section. Ben-hadad gave up the mode of warfare he had been carrying on against Israel by detached bands of warriors, and resolved to overcome the king of Israel by besieging his capital. Thus Josephus says, he “made no more secret attempts upon the king of Israel, out of fear of Elisha; but he resolved to make open war with him, thinking to overwhelm his enemies by the multitude of his army and power.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24–31. Benhadad besieges Samaria. The city suffers terribly from…
24–31. Benhadad besieges Samaria. The city suffers terribly from famine, and the king threatens to put Elisha to death (Not in Chronicles)
24. Ben-hadad] Probably the same king who was defeated and submitted himself to Ahab (1 Kings 20).
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went up, and besieged Samaria Josephus explains that Jehoram did not feel himself a match for Benhadad, and so shut himself up in Samaria, relying for protection on the security of its walls.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) After this.—Afterwards. The term plainly implies chronological sequence.
(24-7:20) THE SIEGE OF SAMARIA AND THE FAMINE. THE DELIVERANCE, AS FORETOLD BY ELISHA.
(24) After this.—Afterwards. The term plainly implies chronological sequence.
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Ben-hadad.—Ben-hadad II., who had besieged Samaria in the reign of Ahab (1Ki_20:1). He is mentioned on the monuments of Shalmaneser II., now in the British Museum, under the designation of Rammânu-hidri, or idri. Now, as the Assyrians identified their god Rammûnu (Rimmon) with the Syrian deity, Adad, Addu, or Dadi, this title might be equivalent to Adad-idri, or Addu-idri. Further, in three contract tablets in the reign of Nabonidus, Mr. Pinches has read the names Bin-Addu-natânu and Bin-Addu-amara—i.e., “Bin-Addu gave,” and “Bin-Adâu commanded.” Bin (or, Tur)-Addu, “son of Addu,” is clearly the name of a god, like abal Esarra, “son of Esarra,” in the name Tiglath Pileser; and is, in fact, the Assyrian equivalent of Ben-hadad. The Syrian king’s full name, therefore, would seem to have been Ben-hadad-idri, “The son of Hadad is my help” (Syriac adar, “to help”). (Comp. the name Hadad-ezer.) The Assyrians omitted the first element, the Hebrews the last.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain 2Ki_7:20. The siege of Samaria by Benhadad.
2Ki_7:20. The siege of Samaria by Benhadad.
And it came to pass after this probably some considerable time after, when the memory of Jehoram"s kind act had passed awaythat Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host. A contrast is intended between the inroads of small bodies of plunderers and the invasion of the territory by the monarch himself at the head of his entire force. And went up. However Samaria was approached from Syria, there must always have been a final ascent, either from the Jordan valley or from the Plain of Esdraelon. And besieged Samaria. Josephus says that Jehoram was afraid to meet Benhadad in the open field, since his forces were no match for those of the Syrian king, and therefore at once shut himself up within his capital, without risking a battle. The walls of Samaria were very strong.
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Vers. 24-33Half-heartedness.
Jehoram was altogether half-hearted in his religion. He "halted between two opinions." While he paid a certain amount of respect to Elisha, as the prophet of Jehovah, he nevertheless allowed the worship of Baal to continue in the capital, (2Ki_10:18-28) if not elsewhere, and maintained the calf-worship also at Dan and Bethel. (2Ki_3:3) He had suffered himself to be guided by Elisha in respect of the Syrian prisoners captured by the prophet (ver. 23), and had evidently been in communication with him on the subject of the present siege, had probably been exhorted by him to repentance, and promised that, if he would wait upon Jehovah, in due time there should be deliverance. The prophet"s words had made some impression on him; he had to a certain extent turned to God, had put sackcloth upon his loins, not ostentatiously, but secretly (ver. 30), had borne the privations of the siege without murmuring, had refused to surrender the town, and looked to Jehovah to deliver it. But there was no depth in his penitence, no surrender of the heart and the will to God, no firm and rooted faith in God"s truthfulness, and in the certain accomplishment of his promises. His repentance was but a half repentance. A single incident of the siege, a horrible one certainly, but yet not without a parallel in other sieges and in shipwrecks, shattered the whole fabric of his repentance and his resolution, turned him against the prophet and against Jehovah, caused him to threaten the prophet"s life, and to make up his mind that he would follow his own course, and not wait for the Lord any longer (ver. 33). He thus revealed the true state of his heart and soul, showed his spiritual unsoundness, revealed himself as one whose character was rotten at the core, who had never turned to Jehovah in sincerity and truth. What wonder, then, that God had not granted the deliverance promised to true faith and true penitence, that a half-repentance had not availed with him? So it had been with Ahab; (1Ki_21:27 1Ki_22:34) so it would always be with all those who, after Jehoram"s example, should be half-hearted in religion, should at once fear the Lord, and serve their own (2Ki_17:33) own for masters both God and mammon. A half-repentance is useless. Nothing avails but to turn to God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength. God hates waverers. To such he says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth". (Rev_3:15, Rev_3:16)
Vers. 24-33. Samaria besieged.
I A CITY IN DISTRESS. Once more the people of Samaria were in great straits. A besieging army was at their gates, and, most terrible of all, the horrors of famine were within their walls. They were reduced to the greatest extremities. The women were actually beginning to cook and eat their own children. Whichever way they looked, the prospect was dark. To open the gates to the Syrians meant death or captivity. And the longer they remained within their walls, the more certainly death and starvation stared them in the face. See here the evil result of forsaking God. To such extremities they had brought themselves by their own sins. They had forsaken the living God, and now their false gods were not able to help them in the day of their calamity. It is an evil day in a man"s history when he turns his back upon God"s Word, upon God"s commandments, upon God"s Son. As it often happens, their calamities had hardened their hearts and blinded their eyes. There was one man in their midst who had often before proved a wise counselor and friend. They had Elisha, the man of God, in their city the man who, by counseling them to make the valley full of ditches, had delivered the Moabites into their hands; the man, too, who had revealed Benhadad"s secrets, and smitten the Syrian army with blindness. But they had forgotten all that. Instead of locking to Elisha for guidance or help, they blame him for all their troubles. How often does it happen that, when people get into difficulties, they throw the blame upon others! When troubles and difficulties come upon us, our first business should be to search our own hearts and lives, and see whether the trouble may not be of our own causing.
