2 Kings 4:34 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 4:34
And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
lay
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֣בvai.yish.Kav
H7901
to lie down (for rest · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
child
הַיֶּ֗לֶדhai.Ye.led
H3206
something born · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
put
וַיָּשֶׂם֩vai.ya.Sem
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
mouth
פִּ֨יוpiv
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
mouth
פִּ֜יוpiv
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
eyes
וְעֵינָ֤יוve.'ei.Nav
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
eyes
עֵינָיו֙'ei.Nav
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hands
וְכַפָּ֣יוve.kha.Pav
H3709
the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal · conjunction + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hands
כַּפָּ֔יוka.pov
H3709
the hollow hand or palm (so of the paw of an animal · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
stretched
וַיִּגְהַ֖רvai.yig.Har
H1457
to prostrate oneself · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
flesh
בְּשַׂ֥רbe.Sar
H1320
flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular construct
child
הַיָּֽלֶדhai.Ya.led
H3206
something born · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
warm
וַיָּ֖חָםvai.Ya.chom
H2552
to be hot (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Kings 17:21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul co…
Acts 20:10 And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 4:18-37
We may well suppose that, after the birth of this son, the prophet was doubly welcome to the good Shunammite. He had thought himself indebted to her, but henceforth, as long as she lives, she will think herself in his debt, and that she can never do too much for him. We may also suppose that the child was very dear to the prophet, as the son of his prayers, and very dear to the parents, as the son of their old age. But here is,
I. The sudden death of the child, though so much a darling. he was so far past the perils of infancy that he was able to go to the field to his father, who no doubt was pleased with his engaging talk, and his joy of his son was greater than the joy of his harvest; but…
lay upon the child, &c.--(see Kg1 17:21; Act 20:10). Although this contact with a dead body would communicate ceremonial uncleanness, yet, in performing the great moral duties of piety and benevolence, positive laws were sometimes dispensed with, particularly by the prophets.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 4:34
Lay upon the child - Endeavored to convey a portion of his own natural warmth to the body of the child; and probably endeavored, by blowing into the child's mouth, to inflate the lungs, and restore respiration. He uses every natural means in his power to restore life, while praying to the Author of it to exert a miraculous influence. Natural means are in our power; those that are supernatural belong to God. We should always do our own work, and beg of God to do his.
John Gill on 2 Kings 4:34
And he went up,.... To the bed, which was on an ascent in the chamber; see Gill on 2 Kings 1:4 and lay upon the child; as Elijah did on the widow's son of Zarephath, 1 Kings 17:21.
and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and stretched himself upon the child; that is, he did each of these one after another, since the disproportion of their bodies would not admit of their being done together:
and the flesh of the child waxed warm; not from any virtue imparted to it by these motions and actions of the prophet, but from life being infused into it by the Lord, which caused an heat in the several parts of the body.
The Church Fathers
"Sing to the Lord." Why? What has he done? Why is there a new song due him? "For he has done wondrous deeds." He performed miracles among the Jews: he cured paralytics; he cleansed lepers; he raised the dead to life. But other prophets had done that too. He changed a few loaves into many and fed a countless multitude. But Elisha did that. What new thing, then, did he do to merit a new song? Would you know what he did that was new? God died as man that humankind might live; the Son of God was crucified that he might lift us up to heaven. "For he has done wondrous deeds." Would you know what wondrous deeds he has done? The son of a widow was lying dead in an upper chamber; Elisha came and drew himself together over the child, and he put his mouth on the mouth of the boy, and his hands on his hands and his feet on his feet. If, instead of contracting and decreasing himself, Elisha had expanded and increased himself, the widow's son would not have been restored to life; and so it was, in order to give life, that [Christ] made himself less. Although he was in the form of God, he received the form of humanity; thus did he decrease that through him we might increase.
Thus, blessed Elisha came and went up to the chamber, because Christ was to come and ascend the gibbet of the cross. Elisha bent down to revive the child; Christ humbled himself to lift up the world that lay in sin. Elisha further put his eyes on [the child's] eyes, his mouth on his mouth and his hands on his hands. Consider, brothers, how much that man of full age drew himself together, so that he might fit the little child who lay dead; for what Elisha prefigured in the case of the boy, Christ fulfilled in the entire human race. Listen to the apostle say, "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death." Because we were little children, he made himself small; since we lay dead, the kind physician bent down, for, truly, brothers, no one can lift up one who is lying down if he refuses to bend. In the fact that the boy gasped seven times is shown the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit that was bestowed on the human race at Christ's advent in order to restore it to life. Concerning the Spirit the apostle says, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Our Lord gave the same Spirit to his disciples when he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Truly, in a way he put his mouth on their mouths when he breathed on them and gave them the Spirit.
