2 Kings 4:1

Contextual Overview

¹One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”¹ Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take to him my two children to be bondservants. ¹ Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord : and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. ¹ Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord , but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." ¹ The wife of a man from the groups of prophets said to Elisha, "Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know he honored the Lord . But now the man he owes money to is coming to take my two boys as his slaves!" ¹ Now a wife of one of the prophets appealed to Elisha for help, saying, "Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord . Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants." ¹Now one of the wives of a man of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha [for help], saying "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant [reverently] feared the LORD; but the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves [in payment for a loan]."¹ Now a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves."¹ And one of the wiues of the sonnes of the Prophets cryed vnto Elisha, saying, Thy seruant mine husbande is dead, and thou knowest, that thy seruant did feare the Lord: and the creditour is come to take my two sonnes to bee his bondmen. ¹Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared Yahweh; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 3110, bc 894

sons: 2 Kings 4:38, 2 Kings 2:3, 2 Kings 2:5, 1 Kings 20:35

thy servant did fear: Genesis 22:12, 1 Kings 18:3, Nehemiah 7:2, Psalms 103:11, Psalms 103:17, Psalms 112:1, Psalms 112:2, Psalms 115:13, Psalms 147:11, Ecclesiastes 8:12, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Malachi 3:16, Malachi 4:2, Acts 13:26, Revelation 15:4, Revelation 19:5

the creditor: Leviticus 25:39, Leviticus 25:40, Leviticus 25:48, Nehemiah 5:2-5, Nehemiah 10:31, Jeremiah 34:14, Matthew 18:25, Matthew 18:30, Matthew 18:35, James 2:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 21:2 - an Hebrew Exodus 22:25 - General Ruth 1:3 - and she was 2 Kings 2:15 - bowed 2 Kings 6:1 - the sons 2 Kings 9:1 - the children Nehemiah 5:5 - we Job 24:9 - General Psalms 37:21 - borroweth Proverbs 18:23 - poor Proverbs 22:7 - the borrower Proverbs 22:27 - General Isaiah 50:1 - or which Hosea 9:8 - with Zechariah 11:5 - sell Matthew 14:20 - and they took

Cross-References

Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put hostility between you and between the woman, and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel."

Genesis 3:15
I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel."

Genesis 3:15
And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring's heel."

Genesis 3:15
"And I will put enmity (open hostility) Between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel."

Genesis 3:15
And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel."

Genesis 3:15
I wil also put enimitie betweene thee and the woman, and betweene thy seede & her seede. He shall breake thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heele.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmityBetween you and the woman,And between your seed and her seed;He shall bruise you on the head,And you shall bruise him on the heel."

Genesis 3:15
You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha,.... This, according to the Targum, was the wife of Obadiah, who had hid the prophets by fifty in a cave in the times of Ahab; and so Josephus q, and it is the commonly received notion of the Jewish writers; though it does not appear that he was a prophet, or the son of a prophet, but the governor or steward of Ahab's house; she was more likely to be the wife of a meaner person; and from hence it is clear that the prophets and their disciples married:

saying, thy servant my husband is dead; which is the lot of prophets, as well as others, Zechariah 1:5

and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord; her husband was well known to the prophet, and known to be a good man, one of the 7000 who bowed not the knee to Baal, for the truth of which she appeals to Elisha; and this character she gives of her husband, lest it should be thought that his poverty, and leaving her in debt, were owing to any ill practices of his:

and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen; which it seems were allowed of when men became poor and insolvent, and died so, to which the allusion is in Isaiah 1:1,

Isaiah 1:1- :. Josephus r suggests, that the insolvency of this man was owing to his borrowing money to feed the prophets hid in the cave; and it is a common notion of the Jews that this creditor was Jehoram the son of Ahab; and in later times it was a law with the Athenians s, that if a father had not paid what he was fined in court, the son was obliged to pay it, and in the mean while to lie in bonds, as was the case of Cimon t, and others.

q Antiqu. l. 9. c. 4. sect. 2. r Ibid. s Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 10. t Cornel. Nep. in Vita Cimon. l. 5. c. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The creditor is come ... - The Law of Moses, like the Athenian and the Roman law, recognized servitude for debt, and allowed that pledging of the debtor’s person, which, in a rude state of society, is regarded as the safest and the most natural security (see the marginal reference). In the present case it would seem that, so long as the debtor lived, the creditor had not enforced his right over his sons, but now on his death he claimed their services, to which he was by law entitled.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER IV

A widow of one of the prophets, oppressed by a merciless

creditor, applies to Elisha, who multiplies her oil; by a part

of which she pays her debt, abut subsists on the rest, 1-7.