II A PROPHET IN DANGER. The king was a partaker in the wickedness of the people. He encouraged the prevailing idolatry. Now he shares their suffering. But he never thinks of looking to God for deliverance. He never thinks of humbling himself before God, and confessing his sins. On the contrary, he shows a disposition to cast the blame both on God and on his prophet. When the poor woman in her hunger and distress called to him for help, he answered, "If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?" Though he wore sackcloth, the outward sign of mourning or penitence, there was no sign of inward penitence or humility in his heart. How blind and infatuated he is in his anger and defiance! He threatens to take away the prophet"s life. Jezebel had once said to Elijah, "So let the gods do to me and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them the prophets whom she had slain by tomorrow about this time." So here Jehoram says, "God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day." Even Jezebel"s threat had apparently more reason for it than Jehoram"s. Elijah had undoubtedly slain the prophets of Baal. But in this case Elisha was innocent of any charge. Jehoram quite gratuitously holds him responsible for the famine in Samaria, and threatens to take away his life. But man proposes and God disposes. Although Elisha is in danger, he is never in dismay. When the king"s messenger came to take off his head, Elisha bade the elders to hold the messenger fast at the door till the king himself, who was close behind, should arrive. Elisha had had dealings with Jehoram before. He would hear his sentence from the king himself, if at all. Well for those who, like Elisha, live near to God. "Serve the Lord in fear," said John Knox on his deathbed," and the flesh will not fear death." Dangers do not distress them; death brings no dismay. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. C.H.I.
Vers. 24-33. Subjects worth considering.
it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria," etc. These verses, brimful of the wicked and the horrible, press the following subjects on our attention.
I THE INHUMANITY OF WAR. "And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass"s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove"s dung for five pieces of silver." The inhumanity of the Syrian king and his host in invading Samaria is seen in the shameful disregard of the kindness which the Samaritans had previously shown them. In the preceding verses we read that the Samaritans had not only allowed them to escape entire destruction when they were at their mercy, but, at the interposition of Elisha, supplied them with abundant provisions to appease their hunger and to invigorate their frames. Notwithstanding this, they now came to work ruin on their very saviors.
War has no gratitude, no sense of right, no sentiment of kindness; often it dehumanizes human nature, transforms the man into a fiend.
How all minor cruelties of man Are summed in war, conclusive of all crimes I ("Festus.")
II THE TERRIBLENESS OF HUNGER. To such absolute destitution did these ruthless warriors reduce the inhabitants of Samaria, that not only did the ravenous hunger drive them to obtain food from the "ass"s head" and from "dove"s dung," but from human flesh mothers from the children of their womb. "And as the King of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we killed my son, and did eat him," etc. Here is a tragic tale, a tale that makes the heart quail, and the nerves quiver with horror. Hunger in itself is a blessing, it implies health and stimulates to action; it is in truth the mainspring that keeps the human machinery of the world in action. But when it becomes intense and unappeasable, it sets all moral commandments at defiance, it will break through stone walls, shatter thrones, and break up empires. It is among the primary duties of rulers to keep the hunger of the people appeased. Alas! everywhere in England we hear its groans; may not these groanings be the mutterings of nature before the volcanic eruption?
III THE MISDIRECTION OF PASSION. The tale of the famishing woman, and the revolting scenes he beheld, pierced the heart of the King of Israel. His feelings at first seem to have been those of great humiliation and deep sympathy. "And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes." But they soon became those of raging wrath against Elisha. "Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day." If Elisha had, from a malign spirit, really brought all this distress upon the Samaritan people, this wrath might have been justified. Anger against wrong is right. But it was not Elisha that brought the calamities; it was themselves their idolatries, their sins. Elisha was their greatest friend. The misdirection of human indignation is no uncommon evil. How often men are angry with one another without a cause! Passion misdirected put to death the Son of God himself.
IV THE CALMNESS OF GOODNESS. Whilst all these revolting scenes were taking place, and the king burning with rage against Elisha, was resolving on his destruction, where was Elisha? "But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him." With his disciples, fellow-citizens, and "elders" Elisha sat, without anxiety or alarm. Mark:
1. It was not the calmness of servile submission. Though he knew the threat of the king, he had no idea of making an apology or seeking to appease unreasonable indignation, or yield with stoicism to his fate. No. Whilst he sat calmly, the pulse of manhood throbbed stronger in every vein, and when he heard the king"s messenger approach the door of his house, he said to the elders, "See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head?" It is grand to hear men give others their proper title, even though they be kings. Were all men thus honest, many of those who are now called "right honorables" would be "right abominables.
2. It was not the calmness of irresolution. It was not a state of unnerved indifference; on the contrary, there was in it a resolute power. "Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door." For the man"s own sake hold him, do not let him contract crime by committing murder. Probably at this moment Elisha saw the king himself hurrying towards him, to revoke his murderous decree. Conscious goodness is always calm. He is "kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on the Lord.
3. It was the calmness that conquers. The king himself, it would seem, was soon at the door. He had relented, and hurried to prevent the execution of his murderous command. "And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?" This utterance is that of the king, and it would seem it was a response to the prophet"s exhortation to "wait for the Lord." And he means to say, "This evil is not from thee, Elisha, but from the Lord, and it is hopeless; "what should I wait for the Lord any longer? It is not likely that such a humiliating utterance as this would have fallen from the lips of the king, had he met Elisha in a state of furious excitement. No doubt it was the moral majesty of calmness that struck the heart of the monarch. D.T.