Dictionary and topics
Carmel — A park; generally with the article, “the park.” (1.) A prominent headland of Central Palestine, consisting of several connected hills extending from the plain of Esdraelon to the sea, a distance of…
Elisha — God his salvation, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, who became the attendant and disciple of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16-19). His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his…
Eutychus — Fortunate, (Acts 20:9-12), a young man of Troas who fell through drowsiness from the open window of the third floor of the house where Paul was preaching, and was “taken up dead.” The lattice-work of…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Shunem — Two resting-places, a little village in the tribe of Issachar, to the north of Jezreel and south of Mount Gilboa (Josh. 19:18), where the Philistines encamped when they came against Saul (1 Sam.…
Dead (People) · .The Shunammite woman’s — .The Shunammite woman’s
Dead, The · Instances of, restored to life before Christ — Instances of, restored to life before Christ
Elisha · .Raises the — .Raises the
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Elisha: Child restored to life — Elisha: Child restored to life
Prayer, Answers To · Exemplified: Elisha — Exemplified: Elisha
Shunammite · to life — to life
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 4:8-37
The Shunammite and her Son. - Kg2 4:8. When Elisha was going one day (lit., the day, i.e., at that time, then) to Shunem (Solam, at the south-western foot of the Lesser Hermon; see at Kg1 1:3), a wealthy woman (גּדולה as in Sa1 25:2, etc.) constrained him to eat at her house; whereupon, as often as he passed by that place in his subsequent journeys from Carmel to Jezreel and back, he was accustomed to call upon her (סוּר as in Gen 19:2).
Kg2 4:9-10
The woman then asked her husband to build a small upper chamber for this holy man of God, and to furnish it with the necessary articles of furniture (viz., bed, table, seat, and lamp), that he might always turn in at their house. עליּת־קיר is eith…
lay down on the child’s body: Elisha’s actions and faith in the Lord were similar to Elijah’s (1 Kgs 17:17-24).
Rashi on 2 Kings 4:34
And he spread himself upon him. [Targum] Yonoson rendered ‘וְאַלְהֵי עֲלוֹהִי’, an expression of weariness.26I.e., “he laid exhausted upon him.” There is a similar word in the Beraisa of Ha’azinu and in Sifrei. But Menachem rendered ‘וַיִּגְהַר’, an interpretation of the word according to its context, “he prostrated himself upon him.”27See I Melochim 18:42.
What is the point of the addition you thought you should make to this comparison drawn from the example of blessed Elisha, namely, that he raised a dead boy by breathing into his face? Do you really think that the breath of Elisha became the soul of the boy? I would not have thought that you had wandered so far from the truth. If the very same soul, then, that had been taken from the living boy so that he died, was restored to him so that he came back to life, what was the point of your saying that nothing was taken away from Elisha? You imply that we believed that something passed from him into the boy as a result of which the boy was once again alive. But if you said this because he exhaled and still remained whole, what need was there to say this with regard to Elisha raising the dead boy, since you could, in any case, say this of anyone who exhales without raising anyone from the dead? Heaven forbid that you should believe that the breath of Elisha became the soul of the boy when he came back to life! And so, you have certainly spoken without sufficient reflection when you wanted the only difference between what God first did and what Elisha did to be that God breathed once, while Elisha breathed three times. You did, in fact, say that Elisha breathed into the face of the dead son of that Shunammite woman, just as happened at the first beginnings of our race. "And when the divine power," you said, "had by the breath of the prophet warmed the dead members and restored them to life in their former strength, nothing was taken away from Elisha, though by his breath the dead body received its soul and mind restored to life. The only difference is that the Lord breathed into the man's face and he was alive, while Elisha blew into the face of the dead boy three times." Your words make it sound as if it is only the number of breaths that keep you from believing that the prophet did the same thing as God did. This point too must be corrected. There was a great difference between that action of God and this action of Elisha. God breathed the breath of life by which the man became a living soul; Elisha breathed a breath that was neither sentient nor living but symbolic and intended to signify something else. Moreover, the prophet did not cause the boy to come back to life by giving him a soul; rather, because he loved him, he got God to do this. As for your saying…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
