2 Kings 4:39
field ......... wild vine ....... fruit <07704 01612> [a wild vine.]
field ......... wild ........ fruit <06498 07704> [wild gourds.]
The word {pakk“th,} from {peka,} in Chaldee, to burst, and in Syriac, to crack, thunder, is generally supposed to be the fruits of the coloquintida, or colocynth; whose leaves are large, placed alternately, very much like those of the vine, whence it might be called a wild vine: the flowers are white, and the fruit of the gourd kind, of the size of a large apple, and when ripe, of a yellow colour, and a pleasant and inviting appearance. It ranks among vegetable poisons, as all intense bitters do; but, judiciously employed, it is of considerable use in medicine. It is said that the fruit, when ripe, is so full of wind that it bursts, and throws its liquor and seeds to a great distance: and if touched, before it breaks of itself, it flies open with an explosion, and discharges its foetid contents in the face of him who touched it.
2 Kings 8:3
[A.M. 3119. B.C. 885.]
2 Kings 9:37
corpse <05038> [the carcase.]
2 Kings 19:26
powerless <03027 07116> [of small power. Heb. short of hand.]
terrified ......... plants <02865 06212> [they were.]
plants ............. grass <06212 02682> [the grass.]
2 Kings 8:6
eunuch <05631> [officer. or, eunuch.]
back ........... crops <07725 08393> [Restore all.]
2 Kings 9:25
<03068> [the Lord.]
2 Kings 7:12
advisers <05650> [unto his servants.]
tell <05046> [I will now.]
know .... starving <07457 03045> [They know that we be hungry.]
This was a very natural conclusion; and, in history of the revolt of Ali Bey, we have an account of a stratagem very similar to that supposed to have been practised by the Syrians. The pasha of Damascus having approached the Sea of Tiberias, found sheik Daher encamped there; but the sheik, deferring the engagement till the next morning, during the night divided his army into three parts, and left the camp with great fires blazing, all sorts of provisions, and a large quantity of spiritous liquors. In the middle of the night, the pasha, thinking to surprise the sheik, marched in silence to the camp, which, to his astonishment, he found entirely abandoned; and imagining the sheik had fled with so much precipitation that he could not carry off his baggage and stores, he stopped in the camp to refresh his soldiers. They soon fell to plunder, and drank so freely of the spirits, that, overcome with its fumes, they sunk into a deep lethargy. At that time, two sheiks came silently to the camp, and being rejoined by Daher, rushed upon the sleeping foe, 8,000 of whom were slain; the pasha and a few soldiers barely escaping with their lives.
hid .... field <02247 07704> [hide themselves.]
2 Kings 8:5
Elisha ........ life ........................................... life <02421> [he had restored.]
woman .............................. woman <0802> [behold, the woman.]
master <0113> [My lord.]
2 Kings 14:9
thornbush ................................. thorn <02336> [The thistle.]
The word {choach,} which is rendered here, and in 2 Ch 25:18; Job 31:18, thistle, in 1 Sa 13:6, thicket in Isa 34:13, bramble, and in 2 Ch 33:11; Pr 26:9; So 2:2; Ho 9:6 thorn, is probably the black thorn, or sloe tree, the {prunus spinosa} of Linn‘us, as the same word signifies in Arabic. There is a vast deal of insolent dignity in this remonstrance of Jehoash; but it has nothing conciliatory; no proposal of making amends for the injury his army had done to the unoffending inhabitants of Judah. (2 Ch 25:10-13.) The comparatively useless thorn, which may by chance lacerate the incautious passenger, is made the emblem of the house of Judah and David, while the house of Jehu is represented by the stately cedar.
2 Kings 18:17
king .................. King <04428> [A.M. 3294. B.C. 710. the king.]
general <08661> [Tartan.]
Calmet remarks, that these are not the names of persons, but of offices: {Tartan} signifies "he who presides over gifts or tribute;" {Rabsaris,} "the chief of the eunuchs;" and {Rabshakeh,} "the chief cup-bearer."
large <03515> [great. Heb. heavy. the conduit of the upper pool.]
If the Fuller's field were near En-Rogel, or the Fuller's fountain, east of Jerusalem, as is generally supposed, then the conduit of the upper pool may been an aqueduct that brought the water from the upper or eastern reservoir of that fountain, which had been seized in order to distress the city.