Vers. 24-33The siege of Samaria.
Unwarned by the failure of previous attempts, Benhadad was soon engaged in a new war on Israel. The fresh invasion was made the occasion of a fresh deliverance, more wonderful than any of the preceding, but not before Samaria had been reduced to the most desperate straits.
I THE HORRORS OF A SIEGE.
1. The city invested. The King of Syria advanced with his army, and struck a direct blow at the capital of the country. Samaria was the key of the situation. In it was the king, the court, the Prophet Elisha, the whole state of royalty. If it could be forced to capitulate, the entire land would be at the mercy of the invader. Benhadad, accordingly, surrounded the city, and, having cut off all supplies, waited till famine compelled it to surrender. The method of siege is common in warfare. Nothing could more awfully illustrate the helplessness of human beings when deprived of the use of the ordinary productions of nature. We depend on God for daily existence, and do not realize it.
2. The fearful famine. With no supplies coming in, the stock of food in Samaria was soon utterly exhausted. We are reminded of the terrible distress in such famous sieges as those of Londonderry in 1689, and Paris in 1870. What in ordinary circumstances would have been deemed unfit for human food, nay, loathed, was eagerly seized upon, and famine prices were gladly paid for it. "An ass"s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver," etc. Hunger is one of the most commanding of appetites. "In every land and in every age the first and most interesting question the majority of men have to practically solve is, "How are we to get bread?" Man"s social, moral, and spiritual welfare turns to an incalculable extent on that question. Throughout all history, sacred and profane, this great want has been swaying and molding as a first power the nations of men. Hence the significance of the petition in the center of the Lord"s prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." It may seem at first sight a comparatively small petition, overshadowed and dwarfed by the great, spiritual petitions both before and after it; but he who knew what was in man, knew what a powerful influence the question of daily bread had upon his whole life and welfare; and when we ourselves consider what a power it is in the world, we see something of the reason for placing such a petition in the center of a model of prayer" (F. Ferguson).
3. Natural affection destroyed. The shocking episode narrated in vers. 2629 illustrates the previous remarks (cf. Deu_28:53-57) The king was stopped when passing by on the wall by a woman appealing to him for help. With not unnatural bitterness he replied, "If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?" Was it out of the empty barnfloor, or the dry winepress? He then inquired into her complaint, and heard from her, her revolting tale. A woman had proposed to her that she should give her son for food to them both that day, and she would give her son next day. The complainant had fulfilled her part of the bargain, and now the second woman had hidden her son. One asks Could human nature, in its direst extremity, ever descend to such revolting deeds? Alas! the instances in history are not few. We have reason to thank God for his goodness in preserving us from such extremity and such temptation.
II GUILT LAID AT THE WRONG DOOR.
1. The token of humiliation. The woman"s dreadful story, revealing such depths of horror in the city, stung the king to the heart. His first act was to rend his clothes, and, as the people looked, they saw that secretly he had been wearing sackcloth upon his flesh. The commentators, perhaps, hardly do justice to Jehoram in this act. The next verse shows that his religion did not go very deep; but various circumstances suggest that there was a measure of sincerity in his penitence. He had evidently thus far listened to the counsels of Elisha, and tried to "wait on the Lord" for deliverance, lie does not show badly in his sympathy with the people. The very secrecy of his wearing of sackcloth distinguishes it from the act of an ostentatious formalist. He probably, like his father Ahab, really "humbled" himself for a time, "and went softly". (1Ki_21:27, 1Ki_21:29) If, in his outburst of passion, he uttered a threat of death against Elisha, it appears to have been no sooner spoken than it was repented of, and he hastened after his messenger to counteract it. It is good when God"s chastisements lead to humiliation of the soul. We can at least make Jehoram an example in the unostentatiousness of his exercises of penitence. (Mat_6:16-18)
2. The threat and its reception. Carried away by his anger and his feeling of the intolerableness of the situation, the king swore an oath that that very day the head of Elisha should be taken from him. It was a wicked and inexcusable utterance. The reasons of it may be thus assigned:
(1) Elisha had apparently urged him to patience and repentance, assuring him that help would come. That hope had been disappointed.
(2) He fixed the responsibility of the delay of help on Elisha, as one who had power with God, and had not exercised it.
(3) He was angry with God himself, and was moved to wreak his vengeance on God"s ministers. Had he properly considered the matter, he would have reflected that Elisha, like himself, could but present his desires to God, and wait God"s time; that the prophet had unweariedly been doing this, and was the one hope and savior of the people; and that, if guilt lay at any one"s door, it was his own wickedness, and that of his associates, that was bringing these calamities upon the nation. Wicked men, however, are seldom willing, except in a very limited degree, to take home guilt to themselves. They will blame God, their fellows, their spiritual counselors, any one but themselves, for their miseries. It is a very different picture we have of Elisha. He sits composedly in his house, with the elders of Samaria around him, no doubt exhorting them and strengthening them to wait on God. By that prophetic clairvoyance of which we have so many instances, he knew of the king"s threat as soon as it was uttered, and bade the elders shut the door against this messenger of "the son of a murderer," and detain him till the king himself came.
3. Why wait longer on the Lord? Jehoram soon arrived, and his first words to Elisha were, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?" That he had departed from his threat may be presumed from Elisha answering him as he did. But his words show his radical misconception of religion. To wait on the Lord was not a duty to be done from regard to its own rightness and propriety. It was, he thought, a means to an end. If benefits were to be gained from it, it was to be done; if not, it was to be set aside. Service of God which springs from this principle is not true service. It is disguised self-interest. It has no real spring of love, devotion, or worship. The spirit is kindred with that of the fetish-worshipper, who prays to his gods for rain, and beats them if he does not get it. But why blame Jehoram, as if he were specially impious? Does not the same spirit show itself in multitudes among ourselves? While the sun shines on them they are willing enough to be religious. If adversity comes, there is unbelief, murmuring, impatience, rebellion at the Divine ordering. "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?". (Job_2:10) It is not enough to acknowledge that evil is from the Lord, we must humble ourselves under his hand, submit to him, own the justice of his dealings, and seek to profit by his chastisements. We must not faint, or grow unbelieving, but be assured that, in protracting the hour of deliverance, God is but waiting to make the deliverance more signal and glorious. (Heb_12:5-11) J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain 2Ki_6:24-33; 2Ki_7:1-20
THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE
2Ki_6:24-33; 2Ki_7:1-20
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"Tis truly no flood plan when princes play
The vulture among carrion; but when
They play the carrion among vultures-that
Is ten times worse."
