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Texts -- 2 Kings 4:1-19 (NET)

Context
Elisha Helps a Widow and Her Sons
4:1 Now a wife of one of the prophets appealed to Elisha for help , saying , “Your servant , my husband is dead . You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord . Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants .” 4:2 Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house ?” She answered , “Your servant has nothing in the house except a small jar of olive oil .” 4:3 He said , “Go and ask all your neighbors for empty containers . Get as many as you can. 4:4 Go and close the door behind you and your sons . Pour the olive oil into all the containers ; set aside each one when you have filled it.” 4:5 So she left him and closed the door behind her and her sons . As they were bringing the containers to her, she was pouring the olive oil. 4:6 When the containers were full , she said to one of her sons , “Bring me another container .” But he answered her, “There are no more .” Then the olive oil stopped flowing . 4:7 She went and told the prophet . He said , “Go , sell the olive oil . Repay your creditor , and then you and your sons can live off the rest of the profit.”
Elisha Gives Life to a Boy
4:8 One day Elisha traveled to Shunem , where a prominent woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal . So whenever he was passing through , he would stop in there for a meal . 4:9 She said to her husband , “Look , I’m sure that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet . 4:10 Let’s make a small private upper room and furnish it with a bed , table , chair , and lamp . When he visits us, he can stay there .” 4:11 One day Elisha came for a visit; he went into the upper room and rested . 4:12 He told his servant Gehazi , “Ask the Shunammite woman to come here.” So he did so and she came to him. 4:13 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘Look , you have treated us with such great respect . What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the commander of the army ?’” She replied , “I’m quite secure .” 4:14 So he asked Gehazi, “What can I do for her?” Gehazi replied , “She has no son , and her husband is old .” 4:15 Elisha told him, “Ask her to come here.” So he did so and she came and stood in the doorway . 4:16 He said , “About this time next year you will be holding a son .” She said , “No , my master ! O prophet , do not lie to your servant !” 4:17 The woman did conceive , and at the specified time the next year she gave birth to a son , just as Elisha had told her. 4:18 The boy grew and one day he went out to see his father who was with the harvest workers . 4:19 He said to his father , “My head ! My head !” His father told a servant , “Carry him to his mother .”

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • (Continued from notes on 1 Kings)3. Ahaziah's evil reign in Israel -1 Kings 22:51-2 Kings 1:184. Jehoram's evil reign in Israel 2:1-8:155. Jehoram's evil reign in Judah 8:16-246. Ahaziah's evil reign in Judah 8:25-9:29C. The ...
  • The Gilgal in view may have been the one between Jericho and the Jordan, or it may have been one about seven miles north of Bethel since Elijah and Elisha went down to Bethel (v. 2).10This account presupposes previous revelat...
  • In contrast to the incident above, this one shows God's blessing on a wealthy woman. She was not the marriage partner of a prophet but a simple faithful believer in Yahweh (cf. vv. 8-10, 16, 21-22, 24-25, 27, 30, 37). She was...
  • Hazael was the governor of Damascus.50The Gentile King of Aram had more interest in inquiring of Yahweh than Jehoram's predecessor did (v. 8; cf. 1:2). It was customary in the Near East to make a great show of giving gifts. I...
  • Jehoash (Joash) had respect and affection for Elisha. He anticipated the loss that the death of God's spiritual warrior would be to Israel (v. 14). He recognized that Israel's real defense lay in Yahweh's angelic army and in ...
  • Having given His essential response to the people's repentance, the Lord now explained what He would do in more detail. This section is chiastic with the focus of emphasis on verses 21-24. Verses 19 and 26-27 promise a restor...
  • Not all the sins that Amos identified appear in verses 6-8; two more appear in verse 12. Amos named seven sins of Israel all together rather than just one, as in the previous oracles, though he continued to use the "for three...
  • 7:10 Amaziah, who was one of the apostate priests who served at the Bethel sanctuary (cf. 1 Kings 12:26-33), felt that Amos was being unpatriotic in what he was prophesying. So Amaziah sent a message to King Jeroboam II charg...
  • 7:14 Amos replied that he was not a prophet by his own choosing; he did not decide to pursue prophesying as a career. Neither had he become a prophet because his father had been one. In Amos' culture it was common and expecte...
  • The title of the book is the name of its writer.All we know for sure about Habakkuk was that he was a prophet who lived during the pre-exilic period of Israel's history.1The meaning of his name is questionable. It may come fr...
  • 9:18-19 This incident evidently happened shortly after Jesus and His disciples returned from Gadara on the east side of the lake (cf. Mark 5:21-22; Luke 8:40-41). The name of this Capernium synagogue ruler was Jairus (Mark 5:...
  • Jesus had previously fed 5,000 men, but that was near the northeast coast of Galilee, where the people were Jews (14:13-21). Now He fed 4,000 men on the east coast of Galilee, where the people were mainly Gentiles.15:32-33 Ma...
  • This is one of the sections of Mark's Gospel that has a chiastic structure (cf. 3:22-30; 6:14-29; 11:15-19).A The appeal of Jairus for his daughter 5:21-24B The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage 5:25-34A' The raising o...
  • This miracle raised the popular appreciation of Jesus' authority to new heights. Luke also continued to stress Jesus' compassion for people, in this case a widow whose son had died, by including this incident in his Gospel. T...
  • "John evidently wants us to see that the activity of Jesus as the Light of the world inevitably results in judgment on those whose natural habitat is darkness. They oppose the Light and they bring down condemnation on themsel...
  • Paul continued the emphasis he began in the previous section (vv. 3-10) by appealing to Timothy to pursue spiritual rather than physical goals in his life. He seems to have intended his instructions for all the faithful Ephes...
  • 11:32 The Old Testament is full of good examples of persevering, living faith. The writer selected these few for brief mention along with what such faith accomplished.372Each individual that the writer mentioned was less than...
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