John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 1. Then spoke Elisha unto the woman (whose son he had restored to life) , etc.] His hostess at Shunem, ( 2 Kings 4:8-17) the following he said to her, not after the famine in Samaria, but before it, as some circumstances show: saying, arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn ; with the greatest safety to her person and property, and with the least danger to her moral and religious character: for the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years : which Jarchi says was the famine that was in the days of Joel; it was, undoubtedly, on account of the idolatry of Israel, and was double the time of that in the days of Elijah.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-6 - The kindness of the good Shunammite to Elisha, was rewarded by the car taken of her in famine. It is well to foresee an evil, and wisdom, when we foresee it, to hide ourselves if we lawfully may do so. When the famine was over, she returned out of the land of the Philistines; tha was no proper place for an Israelite, any longer than there wa necessity for it. Time was when she dwelt so securely among her ow people, that she had no occasion to be spoken for to the king; but there is much uncertainty in this life, so that things or persons ma fail us which we most depend upon, and those befriend us which we thin we shall never need. Sometimes events, small in themselves, prove of consequence, as here; for they made the king ready to believe Gehazi' narrative, when thus confirmed. It made him ready to grant her request and to support a life which was given once and again by miracle.
Original Hebrew ואלישׁע477 דבר1696 אל413 האשׁה802 אשׁר834 החיה2421 את853 בנה1121 לאמר559 קומי6965 ולכי1980 אתי859 וביתך1004 וגורי1481 באשׁר834 תגורי1481 כי3588 קרא7121 יהוה3068 לרעב7458 וגם1571 בא935 אל413 הארץ776 שׁבע7651 שׁנים׃8141