-LESSING, "Nathan the Wise, " Act I, Sc. 3
IF the Benhadad, King of Syria, who reduced Samaria to the horrible straits recorded in this chapter, {2 Kings 6} was the same Benhadad whom Ahab had treated with such impolitic confidence, his hatred against Israel must indeed have burned hotly. Besides the affair at Dothan, he had already been twice routed with enormous slaughter, and against those disasters he could only set the death of Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead. It is obvious from the preceding narrative that he could advance at any time at his will and pleasure into the heart of his enemys country, and shut him up in his capital almost without resistance. The siege-trains of ancient days were very inefficient, and any strong fortress could hold out for years, if only it was well provisioned. Such was not the case with Samaria, and it was reduced to a condition of sore famine. Food so loathsome as an asss head, which at other times the poorest would have spurned, was now sold for eighty shekels weight of silver (about £8); and the fourth part of a xestes or kab- which was itself the smallest dry-measure, the sixth part of a seah- of the coarse, common pulse or roasted chick-peas, vulgarly known as "doves dung," fetched five shekels (about 12S. 6d.).
While things were at this awful pass, "the King of Israel," as he is vaguely called throughout this story, went his rounds upon the wall to visit the sentries and encourage the soldiers in their defense. As he passed, a woman cried, "Help, my lord, O king!" In Eastern monarchies the king is a judge of the humblest; a suppliant, however mean, may cry to him. Jehoram thought that this was but one of the appeals which sprang from the clamorous mendacity of famine with which he had grown so painfully familiar. "The Lord curse you!" he exclaimed impatiently. "How can I help you? Every barn-floor is bare, every wine-press drained." And he passed on.
But the woman continued her wild clamor, and turning round at her importunity, he asked, "What aileth thee?"
He heard in reply a narrative as appalling as ever smote the ear of a king in a besieged city. Among the curses denounced upon apostate Israel in the Pentateuch, we read, "Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat"; {Lev_26:29} or, as it is expressed more fully in the Book of Deuteronomy, "He, shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave; so that he shall not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege. The tender and delicate woman, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her children: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and the straitness, if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of the law that thou mayest fear the glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy God." {Deu_28:52-58} We find almost the same words in the prophet Jeremiah; {Jer_19:9} and in Lamentations we read: "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat: in the destruction of the daughter of My people."
Isaiah asks, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion: on the son of her womb?" Alas! it has always been so in those awful scenes of famine, whether after shipwreck or in beleaguered cities, when man becomes degraded to an animal, with all an animals primitive instincts, and when the wild beast appears under the thin veneer of civilization. So it was at the siege of Jerusalem, and at the siege of Magdeburg, and at the wreck of the Medusa, and on many another occasion when the pangs of hunger have corroded away every vestige of the tender affections and of the moral sense.
And this had occurred at Samaria: her women had become cannibals and devoured their own little ones.
"This woman," screamed the suppliant, pointing her lean finger at a wretch like herself-"this woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will afterwards eat my son. I yielded to her suggestion. We killed my little son, and ate his flesh when we had sodden it. Next day I said to her, Now give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son!"
How could the king answer such a horrible appeal? Injustice had been done; but was he to order and to sanction by way of redress fresh cannibalism, and the murder by its mother of another babe? In that foul obliteration of every natural instinct, what could he do, what could any man do? Can there be equity among raging wild beasts, when they roar for their prey and are unfed?
All that the miserable king could do was to rend his clothes in horror and to pass on; and as his starving subjects passed by him on the wall they saw that he wore sackcloth beneath his purple, in sign, if not of repentance, yet of anguish, if not of prayer, yet of uttermost humiliation. {Isa_20:2-3}
But if indeed he had, in his misery, donned that sackcloth in order that at least the semblance of self-mortification might move Jehovah to pity, as it had done in the case of his father Ahab, the external sign of his humility had done nothing to change his heart. The gruesome appeal to which he had just been forced to listen only kindled him to a burst of fury. The man who had warned, who had prophesied, who so far during this siege had not raised his finger to help-the man who was believed to be able to wield the powers of heaven, and had wrought no deliverance for his people, but suffered them to sink unaided into these depths of abjectness - should he be permitted to live? If Jehovah would not help, of what use was Elisha? "God do so to me, and more also," exclaimed Jehoram-using his mothers oath to Elijah (1Ki_19:2)-"if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day."
Was this the king who had come to Elisha with such humble entreaty, when three armies were perishing of thirst before the eyes of Moab? Was this the king who had called Elisha "my father," when the prophet had led the deluded host of Syrians into Samaria, and bidden Jehoram to set large provision before them? It was the same king, but now transported with fury and reduced to despair. His threat against Gods prophet was in reality a defiance of God, as when our unhappy Plantagenet, Henry II, maddened by the loss of Le Mans, exclaimed that, since God had robbed him of the town he loved, he would pay God out by robbing Him of that which He most loved in him-his soul.
Jehorams threat was meant in grim earnest, and he sent an executioner to carry it out. Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of the city, who had come to him for counsel at this hour of supreme need. He knew what was intended for him, and it had also been revealed to him that the king would follow his messenger to cancel his sanguinary threat. "See ye," he said to the elders, "how this son of a murderer" for again he indicates his contempt and indignation for the son of Ahab and Jezebel-"hath sent to behead me! When he comes, shut the door, and hold it fast against him. His master is following hard at his heels."
