Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 4:8-17
The giving of a son to such as were old, and had been long childless, was an ancient instance of the divine power and favour, in the case of Abraham, and Isaac, and Manoah, and Elkanah; we find it here among the wonders wrought by Elisha. This was wrought in recompence for the kind entertainment which a good woman gave him, as the promise of a son was given to Abraham when he entertained angels. Observe here,
I. The kindness of the Shunammite woman to Elisha. Things are bad enough in Israel, yet not so bad but that God's prophet finds friends, wherever he goes. Shunem was a city in the tribe of Issachar, that lay in the road between Samaria and Carmel, a road that Elisha often travelled, as…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 4:8
PROMISES A SON TO THE SHUNAMMITE. (Kg2 4:8-17)
Elisha passed to Shunem--now Sulam, in the plain of Esdraelon, at the southwestern base of Little Hermon. The prophet, in his journey, was often entertained here by one of its pious and opulent inhabitants.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 4:9
This is a holy man of God - That is, a prophet, as the Chaldee interprets it.
Which passeth by us continually - It probably lay in his way to some school of the prophets that he usually attended.
John Gill on 2 Kings 4:9
And she said unto her husband,.... Not being willing to do any thing without his leave and consent:
behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually: and calls here frequently: this she perceived by his discourse and conversation; and by his carriage and behaviour he appeared to be a prophet, and one very eminent for holiness and religion.
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…
