View 2nd Kings 7 in the note window.
Elisha foretells plenty, and the death of the unbelieving lord,
ver. 1, 2.
Four lepers discover that the Syrians are fled, and bring the
news into the city, ver. 3 - 11.
The king sends messengers in order to be assured of the truth,
ver. 12 - 15.
Sudden plenty and the death of the unbelieving lord, ver. 16 - 20.
1: Measure - Heb. Seah, a measure containing six cabs, or about a
peck and pottle of our measure.
2: Windows - Through which he could rain down corn, as once he did
Manna.
6: Hittites - Under which name (as elsewhere under the name of the
Amorites) he seems to understand all the people of Canaan.
For though the greatest number of that people were destroyed, yet very
many of them were spared, and many of them upon Joshua's coming, fled
away, some to remote parts, others to the lands bordering upon Canaan,
where they seated themselves, and grew numerous and powerful.
Kings - Either the king of Egypt, the plural number being put for
the singular, or, the princes and governors of the several provinces in
Egypt.
7: Fled - None of them had so much sense as to send scouts to
discover the supposed enemy, much less, courage enough to face them.
God can when he pleases, dispirit the boldest, and make the stoutest
heart to tremble. They that will not fear God, he can make them fear
at the shaking of a leaf. Perhaps Gehazi was one of these lepers,
which might occasion his being taken notice of by the king, (2Ki 8:4).
13: Behold, &c. - The words may be rendered, Behold, they are of
a truth (the Hebrew prefix, Caph, being not here a note of
similitude, but an affirmation of the truth and certainty of the things, as
it is taken (Nu 11:1,De 9:10),) all the multitude of the horses of
Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even all the
multitude of the horses of the Israelites, which (which multitude)
are consumed, reduced to this small number, all consumed except these
five. And this was indeed worthy of a double behold, to shew what
mischief the famine had done both upon men and beasts, and to what a low
ebb the king of Israel was come, that all his troops of horses, to
which he had trusted, were shrunk to so small a number.
20: And so it fell out, &c. - See how heinously God resents our
distrust of his power, providence and promise! Whenever God promises
the end, he knows where to provide the means.