The messenger came, and was refused admittance. The king followed him, and entering the room where the prophet and elders sat, he gave up his wicked design of slaying Elisha with the sword, but he overwhelmed him with reproaches, and in despair renounced all further trust in Jehovah. Elisha, as the kings words imply, must have refused all permission to capitulate: he must have held out from the first a promise that God would send deliverance. But no deliverance had come. The people were starving. Women were devouring their babes. Nothing worse could happen if they flung open their gates to the Syrian host. "Behold," the king said, "this evil is Jehovahs doing. You have deceived us. Jehovah does not intend to deliver us. Why should I wait for Him any longer?" Perhaps the king meant to imply that his mothers Baal was better worth serving, and would never have left his votaries to sink into these straits.
And now mans extremity had come, and it was Gods opportunity. Elisha at last was permitted to announce that the worst was over, that the next day plenty should smile on the besieged city. "Thus saith the Lord," he exclaimed to the exhausted and despondent king, "Tomorrow about this time, instead of an asss head being sold for eighty shekels, and a thimbleful of pulse for five shekels, a peck of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria."
The king was leaning on the hand of his chief officer, and to this soldier the promise seemed not only incredible, but silly: for at the best he could only suppose that the Syrian host would raise the siege; and though to hope for that looked an absurdity, yet even that would not in the least fulfill the immense prediction. He answered, therefore, in utter scorn: "Yes! Jehovah is making windows in heaven! But even thus could this be?" It is much as if he should have answered some solemn pledge with a derisive proverb such as, "Yes! if the sky should fall, we should catch larks!"
Such contemptuous repudiation of a Divine promise was a blasphemy; and answering scorn with scorn, and riddle with riddling, Elisha answers the mockery, "Yes! and you shall see this, but shall not enjoy it."
The word of the Lord was the word of a true prophet, and the miracle was wrought. Not only was the siege raised, but the wholly unforeseen spoil of the entire Syrian camp, with all its accumulated rapine, brought about the predicted plenty.
There were four lepers outside the gate of Samaria, like the leprous mendicants who gather there to this day. They were cut off from all human society, except their own. Leprosy was treated as contagious, and if "houses of the unfortunate" (Biut-el-Masakin) were provided for them, as seems to have been the case at Jerusalem, they were built outside the city. {Lev_13:46; Num_5:2-3} They could only live by beggary, and this was an aggravation of their miserable condition. And how could any one fling food to these beggars over the walls, when food of any kind was barely to be had within them?
So taking counsel of their despair, they decided that they would desert to the Syrians: among them they would at least find food, if their lives were spared; and if not, death would be a happy release from their present misery.
So in the evening twilight, when they could not be seen or shot at from the city wall as deserters, they stole down to the Syrian camp.
When they reached its outermost circle, to their amazement all was silence. They crept into one of the tents in fear and astonishment. There were food and drink there, and they satisfied the cravings of their hunger. It was also stored with booty from the plundered cities and villages of Israel. To this they helped themselves, and took it away and hid it. Having spoiled this tent, they entered a second. It was likewise deserted, and they carried a fresh store of treasures to their hiding-place. And then they began to feel uneasy at not divulging to their starving fellow-citizens the strange and golden tidings of a deserted camp. The night was wearing on; day would reveal the secret. If they carried the good news, they would doubtless earn a rich guerdon. If they waited till morning, they might be put to death for their selfish reticence and theft. It was safest to return to the city, and rouse the warder, and send a message to the palace. So the lepers hurried back through the night, and shouted to the sentinel at the gate, "We went to the Syrian camp, and it was deserted! Not a man was there, not a sound was to be heard. The horses were tethered there, and the asses, and the tents were left just as they were."
The sentinel called the other watchman to hear the wonderful news, and instantly ran with it to the palace. The slumbering house was roused; and though it was still night, the king himself arose. But he could not shake off his despondency, and made no reference to Elishas prediction. News sometimes sounds too good to be true. "It is only a decoy," he said. "They can only have left their camp to lure us into an ambuscade, that they may return, and slaughter us, and capture our city."
"Send to see," answered one of his courtiers. "Send five horsemen to test the truth, and to look out. If they perish, their late is but the fate of us all."
So two chariots with horses were dispatched, with instructions not only to visit the camp, but track the movements of the host.
They went, and found that it was as the lepers had said. The camp was deserted, and lay there as an immense booty; and for some reason the Syrians had fled towards the Jordan to make good their escape to Damascus by the eastern bank. The whole road was strewn with the traces of their headlong flight; it was full of scattered garments and vessels.
Probably, too, the messengers came across some disabled fugitive, and learnt the secret of this amazing stampede. It was the result of one of those sudden unaccountable panics to which the huge, unwieldy, heterogeneous. Eastern armies, which have no organized system of sentries, and no trained discipline, are constantly liable. We have already met with several instances in the history of Israel. Such was the panic which seized the Midianites when Gideons three hundred blew their trumpets; and the panic of the Syrians before Ahabs pages of the provinces; and of the combined armies in the Valley of Salt; and of the Moabites at Wady-el-Ahsy; and afterwards of the Assyrians before the walls of Jerusalem. Fear is physically contagious, and, when once it has set in, it swells with such unaccountable violence, that the Greeks called these terrors "panic," because they believed them to be directly inspired by the god Pan. Well-disciplined as was the army of the Ten Thousand Greeks in their famous retreat, they nearly fell victims to a sudden panic, had not Clearchus, with prompt resource, published by the herald the proclamation of a reward for the arrest of the man who had let the ass loose. Such an unaccountable terror-caused by a noise as of chariots and of horses which reverberated among the hills-had seized the Syrian host. They thought that Jehoram had secretly hired an army of the princes of the Khetas and of the Egyptians to march suddenly upon them. In wild confusion, not stopping to reason or to inquire, they took to flight, increasing their panic by the noise and rush of their own precipitance.