His entertainment at the house of a respectable woman in

Shunem, 8-10.

He foretells to his hostess the birth of a son, 11-17.

After some years the child dies, and the mother goes to Elisha

at Carmel; he comes to Shunem, and raises the child to life,

18-37.

He comes to Gilgal, and prevents the sons of the prophets from

being poisoned by wild gourds, 38-41.

He multiplies a scanty provision, so as to make it sufficient

to feed one hundred men, 42-44.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV

Verse 2 Kings 4:1. Now there cried a certain woman — This woman, according to the Chaldee, Jarchi, and the rabbins, was the wife of Obadiah.

Sons of the prophets — תלמידי נבייא talmidey nebiyaiya, "disciples of the prophets:" so the Targum here, and in all other places where the words occur, and properly too.

The creditor is come — This, says Jarchi, was Jehoram son of Ahab, who lent money on usury to Obadiah, because he had in the days of Ahab fed the Lord's prophets. The Targum says he borrowed money to feed these prophets, because he would not support them out of the property of Ahab.

To take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. — Children, according to the laws of the Hebrews, were considered the property of their parents, who had a right to dispose of them for the payment of their debts. And in cases of poverty, the law permitted them, expressly, to sell both themselves and their children; Exodus 21:7, and Leviticus 25:39. It was by an extension of this law, and by virtue of another, which authorized them to sell the thief who could not make restitution, Exodus 22:3, that creditors were permitted to take the children of their debtors in payment. Although the law has not determined any thing precisely on this point, we see by this passage, and by several others, that this custom was common among the Hebrews. Isaiah refers to it very evidently, where he says, Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; Isaiah 50:1. And our Lord alludes to it, Matthew 18:25, where he mentions the case of an insolvent debtor, Forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded HIM to be SOLD, and his WIFE and CHILDREN, and all that he had; which shows that the custom continued among the Jews to the very end of their republic. The Romans, Athenians, and Asiatics in general had the same authority over their children as the Hebrews had: they sold them in time of poverty; and their creditors seized them as they would a sheep or an ox, or any household goods. Romulus gave the Romans an absolute power over their children which extended through the whole course of their lives, let them be in whatever situation they might. They could cast them into prison, beat, employ them as slaves in agriculture, sell them for slaves, or even take away their lives!-Dionys. Halicarn. lib. ii., pp. 96, 97.

Numa Pompilius first moderated this law, by enacting, that if a son married with the consent of his father, he should no longer have power to sell him for debt.

The emperors Diocletian and Maximilian forbade freemen to be sold on account of debt:

Ob aes alienum servire liberos creditoribus, jura non patiuntur. - Vid. Lib. ob. aes C. de obligat.

The ancient Athenians had the same right over their children as the Romans; but Solon reformed this barbarous custom. - Vid. Plutarch in Solone.

The people of Asia had the same custom, which Lucullus endeavoured to check, by moderating the laws respecting usury.

The Georgians may alienate their children; and their creditors have a right to sell the wives and children of their debtors, and thus exact the uttermost farthing of their debt. - Tavernier, lib. iii., c. 9. And we have reason to believe that this custom long prevailed among the inhabitants of the British isles. See Calmet here.

In short, it appears to have been the custom of all the inhabitants of the earth. We have some remains of it yet in this country, in the senseless and pernicious custom of throwing a man into prison for debt, though his own industry and labour be absolutely necessary to discharge it, and these cannot be exercised within the loathsome and contagious walls of a prison.