No sooner had the messengers delivered their glad tidings, than the people of Samaria began to pour tumultuously out of the gates, to fling themselves on the food and on the spoil. It was like the rush of the dirty, starving, emaciated wretches which horrified the keepers of the reserved stores at Smolensk in Napoleons retreat from Moscow, and forced them to shut the gates, and fling food and grain to the struggling soldiers out of the windows of the granaries. To secure order and prevent disaster, the king appointed his attendant lord to keep the gate. But the torrent of people flung him down, and they trampled on his body in their eagerness for relief. He died after having seen that the promise of Elisha was fulfilled, and that the cheapness and abundance had been granted, the prophecy of which he thought only fit for his skeptical derision.
"The sudden panic which delivered the city," says Dean Stanley, "is the one marked" intervention on behalf of the northern capital. No other incident could be found in the sacred annals so appropriately to express, in the Church of Gouda, the pious gratitude of the citizens of Leyden, for their deliverance from the Spanish army, as the miraculous raising of the siege of Samaria.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 2Ki_6:19. I will bring you to the man whom…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2Ki_6:19. I will bring you to the man whom ye seek—This was an evasion for a good purpose, and not an untruth, for Elisha did bring them to him, vanquished and grateful; in the sense of having won them to him, capturing them in the meshes of kindness, instead of their capturing him in hatred and vengeance.
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2Ki_6:25. A great famine in Samaria—The high prices of revolting articles of food is given to show the extremes of distress to which the people were driven. An ass’s head—Regarded as unclean food, yet sold for £5 5s. A cab of doves’ dung—A cab was the smallest Hebrew dry measure, about half-pint, and its price was 12s. 6d. Doves’ dung is probably the name for a kind of pea or seed, which was contemptuously so called. Josephus, however, relates that in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, the sewage even of the city was drained, and the excrements eaten!
2Ki_6:27. If the Lord do not help thee—Rather, Nay! Jehovah help thee!
2Ki_6:29. So we boiled my son—Misery had culminated in so abhorrent a deed! The other woman had hid her son, not to consume it, but to shield it from such a fate.
2Ki_6:30. Sackcloth within upon his flesh—Visible under his torn outer garments he wears the penitential robe of sackcloth. But in his case it showed no humiliation of spirit before God; it was but as the phylacteries of the Pharisees. His imprecation on Elisha shows his evil disposition to be unsubdued. He blamed not himself, but the prophet, as Ahab did Elijah (1Ki_18:17).
2Ki_6:32. Son of a murderer—By descent, the son of Ahab; and in disposition like him (1Ki_21:19). Hold him fast at the door—Keep him off with the door, i.e., by pressing against it. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?—i.e., of the king’s feet, who would impetuously follow on the heels of his messenger. Elisha urges the elders not to let the king’s executioners enter at once, but detain him till the king himself arrives.
2Ki_6:33. The messenger came down—For “messenger,” Ewald and Grätz read “king,” and the sense requires this. Doubtless he would be admitted to the prophet’s presence; and as he meets Elisha he utters a cry full of despair, in which he confesses that the Lord’s hand is against him, and that he sees now no hope of deliverance from the prevailing distress; yet in his cry of despair there is a tremulous suggestion of possible help from the Lord he had incensed.—W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_6:24-33
THE HORRORS OF FAMINE
I. Famine is the dread companion of war (2Ki_6:24-25). Benhadad soon forgot the clemency with which his soldiers were treated when in the power of the king of Israel (2Ki_6:21-23). Perhaps he was chagrined with the failure of his previous attempts with detached bands of warriors, and determined to invade Israel with a vast army. The Syrians poured into the ill-fated country in overwhelming numbers, and so thoroughly invested Samaria, that in a short time the city was reduced to a state of abject famine. The horrors of war and of famine are always in ghastly association.
“Loud the shrieks of battle roar,
Streaming down the hollow wind;
War and slaughter go before,
Want and death are left behind.”
When David had a choice of three punishments for his sin in numbering the people—famine, war, or pestilence—he was in a strait which to select, and in his bewilderment threw himself upon the mercy of God (2Sa_24:14) The four lepers who brought the intelligence of the flight of the Syrians evidently concluded there was nothing to choose between famine and the sword (2Ki_7:4). The pathway of war is streaked with blood, and strewn with the bones of the famished. In the extremity of hunger the most nauseous articles are seized for food. The history of besieged cities reveals the loathsome dishes on which the most delicate were compelled to dine.
II. That famine blunts and demoralises the tenderest feelings of human nature (2Ki_6:26-29). A mother’s love for her offspring is the strongest passion in the human heart. It is the last foul stroke of famine when this love is shattered; when all delicacy and refinement, all sense of right and wrong, all fond endearment and deep-seated love are so thoroughly extinguished that a mother can share a meal with a neighbour on the boiled body of her own child, then the horrors of famine have reached their climax! And yet this was among the woes that Moses foretold would come to pass with this people in case of disobedience (Deu_28:53). Kitto furnishes a number of particulars concerning a terrible famine in Egypt, in the year 1200, when the people, after resorting to the most unclean and abominable tood in the extremity of their hunger, began to feed on young children: and it was not uncommon to surprise parties with children half boiled or roasted. At first this was treated by the authorities as a horrible crime; but by-and-bye the horror entirely subsided, and every one spoke of it, and heard it spoken of, as an indifferent and ordinary matter. It is very humbling to man to discover the overwhelming power of the lower passions in extremity. There seems but a brittle barrier between civilized man and the savage. The restraints of Divine grace, direct and indirect, are more potent upon society thau the artificial laws imposed by “use and wont.”
III. That famine is the source of great distress to the humane ruler (2Ki_6:30). The first duty of a king is to provide for the immediate physical needs of his subjects. This much is recognised among the wildest tribes. It is, therefore, a cause of unspeakable suffering to a considerate monarch when he is unable to supply his own and his people’s wants. This was the condition of the king of Israel at this time. The barn-floor was swept, and the winepress empty. The staple articles of food were consumed, and king and people were involved in a common suffering. No wonder Jehoram wore the sackcloth of humiliation, and rent his clothes in despair. Kings have their troubles. Great honour means great responsibility. In famine, the king is as powerless as the beggar.
IV. That the innocent are often unjustly blamed and threatened as the cause of famine (2Ki_6:31-32). There was evidently more sorrow in the king of Israel than repentance. He was not yet brought to see that all this suffering was in consequence of sin. He blames Elisha, and, in his despair and fury, determines to take away the prophet’s life. And yet what had he done? If Elisha foretold and warned them of the famine, did not their sins deserve it? If the prophet might have averted the calamity by his prayer, did not their impenitence restrain him? If he advised the king to hold out the siege, did he not foresee the remarkable deliverance that was at hand, and that only by suffering would both king and people be prepared to acknowledge the hand of God? “All Israel did not afford a head so guiltless as this that was destined to slaughter. This is the fashion of the world; the lewd blame the innocent, and will revenge their sin upon others’ uprightness.” If the soul is innocent of the sins which the vileness of others attributes to it, it can afford to wait for the Divine vindication. The character of His servants is safe in the hands of God.
V. That famine is here acknowledged as a Divine judgment. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord” (2Ki_6:33). We are to suppose the king had, on reflection repented of his rash command to murder Elisha, and immediately hurried after the messenger to stay the execution. He is convinced the famine is a Divine judgment on the nation for his sins. Having reached this state of mind, he enquires, in a spirit of more genuine repentance than he has before displayed, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” He prays for a removal of the famine. “The passage may be thus paraphrased:—I acknowledge that this evil is a punishment for my sins; the Lord thus chastens me sorely; but now when all this people are brought to such an extremity of woe, why should I wait longer for the Lord to interpose and deliver this people from their sufferings?” It is hard to acknowledge the hand of God in our distresses; it is pleasanter to trace that hand in our gifts and prosperities. Jehovah punishes with reluctance, and of the manifold instrumentalities of punishment at His call, the one to be dreaded is famine. It is well when suffering operates in bringing the soul to God.
LESSONS:—
1. War is a fruitful source of suffering and ruin.
2. National apostasy from God is punished with national calamities.
3. Famine reveals the helplessness of man, and his absolute dependence on God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_6:24. Evil men wax worse and worse. As Benhadad accomplished nothing by his raids, he made an attack with his entire force. A perverse and stubborn man cannot endure to be frustrated, and when he is, instead of leading him to submissiveness, as it ought, it only hurts his pride and makes him more irritated.—Lange.
2Ki_6:25. The value and worthlessness of money.
1. Money is valuable only as a medium of exchange for the absolute necessaries of life.
2. Is freely parted with under the pressure of starvation.
3. Is powerless to avert death.
—The famine within the walls was more terrible than the sword without. Their worst enemy was shut within, and could not be dislodged of their own bowels. Whither hath the idolatry of Israel brought them? Before they had been scourged with war, with drought, with dearth, as with a single cord; they remain incorrigible, and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them even to death. There needs no other executioners than their own maws. Those things which in their own nature were not edible, at least to an Israelite, were now both dear and dainty.—Bp. Hall.
—Of all the judgments of God in this world, none is more terrible than famine. It is a scourge which draws blood. It often happens that God takes this scourge in hand when, in spite of manifold warnings, His name is forgotten in the land, and apostacy, rebellion, and unbelief are prevalent.—Krummacher.
2Ki_6:26-29. The horrible in humanity.
1. Revealed in its most revolting aspects in extremity.
2. Seen in the triumph of sheer animalism over the keenest instincts of natural affection.
3. Beyond the power of king or council to obviate.
4. Is controlled only by the restraints of Divine grace.
—Necessity leads to prayer whenever there is a spark of the fear of God remaining; but where that fear is wanting, “Necessity knows no law,” becomes the watchword. The crime of the two women is a proof that where men fall away from God they may sink down among the ravenous beasts. Separate sores which form upon the body are signs that the body is diseased and the blood poisoned. Shocking crimes of individuals are proofs that the community is morally rotten.—Lange.
2Ki_6:30-33. A desperate monarch. 1. Humbled and bewildered by the Sufferings and extremities of his people (2Ki_6:30).
2. Vows vengeance on the innocent (2Ki_6:31).
3. Repents his rash decision, and hastens to prevent its execution (2Ki_6:32).
4. Is constrained to acknowledge the national suffering as a punishment for sin, and to seek Divine help in its removal (2Ki_6:33).
2Ki_6:30-31. See here a faithful picture of the wrongheadedness of man in misfortune. In the first place, we half make up our minds to repent in the hope of deliverance; but if this is not obtained at once and in the wished-for way, we burst out in rage either against our fellow-men, or against God Himself. Observe, moreover, the great ingratitude of men. Jehoram had already several times experienced the marvellous interference of God; once it fails, however, and he is enraged. The garments of penitence upon the body is of no avail, if an impenitent heart beats beneath it. Anger and rage, and plots of murder, cannot spring from the heart that is truly penitent. It is the most dangerous superstition to imagine that we can make satisfaction for our sins, can become reconciled to God and turn aside His wrath, by external performances, the wearing of sackcloth, fasting, self-chastisement, or the repetition of prayers. The world is horrified at the results of sin, but not at sin itself. Instead of confessing. “We have sinned,” Jehoram swears the man of God shall die.—Lange.
2Ki_6:31. This imprecation, which the king wishes immediately to execute, proves that his distress of mind was no wholesome fruit of the recognition of his own guilt, such as the law coming to his view must have produced, but only a consequence of his contemplating the heart-rending misery that now for the first time stands before his eyes in all its fright-fulness, for which he wished to wreak his vengeance on the prophet whom he held to be the prime cause of the appalling necessity, probably because he had given the advice not to surrender the city on any condition, with the promise that God would deliver them if they humbled themselves before Him in sincere repentance and implored His aid. By putting on a garment of hair, the king believed he had done his part; and since, notwithstanding this, the expected help did not come, he fell into a rage which was to be expended on the prophet. This rage arose, indeed, only from a momentary ebullition of anger, and soon gave way to the better voice of conscience. The king hastened after the messenger whom he had sent to behead Elisha, in order himself to prevent the execution of the death order which he had given in the haste of his burning rage; but it proves that true repentance, which springs from the recognition of the necessity as a judgment imposed by the Lord, was still wanting in the king. The act of desperation to which his violent passion had hurried him would have taken place had not the Lord protected His prophet and revealed to him the design of the king, so that he could take measures to prevent it.—Keil.
2Ki_6:32. He that foresaw his own peril provides for his safety. “Shut the door, and hold him fast at the door.” No man is bound to tender his throat to an unjust stroke. The same eye that saw the executioner coming to smite him, saw also the king hastening after him to stay the blow. The prophet had been no other than guilty of his own blood if he had not reserved himself awhile for the rescue of authority. O, the inconstancy of carnal hearts! It was not long since Jehoram could say to Elisha, “My father, shall I smite them?” Now he is ready to smite him as an enemy whom he honoured as a father. Yet again, his lips had no sooner given sentence of death against the prophet, than his feet stir to recall it.—Bp. Hall.
—“Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”—Repentance.
1. Is a commendable feeling when it is the reversal of a cruel and unjust policy.
2. Loses no time in seeking to undo the evil that was threatened.
3. Leads to the removal of suffering that human rage is impotent to cure.
2Ki_6:33. “Behold, this evil is of the Lord.” These are the words of a despairing man, in whose soul, however, a trace of faith is still concealed. For in the very fact that the king shows this frame of mind before the prophet, he lets it be understood that he still cherishes a feeble glimmer of hope and confidence in the Lord, and wishes to be directed and encouraged by the prophet. This encouragement is accordingly imparted to him.—Keil.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Great Famine in Samaria
The Great Famine in Samaria
v. 24. And it came to pass after this, some years after these expeditions had ceased, that Benhadad, king of Syria, gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria, evidently with the object of making the land of Israel tributary altogether.
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v. 25. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head, the poorest part of an unclean animal, was sold for fourscore pieces of silver (some $50), and the fourth part of a cab (about ten cubic inches)of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver (a little over $3).
v. 26. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king!
v. 27. And he said, in bitterness verging on despair, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee, out of the barn-floor, the product of threshing, grain or flour, or out of the wine-press? It was the bitter irony of a soul beyond hope.
v. 28. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman, pointing out one whom she accused, said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. What the Lord had foretold and threatened Deu 28:57, had come to pass in all its horror.
v. 29. So we boiled my son and did eat him, the most revolting form of cannibalism. And I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son. So this unnatural mother, driven practically to insanity by excessive hunger, demanded justice, the fulfillment of the horrible bargain.
v. 30. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes, in uncontrollable grief and horror; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within, as his undergarment, upon his flesh, the symbol of humility, which in his case, however, was more in the form of a mechanical exercise of penance.
v. 31. Then he said, in an unreasonable rage against the prophet whom he, in some way, held responsible for the terrible conditions now disclosed, God do so and more also to me if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day! He pledged himself, by a terrible oath, to murder Elisha.
v. 32. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders, the magistrates of the city, sat with him, probably for the purpose of asking his counsel and assistance. And the king sent a man from before him; but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, having received a Revelation from God, See ye how this son of a murderer, namely, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, hath sent to take away mine head? Look when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door, not permitting him to enter and commit the crime which he had been commissioned to commit. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him? Jehoram was following upon the heels of the messenger.
v. 33. And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him; and he, the king, said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer? This was probably the course advised by Elisha, the king having been ready to capitulate some time before. The king’s words were the cry of one in the depths of despair. Note: Although it is customary to this day to place the blame for many misfortunes on the Christians, the latter are, in truth, a blessing and a protection for every Country.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ben Hadad
Ben Hadad
The name of the king of Aram. His name means "son of Hadad." (See: How to Translate Names)
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attacked Samaria
The king and his army attacked Samaria. AT: "they attacked Samaria" (See: Synecdoche)
Behold
The word "behold" here alerts us to pay attention to the surprising information that follows.
a donkey's head was sold for
This can be stated in active form. AT: "a donkey's head cost" (See: Active or Passive)
eighty pieces of silver
"80 pieces of silver" (See: Numbers)
the fourth part of a kab
This can be written in modern measurements. AT: "a fourth part of a liter" or "a quarter of a liter" (See: Biblical Volume)
the fourth part
This is one part out of four equal parts. AT: "one fourth" or "a quarter" or "1/4" (See: Fractions)
dove's dung for
The words "was sold for" are understood from the previous phrase. They can be repeated here. AT: "dove's dung was sold for" or "dove's dung cost" (See: Ellipsis)
was passing by on the wall
"walking on top of the city wall"
my master
The woman referred to the king by this name to show him respect.
translationWords
king
Aram
Samaria
famine
donkey
silver
dove
dung
kingdom of Israel
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:24-25 So severe was this famine that normally unclean…
6:24-25 So severe was this famine that normally unclean things were not only eaten but sold for an exorbitant price. Donkey meat, for example, was forbidden by the laws regarding unclean foods (Lev 11:1-7). Dove’s dung may be a variety of wild vegetable, but the consumption of dung is known from other sources describing siege conditions (Isa 36:12). The dove’s dung might also have been used for fuel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.